Search

The launch of new tools in late 2022 heralded significant growth in attention to the impacts of generative AI (GenAI) in education. Claims of the potential impact on education are contested, but there are clear risks of inappropriate use particularly where GenAI aligns poorly with learning aims. In response, in mid-2023, the Australian Federal Government held an inquiry, calling for public submissions. This inquiry offers a lens onto the policy framing of GenAI in education and provides the object of investigation for this paper. We use the inquiry submissions, extracting structured claims from each. This extraction is provided as an open data set for further research, while this paper focuses on our analysis of the policy recommendations made.

This paper investigates students' mathematical modeling activity in data-rich modeling tasks. It aims at gaining insight into how students develop meaning when modeling data-rich situations and the mathematical models produced. A tendency to model a particular dataset, rather than the phenomenon that the dataset is a particular instance of, has been observed previously. Students concentrate on fitting mathematical objects such as functions to data, rather than using domain knowledge about the situation being modeled, mapping this to the data so as to capture the phenomenon as a whole. In other instances, students find functions that simply linearly interpolate the data and do not consider key features of the phenomenon, particularly when they have access to technological tools. The extent to which students' reasoning indicated awareness of their taking either approach was investigated in a qualitative study with Year 10/11 students. How the approach taken affected the processes students engage in whilst modeling was also investigated. The paper contributes to our currently limited literature on research into this issue and how it affects the outcome of students learning to model in classrooms at this level of schooling.

Purpose: Assessing the unique needs of each family following the diagnosis of a hearing loss is central to the delivery of family-centered hearing health care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a Minimum Data Set (MDS) that could be used in the design of a needs assessment tool for families of children with hearing loss transitioning to early intervention. Method: A list of potential items for the MDS was prepared. In a two-round electronic Delphi study in Australia, hearing researchers (N = 15 in Round 1; N = 9 in Round 2), clinicians, and professionals working in early intervention for children with hearing loss (N = 85) were asked to review the potential items and to rate the importance of items using a Likert scale. Results: Consensus was reached on 32 main items to be included in the MDS across six categories, including informational support (13 items), professional support (five items), peer support (one item), skills and knowledge (seven items), financial support (three items), and methods of information provision (three items). Eight optional items that could be considered for inclusion in the MDS were also identified. Conclusions: The proposed MDS could support hearing professionals in identifying families' needs in order to provide individualized information and support. Future research is needed to conduct a pilot study to evaluate the needs assessment tool in terms of usability, feasibility, and therapeutic effects.

Background: General practitioners (GPs) make numerous care decisions throughout their workdays. Extended periods of decision making can result in decision fatigue, a gradual shift toward decisions that are less cognitively effortful. This study examines whether observed patterns in GPs' prescribing decisions are consistent with the decision fatigue phenomenon. We hypothesized that the likelihood of prescribing frequently overprescribed medications (antibiotics, benzodiazepines, opioids; less effortful to prescribe) will increase and the likelihood of prescribing frequently underprescribed medications (statins, osteoporosis medications; more effortful to prescribe) will decrease over the workday., Methods: This study used nationally representative primary care data on GP-patient encounters from the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health program from Australia. The association between prescribing decisions and order of patient encounters over a GP's workday was assessed with generalized linear mixed models accounting for clustering and adjusting for patient, provider, and encounter characteristics., Results: Among 262,456 encounters recorded by 2,909 GPs, the odds of prescribing antibiotics significantly increased by 8.7% with 15 additional patient encounters (odds ratio [OR] = 1.087; confidence interval [CI] = 1.059-1.116). The odds of prescribing decreased significantly with 15 additional patient encounters by 6.3% for benzodiazepines (OR = 0.937; CI = 0.893-0.983), 21.9% for statins (OR = 0.791; CI = 0.753-0.831), and 25.0% for osteoporosis medications (OR = 0.750; CI = 0.690-0.814). No significant effects were observed for opioids. All findings were replicated in confirmatory analyses except the effect of benzodiazepines., Conclusions: GPs were increasingly likely to prescribe antibiotics and were less likely to prescribe statins and osteoporosis medications as the workday wore on, which was consistent with decision fatigue. There was no convincing evidence of decision fatigue effects in the prescribing of opioids or benzodiazepines. These findings establish decision fatigue as a promising target for optimizing prescribing behavior., Highlights: We found that as general practitioners progress through their workday, they become more likely to prescribe antibiotics that are reportedly overprescribed and less likely to prescribe statins and osteoporosis medications that are reportedly underprescribed.This change in decision making over time is consistent with the decision fatigue phenomenon. Decision fatigue occurs when we make many decisions without taking a rest break. As we make those decisions, we become gradually more likely to make decisions that are less difficult.The findings of this study show that decision fatigue is a possible target for improving guideline-compliant prescribing of pharmacologic medications., Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Financial support for this study was provided by a Small Research Grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (grant ID: 2156). The funding agreement ensured that authors’ independence in designing the study, interpreting the data, writing, and publishing the report. The BEACH project itself was funded through arm’s length research agreements with the following organizations: Abbott Australasia; AbbVie; AstraZeneca (Australia); Australian Government Department of Health; Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs; Aventis Pharma; Bayer Australia; bioCSL (Australia); GlaxoSmithKline Australia; Janssen-Cilag; Merck, Sharp and Dohme (Australia); National Prescribing Service; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Australia; Pfizer Australia; Roche Product; Sanofi-Aventis Australia; Wyeth Australia.

Graphical Abstract From 2012 to 2016, the oral anticoagulant (OAC) treatment determination for atrial fibrillation (AF) patients moved from the CHADS2 score to the CHA2DS2-VASc score. A data set collated during previous studies (2011–19) with de-identified data extracted from clinical records at a single timepoint for active adult patients (n = 285 635; 8294 with AF) attending 164 general practices in Australia was analysed. The CHA2DS2-VASc threshold (score ≥2 men/≥3 women) captured a significantly higher proportion than CHADS2≥2 (all ages: 85 vs. 68%, P < 0.0001; ≥65 years: 96 vs. 76%, P < 0.0001). The change from CHADS2 to CHA2DS2-VASc resulted in a significantly higher proportion of AF patients being recommended OAC, driven by the revised scoring for age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show how "realist synthesis" methodology (Pawson, 2002) was adapted to review a large sample of community based projects addressing alcohol and drug use problems. Our study drew on a highly varied sample of 127 projects receiving funding from a national non-government organisation in Australia between 2002 and 2008. Open and pattern coding led to the identification of 10 barrier and nine enabler mechanisms influencing project implementation across the sample. Eight case studies (four demonstrating successful implementation; four demonstrating less than successful implementation) were used for depth exploration of these mechanisms. High level theories were developed, from these findings, on implementation effectiveness in projects addressing alcohol and other drug use problems. (Contains 2 tables.)

High-impedance faults are a challenging problem in power distribution systems. They often do not trigger protection devices and can result in serious hazards such as igniting fires when in contact with vegetation. The current research field dedicated to studying these faults is extensive but suffers from a constraining bottleneck of a lack of real experimental data. Many works set to detect and localize such faults rely on high-impedance fault low-fidelity models, and the lack of public data sets makes it impractical to have objective performance benchmarks. This letter describes and proposes a format for a data set of more than 900 vegetation high-impedance faults funded by the Victorian Government in Australia recorded in high-sampling resolution. The original data set is public, but it was made available through an obscure format that limits its accessibility. The presented format in this letter uses the standard hierarchical data format (HDF5), which makes it easily accessible in many languages such as MATLAB, Python, C++, and more. The data set compiler and visualizer script are also provided in the work repository1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a number of studies have been conducted on the impact of online assessment and teaching methods on student learning, the field does not seem settled around the promised benefits of such approaches. It is argued that the reason for this state of affairs is that few studies have been able to control for a number of confounding factors in student performance. We report on the introduction of a regular (every 3 weeks) low-mark online assessment tool in a large, first-year business mathematics course at the University of New South Wales, a major Australian university. Using a retrospective regression methodology together with a very large and rich data set, we test the proposition that exposure to the online assessment instrument enhances student learning. Significantly, we are able to control for prior student aptitude, in-course mastery, gender and even effort via a voluntary class attendance proxy. Furthermore, the study incorporates two large, and statistically diverse cohorts as well as manipulations in the model tested to robustly examine the outcomes. Our central result is that higher exposure to the online instrument robustly leads to higher student learning, all else being equal. Various implications for online assessment design, implementation and targeting are also discussed.

A new version of the long‐term Australian temperature data set, known as ACORN‐SAT (Australian Climate Observations Reference Network—Surface Air Temperature), has been developed. ACORN‐SAT includes homogenized daily maximum and minimum temperature data from 112 locations across Australia, encompassing the period from 1910 to the present, with 60 of the locations having data for the full 1910–2018 period. Homogenization is achieved using a percentile‐matching methodology with a number of improvements beyond practices used in previous versions, including more effective detection and removal of potentially inhomogeneous reference stations and an enhanced breakpoint detection methodology. Explicit corrections have also been introduced for a change in instrument screen size, whilst an assessment has found that the transition from manual to automatic instruments and changes in effective response time of automatic instruments have had a negligible impact on the data. Adjustments associated with documented site moves from in‐town to out‐of‐town locations are predominantly negative, particularly for minimum temperature, with other adjustments showing no strong bias towards either positive or negative values. The new data set shows slightly stronger warming (0.12°C per decade in mean temperature over the 1910–2016 period) than either the previous ACORN‐SAT version (0.10°C) or the unhomogenized gridded data (0.08°C), primarily due to more effective treatment of systematic moves of sites out of towns and the removal of a rounding bias in the version 1 methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Assessing the unique needs of each family following the diagnosis of a hearing loss is central to the delivery of family-centered hearing health care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a Minimum Data Set (MDS) that could be used in the design of a needs assessment tool for families of children with hearing loss transitioning to early intervention. Method: A list of potential items for the MDS was prepared. In a two-round electronic Delphi study in Australia, hearing researchers (N =15inRound1; N = 9 in Round 2), clinicians, and professionals working in early intervention for children with hearing loss (N = 85) were asked to review the potential items and to rate the importance of items using a Likert scale. Results: Consensus was reached on 32 main items to be included in the MDS across six categories, including informational support (13 items), professional support (five items), peer support (one item), skills and knowledge (seven items), financial support (three items), and methods of information provision (three items). Eight optional items that could be considered for inclusion in the MDS were also identified. Conclusions: The proposed MDS could support hearing professionals in identifying families' needs in order to provide individualized information and support. Future research is needed to conduct a pilot study to evaluate the needs assessment tool in terms of usability, feasibility, and therapeutic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze comparative treatment persistence for first‐line baricitinib (BARI) versus first‐line tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and for first‐line BARI initiated as monotherapy versus first‐line BARI initiated with at least one conventional synthetic disease‐modifying antirheumatic drug (csDMARD). Methods: Patients with RA who initiated BARI or TNFi as first‐line biologic or targeted synthetic DMARD from October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2021, were identified in the OPAL data set. Drug survival times to 6, 12, and 24 months were analyzed using restricted mean survival time (RMST). Multiple imputation and inverse probability of treatment weighting were used to address missing data and nonrandom treatment assignment. Results: A total of 545 patients initiated first‐line BARI, including 118 as monotherapy and 427 as csDMARD combination therapy. Three thousand five hundred patients initiated first‐line TNFi. There was no difference in drug survival to 6 or 12 months for BARI compared with TNFi; differences in RMST were 0.02 months (95% CI: −0.08 to 0.013; P = 0.65) and 0.31 months (95% CI: −0.02 to 0.63; P = 0.06), respectively. Patients in the BARI group had 1.00 month (95% CI: 0.14 to 1.86; P = 0.02) longer drug survival to 24 months. There was no difference in drug survival for BARI monotherapy compared with combination therapy, with differences in RMST to 6, 12, and 24 months of −0.19 months (95% CI: −0.50 to 0.12; P = 0.12), −0.35 months (95% CI: −1.17 to 0.42; P = 0.41), and −0.56 months (95% CI: −2.66 to 1.54; P = 0.60), respectively. Conclusion: In this comparative analysis, treatment persistence up to 24 months was significantly longer for first‐line BARI compared with TNFi, but the effect size of 1.00 month is not clinically meaningful. There was no difference in persistence for BARI monotherapy versus combination therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes secondary analysis of previously unreported data collected during the 2014 Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. The aim was to examine the mental health of asylum-seeking parents and children during prolonged immigration detention and to consider the human rights implications of the findings. The average period of detention was seven months. Data includes 166 Kessler 10 Scales (K10) and 70 Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) for children aged 3-17 and parental concerns about 48 infants. Extremely high rates of mental disorder in adults and children resemble clinical populations. The K10 indicated severe co-morbid depression and anxiety in 83% of adults and 85.7% of teenagers. On the SDQ, 75.7% of children had a high probability of psychiatric disorder, with lower conduct and hyperactivity scores than clinic populations. Sixty-seven percent of parents had concerns about their infant's development. Correlations were not found between time detained or parent/child distress. Multiple human rights breaches are identified, including the right to health. This is further evidence of the profound negative consequences for adults and children of prolonged immigration detention. Methodological limitations demonstrate the practical and ethical obstacles to research with this population and the politicized implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Medicine safety signal detection methods employed by the medicine regulator in Australia (Therapeutic Goods Administration [TGA], Department of Health) rely predominantly on analysis of spontaneous adverse event (AE) reports, sponsor notifications or information shared by international agencies. The limitations of these methods and the availability of large administrative health data sets has given rise to greater interest in the use of administrative health data to support pharmacovigilance (PV)., Objective: We explored whether prescription sequence symmetry analysis (PSSA) of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data can enhance signal detection by the TGA, using the AE, heart failure (HF) as a case study., Methods: We applied the PSSA method to all single-ingredient medicines dispensed under the PBS between 2012 and 2016, using furosemide initiation as a proxy for new-onset HF. A signal was considered present if the lower limit of the 95% confidence interval for the adjusted sequence ratio was > 1. We excluded medicines known to cause HF, indicated for HF treatment or indicated for diseases that may contribute to HF., Results: Of the 654 tested medicines, 26 potential new HF signals were detected by PSSA. Five signals had additional support for the possible association provided by biological plausibility, consistency and disproportionate reporting of cases of HF to the TGA and the World Health Organization; and clinical impact., Conclusion: PSSA was able to identify potential signals for further evaluation. With the increasing availability of different administrative health data sources, the strengths and weaknesses of methods used to analyse these data for the purpose of regulatory PV should be evaluated.

The term rheophyte describes a biological group of flood-tolerant plants that are confined to the beds of swift-running streams and rivers in nature and grow up to flood level, but not beyond the reach of regularly occurring flash floods. Although over 35 yr have passed since the first global census of rheophytes, no updates have been recorded regarding the number of taxa in this biological group in seed plants. Therefore, the present work aimed to (1) review the main topics associated with rheophytism (e.g., morphological characteristics, genetic studies, geographic distribution, conservation, and evolutionary aspects); (2) provide an updated checklist of rheophytes distributed around the world considering the two main groups in seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms); (3) demonstrate the distribution of rheophytism in the angiosperm phylogeny; and (4) estimate the geographical distribution and richness of selected taxa on the world map for the first time. All data compiled for the present study originated from a search of peer-reviewed articles, secondary literature (theses, dissertations, reports, books, and floras), and electronic facilities. We compiled a data set composed of four taxa in gymnosperms (Podocarpaceae family) and 1,368 taxa (including obligate, facultative, and unclassified rheophytes) distributed in 114 families and 508 genera in angiosperms. Most of the studied taxa belong to eudicotyledons (72.81%), while 1.46% belong to magnoliids, and 25.73% belong to monocotyledons. The families with the highest number of taxa in descending order are Podostemaceae, Araceae, Myrtaceae, Rubiaceae, Asteraceae, Apocynaceae, Arecaceae, Fabaceae, Phyllanthaceae, and Poaceae. Of the 114 families plotted in angiosperm phylogeny, at least 80 harbor obligate rheophytes. The geographical distribution of rheophytes in angiosperms, as expected based on the first census of this biological group, is mainly in the tropical and subtropical regions. The high richness of rheophytic taxa was mostly found in southern Mexico, southern China, Borneo, and northern and eastern Australia. In contrast, the geographical distribution of rheophytes in gymnosperms is restricted to New Caledonia and Tasmania. The present study will help to advance knowledge regarding the diversity of rheophytes in angiosperms and gymnosperms while drawing attention to this biological group, which has often been overlooked. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications and teaching events., (© 2020 by the Ecological Society of America.)

Introduction: Research has shown that frailty, a geriatric syndrome associated with an increased risk of negative outcomes for older people, is highly prevalent among residents of residential aged care facilities (also called long term care facilities or nursing homes). However, progress on effective identification of frailty within residential care remains at an early stage, necessitating the development of new methods for accurate and efficient screening., Objectives: We aimed to determine the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in accurately identifying frailty among residents aged 75 years and over in comparison with a calculated electronic Frailty Index (eFI) based on a routinely-collected residential aged care administrative data set drawn from 10 residential care facilities located in Queensland, Australia. A secondary objective included the identification of best-performing candidate algorithms., Methods: We designed a frailty prediction system based on the eFI identification of frailty, allocating 84.5 % and 15.5 % of the data to training and test data sets respectively. We compared the performance of 18 specific scenarios to predict frailty against eFI based on unique combinations of three ML algorithms (support vector machines [SVM], decision trees [DT] and K-nearest neighbours [KNN]) and six cases (6, 10, 11, 14, 39 and 70 input variables). We calculated accuracy, percentage positive and negative agreement, sensitivity, specificity, Cohen's kappa and Prevalence- and Bias- Adjusted Kappa (PABAK), table frequencies and positive and negative predictive values., Results: Of 592 eligible resident records, 500 were allocated to the training set and 92 to the test set. Three scenarios (10, 11 and 70 input variables), all based on SVM algorithm, returned overall accuracy above 75 %., Conclusions: There is some potential for AI techniques to contribute towards better frailty identification within residential care. However, potential benefits will need to be weighed against administrative burden, data quality concerns and presence of potential bias., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest CS and ED are employees of Lutheran Services Queensland. The authors declare no other conflicts., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Increasingly, big data derived from administrative hospital records can be subject to analytics to provide clinical insights. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on length of hospital stay and number of hospital admissions in cardiac patients utilising routinely collected hospitalisation records., Methods: We routinely collected clinical and socio-demographic variables extracted from 37,580 cardiac patients, between 18 and 65 years old, admitted to South Australian hospitals between 2001/02 to 2010/11 financial years with cardiac diagnoses used to derive patient level and separation level variables used in the modelling. Multi-level models were constructed to analyse the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on both length of stay and the total number of hospitalisations, allowing for interactions between socioeconomic status and the burden of disease. Possible confounders for these models were, sex, age, indigenous status, country of birth, and rural status., Results: For cardiac patients a mental health diagnosis was associated with an increase of 12.5% in the length of stay, and an increase in the number of stays by 20.0%., Conclusions: This study demonstrates the potential utility of routinely collected hospitalisation records to demonstrate the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on health service utilisation., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: In 2017, the WHO produced its first minimum data set (MDS) for emergency medical team (EMT) daily reporting during the sudden-onset disasters (SODs), following expert consensus. The MDS was deliberately designed to be simple in order to improve the rate of data capture; however, it is new and untested. This study assesses the inter-rater agreement between practitioners when performing the injury aspect of coding within the WHO EMT MDS., Methods: 25 clinical case vignettes were developed, reflecting potential injuries encountered in an SOD. These were presented online from April to July 2018 to practitioners who have experience of/training in managing patients in SODs The practitioners were from UK-Med's members, Australian Medical Assistance Team's Northern Territory members and New Zealand Medical Assistance Team members. Practitioners were asked to code injuries according to WHO EMT MDS case classifications. Randolph's kappa statistic for free-marginal multirater data was calculated for the whole dataset as well as subgroups to ascertain inter-rater agreement., Results: 86 practitioners responded (20.6% response rate), giving >2000 individual case responses. Overall agreement was moderate at 67.9% with a kappa of 0.59 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.69). Despite subgroups of paramedics (kappa 0.63, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.72), doctors (kappa 0.61, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.69) and those with disaster experience (kappa 0.62, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.71) suggesting slightly higher agreement, their CIs (and those of other subgroups) suggest overall similar and moderate levels of practitioner agreement in classifying injuries according to the MDS categories., Conclusions: An inter-rater agreement of 0.59 is moderate, at best, however, it gives ministries of health some sense of how tightly they may interpret injury data derived from daily reports using WHO EMT MDS. Furthermore, this kappa is similar to established but more complex (thus more contextually impractical) injury scores. Similar studies, with weighting for injury likelihood using sample data from SODs would further refine the level of expected inter-rater agreement., Competing Interests: Competing interests: AJNJ has previously provided consultancy to the UK EMT & contributed to the WHO EMT MDS working group., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: A major public health challenge in Australia is the lack of national adolescent abortion data. This descriptive study identifies, collates and describes publicly available adolescent abortion data in high-income countries including Australia, to describe trends over 10 years and provide recommendations for strengthening data collection., Methods: Data were extracted from publicly available government sources that met inclusion criteria. All relevant adolescent abortion data from 2007 to 2017 were extracted from datasets and analysed., Results: Eleven high-income countries were included. Incidence data for the adolescent population were available for all countries and states. Incidence of adolescent abortion over 10 years shows a downward trend in all countries. Gestational age at time of abortion was the second-most available variable. The level and type of data across all countries varied; there was a lack of age range standardisation and aggregation of gestational weeks differed, making comparisons difficult., Conclusion: A minimum data set of standardised abortion information will enable appropriate adolescent abortion policies and services to be developed that are informed by high quality, up-to-date intelligence. Implications for public health: Availability of data affects government's ability to adequately monitor national adolescent health outcomes and plan and evaluate appropriate reproductive health policy and services., (© 2019 The Authors.)

Introduction: The International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) identified significant international differences in lung cancer survival. Differing levels of comorbid disease across ICBP countries has been suggested as a potential explanation of this variation but, to date, no studies have quantified its impact. This study investigated whether comparable, robust comorbidity scores can be derived from the different routine population-based cancer data sets available in the ICBP jurisdictions and, if so, use them to quantify international variation in comorbidity and determine its influence on outcome., Methods: Linked population-based lung cancer registry and hospital discharge data sets were acquired from nine ICBP jurisdictions in Australia, Canada, Norway and the UK providing a study population of 233 981 individuals. For each person in this cohort Charlson, Elixhauser and inpatient bed day Comorbidity Scores were derived relating to the 4-36 months prior to their lung cancer diagnosis. The scores were then compared to assess their validity and feasibility of use in international survival comparisons., Results: It was feasible to generate the three comorbidity scores for each jurisdiction, which were found to have good content, face and concurrent validity. Predictive validity was limited and there was evidence that the reliability was questionable., Conclusion: The results presented here indicate that interjurisdictional comparability of recorded comorbidity was limited due to probable differences in coding and hospital admission practices in each area. Before the contribution of comorbidity on international differences in cancer survival can be investigated an internationally harmonised comorbidity index is required., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)

Importance: Identifying variables that influence presenting visual acuity (VA) in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is important because it is a strong predictor of long-term outcomes., Background: To assess the clinical and social characteristics associated with low presenting VA in nAMD patients., Design: The present study is a cross-sectional analysis from a prospective, observational database., Participants: We identified 3242 treatment-naïve patients from 54 Australian practices in the Fight Retinal Blindness! registry., Methods: Age, gender, ethnicity and VA were recorded at the baseline visit. Socio-economic status was determined using the Australian Bureau of Statistics socio-economic indexes for areas., Main Outcome Measures: Association between clinical and socio-economic characteristics with presenting VA was identified., Results: Poor VA (≤35 letters) in the presenting eye was associated with older age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.33 for patients aged ≥80 years vs. <80 years [95% confidence interval, CI: 1.04, 1.71]), treatment at a public practice (AOR: 1.91 for public vs. private practices [95% CI: 1.46, 2.50]) and intermediate (36-69 letters) VA in the fellow eye (AOR: 0.67 [95% CI: 0.47, 0.95] and 0.64 [95% CI: 0.48, 0.85] for poor [≤35 letters] and good [≥70 letters] VA vs. intermediate VA in the fellow eye). Gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status were not independently associated with VA at presentation., Conclusions and Relevance: Poor presenting vision is detrimental to the long-term outcomes of nAMD. Poor presentation of nAMD in Australia may not be related to socio-economic circumstances, but due to systems of care. Further research is warranted to determine why patients at public practices present with worse vision compared with private practices in Australia., (© 2017 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.)

ABSTRACT We present a homogenized, monthly, upper-air temperature data set comprising 22 stations across the Australian continent, as well as five Australian remote island sites. The data set is based on 2300 UTC radiosonde soundings, with most records starting in 1958. The data are mostly complete since that time, with missing data more frequent at higher levels. The quality control process involved the examination of station metadata and an objective statistical test to detect discontinuities in the data, for which monthly temperature series were adjusted. Homogenized temperature data were analysed at standard levels. The all-Australian annual mean temperature shows statistically significant trends over the 1958-2011 period, larger than the trends in surface temperature. Over this period, the annual 850 and 700 hPa mean temperatures show positive trends of 0.21 and 0.16 °C decade−1, respectively, more than the surface temperature which shows positive trend of 0.12 °C decade−1. Mid-troposphere (the 500, 400 and 300 hPa levels) also shows positive trends of 0.13, 0.15 and 0.20 °C decade−1, respectively. Trends are small and of reverse sign at levels that intercept the tropopause: +0.08 °C decade−1 at 200 hPa and −0.14 °C decade−1 at 150 hPa. In the lower stratosphere (at 100 hPa), temperature trend is strongly negative, −0.39 °C decade−1. A similar vertical structure in the trends was found for the remote islands. The homogenized upper-air radiosonde records for the Australian region are an independent confirmation of the expected physical response to increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations: (1) a general warming in the troposphere, (2) a cooling in the lower stratosphere and (3) a faster warming of the troposphere than the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Psychometric study., Objectives: To determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability and content validity of the International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Musculoskeletal Basic Data Set (ISCIMSBDS)., Setting: Four centers with one in each of the countries in Australia, England, India and the United States of America., Methods: A total of 117 participants with a C2 to S1 neurological level and American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale A to D injury were recruited. The median (interquartile range) time since injury was 9 years (2-29). Fifty-seven participants were assessed by the same assessor, and 60 participants were assessed by two different assessors on two different occasions to determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability, respectively. Kappa statistics or crude agreement was used to measure reliability. Content validity was assessed through focus group interviews of people with SCI and health-care professionals., Results: The intra-rater reliability ranged from κ=0.62 to 1.00 and crude agreement from 75% to 100% for each of the variables on the ISCIMSBDS. The inter-rater reliability ranged from κ=-0.25 to 1.00, with a diverse crude agreement ranging from 0% to 100%. The inter-rater reliability was unsatisfactory for the following variables: 'Date of fracture', 'Fragility fractures', 'Scoliosis, method of assessment', 'Other musculoskeletal problems' and 'Do any of the above musculoskeletal challenges interfere with your activities of daily living (transfers, walking, dressing, showers, etc.)?'. Results from validity discussions implied no major suggestions for changes., Conclusion: Overall, the ISCIMSBDS is reliable and valid, although 5 of the 12 variables may benefit from further refinement.

Objective To examine the outcomes of inpatient rehabilitation for persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS), using the Australian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) database. Method Deidentified data from the AROC database were analyzed for all rehabilitation admissions during 2003-2007, using four classes for functional level. The outcomes included Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores and efficiency, hospital length of stay (LOS), and discharge destination. Results Of 1010 case episodes, 70% were women, admitted from home (n = 851) and discharged into the community (n = 890), and 97% (n = 986) were in the higher three classes for functional level (classes 216, 217, and 218). Majority of the more disabled pwMS were treated in the public hospital system, with a longer LOS compared with private facilities (P < 0.001). The FIM for classes 216-218 showed significant functional improvement during the admission (P < 0.001), and those in higher classes showed less change (likely due to higher FIM admission scores). FIM efficiency was significantly higher in class 217 than other classes (P < 0.001). The year-on-year trend was toward reducing hospital LOS and FIM efficiency, but these did not reach significance (P = 0.107, P = 0.634). Conclusion The AROC data set is useful for describing rehabilitation outcomes for pwMS. However, additional information needs to be collected to evaluate nature of services provided and service implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new homogenized daily maximum and minimum temperature data set, the Australian Climate Observations Reference Network-Surface Air Temperature data set, has been developed for Australia. This data set contains data from 112 locations across Australia, and extends from 1910 to the present, with 60 locations having data for the full post-1910 period. These data have been comprehensively analysed for inhomogeneities and data errors ensuring a set of station temperature data which are suitable for the analysis of climate variability and trends. For the purposes of merging station series and correcting inhomogeneities, the data set has been developed using a technique, the percentile-matching (PM) algorithm, which applies differing adjustments to daily data depending on their position in the frequency distribution. This method is intended to produce data sets that are homogeneous for higher-order statistical properties, such as variance and the frequency of extremes, as well as for mean values. The PM algorithm is evaluated and found to have clear advantages over adjustments based on monthly means, particularly in the homogenization of temperature extremes. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception prevalent in the literature that Australian rainfall records are reasonably uncontaminated by untagged weekend accumulations is reassessed. An objective probabilistic test for untagged accumulations is developed and applied to 181 gauges that have previously been identified as having high‐quality data suitable for long‐term analyses of climate change. As many as 102 of these gauges are found to contain hidden, untagged accumulations, and the overall prevalence of untagged accumulations in the high‐quality data set is shown to be only slightly less than that of tagged accumulations. A simple study simulating the effects of accumulations in the records of the high‐quality data set shows that, in records (or parts of records) with frequent accumulations, rainfall probability, mean wet‐spell length and mean dry‐spell length can be underestimated by as much as 24%, 34% and 18% respectively, and that the magnitude of the potential prediction error in these variables (and also in indices of rainfall intensity extremes) at a site shows strong dependence on the rainfall probability. Selected published studies on climate change are reanalysed to account for the presence of untagged accumulations and to show that significant changes in long‐term trends can be obtained for individual locations. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a number of studies have been conducted on the impact of online assessment and teaching methods on student learning, the field does not seem settled around the promised benefits of such approaches. It is argued that the reason for this state of affairs is that few studies have been able to control for a number of confounding factors in student performance. We report on the introduction of a regular (every 3 weeks) low-mark online assessment tool in a large, first-year business mathematics course at the University of New South Wales, a major Australian university. Using a retrospective regression methodology together with a very large and rich data set, we test the proposition that exposure to the online assessment instrument enhances student learning. Significantly, we are able to control for prior student aptitude, in-course mastery, gender and even effort via a voluntary class attendance proxy. Furthermore, the study incorporates two large, and statistically diverse cohorts as well as manipulations in the model tested to robustly examine the outcomes. Our central result is that higher exposure to the online instrument robustly leads to higher student learning, all else being equal. Various implications for online assessment design, implementation and targeting are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottom-hole temperatures (BHT) from oil exploration provide useful constraints on the subsurface thermal regime, but they need to be corrected to obtain the equilibrium temperature. In this work, we introduce several BHT correction methods and compare them using a large Australian data set of more than 650 groups of multiple BHT measurements in about 300 oil exploration boreholes. Existing and suggested corrections are classified within a coherent framework, in which methods are divided into: line/cylinder source; instantaneous/continuous heat extraction; one/two component(s). Comparisons with reservoir test temperatures show that most of the corrections lead to reliable estimates of the formation equilibrium temperature within ±10 °C, but too few data exist to perform an intercomparison of the models based on this criterion. As expected, the Horner method diverges from its parent models for small elapsed times (or equivalently large radii). The mathematical expression of line source models suffers from an unphysical delay time that also restrains their domain of applicability. The model that takes into account the difference of thermal properties between circulating mud and surrounding rocks—that is the two-component model—is delicate to use because of its high complexity. For these reasons, our preferred correction methods are the cylindrical source models. We show that mud circulation time below 10 hr has a negligible effect. The cylindrical source models rely on one parameter depending on the thermal diffusivity and the borehole radius, which are poorly constrained, but the induced uncertainty on the extrapolations remains reasonably low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data about drug treatment populations and the services they receive are an important source of information for the understanding and addressing of drug-related harms. In 1998 the Minimum Data Set Project for Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services was conducted in Australia to develop a set of standards that would enable the collection of meaningful national data. This paper reports on the findings of a 6-week pilot collection period in 1998. It showed that the integration of agreed data collection procedures in the daily practice of agencies was feasible, capable of yielding worthwhile data, and may have immediate advantages for the provision of treatment services in Australia. This dataset commenced national collection in July 2000 and ongoing developments are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Examine demographics, clinical characteristics and rehabilitation outcomes of lower-limb amputees, using the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) database., Methods: Lower-limb amputee rehabilitation separations between 2004 and 2010 were identified using AROC impairment codes 5.3-5.7.(1) Analysis was conducted by year, impairment code, Australian National Sub-acute and Non-Acute Patient (AN-SNAP) classification (S2-224, Functional Independence Measure (FIM) motor(Mot) score 72-91; S2-225, FIM (Mot) score 14-71) and states of Australia., Results: Mean length of stay (LOS) for all lower-limb amputee episodes was 36.1 days (95% confidence interval (CI): 35.4-36.9). Majority of episodes were unilateral below knee (63.6%), males (71.8%) with a mean age of 67.9 years (95% CI: 67.6-68.3). Year-on-year analysis revealed a trend for increasing LOS and decreasing age. Analysis by impairment code demonstrated no significant difference in rehabilitation outcomes. Analysis by AN-SNAP found that LOS was 16.2 days longer for S2-225 than for S2-224 (95% CI: 14.7-17.8, P<0.001), and FIM (Mot) change was 12.0 points higher for S2-225 than for S2-224 (95% CI: 11.5-12.6, P<0.001). Analysis by states revealed significant variation in LOS, FIM (Mot) change and FIM (Mot) efficiency which may be associated with variations in organisation of rehabilitation services across states., Conclusion: Although amputees represented a comparatively small proportion of all rehabilitation episodes in Australia, their LOS was significant. Unlike many other rehabilitation conditions, there was no evidence of decreasing LOS over time. AN-SNAP classes were effective in distinguishing rehabilitation outcomes, and could potentially be used more effectively in planning rehabilitation programs.

Abstract: To assist in site identification for development of solar energy facilities in Australia, relevant spatial data were drawn from a range of sources. Along with infrastructure and development constraints, spatial solar irradiance estimates were a key requirement. Existing estimates, derived from satellite observations, were found to include significant bias when compared to ground station observations, likely due to the difference in measurement (spatial average for satellite and point location for ground station). Rather than revert to reprocessing the original data, post-processing corrections were developed to compensate for this bias. Investigations were also made into the influence of aerosols on the satellite estimates (aerosols were not included in the existing model), and whether any spatial bias existed in the satellite estimates. In both cases, no evidence was found to indicate that improvements in the data were possible by including these effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives: To evaluate a harmonized binary measure of self-reported hearing loss against gold standard audiometry in an older adult population., Method: Seven nationally representative population-based studies were harmonized and pooled (n = 23,001). Self-report items were recoded into a dichotomous format. Audiometric hearing loss was defined by averaged pure-tone thresholds greater than 25-decibel hearing level in the better ear. We compared age and sex stratified prevalence rates of hearing loss estimated by self-report and audiometric measures., Results: Overall, 56% of men and 43% of women had audiometric hearing loss. There were moderate associations between self-reported and audiometric hearing loss. However, prevalence based on self-report was overestimated for adults aged below 70 years and underestimated for adults aged above 75., Discussion: Self-report of hearing loss is insensitive to age effects and does not provide a reliable basis for estimating prevalence of age-related hearing loss, although may indicate perceived hearing disability.

Objective: To examine the outcomes of inpatient rehabilitation for persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS), using the Australian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) database., Method: Deidentified data from the AROC database were analyzed for all rehabilitation admissions during 2003-2007, using four classes for functional level. The outcomes included Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores and efficiency, hospital length of stay (LOS), and discharge destination., Results: Of 1010 case episodes, 70% were women, admitted from home (n = 851) and discharged into the community (n = 890), and 97% (n = 986) were in the higher three classes for functional level (classes 216, 217, and 218). Majority of the more disabled pwMS were treated in the public hospital system, with a longer LOS compared with private facilities (P < 0.001). The FIM for classes 216-218 showed significant functional improvement during the admission (P < 0.001), and those in higher classes showed less change (likely due to higher FIM admission scores). FIM efficiency was significantly higher in class 217 than other classes (P < 0.001). The year-on-year trend was toward reducing hospital LOS and FIM efficiency, but these did not reach significance (P = 0.107, P = 0.634)., Conclusion: The AROC data set is useful for describing rehabilitation outcomes for pwMS. However, additional information needs to be collected to evaluate nature of services provided and service implications.

Abstract: The National Airborne Field Experiment 2006 (NAFE’06) was conducted during a three week period of November 2006 in the Murrumbidgee River catchment, located in southeastern Australia. One objective of NAFE’06 was to explore the suitability of the area for SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) calibration/validation and develop downscaling and assimilation techniques for when SMOS does come on line. Airborne L-band brightness temperature was mapped at 1km resolution 11 times (every 1–3 days) over a 40 by 55km area in the Yanco region and 3 times over a 40 by 50km area that includes Kyeamba Creek catchment. Moreover, multi-resolution, multi-angle and multi-spectral airborne data including surface temperature, surface reflectance (green, read and near infrared), lidar data and aerial photos were acquired over selected areas to develop downscaling algorithms and test multi-angle and multi-spectral retrieval approaches. The near-surface soil moisture was measured extensively on the ground in eight sampling areas concurrently with aircraft flights, and the soil moisture profile was continuously monitored at 41 sites. Preliminary analyses indicate that (i) the uncertainty of a single ground measurement was typically less than 5% vol. (ii) the spatial variability of ground measurements at 1km resolution was up to 10% vol. and (iii) the validation of 1km resolution L-band data is facilitated by selecting pixels with a spatial soil moisture variability lower than the point-scale uncertainty. The sensitivity of passive microwave and thermal data is also compared at 1km resolution to illustrate the multi-spectral synergy for soil moisture monitoring at improved accuracy and resolution. The data described in this paper are available at www.nafe.unimelb.edu.au. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The National Airborne Field Experiment 2005 (NAFE'05) and the Campaign for validating the Operation of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (CoSMOS) were undertaken in November 2005 in the Goulburn River catchment, which is located in southeastern Australia. The objective of the joint campaign was to provide simulated Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) observations using airborne L-band radiometers supported by soil moisture and other relevant ground data for the following: 1) the development of SMOS soil moisture retrieval algorithms; 2) developing approaches for downscaling the low-resolution data from SMOS; and 3) testing its assimilation into land surface models for root zone soil moisture retrieval. This paper describes the NAFE'05 and CoSMOS airborne data sets together with the ground data collected in support of both aircraft campaigns. The airborne L-band acquisitions included 40 km x 40 km coverage flights at 500-rn and 1-km resolution for the simulation of a SMOS pixel, multiresolution flights with ground resolution ranging from 1 km to 62.5 m, multiangle observations, and specific flights that targeted the vegetation dew and sun glint effect on L-band soil moisture retrieval. The L-band data were accompanied by airborne thermal infrared and optical measurements. The ground data consisted of continuous soil moisture profile measurements at 18 monitoring sites throughout the 40 km x 40 km study area and extensive spatial near-surface soil moisture measurements concurrent with airborne monitoring. Additionally, data were collected on rock coverage and temperature, surface roughness, skin and soil temperatures, dew amount, and vegetation water content and biomass. These data are available at www.nafe.unimelb. edu.au. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to provide a framework for standardised data reporting in the Australian non-government community mental health sector, a Data Dictionary and standard data set were developed. Advisory Committee and key stakeholder consultation, review of local and national minimum data sets and stakeholder validation informed this process. This resulted in a Data Dictionary containing 37 items and a standard data set containing 15 items. These items conform to the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare's (AIHW) standards and address Leginski et al.'s (1989) decision standards.

Summary 1. Hypericum perforatum , St John's wort, is an invasive perennial herb that is especially problematic on waste ground, roadsides, pastures and open woodland in south-eastern Australia. We use detailed data from a long-term observational study to develop quantitative models of the factors affecting growth, survival and fecundity of H. perforatum individuals. 2. Multi-level or hierarchical mixed-effects statistical models are used to analyse how environmental and intrinsic plant variables affect growth and reproduction within a complex nested spatial and temporal context. These techniques are relatively underused in ecology, despite the prevalence of multi-level and repeated-measures data generated from ecological studies. 3. We found that plant size (rosette or flowering stems) was strongly correlated with all life stages studied (growth, probability of flowering, asexual reproduction, survival and fruit production). Environmental variables such as herbivory, ground cover and rainfall had significant effects on several life stages. 4. Significant spatial variation at the quadrat level was found in the probability of flowering, flowering stem growth and fruit production models; variation at all other spatial levels in all models was non-significant. Yearly temporal variation was significant in all models where multi-year data were available. 5. Plants in shaded habitats were smaller but had higher survival probabilities than plants in open habitats. They are therefore likely to have slightly different population dynamics. 6. Synthesis and applications. Analysis of these models for H. perforatum has provided insights into which plant traits and environmental factors determine how populations increase and persist in exotic ecosystems, enabling population management strategies to be most effectively targeted. Spatially and temporally correlated data are often collected in long-term ecological studies and multi-level models are a way in which we can fully... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily rainfall was analysed at 91 high quality stations over eastern and southwestern Australia to determine if extreme rainfall had changed between 1910 and 1998. Three indices of extreme rainfall were examined: the number of events above an extreme threshold (extreme frequency); the average intensity of rainfall from extreme events (extreme intensity); and the proportion of total rainfall from extreme events (extreme percent). Several problems are discussed associated with designing such indices under a climate with significant trends in the number of raindays. Three different methods are used for calculating the extreme intensity and extreme percent indices to account for such trends in raindays. A separate analysis was carried out for four separate regions with significant results including a decrease in the extreme frequency and extreme intensity in southwest Western Australia and an increase in the extreme percent in eastern Australia. Trends in the extreme intensity and extreme percent are largely dependent on the method used to calculate the index. Total rainfall is strongly correlated with the extreme frequency and extreme intensity indices, suggesting that extreme events are more frequent and intense during years with high rainfall. Due to an increase in the number of raindays during such years, the proportional contribution from extreme events to the total rainfall depends on the method used to calculate this index. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aimed to derive site‐specific guideline values (SSGVs) for nitrate toxicity that are relevant to high hardness surface waters of the Pilbara region, north‐western Australia, many of which receive nitrate‐rich mine water discharges. The approach involved deriving SSGVs from a species sensitivity distribution (SSD) based on candidate data sets comprising toxicity data for local Pilbara species tested in local waters and nonlocal species tested under water quality conditions similar to those of local Pilbara waters. Water hardness was identified as the primary toxicity‐modifying factor for nitrate that needed to be accounted for, with temperature and pH identified as supporting variables. Using ~10 years of local water quality data, primary and secondary criteria for hardness, temperature and pH were developed and used to select the most relevant toxicity data for the derivation. The selected toxicity data, which included data for four local species tested in local water and 10 nonlocal species tested under representative water quality conditions, were categorized according to the primary and secondary criteria. Using this categorization, four candidate nitrate toxicity data sets (n = 5, 10, 12, and 14) were assessed for their suitability to derive the SSGVs. The SSDs for all data sets yielded similar protective concentration (PC) values. Based on the best balance between the relevance of the toxicity data set to the local water quality conditions and the confidence in the PC values, the PC values based on data set 3 (12 species, six taxonomic groups) were identified as being the most appropriate for the SSGVs. The SSGVs for 99%, 95%, 90%, and 80% species protection were 7.6, 15, 23, and 39 mg/L NO3‐N, respectively. An assessment of the appropriateness of the SSGVs indicated that they were likely to be appropriately protective of nitrate toxicity for the high hardness (i.e., ≥160 mg/L as CaCO3) Pilbara receiving waters. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1035–1046. © 2021 SETAC Key Points: This study derived site‐specific guideline values for nitrate toxicity that reflect the high hardness characteristics of the Pilbara region in north‐western Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Uniform Data Set for Medical Rehabilitation (UDS) can be used to measure the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs. This article outlines potential applications of the UDS and the role of the health information manager (HIM) in managing data collection. HIMs can assist in the design of data collection systems which will provide data which are of high quality. The HIM can also assist in the production and interpretation of reports.

Objective: Motorcycles and mopeds, often referred to as powered 2-wheelers (PTWs), play an important role in personal mobility worldwide. Despite their advantages, including low cost, space occupancy, and fuel efficiency, the risk of sustaining serious or fatal injuries is higher than that for occupants of passenger cars. The development of safety systems specific for PTWs represents a potential way to reduce casualties among riders. With the proliferation of new active and passive safety technologies, the question as to which might offer the most value is important. In this context, a prioritization process was applied to a set of PTW active safety systems to evaluate their applicability to crash scenarios alone and in combination. The systems included in the study were antilock braking (ABS), autonomous emergency braking (AEB), collision warning, curve warning, and curve assist. Methods: With the functional performance of the 5 safety systems established, the relevance of each system to specific crash configurations and vehicle movements defined by a standardized accident classification system used in Victoria, Australia, was rated by 2 independent reviewers, with a third reviewer acting as a moderator where disagreements occurred. Ratings ranged from 1 (definitely not applicable) to 4 (definitely applicable). Using population-based crash data, the number and percentage of crashes that each safety system could potentially influence, or be relevant for, was defined. Applying accepted injury costs permitted the derivation of the societal economic cost of PTW crashes and the potential reductions associated with each safety system given a theoretical crash avoidance effectiveness of 100%. Results: In the 12-year period 2000-2011, 23,955 PTW riders and 1292 pillion passengers were reported to have been involved in a road crash, with over 500 killed and more than 10,000 seriously injured; only 3.5% of riders/pillion passengers were uninjured. The total economic cost associated with these injured riders and pillion passengers was estimated to be AU$11.1 billion (US$7.70 billion; €6.67 billion). The 5 safety systems, as single solutions or in combination, were relevant to 57% of all crashes and to 74% of riders killed. Antilock braking was found to be relevant to the highest number of crashes, with incremental increases in coverage when combined with other safety systems. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that ABS, alone and in combination with other safety systems, has the potential to mitigate or possibly prevent a high percentage of PTW crashes in the considered setting. Other safety systems can influence different crash scenarios and are also recommended. Given the high cost of motorcycle crashes and the increasing number of PTW safety technologies, the proposed approach can be used to inform the process of selection of the most suitable interventions to improve PTW safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data quality of life cycle inventory background databases should be ensured in order to be useful for life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. However, databases do not always have procedures to evaluate the quality of the data sets in place. The Global Guidance Principles for LCA Databases of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) provide, among others, recommendations to enhance data quality through improved documentation and review. Flagship 2a in Phase 3 of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aimed to enable the practical implementation of these recommendations with the development of review criteria and the testing of these criteria on 3 national databases. After a pilot‐testing phase, this project entered a more mature road‐testing exercise, of which the results are presented in this paper. The review criteria have been updated and provide more emphasis on goal and scope documentation completeness and include a new cluster of criteria that evaluate the materiality of the data set. The updated criteria have been applied to national databases of Thailand, Australia, and Chile. All databases would benefit from additional documentation, for example, on system boundaries, the reference model, sampling procedures, and cut‐off criteria. Furthermore, conducting the review was enabled by extensive documentation and data accessibility in LCA software. Communication of the criteria to the database managers enabled them to anticipate data quality requirements of the global LCA community and improve the data sets in advance. Reviewers sometimes had a different interpretation of the criteria, which suggests that there is room for additional fine‐tuning of the process guidance and exemplification of review criteria. This project has demonstrated that the criteria are applicable to and provide useful feedback for databases with different levels of maturity and contribute to improving quality of life cycle inventory (LCI) data. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:517–524. © 2020 SETAC KEY POINTS: Data quality of life cycle inventory background databases should be ensured in order to be useful for life cycle assessment studies.Updated life cycle inventory review criteria of the United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative have been applied in this road‐testing exercise to national databases of Thailand, Australia, and Chile.Datasets could be improved by increasing documentation, whereas the review process could benefit from an early communication of review criteria, provision of full data access, and additional guidance in interpreting the criteria.This project has demonstrated that the criteria are applicable to and provide useful feedback for databases with different levels of maturity and contribute to improving quality of life cycle inventory (LCI) data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rare diseases (RDs) affect approximately 8% of all people or > 400 million people globally. The Australian Government's National Strategic Action Plan for Rare Diseases has identified the need for a national, coordinated, and systematic approach to the collection and use of RD data, including registries. Rare disease registries (RDRs) are established for epidemiological, quality improvement and research purposes, and they are critical infrastructure for clinical trials. The aim of this scoping review was to review literature on the current state of RDRs in Australia; to describe how they are funded; what data they collect; and their impact on patient outcomes. Methods: We conducted a literature search on MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsychINFO databases, in addition to Google Scholar and grey literature. Dissertations, government reports, randomised control trials, conference proceedings, conference posters and meeting abstracts were also included. Articles were excluded if they did not discuss RDs or if they were written in a language other than English. Studies were assessed on demographic and clinical patient characteristics, procedure or treatment type and health-related quality of life captured by RDRs or databases that have been established to date. Results: Seventy-four RDRs were identified; 19 were global registries in which Australians participated, 24 were Australian-only registries, 10 were Australia and New Zealand based, and five were Australian jurisdiction-based registries. Sixteen "umbrella" registries collected data on several different conditions, which included some RDs, and thirteen RDRs stored rare cancer-specific information. Most RDRs and databases captured similar types of information related to patient characteristics, comorbidities and other clinical features, procedure or treatment type and health-related quality of life measures. We found considerable heterogeneity among existing RDRs in Australia, especially with regards to data collection, scope and quality of registries, suggesting a national coordinated approach to RDRs is required. Conclusion: This scoping review highlights the current state of Australian RDRs, identifying several important gaps and opportunities for improvement through national coordination and increased investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Centre for Medium range weather forecast (ECMWF) on behalf of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) has recently widened the fire danger data offering in the Climate Data Store (CDS) to include a set of fire danger forecasts with lead times up to 7 months. The dataset incorporates fire danger indices for three different models developed in Canada, United States and Australia. The indices are calculated using ECMWF Seasonal Forecasting System 5 (SEAS5) and verified against the relevant reanalysis of fire danger based on the ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA5). The data set is made openly available for the period 1981 to 2023 and will be updated regularly providing a resource to assess the predictability of fire weather at the seasonal time scale. The data set complements the availability of seasonal forecast provided by the Copernicus Emergency Management Service in real time. A preliminary analysis shows that globally anomalous conditions for fire weather can be predicted with confidence 1 month ahead. In some regions the prediction can extend to 2 months ahead. In most situations beyond this horizon, forecasts do not show more skill than climatology. However an extended predictability window, up to 6-7 months ahead is possible when anomalous fire weather is the results of large scale phenomena such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole, often conducive of extensive fire burning in regions such as Indonesia and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforced concrete (RC) pipe and box culverts are widely used as an alternative to bridge structures in road transport networks around the world. The deterioration of the RC culverts is a complex problem caused by combined humanmade and natural processes with various influential factors. Visual inspection is often used to monitor the deterioration of culverts, and the inspection results are used to rate condition of culverts by using a discrete condition rating system. The objective of this case study was to investigate the deterioration of RC culverts at the network and cohort levels by using a Markov model and culverts' influential factors and inspected condition data. The Markov deterioration model can forecast the future deterioration of a culvert network, which can be used for asset management planning of the culvert network. A real case study with a regional local government in Australia was used to demonstrate the application of this study. The results of network deterioration modeling showed that the deterioration rates of culverts varied with culvert type (pipe and box culvert), built year, demographic location, and pipe size. However, annual average daily traffic (AADT) affected only box culverts. Deterioration prediction was found to be sensitive to the time length of evidence data, which highlights the importance of keeping records of maintenance and rehabilitation activities for producing accurate modeling data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Automated radio telemetry (ART) systems enable high-temporal resolution data collection for species unsuited to satellite-based methods. A challenge of ART systems is estimating the location of radio tagged animals from the radio signals received on multiple antennas within an ART array. Localisation methods for ART systems with omni-directional receivers have undergone rapid development in recent years, with the inclusion of machine learning techniques. However, comparable machine learning methods for ART systems with directional antennas are unavailable, despite their potential for improved accuracy and greater versatility. To address this, we introduce an open-source machine learning-based location fingerprinting method for directional antenna-based ART systems. We compare this method to two alternative localisation approaches. Both alternatives use relative signal strengths recorded among multiple antennas to estimate the signal's angle of arrival at each receiver. In the 'biangulation' approach, the location is estimated by finding the intersection of these angles from two receivers. In contrast, the 'linear regression' approach uses a linear regression model to estimate the distance from the receiver along the angle of arrival, providing a location estimate. We evaluate these methods using an ART data set collected for the southern black-throated finch (Poephila cincta cincta), in the Desert Uplands Bioregion of Queensland, Australia. Results: The location fingerprinting method performed slightly better than the best performing alternative, the linear regression method, with mean positional errors of 308 m (SE = 17.7) and 335 m (SE = 18.5), respectively. The biangulation method performed substantially worse, with a mean positional error of 550 m (SE = 42.9, median = 540 m). Improved accuracy was observed with shorter distances between transmitters and receivers, higher signal strengths, and a greater number of detecting receivers, suggesting that increasing receiver density improves localisation accuracy, albeit with potential trade-offs in system coverage or cost. Furthermore, shorter pulse intervals of transmitters resulted in greater accuracy, highlighting the trade-offs among battery life, transmitter weight and radiative power. Conclusions: The open-source location fingerprinting method offers an improved and versatile localisation approach suitable for a wide variety of ART system designs, addressing the challenge of developing study-specific localisation methods using alternative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]