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Increased febrile reactions in Australian children from one influenza vaccine brand in 2010 diminished confidence in influenza immunisation, highlighting the need for improved vaccine safety surveillance. AusVaxSafety, a national vaccine safety surveillance system collected adverse events in young children for 2015 influenza vaccine brands in real time through parent/carer reports via SMS/email. Weekly cumulative data on 3,340 children demonstrated low rates of fever (4.4%) and medical attendance (1.1%). Fever was more frequent with concomitant vaccination.

Background Flying foxes (megachiroptera) and insectivorous microbats (microchiroptera) are the known reservoirs for a range of recently emerged, highly pathogenic viruses. In Australia there is public health concern relating to bats' role as reservoirs of Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV), which has clinical features identical to classical rabies. Three deaths from ABLV have occurred in Australia. A survey was conducted to determine the frequency of bat exposures amongst adults in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales; explore reasons for handling bats; examine reported practices upon encountering injured or trapped bats or experiencing bat bites or scratches; and investigate knowledge of bat handling warnings. Methods A representative sample of 821 New South Wales adults aged 16 years and older were interviewed during May and June 2011, using a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) method. Frequencies, proportions and statistical differences in proportion were performed. Using an alpha-value of 0.05 and power of 80%, it was calculated that a sample size of 800 was required to provide statistical significance of +/- 5% for dichotomous variables. Results One-hundred-and-twenty-seven (15.5%) respondents indicated that they had previously handled a bat, being 22% (48/218) rural and 13% (78/597) urban respondents (chi2 = 9.8, p = 0.0018). Twenty one percent of males (63/304) had handled bats compared with 12% (64/517) of females (chi2 = 10.2, p = 0.0014). Overall, 42.0% (n = 345) of respondents reported having seen or heard a warning about handling bats. If faced with an injured or trapped bat, 25% (206/821) indicated that they would handle the bat, with 17% (36/206) saying that they would use their bare hands. For minor scratches, 14% (117/821) indicated that they would ignore the injury while four respondents would ignore major scratches or bites. Conclusions Previous human-bat interactions were relatively common. Bat exposures most frequently occurre

Objectives: To investigate if Aboriginal people are equally included in new forms of vaccine safety post-marketing surveillance that support safety signal detection and confidence in the vaccine program by comparing the use of Vaxtracker active adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) surveillance between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parents of vaccinated children. Methods: In 2016, automated AEFI surveillance was conducted to monitor seasonal influenza vaccine in children aged 18 months to less than 5 years and for DTPa vaccine after the inclusion of a new dose at 18 months of age. To explore reasons for non-response, Aboriginal Immunisation Officers contacted the parents/carers of 24 (48.0%) Aboriginal children and 31 (26.7%) non-Aboriginal children who did not respond to the online survey. Results: There were differential response rates for both vaccines between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal enrolees; 56.4% vs 76.8% (p=0.005) and 55.1% vs 78.2% (p Conclusion: New systems of vaccine safety surveillance may not adequately include Aboriginal people. Implications: Vaccine safety surveillance systems need to be designed to ensure high levels of participation and response from Aboriginal people.

peer-reviewed, Following a review of previous research on wave power conversion, it is evident that Oscillating Water Columns are one of the few devices to successfully convert wave power to electrical power at a commercial stage. Furthermore, it is evident that the impulse turbine is a key component in this conversion process and the aim of this research is to improve its performance by designing and implementing an internally housed variable-pitch controlled guide vane system. A validated 3-D CFD technique was used to analyse the performance of varying nozzle and diffuser guide vane setting angles under steady flow conditions at 0.5 and 0.6 hub-to-tip ratios. 0.5H/T recorded peak performance at 15⁰ nozzle and 82.5⁰ diffuser angles while 0.6H/T recorded 15⁰ nozzle and 72.5⁰ diffuser angles. It was observed that turbine performance was more sensitive to variation in nozzle than diffuser angle, as both torque and pressure loss were affected by the nozzle. Concurrent research by Walsh (2011) required investigation on the effect of a spherical hub and casing design on turbine performance using 3-D CFD, designs also implemented in this research. Results showed a reduction in peak efficiency of 1.1 percentage points at 0.5H/T while 0.6H/T was reduced by 0.13 percentage points. Flow visualisation confirmed that this reduction in performance was caused by an area of stagnation in the hub which increased pressure loss. A 2nd generation, internally housed variable-pitch controlled guide vane system was designed and tested to validate the potential performance improvements outlined in the CFD studies. A number of concepts were evaluated before an iterative design procedure was used to develop the selected concept. The system increased efficiency from 42.82% with fixed guide vanes to 56.56% under real sea, “Site 2” conditions while mechanical shaft power was increased from 97.8 W to 200.6 W. Steady flow testing confirmed nozzle angles of between 15⁰ and 17.5⁰ produced optimum performance alt

peer-reviewed, Following a review of previous research on wave power conversion, it is evident that Oscillating Water Columns are one of the few devices to successfully convert wave power to electrical power at a commercial stage. Furthermore, it is evident that the impulse turbine is a key component in this conversion process and the aim of this research is to improve its performance by designing and implementing an internally housed variable-pitch controlled guide vane system. A validated 3-D CFD technique was used to analyse the performance of varying nozzle and diffuser guide vane setting angles under steady flow conditions at 0.5 and 0.6 hub-to-tip ratios. 0.5H/T recorded peak performance at 15⁰ nozzle and 82.5⁰ diffuser angles while 0.6H/T recorded 15⁰ nozzle and 72.5⁰ diffuser angles. It was observed that turbine performance was more sensitive to variation in nozzle than diffuser angle, as both torque and pressure loss were affected by the nozzle. Concurrent research by Walsh (2011) required investigation on the effect of a spherical hub and casing design on turbine performance using 3-D CFD, designs also implemented in this research. Results showed a reduction in peak efficiency of 1.1 percentage points at 0.5H/T while 0.6H/T was reduced by 0.13 percentage points. Flow visualisation confirmed that this reduction in performance was caused by an area of stagnation in the hub which increased pressure loss. A 2nd generation, internally housed variable-pitch controlled guide vane system was designed and tested to validate the potential performance improvements outlined in the CFD studies. A number of concepts were evaluated before an iterative design procedure was used to develop the selected concept. The system increased efficiency from 42.82% with fixed guide vanes to 56.56% under real sea, “Site 2” conditions while mechanical shaft power was increased from 97.8 W to 200.6 W. Steady flow testing confirmed nozzle angles of between 15⁰ and 17.5⁰ produced optimum performance alt

peer-reviewed, Following a review of previous research on wave power conversion, it is evident that Oscillating Water Columns are one of the few devices to successfully convert wave power to electrical power at a commercial stage. Furthermore, it is evident that the impulse turbine is a key component in this conversion process and the aim of this research is to improve its performance by designing and implementing an internally housed variable-pitch controlled guide vane system. A validated 3-D CFD technique was used to analyse the performance of varying nozzle and diffuser guide vane setting angles under steady flow conditions at 0.5 and 0.6 hub-to-tip ratios. 0.5H/T recorded peak performance at 15⁰ nozzle and 82.5⁰ diffuser angles while 0.6H/T recorded 15⁰ nozzle and 72.5⁰ diffuser angles. It was observed that turbine performance was more sensitive to variation in nozzle than diffuser angle, as both torque and pressure loss were affected by the nozzle. Concurrent research by Walsh (2011) required investigation on the effect of a spherical hub and casing design on turbine performance using 3-D CFD, designs also implemented in this research. Results showed a reduction in peak efficiency of 1.1 percentage points at 0.5H/T while 0.6H/T was reduced by 0.13 percentage points. Flow visualisation confirmed that this reduction in performance was caused by an area of stagnation in the hub which increased pressure loss. A 2nd generation, internally housed variable-pitch controlled guide vane system was designed and tested to validate the potential performance improvements outlined in the CFD studies. A number of concepts were evaluated before an iterative design procedure was used to develop the selected concept. The system increased efficiency from 42.82% with fixed guide vanes to 56.56% under real sea, “Site 2” conditions while mechanical shaft power was increased from 97.8 W to 200.6 W. Steady flow testing confirmed nozzle angles of between 15⁰ and 17.5⁰ produced optimum performance alt

Objectives: To investigate if Aboriginal people are equally included in new forms of vaccine safety post-marketing surveillance that support safety signal detection and confidence in the vaccine program by comparing the use of Vaxtracker active adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) surveillance between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parents of vaccinated children. Methods: In 2016, automated AEFI surveillance was conducted to monitor seasonal influenza vaccine in children aged 18 months to less than 5 years and for DTPa vaccine after the inclusion of a new dose at 18 months of age. To explore reasons for non-response, Aboriginal Immunisation Officers contacted the parents/carers of 24 (48.0%) Aboriginal children and 31 (26.7%) non-Aboriginal children who did not respond to the online survey. Results: There were differential response rates for both vaccines between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal enrolees; 56.4% vs 76.8% (p=0.005) and 55.1% vs 78.2% (p Conclusion: New systems of vaccine safety surveillance may not adequately include Aboriginal people. Implications: Vaccine safety surveillance systems need to be designed to ensure high levels of participation and response from Aboriginal people.