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---With the increasing request for integrating rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems into the distribution grid, it is crucial to prevent the potential negative impacts of high PV penetration. Considering the uncertainty and variability characteristics of high rooftop PV penetration, a stochastic approach for determining PV hosting capacity (HC)—the maximum capacity of a PV system to receive electricity from the power distribution network before the network reaches an operating limit violation—is necessary. Therefore, this study proposes calculating PV hosting capacity using the Monte Carlo simulation. Unlike previous works, this paper uses real feeders as case studies, representing both urban and rural areas. The feeder representing an urban area with many industrial and business customers has a higher hosting capacity, 31 % of full load, compared to the feeder representing rural areas, which has 18 % of full load. By using actual feeders that represent urban and rural areas, more representative results for specific problems can be achieved without assuming urban and rural feeders have the same specific problems.

Objective: The 2022 Australian winter was the first time that COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) were circulating in the population together, after two winters of physical distancing, quarantine and borders closed to international travellers. We developed a novel surveillance system to estimate the incidence of COVID-19, influenza and RSV in three regions of Queensland, Australia., Design: We implemented a longitudinal testing-based sentinel surveillance programme. Participants were provided with self-collection nasal swabs to be dropped off at a safe location at their workplace each week. Swabs were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR. Symptomatic participants attended COVID-19 respiratory clinics to be tested by multiplex PCR for SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B and RSV. Rapid antigen test (RAT) results reported by participants were included in the analysis., Setting and Participants: Between 4 April 2022 and 3 October 2022, 578 adults were recruited via their workplace. Due to rolling recruitment, withdrawals and completion due to positive COVID-19 results, the maximum number enrolled in any week was 423 people., Results: A total of 4290 tests were included. Participation rates varied across the period ranging from 25.9% to 72.1% of enrolled participants. The total positivity of COVID-19 was 3.3%, with few influenza or RSV cases detected. Widespread use of RAT may have resulted in few symptomatic participants attending respiratory clinics. The weekly positivity rate of SARS-CoV-2 detected during the programme correlated with the incidence of notified cases in the corresponding communities., Conclusion: This testing-based surveillance programme could estimate disease trends and be a useful tool in settings where testing is less common or accessible. Difficulties with recruitment meant the study was underpowered. The frontline sentinel nature of workplaces meant participants were not representative of the general population but were high-risk groups providing early warning of disease., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: With the reduction in access to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and changes in testing guidelines in Australia, a reduced number of people are seeking testing for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), limiting the opportunity to monitor disease transmission. Knowledge of community transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses is essential to better predict subsequent surges in cases during the pandemic to alert health services, protect vulnerable populations and enhance public health measures. We describe a methodology for a testing-based sentinel surveillance program to monitor disease in the community for early signal detection of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses., Methods/design: A longitudinal active testing-based sentinel surveillance program for respiratory viruses (including SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, influenza B and Respiratory Syncytial Virus) will be implemented in some regions of Queensland. Adults will be eligible for enrolment if they are part of specific community groups at increased risk of exposure and have not had a COVID-19 infection in the last 13 weeks. Recruitment via workplaces will occur in-person, via email and through online advertisement. Asymptomatic participants will be tested via PCR for SARS-CoV-2 infection by weekly self-collected nasal swabs. In addition, symptomatic participants will be asked to seek SARS-CoV-2 and additional respiratory virus PCR testing at nominated COVID-19 testing sites. SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory virus prevalence data will be analysed weekly and at the end of the study period., Discussion: Once implemented, this surveillance program will determine the weekly prevalence of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses in the broader community by testing a representative sample of adults, with an aim to detect early changes in the baseline positivity rate. This information is essential to define the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in the community in near-real time to inform public health control measures and prepare health services and other stakeholders for a rise in service demand., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Ginige et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the multidisciplinary care model of the Canberra Obesity Management Service (COMS) with regard to patient demographics and clinical outcomes, particularly in comparison with previous COMS outcome reviews., Methods: A retrospective chart review was carried out on all patients attending an initial assessment at COMS between July 2018 and June 2019. Existing patients attending follow-up reviews were excluded so as to avoid repeating analyses of data from previous COMS reviews. Patient data were recorded and deidentified and underwent descriptive analyses., Results: A total of 234 patients with a mean age of 45.6 (SD = 13.9) years, mean BMI of 50.1 kg/m 2 (SD = 8.5), and a female majority (72.2%) were analyzed. Of the 165 patients who attended follow-up appointments, 27.9% experienced ≥10% weight loss (46/165). Sleeve gastrectomy was associated with the largest mean weight reduction (15.6% at 6 months [n = 18])., Conclusions: Compared with previous COMS studies, both the throughput and proportion of participants achieving clinically meaningful weight reduction were observed to have increased. Further studies assessing service cost-effectiveness, the development of standardized treatment pathways, and the use of a systematic data collection system would be valuable in allowing comparison between outcomes with similar obesity services in Australia and internationally., (© 2022 The Obesity Society.)

Reactive synthesis for the GR(1) fragment of LTL has been implemented and studied in many works. In this work we present and evaluate a list of heuristics to potentially reduce running times for GR(1) synthesis and related algorithms. The list includes several heuristics for controlled predecessor computation and BDDs, early detection of fixed-points and unrealizability, fixed-point recycling, and several heuristics for unrealizable core computations. We have implemented the heuristics and integrated them in our synthesis environment Spectra Tools, a set of tools for writing specifications and running synthesis and related analyses. We evaluate the presented heuristics on SYNTECH15, a total of 78 specifications of 6 autonomous Lego robots, on SYNTECH17, a total of 149 specifications of 5 autonomous Lego robots, all written by 3rd year undergraduate computer science students in two project classes we have taught, as well as on benchmarks from the literature. The evaluation investigates not only the potential of the suggested heuristics to improve computation times, but also the difference between existing benchmarks and the robot's specifications in terms of the effectiveness of the heuristics. Our evaluation shows positive results for the application of all the heuristics together, which get more significant for specifications with slower original running times. It also shows differences in effectiveness when applied to different sets of specifications. Furthermore, a comparison between Spectra, with all the presented heuristics, and two existing tools, RATSY and Slugs, over two well-known benchmarks, shows that Spectra outperforms both on most of the specifications; the larger the specification, the faster Spectra becomes relative to the two other tools., (© The Author(s) 2019.)

Aims: Early repolarization (ER) has been linked to poorer outcomes in idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF). The role of family screening in IVF is not clear. Our aim was to review predictors for poorer outcomes and evaluate the role of family screening in IVF., Methods and Results: This was a retrospective multicentre cohort study including all patients diagnosed with IVF. Data were collected on baseline characteristics, ECG findings, and recurrence of ventricular arrhythmia (VA) during follow-up. Electrocardiogram findings were reviewed in first-degree relatives that were screened. A total of 66 patients were included with male predominance (42/66, 64%) and Caucasian ethnicity (47/66, 71%). Mean age at cardiac arrest was 38 years ± 11. Thirty-one patients had ER (47%) predominantly with J-point amplitude ≥2 mm and horizontal ST segments (18/31, 58%). Recurrent VA was seen in 13 patients (20%). Horizontal ST segments were associated with increased rates of VA recurrence (OR 11, 95% CI 2.7-43.7; P = 0.0007). Early repolarization was seen in 20% of the 72 first-degree relatives and was more common if the proband had persistent ER pattern (OR 10.7, 95% CI 2.2-51.5; P = 0.003)., Conclusion: Ventricular arrhythmia recurrence was lower than previously reported. Early repolarization was common in this IVF cohort, and horizontal ST segments were suggestive predictor for poorer outcomes. Persistent ER in proband was associated with ER in first-degree relatives. With better understanding of its predictive value and the relationship to IVF, this information could potentially be used to guide family screening and identify new mutations using family members with persistent ER., (Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2016. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Aims: The targeted genetic screening of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) probands in a molecular autopsy has a diagnostic yield of up to 35%. Exome sequencing has the potential to improve this yield. The primary aim of this study is to examine the feasibility and diagnostic utility of targeted exome screening in SADS victims, utilizing familial clinical screening whenever possible., Methods and Results: To determine the feasibility and diagnostic yield of targeted exome sequencing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was isolated from 59 SADS victims (mean age 25 years, range 1-51 years). Targeted exome sequencing of 135 genes associated with cardiomyopathies and ion channelopathies was performed on the Illumina HiSeq2000 platform. Non-synonymous, loss-of-function, and splice-site variants with a minor allele frequency <0.02% in the NHLBI exome sequencing project and an internal set of control exomes were prioritized for analysis followed by <0.5% frequency threshold secondary analysis. First-degree relatives were offered clinical screening for inherited cardiac conditions. Seven probands (12%) carried very rare (<0.02%) or novel non-sense candidate mutations and 10 probands (17%) had previously published rare (0.02-0.5%) candidate mutations-a total yield of 29%. Co-segregation fully confirmed two private SCN5A Na channel mutations. Variants of unknown significance were detected in a further 34% of probands., Conclusion: Molecular autopsy using targeted exome sequencing has a relatively low diagnostic yield of very rare potentially disease causing mutations. Candidate pathogenic variants with a higher frequency in control populations are relatively common and should be interpreted with caution., (Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2015. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

A risk identification form was introduced as part of Southmead Health Services NHS Trust's pre-employment procedure. Its purpose was to allow occupational health nurses to identify employees with specific occupational health needs. One hundred employees' risk identification forms were studied and a comparison made between the manager's assessment and that of an independent occupational health nurse's assessment based on job title alone. The actual risks involved in the post were identified by the employee after 1 month employment, together with an occupational health nurse from Southmead NHS Trust. There was a greater agreement between the managers' assessments and the actual risks identified (range 83-100%), than between the independent nurse's assessments and the actual risks identified (range 59-100%), in all categories other than driving. The sensitivity of the managers' risk assessments were higher than that of the independent nurse in all categories and the positive predictive value of the managers' risk assessments were higher than that of the independent nurse in all but two categories.

Residual perforation following the extrusion or removal of a long-term ventilation tube may occur in between 8.5% and 25% of cases. This prospective clinical trial concerns Paparella II ventilation tubes and demonstrated that (a) extracting (pulling) a tube from the tympanic membrane gives a 6-month perforation rate of 20%, (b) excising (freshening) the edge of the defect at the time of removal decreases the 6-month perforation rate to 3%, and (c) excising the edge significantly accelerates the healing of the tympanic membrane. There was no correlation in this study between the incidence of perforation and age, sex, ear affected, tympanosclerosis, ventilation tube position, tube in situ time or discharge. The study confirmed a high rate of tympanosclerosis (76%) to be associated with ventilation tubes. Long-term discharge (68%) was identified as a problem of Paparella II ventilation tubes.

The aim of this study was to assess whether patients with open mastoid cavities should be advised to avoid water contaminating the ear in order to avoid aural discharge. A detailed history and clinical examination was performed on 53 patients with a unilateral modified radical mastoid cavity of more than 5 years duration. The results showed that it is possible to identify reliably the well-designed trouble-free cavity by the features of its skin lining and the ability to visualize the entire cavity through a size 4 Siegle speculum. A patient with this form of cavity very rarely develops aural discharge following water exposure and need not protect the ear during washing but should do so when swimming because of caloric effects.