Electricity tariffs in a high-penetration renewable system: Insights from Australia’s National Electricity Market

This paper considers the various supply-chain segments in the Australian NEM where significant adoption of renewable technologies has occurred. In the long-term, customers may be best served by 'fixed' or 'cap' style pricing contracts that allow unlimited energy consumption within a 'fixed' capacity band. This would be underpinned by economically regulated transmission and distribution 'demand' tariffs and a liquid market for innovative derivative products alongside an efficient wholesale energy dispatch engine.     

openModeller: a generic approach to species’ potential distribution modelling

Species’ potential distribution modelling is the process of building a representation of the fundamental ecological requirements for a species and extrapolating these requirements into a geographical region. The importance of being able to predict the distribution of species is currently highlighted by issues like global climate change, public health problems caused by disease vectors, anthropogenic impacts that can lead to massive species extinction, among other challenges. There are several computational approaches that can be used to generate potential distribution models, each achieving optimal results under different conditions. However, the existing software packages available for this purpose typically implement a single algorithm, and each software package presents a new learning curve to the user. Whenever new software is developed for species’ potential distribution modelling, significant duplication of effort results because many feature requirements are shared between the different packages. Additionally, data preparation and comparison between algorithms becomes difficult when using separate software applications, since each application has different data input and output capabilities. This paper describes a generic approach for building a single computing framework capable of handling different data formats and multiple algorithms that can be used in potential distribution modelling. The ideas described in this paper have been implemented in a free and open source software package called openModeller. The main concepts of species’ potential distribution modelling are also explained and an example use case illustrates potential distribution maps generated by the framework.     

Self-calibration of wireless cameras with restricted degrees of freedom

This paper presents an approach for the automatic calibration of low-cost cameras which are assumed to be restricted in their freedom of movement to either pan or tilt movements. Camera parameters, including focal length, principal point, lens distortion parameter and the angle and axis of rotation, can be recovered from a minimum set of two images of the camera, provided that the axis of rotation between the two images goes through the camera’s optical center and is parallel to either the vertical (panning) or horizontal (tilting) axis of the image. Previous methods for auto-calibration of cameras based on pure rotations fail to work in these two degenerate cases. In addition, our approach includes a modified RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm, as well as improved integration of the radial distortion coefficient in the computation of inter-image homographies. We show that these modifications are able to increase the overall efficiency, reliability and accuracy of the homography computation and calibration procedure using both synthetic and real image sequences.     

Racial/ethnic disparities in therapist effectiveness: A conceptualization and initial study of cultural competence.

As a result of mental health disparities between White and racial/ethnic minority clients, researchers have argued that some therapists may be generally competent to provide effective services but lack cultural competence. This distinction assumes that client racial/ethnic background is a source of variability in therapist effectiveness. However, there have been no direct tests of the therapist as a source of health disparities. We provided an initial test of the distinction between general and cultural competence by examining client racial/ethnic background as a source of variability in therapist effectiveness. We analyzed cannabis use outcomes from a psychotherapy trial (N = 582) for adolescent cannabis abuse and dependence using Bayesian multilevel models for count outcomes. We first tested whether therapists differed in their effectiveness and then tested whether disparities in treatment outcomes varied across therapist caseloads. Results suggested that therapists differed in their effectiveness in general and that effectiveness varied according to client racial/ethnic background. Therapist effectiveness may depend partially on client racial/ethnic minority background, providing evidence that it is valid to distinguish between general and cultural competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing design guidelines for inclusive housing: a multi-stakeholder approach using a Delphi method

Increasing interest and investment in inclusive housing for people with complex disabilities has resulted in a greater focus on research evidence and industry replication. In the absence of practice standards and regulatory structures, building design principles and guidelines for purpose-built supported housing have an important role within the sector. The current project was a first attempt at developing a set of principles and design features that have the potential to inform future inclusive housing guidelines. The researchers applied a multi-stakeholder Delphi process to generate nine design principles to guide future supported housing, and a parsimonious set of design features (n = 247) across ten design spaces. The framework such as developed in this study can be further tested to develop a more robust understanding of what works in supported housing design, and therefore what can be replicated over time.     

Interactive modeling of implicit surfaces using a direct visualization approach with signed distance functions

Modeling appealing virtual scenes is an elaborate and time-consuming task, requiring not only training and experience, but also powerful modeling tools providing the desired functionality to the user. In this paper, we describe a modeling approach using signed distance functions as an underlying representation for objects, handling both conventional and complex surface manipulations. Scenes defined by signed distance functions can be stored compactly and rendered directly in real-time using sphere tracing. Hence, we are capable of providing an interactive application with immediate visual feedback for the artist, which is a crucial factor for the modeling process. Moreover, dealing with underlying mathematical operations is not necessary on the user level. We show that fundamental aspects of traditional modeling can be directly transferred to this novel kind of environment, resulting in an intuitive application behavior, and describe modeling operations which naturally benefit from implicit representations. We show modeling examples where signed distance functions are superior to explicit representations, but discuss the limitations of this approach as well.     

Reconstruction of Critical Nerve Defects Using Allogenic Nerve Tissue: A Review of Current Approaches

Regardless of the nerve defect length, nerve injury is a debilitating condition for the affected patient that results in loss of sensory and motor function. These functional impairments can have a profound impact on the patient’s quality of life. Surgical approaches for the treatment of short segment nerve defects are well-established. Autologous nerve transplantation, considered the gold standard, and the use of artificial nerve grafts are safe and successful procedures for short segment nerve defect reconstruction. Long segment nerve defects which extend 3.0 cm or more are more problematic for repair. Methods for reconstruction of long defects are limited. Artificial nerve grafts often fail to regenerate and autologous nerve grafts are limited in length and number. Cadaveric processed/unprocessed nerve allografts are a promising alternative in nerve surgery. This review gives a systematic overview on pre-clinical and clinical approaches in nerve allograft transplantation.     

Plasmachemical Trace-Oxygen Removal in a Coke Oven Gas with a Coaxial Packed-Bed-DBD Reactor

The trace-O₂ removal in coke oven gas, which enables better utilization of its contained H₂, is investigated with combinations of atmospheric nonthermal plasma and a Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst. Herein it is shown that a coaxial packed-bed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor removes up to 80 % O₂ in a model coke oven gas. Along this line, the H₂ content and the usage of Al₂O₃ granules in the plasma zone have been identified as major factors for the plasmachemical trace-O₂ conversion. In contrast to the Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst, nonthermal plasma converts trace O₂ at coke oven gas temperatures below 100 °C.