Barriers and incentives to urban park use: Melbourne-based second generation Australians who generally speak a language other than English at home

This network project’s aim is to identify the barriers to the use of Melbourne’s urban parks (including council and Parks Victoria parks) experienced by second generation Australians who do not generally speak English at home. To achieve the aim, three objectives were to be achieved. The first objective was to gain a context of barriers and incentives to urban park usage through investigation attitudes towards leisure and perceptions of parks. The second objective was to identify barriers stopping or limiting urban park usage, and third, to identify incentives to increase usage of urban parks by second generation Australians that generally use a language other than English at home

Coherent manipulation of charge qubits in double quantum dots

The coherent time evolution of electrons in double quantum dots induced by fast bias-voltage switches is studied theoretically. As it was shown experimentally, such driven double quantum dots are potential devices for controlled manipulation of charge qubits. By numerically solving a quantum master equation we obtain the energy- and time-resolved electron transfer through the device which resembles the measured data. The observed oscillations are found to depend on the level offset of the two dots during the manipulation and, most surprisingly, also the on initialization stage. By means of an analytical expression, obtained from a large-bias model, we can understand the prominent features of these oscillations seen in both the experimental data and the numerical results. These findings strengthen the common interpretation in terms of a coherent transfer of electrons between the dots.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Normative influence on retirement savings decisions: Do people care what employers and the government want?

The need for Australians to increase retirement savings has been widely promoted. Yet our understanding of the motivations of individuals to save at a higher rate remains sparse. This article reports the findings of a survey of superannuation fund members and their intentions to contribute more to superannuation and to manage their investment strategy. The article uses the theory of planned behaviour to focus on the important motivational influence of social norms. Formative research identified a number of influential social referents. Among identified referents, the study found that spouses appear to be the primary source of social influence for retirement savings decisions. The government and employers appear to exert little influence, and financial advisors and superannuation funds take up the middle ground of social influence. Possibilities for interventions designed to influence behaviour are discussed; however, conclusions are tempered by the fact that correspondence between intention and behaviour is not tested in the present research

Comment on the paper I. M. Suslov: Finite Size Scaling from the Self Consistent Theory of Localization

In the recent paper [I.M.Suslov, JETP {\bf 114} (2012) 107] a new scaling theory of electron localization was proposed. We show that numerical data for the quasi-one dimensional Anderson model do not support predictions of this theory.Comment: Comment on the paper arXiv 1104.043

Multitrophic enemy escape of invasive Phragmites australis and its introduced herbivores in North America

© 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. One explanation for why invasive species are successful is that they escape natural enemies from their native range or experience lower attack from natural enemies in the introduced range relative to native species (i.e., the enemy-release hypothesis). However, little is known about how invasive plants interact with co-introduced herbivores or natural enemies of the introduced herbivores. We focus on Phragmites australis, a wetland grass native to Europe (EU) and North America (NA). Within the past 100–150 years, invasive European genotypes of P. australis and several species of specialist Lipara gall flies have spread within NA. On both continents we surveyed P. australis patches for Lipara infestation (proportion of stems infested) and Lipara mortality from natural enemies. Our objectives were to assess evidence for enemy-release in the invaded (NA) versus native (EU) range and whether Lipara infestation or mortality differed between invasive and native P. australis genotypes in NA. Enemy-release varied regionally; Lipara were absent throughout most of NA, supporting enemy-release of Phragmites. However, where Lipara were present, the proportion of invasive P. australis stems infested with Lipara was higher in the introduced (11 %) than native range (\u3c1 \u3e%). This difference may be explained by the absence of Lipara parasitoids in our NA survey, strongly supporting enemy-release of Lipara. In NA, native P. australis genotypes exhibited higher Lipara infestation (32 %) than invasive genotypes (11 %), largely driven by L. rufitarsis. We attribute genotypic differences in infestation to a combination of Lipara exhibiting 34 % greater performance (gall diameter) and suffering four times less vertebrate predation on native than invasive genotypes. Our study suggests that complex interactions can result from the co-introduction of plants and their herbivores, and that a multitrophic perspective is required for investigating how biotic interactions influence invasion success

Cross-Over between universality classes in a magnetically disordered metallic wire

In this article we present numerical results of conduction in a disordered quasi-1D wire in the possible presence of magnetic impurities. Our analysis leads us to the study of universal properties in different conduction regimes such as the localized and metallic ones. In particular, we analyse the cross-over between universality classes occurring when the strength of magnetic disorder is increased. For this purpose, we use a numerical Landauer approach, and derive the scattering matrix of the wire from electron's Green's function.Comment: Final version, accepted for publication in New Journ. of Physics, 27 pages, 28 figures. Replaces the earlier shorter preprint arXiv:0910.427

Integrated molecular characterisation of endometrioid ovarian carcinoma identifies opportunities for stratification

Endometrioid ovarian carcinoma (EnOC) is an under-investigated ovarian cancer type. Recent studies have described disease subtypes defined by genomics and hormone receptor expression patterns; here, we determine the relationship between these subtyping layers to define the molecular landscape of EnOC with high granularity and identify therapeutic vulnerabilities in high-risk cases. Whole exome sequencing data were integrated with progesterone and oestrogen receptor (PR and ER) expression-defined subtypes in 90 EnOC cases following robust pathological assessment, revealing dominant clinical and molecular features in the resulting integrated subtypes. We demonstrate significant correlation between subtyping approaches: PR-high (PR + /ER + , PR + /ER−) cases were predominantly CTNNB1-mutant (73.2% vs 18.4%, P < 0.001), while PR-low (PR−/ER + , PR−/ER−) cases displayed higher TP53 mutation frequency (38.8% vs 7.3%, P = 0.001), greater genomic complexity (P = 0.007) and more frequent copy number alterations (P = 0.001). PR-high EnOC patients experience favourable disease-specific survival independent of clinicopathological and genomic features (HR = 0.16, 95% CI 0.04–0.71). TP53 mutation further delineates the outcome of patients with PR-low tumours (HR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.14–5.75). A simple, routinely applicable, classification algorithm utilising immunohistochemistry for PR and p53 recapitulated these subtypes and their survival profiles. The genomic profile of high-risk EnOC subtypes suggests that inhibitors of the MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways, alongside PARP inhibitors, represent promising candidate agents for improving patient survival. Patients with PR-low TP53-mutant EnOC have the greatest unmet clinical need, while PR-high tumours—which are typically CTNNB1-mutant and TP53 wild-type—experience excellent survival and may represent candidates for trials investigating de-escalation of adjuvant chemotherapy to agents such as endocrine therapy

The Role of Power-Law Correlated Disorder in the Anderson Metal-Insulator Transition

We study the influence of scale-free correlated disorder on the metal-insulator transition in the Anderson model of localization. We use standard transfer matrix calculations and perform finite-size scaling of the largest inverse Lyapunov exponent to obtain the localization length for respective 3D tight-binding systems. The density of states is obtained from the full spectrum of eigenenergies of the Anderson Hamiltonian. We discuss the phase diagram of the metal-insulator transition and the influence of the correlated disorder on the critical exponents.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Understanding voltage decay in lithium-excess layered cathode materials through oxygen-centred structural arrangement

Lithium-excess 3d-transition-metal layered oxides (Li1+xNiyCozMn1-x-y-zO2, &gt; 250 mAh g(-1)) suffer from severe voltage decay upon cycling, which decreases energy density and hinders further research and development. Nevertheless, the lack of understanding on chemical and structural uniqueness of the material prevents the interpretation of internal degradation chemistry. Here, we discover a fundamental reason of the voltage decay phenomenon by comparing ordered and cation-disordered materials with a combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy studies. The cation arrangement determines the transition metal-oxygen covalency and structural reversibility related to voltage decay. The identification of structural arrangement with de-lithiated oxygen-centred octahedron and interactions between octahedrons affecting the oxygen stability and transition metal mobility of layered oxide provides the insight into the degradation chemistry of cathode materials and a way to develop high-energy density electrodes