Australia's Oceans Policy: a role for science?

The Commonwealth government's announcement in December 1998 of "Australia's Oceans Policy" heralds a bid to use agreed environmental principles as a basis for better-integrated Commonwealth-State planning and management of our marine assets. The Policy defines a comprehensive implementation structure which should ensure consultation at all levels and a better link to the ministries of the relevant Commonwealth portfolios. A focus on "ecosystem-based planning and management" reduces emphasis on some areas which could benefit from a clearly stated national policy. Marine science and the systems for delivery of data and information are not accorded any particular importance in the implementation of the Policy

Joy and calm: how an evolutionary functional model of affect regulation informs positive emotions in nature

Key theories of the human need for nature take an evolutionary perspective, and many of the mental well-being benefits of nature relate to positive affect. As affect has a physiological basis, it is important to consider these benefits alongside regulatory processes. However, research into nature and positive affect tends not to consider affect regulation and the neurophysiology of emotion. This brief systematic review and meta-analysis presents evidence to support the use of an existing evolutionary functional model of affect regulation (the three circle model of emotion) that provides a tripartite framework in which to consider the mental well-being benefits of nature and to guide nature-based well-being interventions. The model outlines drive, contentment and threat dimensions of affect regulation based on a review of the emotion regulation literature. The model has been used previously for understanding mental well-being, delivering successful mental health-care interventions and providing directions for future research. Finally, the three circle model is easily understood in the context of our everyday lives, providing an accessible physiological-based narrative to help explain the benefits of nature

Field dependence of electronic recoil signals in a dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber

We present measurements of light and charge signals in a dual-phase time projection chamber at electric fields varying from 10 V/cm up to 500 V/cm and at zero field using 511 keV gamma rays from a $^{22}$Na source. We determine the drift velocity, electron lifetime, diffusion constant, and light and charge yields at 511 keV as a function of the electric field. In addition, we fit the scintillation pulse shape to an effective exponential model, showing a decay time of 43.5 ns at low field that decreases to 25 ns at high fields.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

An Investigation of Some Routes to 11-Oxygenated Steroids

Abstract Not Provided

Research in the design of high-performance reconfigurable systems

An initial design for the Bit Processor (BP) referred to in prior reports as the Processing Element or PE has been completed. Eight BP's, together with their supporting random-access memory, a 64 k x 9 ROM to perform addition, routing logic, and some additional logic, constitute the components of a single stage. An initial stage design is given. Stages may be combined to perform high-speed fixed or floating point arithmetic. Stages can be configured into a range of arithmetic modules that includes bit-serial one or two-dimensional arrays; one or two dimensional arrays fixed or floating point processors; and specialized uniprocessors, such as long-word arithmetic units. One to eight BP's represent a likely initial chip level. The Stage would then correspond to a first-level pluggable module. As both this project and VLSI CAD/CAM progress, however, it is expected that the chip level would migrate upward to the stage and, perhaps, ultimately the box level. The BP RAM, consisting of two banks, holds only operands and indices. Programs are at the box (high-level function) and system level. At the system level initial effort has been concentrated on specifying the tools needed to evaluate design alternatives

Dual-functional materials via CCTP and selective orthogonal thiol-Michael addition/epoxide ring opening reactions

Poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) has been synthesised by cobalt catalysed chain transfer polymerisation (CCTP) yielding, in one step, polymers with two points for post polymerisation functionalisation; the activated terminal vinyl bond and in chain epoxide groups. Epoxide ring-opening and a combination of thiol-Michael addition and epoxide ring-opening has been used for the post-functionalisation with amines and thiols to prepare a range of functional materials

Branching out with CCTP : the synthesis of branched functional polymers

Initially the aims of this thesis were to settle conflicting literature that arose based on the consistency of results obtained from the synthesis of branched polymers, using divinyl monomer ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), by catalytic chain transfer polymerisation (CCTP). By polymerisation of EGDMA using a range of catalyst concentrations, and introduction of comonomers, a range of branched polymers were obtained, all of which retained high levels of vinyl functionality in the resulting products. With the increasing popularity of click chemistry, the natural progression of this work lent towards the functionalisation of these branched vinyl containing polymers by thiol- Michael addition, using a range of commercial thiols, in the creation of branched highly functional polymers, which display enhanced solution properties compared to their linear counterparts, from a small commercial monomer set. The desire to synthesise highly functional polymers led to investigation of epoxide containing monomer, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), which has proven to be versatile to a range of functionalities. The synthesis of linear GMA homopolymers via CCTP resulted in polymers with the potential for dual functionalisation, at both epoxide and ω- unsaturated groups; to which, thiol-Michael addition and self-catalysed epoxide ringopening with amines was investigated in the synthesis of a range of functional polymers, from a single polymer precursor. Finally the copolymerisation of EGDMA and GMA via CCTP was investigated in the synthesis of branched functional polymers, whereby the level of vinyl groups retained and epoxide functionality can be tuned through monomer ratios. Site selective functionalisation of the high level of epoxide and vinyl groups was conducted using both thiol-Michael addition and self-catalysed ring-opening of epoxides with functional amines. By site selective functionalisation with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups, amphiphilic branched copolymers are obtained, with the potential for the synthesis of branched polymers capable of self-assembly

A digital video system for observing and recording occultations

Stellar occultations by asteroids and outer solar system bodies can offer ground based observers with modest telescopes and camera equipment the opportunity to probe the shape, size, atmosphere and attendant moons or rings of these distant objects. The essential requirements of the camera and recording equipment are: good quantum efficiency and low noise, minimal dead time between images, good horological faithfulness of the image time stamps, robustness of the recording to unexpected failure, and low cost. We describe the Astronomical Digital Video occultation observing and recording System (ADVS) which attempts to fulfil these requirements and compare the system with other reported camera and recorder systems. Five systems have been built, deployed and tested over the past three years, and we report on three representative occultation observations: one being a 9 +/-1.5 second occultation of the trans-Neptunian object 28978 Ixion (mv=15.2) at 3 seconds per frame, one being a 1.51 +/-0.017 second occultation of Deimos, the 12~km diameter satellite of Mars, at 30 frames per second, and one being a 11.04 +/-0.4 second occultation, recorded at 7.5 frames per second, of the main belt asteroid, 361 Havnia, representing a low magnitude drop (Dmv = 0.4) occultation.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted to Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA

Verifying timestamps of occultation observation systems

We describe an image timestamp verification system to determine the exposure timing characteristics and continuity of images made by an imaging camera and recorder, with reference to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The original use was to verify the timestamps of stellar occultation recording systems, but the system is applicable to lunar flashes, planetary transits, sprite recording, or any area where reliable timestamps are required. The system offers good temporal resolution (down to 2 msec, referred to UTC) and provides exposure duration and interframe dead time information. The system uses inexpensive, off-the- shelf components, requires minimal assembly and requires no high-voltage components or connections. We also describe an application to load FITS (and other format) image files, which can decode the verification image timestamp. Source code, wiring diagrams and built applications are provided to aid the construction and use of the device.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted to Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA