Generation of office buildings in large scale virtual worlds

Virtual worlds are used in many different areas, from military training simulations to massive multiplayer online role-playing games. In the past, the sizes of these worlds was limited by the power of the computers that ran them as well as the man-hours needed to draw them. However, as computers have become more powerful, the limiting fctor has become the man-hours needed to manually draw every object in such a world. So there is now a need for large scale, traversable, dynamic, algorithmically generated virtual worlds. For these worlds to be realistic, cities need to be generated, and for these cities to be relistic, they must have commercial office buildings (skyscrapers, office parks, etc.). Previous research in this area has been solely on generating the outsides of commercial buildings, with no focus on the inside features of the buildings. This research aims to generate both the insides and the outsides of commercial office buildings, with the dual goals of realism and usability

Development of novel wine yeast strains using adaptive evolution.

Throughout the course of the wine fermentation, yeast are exposed to several simultaneous and sequential stresses, including hyperosmotic shock, nutrient limitation and ethanol accumulation, which are thought to contribute to the development of stuck or sluggish fermentations. Apart from the extended processing time, fermentations in this state can also produce unfavourable aromatic and flavour compounds, collectively leading to increased manufacturing costs and reduced quality. As a consequence there is demand from winemakers for yeast which can overcome these problems, by assuring the rapid completion of fermentation with minimal production of undesirable metabolites. The aim of this study was to produce and characterise more robust strains and address this demand. Utilising a sequential batch fermentation system we have used adaptive evolution to generate variants of the commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine strain L-2056 and a haploid derivative thereof, C911D, which have superior fermentative performance and/or altered metabolite yields. Thus, both evolved cultures produce more glycerol than the respective parent, with the evolved haploid (FM5) also producing a reduced final ethanol concentration and the evolved diploid (FM16) being able to complete fermentation within a shorter duration. Ten clonal isolates were randomly chosen from each of the haploid and diploid evolved cultures and examined in order to determine the degree of heterogeneity of the evolved cultures. In both cases, 9 of the 10 clonal isolates produced similar fermentation phenotypes to the mixed culture from which they were derived. Transcriptome analysis of mixed cultures and clonal cultures revealed large changes in transcript abundance (magnitude and number of genes) at several time points across fermentation in reference to the parent strains. A commonality noted in a high proportion of genes found to be differentially expressed was the occurrence of a GCRI binding site in their promoter regions. Sequencing of the GCRI promoter region in the evolved clone FM16-7 revealed several base pair differences compared to the parent L-2056. We propose that these changes may have led to an altered pattern of expression of GCRI-regulated genes and in turn the improved fermentation phenotype evident in the evolved diploid cultures. To further investigate the significance of alterations in the expression of a specific selection of these genes, deletion strains were constructed in the appropriate parental strain background. Fermentation trials conducted with these deletants revealed fermentation phenotypes which approximated those of the evolved cultures. That is the deletion of either HXTI, HXT3, GLC3, ALD6 and INOI in C911D or ALD6, GPHI and RCKI in L-2056 yielded phenotypes similar to the evolved haploid and diploid respectively. No one deletant strain completely matched the magnitude of the improvement in fermentation of the respective evolved culture. As such it is postulated that a number of mutations are responsible for the acquired phenotypes in the evolved cultures.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, 200

Mathematical analysis of a Wolbachia invasive model with imperfect maternal transmission and loss of Wolbachia infection

Arboviral infections, especially dengue, continue to cause significant health burden in their endemic regions. One of the strategies to tackle these infections is to replace the main vector agent, Ae. aegypti, with the ones incapable of transmitting the virus. Wolbachia, an intracellular bacterium, has shown promise in achieving this goal. However, key factors such as imperfect maternal transmission, loss of Wolbachia infection, reduced reproductive capacity and shortened life-span affect the dynamics of Wolbachia in different forms in the Ae. aegypti population. In this study, we developed a Wolbachia transmission dynamic model adjusting for imperfect maternal transmission and loss of Wolbachia infection. The invasive reproductive number that determines the likelihood of replacement of the Wolbachia-uninfected (WU) population is derived and with it, we established the local and global stability of the equilibrium points. This analysis clearly shows that cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) does not guarantee establishment of the Wolbachia-infected (WI) mosquitoes as imperfect maternal transmission and loss of Wolbachia infection could outweigh the gains from CI. Optimal release programs depending on the level of imperfect maternal transmission and loss of Wolbachia infection are shown. Hence, it is left to decision makers to either aim for replacement or co-existence of both populations

Delaying the COVID‐19 epidemic in Australia: evaluating the effectiveness of international travel bans

Objective: Following the outbreak of novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), and the disease named COVID‐19, in Wuhan, China in late 2019, countries have implemented different interventions such as travel bans to slow the spread of this novel virus. This brief report evaluates the effect of travel bans imposed to prevent COVID‐19 importation in the Australian context. Methods: We developed a stochastic meta‐population model to capture the global dynamics and spread of COVID‐19. By adjusting our model to capture the travel bans imposed globally and in Australia, the predicted COVID‐19 cases imported to Australia were evaluated in comparison to observed imported cases. Results: Our modelling results closely aligned with observed cases in Australia and elsewhere. We observed a 79% reduction in COVID‐19 importation and a delay of the COVID‐19 outbreak in Australia by approximately one month. Further projection of COVID‐19 to May 2020 showed spread patterns depending on the basic reproduction number. Conclusion: Imposing the travel ban was effective in delaying widespread transmission of COVID‐19. However, strengthening of the domestic control measures is needed to prevent Australia from becoming another epicentre. Implications for public health: This report has shown the importance of border closure to pandemic control

Aboriginal Rock Art in Carnarvon Gorge, South Central Queensland

During 1968-69 the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs and the Queensland Museum received many reports alleging deliberate vandalism to Aboriginal art and burial sites both within the confines of Carnarvon National Park and on cattle stations adjacent to its western, southern and eastern boundaries. Consequently in August 1969 the writer in his capacity as a Warden under the Aboriginal Relics Act carried out a preliminary inspection of Aboriginal sites on the upper Warrego and upper Maranoa rivers. As a result members of the Specialists advisory committee set up under the relics act informally approached the Queensland Museum to undertake a survey of the region. During this same period I had applied for admission to candidature for the M.A. degree at the University of New England. Coincidentally my future supervisor suggested a survey of the Carnarvon rock art. The subsequent official survey was originally envisaged as a twofold exercise: (i) to reconnoitre, locate and record as rapidly and accurately as possible Aboriginal parietal art sites in the Carnarvon Range and the Upper Maranoa river region as far west as the Chesterton Range (ii) to observe significant differences or similarities in technique, style, form and content of the parietal art in these two adjacent drainage systems, which rise in the same central highlands complex, but are physically separated by the Great Dividing Range

Scenario analysis for programmatic tuberculosis control in Bangladesh: a mathematical modelling study

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Bangladesh. Although the National TB control program of Bangladesh is implementing a comprehensive expansion of TB control strategies, logistical challenges exist, and there is significant uncertainty concerning the disease burden. Mathematical modelling of TB is considered one of the most effective ways to understand the dynamics of infection transmission and allows quantification of parameters in different settings, including Bangladesh. In this study, we present a two-strain mathematical modelling framework to explore the dynamics of drug-susceptible (DS) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB in Bangladesh. We calibrated the model using DS and MDR-TB annual incidence data from Bangladesh from years 2001 to 2015. Further, we performed a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters and found that the contact rate of both strains had the largest influence on the basic reproduction numbers [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] of DS and MDR-TB, respectively. Increasingly powerful intervention strategies were developed, with realistic impact and coverage determined with the help of local staff. We simulated for the period from 2020 to 2035. Here, we projected the DS and MDR-TB burden (as measured by the number of incident cases and mortality) under a range of intervention scenarios to determine which of these scenario is the most effective at reducing burden. Of the single-intervention strategies, enhanced case detection is the most effective and prompt in reducing DS and MDR-TB incidence and mortality in Bangladesh and that with GeneXpert testing was also highly effective in decreasing the burden of MDR-TB. Our findings also suggest combining additional interventions simultaneously leads to greater effectiveness, particularly for MDR-TB, which we estimate requires a modest investment to substantially reduce, whereas DS-TB requires a strong sustained investment