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We added heat stress indices; models with lower Akaike Information Criterion scores were judged a better fit. Five of the eight parent models demonstrated adequate fit. Daily maximum Simplified Wet Bulb Globe Temperature sWBGT consistently improved fit more than most other indices; temperature and heatwave indices also modelled some health outcomes well.
Humidity and heat-humidity indices better fit counts of patients who died following admission. Simple temperature indices are a good fallback where a narrower range of conditions is investigated. Implications for public health: This study confirms the importance of selecting appropriate heat stress indices for modelling. Epidemiologists projecting Sydney hospital admissions should use maximum sWBGT as a common measure of heat stress.
Health organisations interested in short-range forecasting may prefer simple temperature indices. Much is known about immigrants' majority language proficiency in the first immigrant generation. Less is understood of differences in linguistic shift compared with heritage language retention in subsequent generations. Does urban sprawl impact on self-rated health and psychological distress? A multilevel study from Sydney , Australia.
Mental health can be influenced by a number of neighbourhood physical and social environmental characteristics. We aimed to determine whether urban sprawl based on population density in Sydney , Australia , is associated with self-rated health and psychological distress. We used a cross-sectional multilevel study design.
Individual level data on self-rated health and psychological distress were obtained from the and NSW Population Health Survey. We did not find significant associations between urban sprawl and self-rated health and psychological distress after controlling for individual and area level covariates. However, positive neighbourhood factors were generally associated with better self-rated health and lower psychological distress but few of these associations were statistically significant.
Accuracy of burn size estimation in patients transferred to adult Burn Units in Sydney , Australia : an audit of patients. The purpose of this study was to compare burn size estimation between referring centres and Burn Units in adult patients transferred to Burn Units in Sydney , Australia. A review of all adults transferred to Burn Units in Sydney , Australia between January and August was performed. There were adults transferred to a Burns Unit. Overestimation occurred at a ratio exceeding with respect to underestimation, with the difference between the referring institutions and Burns Unit estimation being statistically significant P Shooting Gallery Operation in the Context of Establishing a Medically Supervised Injecting Center: Sydney , Australia.
Modelling drivers and distribution of lead and zinc concentrations in soils of an urban catchment Sydney estuary, Australia.
The human population is increasing globally and land use is changing to accommodate for this growth. Soils within urban areas require closer attention as the higher population density increases the chance of human exposure to urban contaminants. One such example of an urban area undergoing an increase in population density is Sydney , Australia. The city also possesses a notable history of intense industrial activity. By integrating multiple soil surveys and covariates into a linear mixed model, it was possible to determine the main drivers and map the distribution of lead and zinc concentrations within the Sydney estuary catchment.
The main drivers as derived from the model included elevation, distance to main roads, main road type, soil landscape, population density lead only and land use zinc only. Lead concentrations predicted using the model exceeded the established guideline value of mgkg -1 over a large portion of the study area with concentrations exceeding mgkg -1 in the south of the catchment.
Predicted zinc did not exceed the established guideline value of mgkg -1 ; however concentrations were higher to the south and west of the study area. Unlike many other studies we considered the prediction uncertainty when assessing the contamination risk. Although the predictions indicate contamination over a large area, the broadness of the prediction intervals suggests that in many of these areas we cannot be sure that the site is contaminated. More samples are required to determine the contaminant distribution with greater precision, especially in residential areas where contamination was highest.
Managing sources and addressing areas of elevated lead and zinc concentrations in urban areas has the potential to reduce the impact of past human activities and improve the urban environment of the future.
The spatial domain of wildfire risk and response in the wildland urban interface in Sydney , Australia. In order to quantify the risks from fire at the wildland urban interface WUI , it is important to understand where fires occur and their likelihood of spreading to the WUI. For each of the fires in the Sydney region we calculated the distance between the ignition and the WUI, the fire's weather and wind direction and whether it spread to the WUI.
The likelihood of burning the WUI was analysed using binomial regression. Fires were more likely to spread to the WUI if the wind was from the west and in the western side of the region. We examined whether the management responses to wildfires are commensurate with risk by comparing the distribution of distance to the WUI of wildfires with roads and prescribed fires.
Prescribed fires and roads were concentrated nearer to the WUI than wildfires as a whole, but further away than wildfires that burnt the WUI under extreme weather conditions high risk fires. By substituting climate change scenario weather into the statistical model, we predicted a small increase in the risk of fires spreading to the WUI, but the increase will be greater under extreme weather. This approach has a variety of uses, including mapping fire risk and improving the ability to match fire management responses to the threat from each fire. They also provide a baseline from which a cost-benefit analysis of complementary fire management strategies can be conducted.
The spatial domain of wildfire risk and response in the Wildland Urban Interface in Sydney , Australia.
In order to quantify the risks from fire at the Wildland Urban Interface WUI , it is important to understand where fires occur and their likelihood of spreading to the WUI. For each of fires in the Sydney region we calculated the distance between the ignition and the WUI, the fire weather and wind direction and whether it spread to the WUI. Background While morbidity outcomes for major disease categories during extreme heat have received increasing research attention, there has been very limited investigation at the level of specific disease subcategories.
We further investigated the sensitivity to heat of subcategories within the major disease groups. We defined hot days as those with temperatures in the 95th and 99th percentiles within the study period. We applied time-stratified case-crossover analysis to compare the hospital admissions on hot days with those on non-hot days matched by day of the week. We calculated the odds ratios OR of admissions between the two types of days, accounting for other environmental variables relative humidity, ozone and particulate matter and non-environmental trends public and school holidays.
On hot days, hospital admissions increased for all major categories except GU. Within MD, hospital admissions increased only for psychoses. Admissions due to some major categories increased one to three days after a hot day e. Future analyses should focus on subgroups within broad disease categories to pinpoint medical conditions most affected by ambient heat. Emerging contaminants pharmaceuticals, personal care products, a food additive and pesticides in waters of Sydney estuary, Australia.
The current investigation of marine water from 30 sites adjacent to stormwater outlets across the entire Sydney estuary is the first such research in Australia. An artificial sweetener acesulfame was detected, however none of the nine antibiotics analysed were identified. Sewage water is not discharged to this estuary, except infrequently as overflow during high-precipitation events. The presence of acesulfame a recognised marker of domestic wastewater and pharmaceuticals in water from all parts of the estuary after a dry period, suggests sewage water is leaking into the stormwater system in this catchment.
Antigua and Barbuda · Saint John's · Bahamas · Freeport · Nassau · Belize · Belize City · Belmopan · Corozal · Dangriga · El Cayo · Orange. relations between South Africa and its neighbours across the South and Brenda Cooper and Martin Hall in Cape Town edited articles which Molteno, Michael Stuttaford, Pauline Harries, Alan authored with John Barrett5, three pages out of almost. are each male killed, a federal soldier received a prize of.
The pesticides are applied to the environment and were discharged via stormwater to the estuary. Methyl 3-[3',4'- methylenedioxy phenyl]methyl glycidate: an ecstasy precursor seized in Sydney , Australia. Each drum contained a white, semisolid substance that was initially suspected to be 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine MDMA. Because intelligence sources employed by federal agents indicated that this material was in some way connected to MDMA production, suspicion fell on the various MDMA precursor chemicals.
The substance was also subjected to a published hydrolysis and decarboxylation procedure and gave a high yield of the MDMA precursor chemical, 3,4-methylenedioxyphenylpropanone, thereby establishing this material as a "precursor to a precursor. Increasing active travel to school: are we on the right track?
The subscale with the lowest score for all groups was general health. Colonel B Duff, ISC, has been my assistant military secretary, and has discharged the duties of the office with marked ability and success; his advancement will be a benefit to the Service, and he is well fitted for the highest staff appointments. To report a case of Propionibacterium acnes endophthalmitis in a patient with an Ahmed glaucoma valve. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world and current pharmacotherapies for glaucoma have remained relatively unchanged with the exception of fixed combinations of previously available medications since the mids with the development of prostaglandin analogues. To describe postoperative surgical success of either Ahmed or Baerveldt tube shunt implantation for eyes with medically uncontrolled traumatic glaucoma.
A cluster randomised controlled trial from Sydney , Australia. To evaluate the effectiveness of a program to increase walking to and from school. A cluster randomised controlled trial. A two-year multi-component program included classroom activities, development of school Travel Access Guides, parent newsletters and improving environments with local councils. Two measures were used: a survey completed by students on how they travelled to and from school over five days, and a survey completed by their parents on how their child travelled to and from school in a usual week.
The percentage of students who walked to and from school increased in both the intervention and control schools. Data from parent surveys found that However this effect was not evident in the student data. The study produced a mixed result, with a high variation in travel patterns from school to school. Intervention research should address the complexity of multiple factors influencing student travel to school with a focus on changing local environments and parents' travel to work. A high resolution magnetostratigraphic profile across the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Southern Sydney Basin, eastern Australia.
Despite several decades of intense study, there is ongoing debate regarding the exact timing of extinction and the global correlation of marine and terrestrial P-T sections. The terrestrial record is hampered by a lack of index fossils; however, magnetostratigraphy offers an opportunity for correlation because it relies on the global synchronicity of magnetic reversals. A magnetostratigraphic profile across the Permian-Triassic boundary has been obtained from a stratigraphically continuous terrestrial section in the Southern Sydney Basin of eastern Australia.
The 60 m section is located within the Narrabeen Group, which consists of fluvial to lacustrine sandstones and mudstones. Paleomagnetic samples were collected at one meter intervals to determine a detailed reversal record.
Samples were stepwise thermally demagnetized to isolate a primary remanence, and magnetic susceptibility was measured in the field at 30 cm intervals with values ranging from Three normal and three reverse magnetozones were detected after removal of a low temperature overprint, and the results show good agreement with the Global Magnetic Polarity Timescale as well as marine Permian-Triassic sections where the PTB is well constrained.
Furthermore, a reverse polarity subchron has been identified within the normal magnetozone spanning the PTB similar to results published from the Netherlands and China. The magnetic stratigraphy suggests that the Narrabeen Group was deposited during the late Changhsingian to early Induan, and provides a revised placement of the PTB in the lower Wombarra Claystone. Integration of the magnetostratigraphy with existing isotopic datasets suggests that the terrestrial extinction in eastern Australia occurred 7.
A tuff within a coal seam underlying the Coalcliff. Ethnicity or cultural group identity of pregnant women in Sydney , Australia : Is country of birth a reliable proxy measure? Australia has one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse maternal populations in the world. Routinely few variables are recorded in clinical data or health research to capture this diversity.
This paper explores how pregnant women, Australian-born and overseas-born, respond to survey questions on ethnicity or cultural group identity, and whether country of birth is a reliable proxy measure. As part of a larger study, pregnant women attending public antenatal clinics in Sydney , Australia , completed a survey about their knowledge and expectations of pregnancy duration.
The survey included two questions on country of birth, and identification with an ethnicity or cultural group.