Melbourne Research Articles

Soundtrack for love: wedding videography, music and romantic memory

ABSTRACT Professionally produced wedding videos are evocative artefacts. Capturing the ritual of the wedding, the wedding video stands as a postcard that showcases the conspicuous display of emotion that assumes a central place in the memorialization and indeed the very praxis of the modern wedding ritual. The role of music in the wedding video is crucial; representing a key partner to the imagery of the wedding, the musical dimensions emotionally charge the artefact in perpetuity. In this article we argue that the musical soundtrack of wedding videos services manifold functions, including the enabling of narrative continuity, providing a sense of propulsive rhythm, pacing and supporting the successful communication of emotions that sits at the centre of the compressed iconography of the wedding. Although the visual elements play a lead role, we contend that the unseen qualities of the musical materials also play an integral function; undergirding the images of the wedding and mediating the emotional and affective display. The argument presented is based on an analysis of 132 selected publicly available videos, sourced from wedding videographers based in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

Is green infrastructure a viable strategy for managing urban surface water flooding?

ABSTRACT Green infrastructure strategies are often cited as best practice for urban water management; however, limited research has been undertaken to compare intervention effectiveness during moderate to extreme intensity rainfall events which are typically responsible for surface water flooding. This research responds to this through applying a cellular automata-based rapid scenario screening framework to predict the flood management performance of green infrastructure strategies across an urban catchment in Melbourne City Centre (Australia). Key findings indicate an intensive application of green infrastructure could substantially reduce flood depth and velocity in the catchment but that residual risk remains, particularly during extreme flood events. The best performing intervention strategy in the study area was found to be catchment-wide decentralised rainwater capture. The research also evidences the utility of rapid scenario screening tools to complement existing flood modelling approaches through screening management strategies, exploring scenarios and engaging a wide range of multi-disciplinary stakeholders.

The Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals. By Torill Kornfeldt; translated by Fiona Graham. London (United Kingdom) and Melbourne (Australia): Scribe Publications. $18.95 (paper). vii + 242 p. + 16 pl.; ill.; no index. [Originally published as Mammutens återkomst in Swedish by Fri Tanke Förlag, Sweden, 2016.] ISBN: 9781947534360 (pb); 9781925693003 (eb). 2018.

Previous articleNext article No AccessConservation BiologyThe Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals. By Torill Kornfeldt; translated by Fiona Graham. London (United Kingdom) and Melbourne (Australia): Scribe Publications. $18.95 (paper). vii + 242 p. + 16 pl.; ill.; no index. [Originally published as Mammutens återkomst in Swedish by Fri Tanke Förlag, Sweden, 2016.] ISBN: 9781947534360 (pb); 9781925693003 (eb). 2018.Abraham H. GibsonAbraham H. GibsonCenter for Biology & Society, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona Search for more articles by this author Center for Biology & Society, Arizona State University, Tempe, ArizonaPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 94, Number 4December 2019 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/706419 Views: 31Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Test: “how will we know what it is that we are doing?”

The Test outlines a public art project developed by ROARAWAR FEARTATA titled The Crossing, undertaken as part of Melbourne City Council’s 2019 Test Sites program. Drawing on the figure of the ferryman from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, as well Henri Lefebvre’s concept of Rhythmanalysis, this project sought to occupy the everyday practice of the pedestrian crossing, utilising the position of the artist within this everyday practice to develop a methodology for conducting a rhythmanalysis of public space. Through the process of performative adventure and the reading of rhythms, the project aimed to strategise a process for art to participate in the practice of the everyday whilst maintaining the tension of the question: “how will we know what it is that we are doing?”

Local Action with a Global Vision: The Transformative Potential of Food Social Enterprises in Australia

There is an urgent need to make food systems more sustainable and resilient. Such a transformation goes beyond technological innovation and requires economic and social change. Research interest in the transformative potential of community level action has increased. Food social enterprises often operate at the community level and consist of not-for-profit organisations that aim to make a positive contribution to social justice and environmental sustainability. The question addressed in this paper is whether these social enterprises are limited to isolated improvements or have the capacity to transform food systems more widely. This paper uses a multi-dimensional framework (involving the social setting, operational models, governance, and institutional context) to analyse the transformative potential of eight food social enterprises in the Australian cities of Brisbane and Melbourne. The analysis indicates that these enterprises create social networks, pursue agendas aligned with a global vision of transformation, and include a diversity of stakeholders. Their operational models are consistent with the goals of environmental sustainability and social justice. Their governance involves equality, transparency, and flexibility. In the institutional context, support from public policy is limited and there is a need to improve their engagement with governmental actors. While food social enterprises are well placed in the quest to make food systems more consistent with ecological dynamics and social justice, they need to engage in greater advocacy for institutional change in order to maximise their transformative potential.

Tubercular landscape: land use change and Mycobacterium in Melbourne, Australia, 1837–1900

In the late nineteenth century, the city of Melbourne, Australia, experienced unusually high tuberculosis mortality. Dr. William Thomson, whose statistical methods uncovered the epidemiological trend, argued that at least one in three of the adult population of Melbourne between the ages of twenty and forty-five died of tuberculosis. While Thomson’s research challenged existing epistemologies of medicine, advocating sanitary rather than climatological aetiology, he was ultimately incapable of identifying the major factors in the spread of tuberculosis. Drawing on recent public health scholarship, which suggests a firm link between land use change and emerging infectious diseases, this paper examines the role of cultural, political, economic, and ecological activities of nineteenth-century Melbournians in constructing a niche suited to the success of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Using epidemiological techniques, GIS, and historical records, this paper analyzes the city’s ability to handle waste, stagnant water, and other vectors of disease, and considers how manipulations of the landscape to accommodate the growing city’s sanitary and commercial needs exacerbated transmissibility of tuberculosis. It concludes that the imported characteristics of the British colonial city fostered land use change uniquely suited to the perpetuation of one of the most prolific diseases of the modern era.

Short-term traffic flow prediction based on faded memory Kalman Filter fusing data from connected vehicles and Bluetooth sensors

This paper proposes a Kalman Filter (KF) technique to predict the short-term flow at urban arterials based on the information of connected and Bluetooth equipped vehicles. Online traffic flow prediction using real-time data derived from different sensors is still an open research subject. To this end, a Kalman Filter model is developed to predict traffic flow based on two sources of real-time data, i.e. Connected Vehicles (CVs) and Bluetooth data. We also apply a Faded Memory Kalman Filter (FMKF) by considering more weights for new measurements to overcome the issue of inaccuracy in the prediction model and to predict the traffic flow with more resolution. At first, based on training data from Vissim traffic simulator, parameters of the KF's equations are calibrated using a machine learning based and big data processing. Performance of the conventional and faded memory KF models are then validated and compared using some test data pertaining to different rates of connected vehicles and Bluetooth-equipped vehicles (BVs). We use a pilot study of the city of Melbourne, Australia for numerical tests. The results indicate significant superiority of the FMKF over the KF in various traffic situations, as such the prediction error in some cases has reduced up to 60%. This paper contributes to the literature in three folds: (i) It uses a computationally efficient flow prediction algorithm based on synthesizing data from CVs and BVs (ii) It proposes to use an adaptive form of KF (i.e. FMKF) to compensate for the prediction error originating from modelling error. Hence, the model can perform well for a range of traffic conditions (iii) The proposed model works well even with low penetration rates (PRs) of the CVs or BVs (say 20%).

Intracranial haemorrhage detected by cerebral computed tomography after falls in hospital acute medical wards

BackgroundThere is little published data on brain imaging and intracranial haemorrhage after hospital inpatient falls. Imaging protocols for inpatient falls have been adopted from head injury guidelines developed from data in patients presenting to the Emergency Department. We sought to describe the use of brain computed tomography (CT) following inpatient falls, and determine the incidence and potential risk factors for intracranial haemorrhage.MethodsWe identified inpatient falls in acute medical wards at Monash Health, a large hospital network in the southeast region of Melbourne in Australia, from the incident reporting system during a 32 month period. We examined the post-fall medical assessment form, neurological observation chart and the diagnostic imaging system for details of the fall and brain CT findings. We used survival analysis to evaluate the timeliness of brain imaging and determined potential risk factors for intracranial haemorrhage by logistic regression.ResultsFrom 934 falls in 789 medical inpatients, 191 brain CT scans were performed. The median age of patients was 77 years. Only 55% of falls were from standing height and 24% experienced a head strike. Less than 10% of patients received an urgent scan within one hour, and timeliness of imaging was influenced by anticoagulation status rather than guideline determination of urgency. The overall incidence of intracranial haemorrhage was 0.9%. The factors associated with intracranial haemorrhage were head strike, anticoagulation, loss of consciousness or amnesia, drop in Glasgow Coma Scale and advanced chronic kidney disease.ConclusionsThe incidence of intracranial haemorrhage was low as most inpatient falls were at low risk for head injury. Research is needed to determine if guidelines specific for hospital inpatients may reduce unnecessary scans without compromising case detection, and improve timeliness of urgent scans.

208.1: Use of collaborative request model was highly correlated with organ donation consent.

Background: There continues to be a disconnect between Australian’s self-reported support for organ donation and formal end-of-life family consent rates. In 2015, a multi-site Australian study by Lewis et al. demonstrated that consent rates were optimised by involving a clinician who had specific training in donation conversations, and in addition, was independent of the treating team. This approach is known as “Collaborative requesting” in Australia. The aim of the study was to report our single institution’s experience in introducing and augmenting the collaborative request model. Methods: The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), is one of two adult tertiary trauma centres for the city of Melbourne, Australia. Additionally, the hospital has specialist neurosurgical and stroke services. Australia permits organ donation via both brain death and controlled circulatory death pathways. The hospital co-employs 4 embedded Donation Specialist Nursing Coordinators, and 3 fractionally appointed Medical Donation Specialists. Both craft groups have specialist communication training, and in addition, nursing coordinators have detailed end-to-end case donation management experience. Over a three-year period, the RMH progressively implemented the request model. Rather than using “any” independent clinician with donation communication training (the Lewis Model), the unit promoted the use of embedded Donation Specialist Nursing Coordinators as the collaborative requestors (the augmented collaborative model). Results: From January 2016 to June 2018 there were 135 donation requests raised by staff. Donation conversations raised by the family were excluded from analysis, as they have a consent rate at our hospital of over 90%. During the study period collaborative requesting increased from 50% (Jan 2016) to 96% (Jun 2018). Over the 3 study years (2016, 2017 and first half of 2018), the consent rate was highly positively correlated with the increased use of a collaborative model (r2=0.984). Conclusions: Since the introduction of embedded donation specialist nursing coordinators in RMH ICU, the hospital has seen both a clinically and statistically significant improvement in organ donation consent rates. These improvements in consent rates have been demonstrated to be highly correlated with the implementation of an augmented collaborative model within our unit. The dose-response relationship provides weight to a causational link.The excess consent rate observed in our unit in comparison to the multi-site Lewis et al study may be due to the concentration of performance of a clinical skill into a small number of requestors, and excellent end-to-end process knowledge. Further study is recommended. Conclusions: Collaborative requesting for permission to proceed with organ donation was highly correlated with improved consent rates, in this centre with the predominant use of Specialist Nursing Coordinator collaborators.

Glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) are commonly found in urban streams and wetlands of Melbourne, Australia

Glyphosate is the most widely-used pesticide for weed control in agriculture and in urban and residential areas. This is the first study to quantify glyphosate and AMPA levels in surface water in Australia from different land uses. Glyphosate and AMPA was measured in surface water from 10 rural streams, 30 urban stormwater wetlands and 9 urban streams located in and around the city of Melbourne, Australia on five occasions between October 2017 and February 2018. Glyphosate and AMPA were present in most of the urban surface water samples. The frequency of detection of glyphosate was 77% in wetlands and 79% in urban streams, whereas it was only detected in 4% of the rural streams. Similarly, AMPA detection was 91% in wetlands and 97% in urban streams, whereas it was only present in 6% of the rural stream samples. In both urban streams and wetlands, the highest average glyphosate concentrations occurred in November (1.8 ± 2.2 μg L−1). Overall, wetlands and streams associated with urban land use are vulnerable to glyphosate contamination. These results highlight the importance of screening for contaminants in urban stormwater to identify the source of pollutants that may end up in aquatic ecosystems and the risks therefrom.

Everyday weather-ways: Negotiating the temporalities of home and work in Melbourne, Australia

Although a number of researchers have responded to calls to better understand human experiences of weather in the context of a changing climate, there remain few studies that analyse the role of weather in everyday urban life, where mediating technologies such as air-conditioners and tumble dryers are widespread. To address that gap, this paper advances a concept of ‘weather-ways’, in which cultural understandings of weather are conceived as dynamic, unfolding and interactive. Empirically, we examine how weather is part of the daily practices of 20 Melbourne (Australia) participants using interviews conducted across four seasons in 2010–11. Findings show a particular distinction between work and home weather-ways. Office work practices provided a highly structured weekly temporal framework around which other practices were organised. Regardless of the weather, work practices continued undisrupted, particularly in air-conditioned buildings. Away from work, where participants had more freedom to engage with and respond to the weather, they demonstrated a willingness to remain weather-connected, despite having access to technologies. Participants modified their practices in accordance with weather and its variations, through both simple adjustments, such as modifying clothing layers, and broader responses including the temporal and spatial adjustments of leisure and laundering activities that took advantage of ‘good’ weather or avoided less favourable conditions. Vernacular adjustment strategies that may assist in adjusting to future climate changes are in tension with the structural and collective frameworks of most indoor workplaces.

20-Minute Neighbourhoods: Creating a More Liveable Melbourne

20-Minute Neighbourhoods: Creating a More Liveable Melbourne

Resilient Health Care: A Determinant Framework for Understanding Variation in Everyday Work and Designing Sustainable Digital Health Systems.

This chapter presents an overview of Resilient Health Care (RHC), introducing two aspects of RHC that are important for designing sustainable digital health systems and for considering implementation outcomes: (1) understanding how normal variation in everyday work can affect implementation of digital health interventions, and (2) the role of information systems in coping with unexpected events. The importance of considering how variation in everyday work can lead to wanted and unwanted outcomes when designing information systems is illustrated through a case study of implementation of a telehealth intervention. We examine how normal variation in everyday work can lead to both safety and error, and discuss how consideration of system resilience when designing and implementing health informatics applications can contribute to improving safety for patients in the future. How health information systems can assist organisations in coping with the unexpected is illustrated through a second case study, of a thunderstorm asthma event in Melbourne, Australia. We briefly present the thunderstorm asthma case, and discuss the role of healthcare informatics in preparing for future unexpected events affecting population health.

Estimating the effect of park proximity to the central of Melbourne city on Urban Heat Island (UHI) relative to Land Surface Temperature (LST)

Temperature in cities cores has realized always warmer than the surroundings, which is described as Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. Using of vegetation is one of the effective methods to combat this phenomenon. This study used urban parks (27 parks) located on three distance levels from the Melbourne city centre, which were choose by graduated size. Parks were heavily tested eight measuring time per day (six major and two minor) per month. Handheld measurement device used to measure Land Surface Temperature (LST) used to collect data during all transect points, which extended up 0.295–3 km beyond each park’s perimeter. Study results presented that average maximums Park Cool Island (PCI) between 3 °C and 10 °C for all rings, however, parks close to the city centre showed higher PCI than the others during the first part of average maximums of Park Cooling Distance (PCD) up to 1100 m. Closest parks to the city (Ring 1) extended PCD to 3000 m, however, the other parks reached farther than 2000 m. Study concluded that all parks provided cooling benefits to the surrounding urban area. Urbanization was strongly effected on cooling magnitude (PCI) in the first cooling distance, which reached to 746 m. In the other words, parks decreased temperature in the built up areas started from the edge of parks to 746 m (Ring 1 > Ring 2 > Ring 3).

Resilient Forms of Shopping Centers Amid the Rise of Online Retailing: Towards the Urban Experience

The rapid expansion of online retailing has long raised the concern that shops and shopping centers (evolved or planned agglomerations of shops) may be abandoned and thus lead to a depletion of urbanity. Contesting this scenario, I employ the concept of ‘retail resilience’ to explore the ways in which different material forms of shopping may persist as online retailing proliferates. Through interviews with planning and development professionals in Edmonton (Canada), Melbourne (Australia), Portland (Oregon), and Wuhan (China); field/virtual observations in a wider range of cities; and a morphological analysis of key shopping centers, I find that brick-and-mortar retail space is not going away; rather, it is being increasingly developed into various shopping spaces geared toward the urban experience (a combination of density, mixed uses, and walkability) and may thus be adapted to online retailing. While not all emerging forms of shopping may persist, these diverse changes, experiments, and adaptations of shops and shopping centers can be considered a form of resilience. However, many emerging shopping centers pose a threat to urban public life.

Circular cities: exploring local government strategies to facilitate a circular economy

ABSTRACTCities are growing rapidly, and the systems of production and consumption that support this growth are contributing to the depletion of natural resources and pollution of the environment. The circular economy model offers an alternative to the predominant take-make-dispose economic system. Local municipalities are seen to have the capacity to encourage sustainable development of the built environment. This paper aims to explore the role of strategic planning in facilitating a circular economy in urban settings. In particular, this research asks: How are local governments facilitating circular economy initiatives through strategic planning? What are the opportunities and barriers when applying circular economy principles through local strategic planning? The research approach used for this paper is a comparative case study of two international municipalities: the City of Melbourne, Australia and the City of Malmö, Sweden. Current strategic planning practice was examined with a focus on circular economy themes. The findings reveal that strategic urban planning can translate circular economy objectives into actions within specific urban areas, although barriers still exist to fully integrating the circular economy model.

Impacts of future urban expansion on urban heat island effects during heatwave events in the city of Melbourne in southeast Australia

AbstractThe city of Melbourne in southeast Australia is planning to expand urban areas substantially by the year 2050 and this expansion has the potential to alter the Urban Heat Island (UHI), that is, higher temperatures in urban areas as compared to surrounding rural areas. Moreover, Melbourne has been experiencing more frequent heatwaves for last two decades, and the intensity and duration of heatwaves is expected to increase in the future, which could exacerbate the UHI. This study evaluates the potential impacts of future urban expansion on the urban meteorology in Melbourne city during four of the most severe heatwave events during the period 2000–2009. Urban expansion is implemented as high‐density urban with a high urban fraction of 0.9 to investigate the maximum possible impact. Simulations are carried out using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with the Single‐Layer Urban Canopy Model with current land‐use and future urban expansion scenarios. Urban expansion increases the near‐surface (2‐m) UHI (UHI2) by 0.75 to 2.80 °C and the skin‐surface UHI (UHIsk) by 1.9 to 5.4 °C over the expanded urban areas during the night, with no changes in existing urban areas. No substantial changes in UHI2 and UHIsk occur during the day over both existing and expanded urban areas. This is largely driven by changes in the storage heat flux, with an increase in storage heat at night and a decrease during the day; that is, excess storage heat accumulated during the day is released at night, which causes a slower decrease of near‐surface temperature and increase in the UHI. Urban expansion did not affect human thermal comfort (HTC) in existing urban areas and there were no marked differences in HTC between existing and expanded urban areas.

Fostering a happy positive learning environment for generalist pre-service teachers: building confidence that promotes wellbeing

AbstractMusic is more than just sounds; engaging in music activities in educational settings may foster a sense of wellbeing. This paper explores whether positive learning environments can change attitudes and build confidence of students undertaking the Bachelor of Education (primary) program. As part of a wider study in Melbourne (Australia), using questionnaire data, this qualitative case study reports on two overarching themes (Wellbeing and Learning, and Skill Development and Confidence). I contend that a happy and safe teaching and learning space may promote and nurture the health and wellbeing of students who lack the confidence to teach music as generalist teachers.

Application of Strategic Transport Model and Google Maps to Develop Better Clot Retrieval Stroke Service

Background and purpose: Two hubs are designated to provide endovascular clot retrieval (ECR) for the State of Victoria, Australia. In an earlier study, Google Maps application programming interface (API) was used to perform modeling on the combination of hospitals optimizing for catchment in terms of current traveling time and road conditions. It is not known if these findings would remain the same if the modeling was performed with a large-scale transport demand model such as Victorian Integrated Transport Model (VITM). This model is developed by the Victorian State Government Transport has the capability to forecast travel demand into the future including future road conditions which is not possible with a Google Maps based applications. The aim of this study is to compare the travel time to potential ECR hubs using both VITM and the Google Maps API and model stability in the next 5 and 10 years.Methods: The VITM was used to generate travel time from randomly generated addresses to four existing ECR capable hubs in Melbourne city, Australia (i.e., Royal Melbourne Hospital/RMH, Monash Medical Center/MMC, Alfred Hospital/ALF, and Austin Hospital/AUS) and the optimal service boundaries given a delivering time threshold are then determined.Results: The strategic transport model and Google map methods were similar with the R2 of 0.86 (peak and off peak) and the Nash-Sutcliffe model of efficiency being 0.83 (peak) and 0.76 (off-peak travel). Futures modeling using VITM found that this proportion decreases to 82% after 5 years and 80% after 10 years. The combination of RMH and ALF provides coverage for 74% of cases, 68% by 5 years, and 66% by 10 years. The combination of RMH and AUS provides coverage for 70% of cases in the base case, 65% at 5 years, and 63% by 10 years.Discussion: The results from strategic transport model are similar to those from Google Maps. In this paper we illustrate how this method can be applied in designing and forecast stroke service model in different cities in Australia and around the world.

Effectiveness of vegetated patches as Green Infrastructure in mitigating Urban Heat Island effects during a heatwave event in the city of Melbourne

The city of Melbourne in southeast Australia experiences frequent heatwaves and their frequency, intensity and duration are expected to increase in the future. In addition, Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia and experiencing rapid urban expansion. Heatwaves and urbanization contribute in intensifying the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, i.e., higher temperatures in urban areas as compared to surrounding rural areas. The combined effects of UHI and heatwaves have substantial impacts on the urban environment, meteorology and human health, and there is, therefore, a pressing need to investigate the effectiveness of different mitigation options. This study evaluates the effectiveness of urban vegetation patches such as mixed forest (MF), combination of mixed forest and grasslands (MFAG), and combination of mixed shrublands and grasslands (MSAG) in reducing UHI effects in the city of Melbourne during one of the most severe heatwave events. Simulations are carried out by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the Single Layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM). The fractions of vegetated patches per grid cell are increased by 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% using the mosaic method of the WRF model. Results show that by increasing fractions from 20 to 50%, MF reduces near surface (2 m) UHI (UHI2) by 0.6–3.4 °C, MSAG by 0.4–3.0 °C, and MFAG by 0.6–3.7 °C during the night, but there was no cooling effect for near surface temperature during the hottest part of the day. The night-time cooling was driven by a reduction in storage heat. Vegetated patches partitioned more net radiation into latent heat flux via evapotranspiration, with little to no change in sensible heat flux, but rather, a reduction in the storage heat flux during the day. Since the UHI is driven by the release of stored heat during the night, the reduced storage heat flux results in reductions in the UHI. The reductions of the UHI2 varied non-linearly with the increasing vegetated fractions, with lager fractions of up to 50% resulting in substantially larger reductions. MF and MFAG were more effective in reducing UHI2 as compared to MSAG. Vegetated patches were not effective in improving HTC during the day, but a substantial improvement of HTC was obtained between the evening and early morning particularly at 2100 local time, when the thermal stress changes from strong to moderate. Although limited to a single heatwave event and city, this study highlights the maximum potential benefits of using vegetated patches in mitigating the UHI during heatwaves and the overall principles are applicable elsewhere.