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Recent progress in underground hydrogen storage
Get PDFWith the global population anticipated to reach 9.9 billion by 2050 and rapid industrialization and economic growth, global energy demand is projected to increase by nearly 50%. Fossil fuels meet 80% of this demand, resulting in considerable greenhouse gas emissions and environmental challenges. Hydrogen (H2) offers a promising alternative due to its potential for clean combustion and integration into renewable energy systems. Underground H2 storage (UHS) enables long-term, large-scale storage to achieve equilibrium between seasonal supply and demand. This review synthesizes recent advancements in UHS, highlighting progress and persistent challenges. The review explores the complex mechanisms of H2 trapping and its implications for storage security and efficiency. The challenges these mechanisms present compared to other gases are discussed, emphasizing the unique properties of H2. The exploration covers interactions between H2 and geological formations, focusing on the wettability, interfacial tension, and sorption characteristics of rock-H2-brine systems. Advanced experimental methods are evaluated alongside the effects of critical parameters, including temperature, pressure, salinity, and organic contaminants. Findings from innovative imaging, core-flooding techniques, and computational methods (e.g., molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning) are incorporated. These approaches are vital for understanding H2 behavior in subsurface environments and developing robust, efficient storage solutions. This review offers a comprehensive update on recent progress, identifying and addressing the remaining gaps in UHS research. This work also highlights the significance of interdisciplinary research and technological innovation in overcoming these challenges. By providing insight into recent theoretical research, practical applications, and technological development, the findings support the successful incorporation of H2 into the global energy infrastructure, contributing to implementing a sustainable H2 economy successfully and fostering energy security and environmental protection for future generations
Musculoskeletal injury in Australian infantry personnel: A cross-sectional study to understand prevention priorities
Get PDFIntroduction: Musculoskeletal injury patterns are under-investigated in the Royal Australian Infantry Corps. Subsequently, more evidence is needed to support injury prevention processes in this population. One difficulty in collecting injury information to monitor injury patterns within combat populations accurately is known injury concealment behaviors in such populations. This study aims to examine musculoskeletal injury epidemiology within Australian infantry battalions using a tailored approach to mitigate reporting avoidance. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study using an anonymous online survey captured musculoskeletal injury information directly from personnel serving within 2 Australian infantry battalions. The survey requested information on participants’ injury frequency in the previous 12 months and the context of participants’ most severe injury. Injury context was restricted to the most severe during the period to limit recall bias. The applied injury case definition encompassed all injuries that affected an individual’s ability to perform in their role. A descriptive analysis of all data recorded across the 2 battalions was conducted. Subgroup statistical difference was assessed by examining the 95% CI overlap between groups. The Department of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs Human Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for this study. Results: Overall, 166 individuals self-reported at least 1 injury in the past 12 months, representing a period prevalence of 55.5% (95% CI, 49.8-61.0%). No statistically significant prevalence differences existed between employment type, age, or sex. Approximately a quarter of injured participants were medically reclassified because of their injury, impacting their deployment fitness (n = 40, 24.4%). The following results relate to the most severe injury personnel experienced. Most injuries were service-related (n = 152, 91.6%). Field activities (n = 64, 39.3%) and physical training (n = 59, 36.2%) were the most common injury-related activities. Running was the most reported injury mechanism (n = 35, 21.7%), followed by pack marching (n = 29, 18.9%) and fall, slip, or trip (n = 18, 11.2%). Conclusion: Musculoskeletal injuries are common in the Australian infantry and significantly burden the workforce. Physical training and field exercises are most associated with injury and represent opportunities for injury risk-mitigation strategies to support the overall deployability of personnel and the combat effectiveness of their battalions. Future research should more formally explore the injury risk factors related to these activities using more robust study designs to collect injury and exposure information more accurately and reliably. One study strength includes using military-specific international injury surveillance guidelines to inform the survey design, to collect the recommended injury information for effective surveillance, and to enable future research comparison. A second study strength was tailoring the survey to promote participatory engagement, providing a high completion rate. A challenge in conducting this research was coordinating participant recruitment and data collection during domestic operations. Such challenges reflect the reality of conducting research in the military
School library professionals’ perceptions of students’ digital information literacy
Get PDFYoung people need strong digital information literacy (DIL) skills to effectively source, interpret and evaluate the credibility of online information. As DIL educators and advocates within contemporary schools, school library professionals can provide cross-contextual insights into their students’ DIL knowledge, skills and learning opportunities. Data from the 2024 International School Library Workforce Survey suggest that developing DIL may not be a typical priority in all schools and countries. Students’ DIL was felt to be low. School library professionals may be underutilized for supporting DIL learning in 35% of contexts, highlighting the need for greater understanding of this professional role
Sex differences in upper- and lower-limb muscle strength in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis
Get PDFOn average, adult men are physically stronger than adult women. The magnitude of this difference depends on the muscle tested, with larger sex differences observed in upper- than lower-limb muscles. Whether body region-specific sex differences in strength exist in children is unclear. The purpose of the current meta-analysis was to determine whether sex differences in muscle strength in children and adolescents differ between upper- and lower-limb muscles. Data were extracted from studies of participants aged ≤ 17 years who completed tests of maximal isometric or isokinetic strength of upper-limb muscles (e.g., elbow flexors and elbow extensors) or lower-limb muscles (e.g., knee extensors and ankle dorsiflexors). Participants were partitioned into three age groups: 5–10 years old, 11–13 years old, and 14–17 years old. The analysis included 299 effects from 34 studies. The total sample was 6634 (3497 boys and 3137 girls). Effect sizes of sex differences in upper- and lower-limb strength were g = 0.65 (95% confidence intervals (CI) [0.46, 0.84]) and 0.34 (95% CI [0.19, 0.50]) in 5–10-year-olds; g = 0.73 (95% CI [0.56, 0.91]) and 0.43 (95% CI [0.27, 0.59]) in 11–13-year olds; and g = 1.84 (95% CI [1.64, 2.03]) and 1.18 (95% CI [1.00, 1.37]) in 14–17-year-olds. Upper- and lower-limb strength were 17% and 8% greater in boys than girls when 5–10 years old, 18% and 10% greater when 11–13 years old, and 50% and 30% greater when 14–17 years old. Thus, boys are stronger than girls on average. This sex difference exists before puberty, increases markedly with male puberty, and is more pronounced in upper- than lower-limb muscles throughout development
Somatic acupressure for the management of the fatigue-sleep disturbance-depression symptom cluster in breast cancer survivors: A study protocol for a phase III randomised controlled trial
Get PDFIntroduction The fatigue-sleep disturbance-depression symptom cluster (FSDSC) is commonly experienced by breast cancer (BC) survivors, leading to a deteriorated quality of life (QoL). Somatic acupressure (SA) has been recommended as a promising non-pharmacological intervention for cancer-related fatigue (the core symptom of the FSDSC) in the guidelines, showing its encouraging role in relieving cancer-related sleep disorders, fatigue and depression. This phase III randomised controlled trial (RCT) is designed to evaluate the effects, safety and cost-effectiveness of SA for managing the FSDSC in BC survivors. Methods This phase III RCT will be a partial-blinded, sham-controlled, three-arm, parallel clinical trial, involving a 7-week SA intervention period and a 12-week follow-up period. 108 BC survivors will be randomly allocated in a ratio of 1:1:1 to either a true SA group (self-administered acupressure plus usual care), a sham SA group (self-administered light acupressure at non-acupoints plus usual care) or a usual care group. The primary outcomes will be the effectiveness of SA on the FSDSC at both the individual symptom level and cluster symptom level. Each individual symptom will be specifically measured by the Brief Fatigue Inventory (fatigue), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (sleep disturbance) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Depression (depression). The cluster symptom level will be measured by using an FSDSC composite score, an averaging score of three separated 0-10 numeric rating scales for fatigue, depression and sleep disturbance. The secondary outcomes will include QoL (measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast), adverse events and cost-effectiveness. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline (week 0), immediately after intervention (week 7) and follow-up (week 19). All outcomes will be analysed based on the intention-to-treat principle using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 25) software. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approvals of this study have been granted by the Human Research Ethics Committee at Charles Darwin University (H22110) and the Clinical Trial Ethics Committee at the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University (KLL-2023-594), and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University (KYLL-2023-058). Findings from this trial will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at professional conferences
Facilitators, barriers, and strategies for supporting shared decision-making with people with intellectual disability: A West Australian primary healthcare professional perspective
No full textBackground: Shared decision-making between patients and primary healthcare professionals positively impacts health outcomes. However, people with intellectual disability face additional barriers and require supported shared decision-making (SSDM) to participate. Little is known about how healthcare professionals use SSDM with this population. This paper explores the facilitators and barriers experienced, and strategies/resources employed by healthcare professionals working with people with intellectual disability. Method: Ten purposively sampled primary healthcare professionals participated in semi-structured interviews. This descriptive qualitative study used content analysis. Findings were compared with a proposed model of factors influencing triadic (the person with intellectual disability, their caregiver and the healthcare professional) SSDM. Results: Five factor categories emerged: previous training/experience; engagement and trust; effective collaboration with caregivers; organisational culture and contexts; and familiarity/confidence with communication support strategies and resources. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals can leverage pre-existing skills and knowledge, but provision of targeted professional development may reduce anxiety and increase successful SSDM
Teachers’ understanding of the major sources of self-efficacy in early childhood
Get PDFSelf-efficacy has been associated with benefits to everyday life such as resilience to stress and adversity, healthy behaviours, improved performance, and academic achievement. Research into self-efficacy development is scarce in early childhood, yet self-efficacy is associated with numerous skills and competencies taught in the early years of school. A mixed-method approach was employed to explore early childhood teachers’ understanding of how self-efficacy developed in children. The study focussed on teachers of children in Kindergarten to Year 2 (K–2) in primary schools in Western Australia and was conducted in two phases. Initially, an online survey, answered by 74 K–2 teachers, was implemented to gather early childhood teachers’ understandings of the self-efficacy construct. The second phase sought additional description of survey findings through semi-structured interviews with 10 early childhood teachers. Findings identified that early childhood teachers describe the sources of self-efficacy differently to research with older children and adults. In older children, mastery is considered a primary source of self-efficacy, as mastery experiences provide children with concrete evidence of their capabilities and competence. This study identified that young children, who have not had time or opportunity to master complex cognitive tasks, rely on self-efficacy sources that are more in line with their developmental levels, including their physiological and emotional states. This finding has major implications for how teachers, school leaders, curriculum writers and policy makers think about the self-efficacy development of children in early childhood settings
The Nutbush dance reframed: Further analysis related to ‘doing the Nutbush’
Get PDFThis article supplements our earlier article on the Nutbush dance, ‘Doing the Nutbush’. After that was published, there was a media frenzy which resulted in many comments on The Guardian site and on the ABC Facebook site. We also received a number of emails. All these contributions have helped fine-tune the history of the dance that we have been examining. Two key things became clear. Around 1970 there was a push in state education departments across Australia to substitute the American line dance, the Madison, for bush dances as a way of updating and making more relevant dance for primary school children. Meanwhile, during the 1960s, another American dance, the Alley Cat, had been becoming popular mostly with children but to some extent also with adults. Around 1975 the Alley Cat started to be danced to Ike and Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits in primary school physical education (PE) classes. As this was happening, a few more energetic steps were added to the dance. The result was a dance named after the song, the Nutbush. This then became a popular dance in state primary schools across the country. With the aid of the new information, we have been given, this supplementary article traces this history
Adaptive crisis management at the operational level: Responses to COVID-19 in the Australian resources sector
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 significantly impacted Australia’s resources sector, particularly mining, oil, and gas industries, posing challenges for operational leaders. This study applied Adaptive Crisis Management Theory (ACMT) to understand how these leaders adapted during the crisis. Through interviews with 32 operational leaders, it was found that their roles evolved as crisis demands changed. Initially, they addressed immediate needs, then shifted focus to remote work facilitation and digital transformation, and finally emphasised recovery, trust, and resilience. These adaptations influenced leaders’ behaviours, highlighting the importance of flexibility in supporting employee wellbeing and organisational continuity during crises
Neuromuscular characteristics of eccentric, concentric and isometric contractions of the knee extensors
Get PDFPurpose: We compared voluntary drive and corticospinal responses during eccentric (ECC), isometric (ISOM) and concentric (CON) muscle contractions to shed light on neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning the lower voluntary drive in a greater force production in ECC than other contractions.
Methods: Sixteen participants (20–33 years) performed ISOM and isokinetic (30°/s) CON and ECC knee extensor contractions (110°–40° knee flexion) in which electromyographic activity (EMG) was recorded from vastus lateralis. Voluntary activation (VA) was measured during ISOM, CON and ECC maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs). Transcranial magnetic stimulation elicited motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) and corticospinal silent periods (CSP) during MVCs and submaximal (30%) contractions, and short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) in submaximal contractions.
Results: MVC torque was greater (P \u3c 0.01) during ECC (302.6 ± 90.0 Nm) than ISOM (269.8 ± 81.5 Nm) and CON (235.4 ± 78.6 Nm), but VA was lower (P \u3c 0.01) for ECC (68.4 ± 14.9%) than ISOM (78.3 ± 13.1%) and CON (80.7 ± 15.4%). In addition, EMG/torque was lower (P \u3c 0.02) for ECC (1.9 ± 1.1 μV.Nm−1) than ISOM (2.2 ± 1.2 μV.Nm−1) and CON (2.7 ± 1.6 μV.Nm−1), CSP was shorter (p \u3c 0.04) for ECC (0.097 ± 0.03 s) than ISOM (0.109 ± 0.02 s) and CON (0.109 ± 0.03 s), and MEP amplitude was lower (P \u3c 0.01) for ECC (3.46 ± 1.67 mV) than ISOM (4.21 ± 2.33 mV) and CON (4.01 ± 2.06 mV). Similar results were found for EMG/torque and CSP during 30% contractions, but MEP and SICI showed no differences among contractions (p \u3e 0.05).
Conclusions: The lower voluntary drive indicated by reduced VA during ECC may be partly explained by lower corticospinal excitability, while the shorter CSP may reflect extra muscle spindle excitation of the motoneurons from vastus lateralis muscle lengthening