Background: To assess the type of infant nutrition at initiation of first feed in association with increasing maternal pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index in an Australian obstetric population. Methods: A retrospective cohort study from 2008 to 2013 was undertaken. Body Mass Index was available for 12,347 women categorised into groups according to: underweight (<= 18 kg/m(2)); normal weight (19-24 kg/m(2)); overweight (25-29 kg/m(2)); obese class I (30-34 kg/m(2)); obese class II (35-39/kg(2)) and obese class III (40+ kg/m(2)). Type and initiation of infant feeding is routinely recorded in the study hospital's birthing outcomes system. Six body mass index categories and mode of infant feeding were examined using logistic regression. Confounding factors that were controlled for included smoking status, parity, country of birth and maternal age. Results: Within this cohort, 609 (4.93%) women were underweight, 6235 (50.50%) had a normal BMI, 3116 (25.24%) were overweight, 1314 (10.64%) were obese class I, 596 (4.83%) were obese class II and 477 (3.86%) were obese class III. In adjusted models', as BMI rose, women were significantly less likely to initiate exclusive breastfeeding and more likely to exclusively formula feed. Women with a BMI of 40+ kg/m(2) had an AOR of 2.91(CI 1.94-4.25) for initiating exclusive formula at the time of their infant's first feed. Conclusions: Women who are overweight or obese are significantly less likely to initiate exclusive breastfeeding and more likely to give exclusive formula at the time of their newborn infants first feed. Effective breastfeeding interventions are required for these high-risk groups in the days leading up to and within the first hours after birth. (C) 2021 Asia Oceania Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Objective To assess maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with increasing body mass index (BMI) and interpregnancy BMI changes in an Australian obstetric population.Methods A retrospective cohort study from 2008 to 2013 was undertaken. BMI for 14875 women was categorised as follows: underweight (18kg/m(2)); normal weight (19-24kg/m(2)); overweight (25-29kg/m(2)); obese class I (30-34kg/m(2)); obese class II (35-39kg/m(2)) and obese class III (40+kg/m(2)). BMI categories and maternal, neonatal and birthing outcomes were examined using logistic regression. Interpregnancy change in BMI and the risk of adverse outcomes in the subsequent pregnancy were also examined.Results Within this cohort, 751 (5.1%) women were underweight, 7431 (50.0%) had normal BMI, 3748 (25.1%) were overweight, 1598 (10.8%) were obese class I, 737 (5.0%) were obese class II and 592 (4.0%) were obese class III. In bivariate adjusted models, obese women were at an increased risk of caesarean section, gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and neonatal morbidities including macrosomia, large for gestational age (LGA), hypoglycaemia, low 5min Apgar score and respiratory distress. Multiparous women who experienced an interpregnancy increase of 3 BMI units had a higher adjusted OR (AOR) (CI) of the following adverse outcomes in their subsequent pregnancy: low 5-min Apgar score 3.242 (1.557 to 7.118); gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) 3.258 (1.129 to 10.665) and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy 3.922 (1.243 to 14.760). These women were more likely to give birth vaginally 2.030 (1.417 to 2.913). Conversely, women whose parity changed from 0 to 1 and who experienced an interpregnancy increase of 3 BMI units had a higher AOR (CI) of caesarean section in their second pregnancy 1.806 (1.139 to 2.862).Conclusions Women who are overweight or obese have a significantly increased risk of various adverse outcomes. Interpregnancy weight gain, regardless of parity and baseline BMI, also increases various adverse outcomes. Effective weight management strategies are needed.

We investigate greenhouse emissions of office workers in Sydney, drawing on census data, national building energy benchmarks as well as journey-to-work and energy data from two study buildings. Comparing work locations in the central business district (CBD) and Macquarie Park Corridor with metro-wide averages, we find that building emissions dominate over commuting emissions across the city, but commuting is increasingly important as building energy efficiency increases. Furthermore, our results indicate that efforts to improve a building's energy efficiency at Macquarie Park are largely negated by high reliance on car travel despite the introduction of the Epping-Chatswood train line. We conclude that improving building energy efficiency, office space utilisation and network connectivity (currently evident only in the CBD) delivers the best opportunity to reducing the carbon cost of workplaces.

Australia has invested heavily in water efficiency in recent years, mainly due to severe drought, and has implemented some of the largest efficiency programs in the world. Despite this there is little public information on actual savings achieved or the cost effectiveness of programs implemented. This paper draws together the limited publicly available evaluations from Australia, focusing on the residential sector. It describes some of the large-scale residential programs implemented such as home retrofits, showerhead exchanges, washing machine rebates, toilet retrofits and rainwater tank rebates. It identifies key savings evaluation techniques used including participant-control and regression analysis, and summarizes water savings results from evaluation studies conducted. It also discusses key learnings from both the evaluation techniques employed and the programs implemented. The paper will be of significant interest to water service providers looking for evidence of actual savings achieved and/or wanting to understand how to evaluate their own programs.

Modelling in Urban and Regional Planning has an eclectic history -drawing from economics, engineering, geography, physics, and many other fields.These various influences have been a great strength, providing cross-fertilization of ideas and helping to prevent practitioners from getting stuck in methodological or ideological ruts.However, it has also hindered the establishment of a strong shared modelling tradition.Without such a tradition, planners have struggled to create a compelling narrative about how cities evolve and function.Continuing interest in agent-based modelling and complex systems science might result in the creation of such a narrative, but it is not yet coherent enough to compete with the established engineering and economic narratives.Perhaps it is best that it does not compete with them, for they have been, and continue to be, immensely valuable in explaining and testing ideas about cities and how they function.Rather than seeking to create a competing narrative, planners can benefit by engaging with the dominant economic paradigm enough to clearly identify and articulate those areas not already well covered, and then focus research in those areas.Some obvious choices for this concentration of effort include dealing with market-failure and disequilibrium, modelling non-rational behaviour, modelling the role/actions of government, and understanding risk and resilience.Whatever areas we focus on, greater emphasis must be placed on testing and validation of models if they are to be more widely accepted.

This chapter describes an integrated assessment model for city-scale urban development that links the energy used in passenger transport (public and private) and residential in-house energy use. The model divides the urban region into disjoint subregions, the core of the model being centered on residential location choice, which is calibrated by population, demographic characteristics, and building types, leading to preferences for each subregion based on household type. Submodels are subsequently used to calibrate different rates of energy in accordance with household and demographic factors. This generates a picture of consumption patterns across the metropolitan area, enabling an appreciation of spatially heterogeneous factors such as differing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, alongside variations in the distribution of infrastructures that can create considerable variation in energy consumption between districts within cities. The energy impacts of policy decisions that affect, by way of example, where new housing is to be built and of what type, can then be simulated. The workings of the model are demonstrated in the chapter using data on Sydney, Australia, as a case study, with the research offering a policy scenario to city officials to monitor its progress toward a 2030 vision for a sustainable Sydney.The overall objective of the model is to give policy makers a quantitative sense of how policy options (for example, changed land use policy or household efficiency improvement) will have an impact at the city scale. Thus, the spatially resolved outputs from the integrated assessment model provide a means of gauging the relative merits of different policy measures aimed at reducing GHG emissions in cities. This model is intended for use as a decision support tool by local, regional, and state government planning authorities, as well as energy and utility service providers.

Oil is the dominant motorized transportation fuel used in most countries, including Australia. Many other oilderived products and services are important to the functioning of the Australian economy. It makes sense, then, that this issue of Australian Planner focuses on the risks associated with scarce and/or expensive oil. This paper provides background information about oil consumption in Australia, and reviews the available information on price elasticities for the major oil end-uses. Based on this review, the impact of higher oil prices is assessed, and short-and long-run policy options are discussed. Reducing fuel used for private motoring, and preparing emergency adaptation plans to cope with sudden oil price spikes are identified as the major areas on which planners should focus.

Despite decades of debate in urban research about the effect of built form on household energy use, the empirical research on the topic is still far from conclusive. Many studies rely on small samples and fail to control for crucial variables such as household income. This article describes a detailed analysis of household energy use in Sydney that controls for major household demographic and income variables. The results demonstrate that appliance ownership, household size, dwelling size and dwelling type all affect energy consumption. Importantly, from a planning perspective, energy use in low-rise attached dwellings, after controlling for other factors, is estimated as 15-20 per cent lower than detached dwellings with the same number of bedrooms.

Studies looking at the relationship between urban form and travel behaviour have generally considered spatial information at coarse metropolitan or local government area scales. We analyse ABS census data at the Collection District level for the metropolitan areas of the mainland Australian state capital cities, and at various spatial scales for an in-depth analysis of commuting in Sydney. The analyses suggest that the relationship between travel behaviour and urban form is complex, and that simple analyses of density alone are likely to overstate the effect of both metropolitan and neighbourhood scale population density on mode choice, but that these variables serve as useful proxies for more complex measures of urban structure.

This paper presents a single, integrated urban model that focuses on the key areas of transport, domestic energy-use, and domestic water use and how these relate to urban planning and other policies. The model structure is spatial — requiring a sub-division of the urban region into disjoint sub-regions. Such a sub-division is necessary, not only because spatial information is essential to any transport model, but also because climatic and demographic factors are common to all resource models, and are spatially heterogeneous. The model is intended for use by local, regional, and state authorities, government departments, energy, and utility service companies as a modelling and decision support tool for analysing the impact on cities of a range of energy, water, transport, and land use related policies. In particular, it seeks to understand the impact reductions possible at household and city scales. Growing awareness of the threats from climate change has focused attention on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the need to reduce them. Using a sample analysis of Sydney, our on-going research collaboration seeks to examine the working relationships between multiple infrastructure sectors through a single analysis platform. The need to integrate policy for multiple infrastructures is critical given the multiple fronts on which the sustainability of urban systems are now jeopardised.

This paper presents a single, integrated urban model that focuses on the key areas of transport, domestic energy-use, and domestic water use and how these relate to urban planning and other policies. The model structure is spatial — requiring a sub-division of the urban region into disjoint sub-regions. Such a sub-division is necessary, not only because spatial information is essential to any transport model, but also because climatic and demographic factors are common to all resource models, and are spatially heterogeneous. The model is intended for use by local, regional, and state authorities, government departments, energy, and utility service companies as a modelling and decision support tool for analysing the impact on cities of a range of energy, water, transport, and land use related policies. In particular, it seeks to understand the impact- reductions possible at household and city scales. Growing awareness of the threats from climate change has focused attention on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the need to reduce them. Using a sample analysis of Sydney, our on-going research collaboration seeks to examine the working relationships between multiple infrastructure sectors through a single analysis platform. The need to integrate policy for multiple infrastructures is critical given the multiple fronts on which the sustainability of urban systems are now jeopardised.

The nature and form of the urban environment is a critical determinant of the sustainability of our society, as it is responsible directly for a large proportion of consumed energy, and influences indirectly the patterns and modes of energy consumed in everyday activities. We examine the current state of research into the energy and greenhouse gas emissions attributable directly or indirectly to urban form. Specifically, we look at the embodied (construction) and operational energy attributable to the construction, maintenance and use of residential dwellings, and we review the literature on the relationship between urban structure and private travel behaviour. While there is clear evidence from both intra- and inter-city comparisons that higher density, transit-oriented cities have lower per-capita transport energy use, the effect of housing density on residential (in-house) energy use is less clear. More detailed research is needed to examine the relationships between urban form and overall energy use.

This paper examines the potential implications of peak oil and global warming for urban passenger transport in Sydney, Australia. After analysing patterns of transport fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions for Sydney, the paper examines potential mitigation strategies, including options for minimizing travel demand, reducing oil and carbon dioxide intensiveness, and shifting travel to more sustainable modes. It then proposes some plausible future scenarios for oil supplies and climate change, and examines their implications for urban transport in Sydney. The paper concludes that policy options for addressing these future scenarios exist but will need to be accelerated to avoid the risk of major disruptions to lifestyles and the economy.

This paper presents mathematical techniques for automatically extracting and analyzing bioacoustic signals. Automatic techniques are described for isolation of target signals from background noise, extraction of features from target signals and unsupervised classification (clustering) of the target signals based on these features. The only user-provided inputs, other than raw sound, is an initial set of signal processing and control parameters. Of particular note is that the number of signal categories is determined automatically. The techniques, applied to hydrophone recordings of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), produce promising initial results, suggesting that they may be of use in automated analysis of not only humpbacks, but possibly also in other bioacoustic settings where automated analysis is desirable.

This paper describes the thinking used to develop an integrated urban systems model of transport and domestic dwelling energy-use in association with domestic water-use. The model aims to identify common consumption trends — synergies and tensions — to improve the efficacy of urban development policies that target sustainability issues in these infrastructure sectors. Examining the limitations of four other models used to understand similar problems, highlights the potential benefits of such a model. Using Sydney as a case study, the paper provides examples of preliminary results.

This paper presents mathematical methods for automatically extracting and analysing bioacoustic signals. Automatic techniques are described for isolation of target signals from background noise, extraction of features from target signals and unsupervised classification (clustering) of the target signals based on these features. The only user-provided inputs, other than raw sound, are 6 control parameters. In particular, the number of signal categories is determined automatically. The techniques, applied to noisy hydrophone recordings of Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), achieve good results, suggesting they are sufficiently general to be applicable in many other bioacoustic settings.