Workplace surfaces as resource for social interactions

Space and spatial arrangements play an important role in our everyday social interactions. The way we use and manage our surrounding space is not coincidental, on the contrary, it reflects the way we think, plan and act. Within collaborative contexts, its ability to support social activities makes space an important component of human cognition in the post-cognitive era. As technology designers, we can learn a lot by rigorously understanding the role of space for the purpose of designing collaborative systems. In this paper, we describe an ethnographic study on the use of workplace surfaces in design studios. We introduce the idea of artful surfaces. Artful surfaces are full of informative, inspirational and creative artefacts that help designers accomplish their everyday design practices. The way these surfaces are created and used could provide information about how designers work. Using examples from our fieldwork, we show that artful surfaces have both functional and inspirational characteristics. We indentify four types of artful surfaces: personal, shared, project-specific and live surfaces. We believe that a greater insight into how these artful surfaces are created and used could lead to better design of novel display technologies to support designers’ everyday work.

Factor Five : Transforming the Global Economy through 80% Improvements in Resource Productivity

The 21st century will see monumental change. Either the human race will use its knowledge and skills and change the way it interacts with the environment, or the environment will change the way it interacts with its inhabitants. In the first case, the focus of this book, we would see our sophisticated understanding in areas such as physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, planning, commerce, business and governance accumulated over the last 1,000 years brought to bear on the challenge of dramatically reducing our pressure on the environment. The second case however is the opposite scenario, involving the decline of the planet’s ecosystems until they reach thresholds where recovery is not possible, and following which we have no idea what happens. For instance, if we fail to respond to Sir Nicolas Stern’s call to meet appropriate stabilisation trajectories for greenhouse gas emissions, and we allow the average temperature of our planets surface to increase by 4-6 degrees Celsius, we will see staggering changes to our environment, including rapidly rising sea level, withering crops, diminishing water reserves, drought, cyclones, floods… allowing this to happen will be the failure of our species, and those that survive will have a deadly legacy. In this update to the 1997 International Best Seller, Factor Four, Ernst von Weizsäcker again leads a team to present a compelling case for sector wide advances that can deliver significant resource productivity improvements over the coming century. The purpose of this book is to inspire hope and to then inform meaningful action in the coming decades to respond to the greatest challenge our species has ever faced – that of living in harmony with our planet and its other inhabitants.

Carbon, biodiversity and regional natural resource planning : towards high impact next generation plans

Given the increased importance of adaptation debates in global climate negotiations, pressure to achieve biodiversity, food and water security through managed landscape-scale adaptation will likely increase across the globe over the coming decade. In parallel, emerging market-based, terrestrial greenhouse gas abatement programs present a real opportunity to secure such adaptation to climate change through enhanced landscape resilience. Australia has an opportunity to take advantage of such programs through regional planning aspects of its governance arrangements for NRM. This paper explores necessary reforms to Australia's regional NRM planning systems to ensure that they will be better able to direct the nation's emerging GGA programs to secure enhanced landscape adaptation. © 2013 Planning Institute Australia.

Collaborative resource development for energy efficiency education

BACKGROUND There is a growing volume of open source ‘education material’ on energy efficiency now available however the Australian government has identified a need to increase the use of such materials in undergraduate engineering education. Furthermore, there is a reported need to rapidly equip engineering graduates with the capabilities in conducting energy efficiency assessments, to improve energy performance across major sectors of the economy. In January 2013, building on several years of preparatory action-research initiatives, the former Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIICCSRTE) offered $600,000 to develop resources for energy efficiency related graduate attributes, targeting Engineers Australia college disciplines, accreditation requirements and opportunities to address such requirements. PURPOSE This paper discusses a $430,000 successful bid by a university consortium led by QUT and including RMIT, UA, UOW, and VU, to design and pilot several innovative, targeted open-source resources for curriculum renewal related to energy efficiency assessments, in Australian engineering programs (2013-2014), including ‘flat-pack’, ‘media-bites’, ‘virtual reality’ and ‘deep dive’ case study initiatives. DESIGN/ METHOD The paper draws on literature review and lessons learned by the consortium partners in resource development over the last several years to discuss methods for selecting key graduate attributes and providing targeted resources, supporting materials, and innovative delivery options to assist universities deliver knowledge and skills to develop such attributes. This includes strategic industry and key stakeholders engagement. The paper also discusses processes for piloting, validating, peer reviewing, and refining these resources using a rigorous and repeatable approach to engaging with academic and industry colleagues. RESULTS The paper provides an example of innovation in resource development through an engagement strategy that takes advantage of existing networks, initiatives, and funding arrangements, while informing program accreditation requirements, to produce a cost-effective plan for rapid integration of energy efficiency within education. By the conference, stakeholder workshops will be complete. Resources will be in the process of being drafted, building on findings from the stakeholder engagement workshops. Reporting on this project “in progress” provides a significant opportunity to share lessons learned and take on board feedback and input. CONCLUSIONS This paper provides a useful reference document for others considering significant resource development in a consortium approach, summarising benefits and challenges. The paper also provides a basis for documenting the second half of the project, which comprises piloting resources and producing a ‘good practice guide’ for energy efficiency related curriculum renewal.

Technoeconomic analysis of renewable aviation fuel from microalgae,Pongamia pinnata, and sugarcane

Technoeconomic analysis of renewable aviatin fuels has not been widely considered, despite the increasing global attention that the field has received. We present three process models for production of aviation fuel from microalgae, Pongamia pinnata, and sugarcane molasses. The models and assumptions have been deposited on a wiki (http://qsafi.aibn.uq.edu.au) and are open and accessible to the community. Based on currently available long-term reputable technological data, this analysis indicates that the biorefinieries processing the microalgae, Pongamia seeds, and sugarcane feedstocks would be competitive with crude oil at $1343, $374, and $301/bbl, respectively. Sensitivity analyses of the major economic drivers suggest technological and market developments that would bring the corresponding figures down to $385, $255, and $168/bbl. The dynamic nature of the freely accessible models will allow the community to track progress toward economic competitiveness of aviation fuels from these renewable feedstocks.

The identification and rapid extraction of hydrocarbons from Nicotiana glauca : A potential advanced renewable biofuel source

Declining fossil fuels reserves, a need for increased energy security and concerns over carbon emissions from fossil fuel use are the global drivers for alternative, renewable, biosources of fuels and chemicals. In the present study the identification of long chain (C29–C33) saturated hydrocarbons from Nicotiana glauca leaves is reported. The occurrence of these hydrocarbons was detected by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and identification confirmed by comparison of physico-chemical properties displayed by the authentic standards available. A simple, robust procedure was developed to enable the generation of an extract containing a high percentage of hydrocarbons (6.3% by weight of dried leaf material) higher than previous reports in other higher plant species consequently, it is concluded that N. glauca could be a crop of greater importance than previously recognised for biofuel production. The plant can be grown on marginal lands, negating the need to compete with food crops or farmland, and the hydrocarbon extract can be produced in a non-invasive manner, leaving remaining biomass intact for bioethanol production and the generation of valuable co-products.

Prospects for the development of sugarcane biorefineries

Sugarcane biorefineries co-producing fuels, green chemicals and bio-products offer great potential for improving the profitability and sustainability of sugarcane industries around the world. Sugarcane bagasse is widely regarded as one of the best biomass feedstocks for early adoption and commercialisation of biorefining technologies because of the large scale of the resource and its availability at sugar factories. Biomass biorefineries aim to convert bagasse through biochemical and thermochemical processes to produce low cost fermentable sugars which are a platform for value-adding. Through subsequent fermentation technologies or chemical synthesis, the sugars can be converted to fuels including ethanol and butanol, oils, organic acids such as succinic and levulinic and polymer precursors. Other biorefinery products can include food and animal feeds, plastics, fibre products and resins. Recent advances in biorefinery production technologies are being demonstrated in a unique research facility at the Queensland University of Technology’s Mackay Renewable Biocommodities Pilot Plant in Mackay, Australia. This pilot scale production facility located at Mackay Sugar Ltd’s Racecourse Mill is demonstrating the production of a range of fuels and other products from sugarcane bagasse. This paper will address the opportunities available for sugarcane biorefineries to contribute to future profitability and sustainability of the sugarcane industry.

Sweet sorghum : opportunities for a new, renewable fuel and food industry in Australia

Sweet sorghum is receiving significant global interest as an agro-industrial crop because of its capacity to co-produce energy, food, and feed products in integrated biorefineries. This report assesses the opportunities to develop a sweet sorghum industry in Australia, reports on research demonstrating the production of energy, food, and feed products, and assesses the potential economic and sustainability benefits of sweet sorghum biorefineries in the Australian context.

Pressure state response-based method for evaluating social benefits from smart grid development

In this paper, the inherent mechanism of social benefits associated with smart grid development is examined based on the pressure state response (PSR) model from resource economics. The emerging types of technology brought up by smart grid development are regarded as pressures. The improvements of the performance and efficiency of power system operation, such as the enhanced capability of accommodating renewable energy generation, are regarded as states. The effects of smart grid development on society are regarded as responses. Then, a novel method for evaluating social benefits from smart grid development is presented. Finally, the social benefits from smart grid development in a province in northwest China are carried out by using the developed evaluation system, and reasonable evaluation results are attained.

Smart resource control in distribution network to improve the integration level of PV

This project was an innovative approach in developing smart coordination of available energy resources to improve the integration level of PV in distribution network. Voltage and loading issues are considered as the main concerns for future electricity grid which need to be avoided using such resources. A distributed control structure was proposed for the resources in distribution network to avoid noted power quality issues.

Diode-clamped three-level inverter-based battery/supercapacitor direct integration scheme for renewable energy systems

This paper describes a diode-clamped three-level inverter-based battery/supercapacitor direct integration scheme for renewable energy systems. The study is carried out for three different cases. In the first case, one of the two dc-link capacitors of the inverter is replaced by a battery bank and the other by a supercapacitor bank. In the second case, dc-link capacitors are replaced by two battery banks. In the third case, ordinary dc-link capacitors are replaced by two supercapacitor banks. The first system is supposed to mitigate both long-term and short-term power fluctuations while the last two systems are intended for smoothening long-term and short-term power fluctuations, respectively. These topologies eliminate the need for interfacing dc-dc converters and thus considerably improve the overall system efficiency. The major issue in aforementioned systems is the unavoidable imbalance in dc-link voltages. An analysis on the effects of unbalance and a space vector modulation method, which can produce undistorted current even in the presence of such unbalances, are presented in this paper. Furthermore, small vector selection-based power sharing and state of charge balancing techniques are proposed. Experimental results, obtained from a laboratory prototype, are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed modulation and control techniques.

Resource Curse or Cure?: On the Sustainability of Development in Western Australia

Addresses often unanswered questions about the costs and benefits of resource-based development The first book to offer a suitably comprehensive critique of Western Australia's development path Provides a multi-facetted perspective thanks to its truly cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional authorship Globalisation and rapid social and environmental change in recent decades have brought into sharper focus not only the benefits but also the costs of economic development. The once assumed link between economic development and societal well-being is being increasingly questioned in the face of growing social and environmental problems and unfulfilled expectations concerning political and commercial decision-makers. The orthodox development dogma is being tested in particular in resource-based economies such as Western Australia, where globalisation pressures and the concomitant rise in the demand for natural resources highlight the difficulties of effectively balancing broader societal interests with those of industry and the state. This book provides a critical review of the socio-political, environmental and cultural state of play in Western Australia, offering an analysis of how resource-based developments are shaping the state and its people.

Confronting the ‘resource curse or cure’ binary

The use of the curse or cure dichotomy to frame a discussion around the impacts of mining is an oversimplification, not least in the emphasis on one or the other (as opposed to curse and cure). It is, however, a potent trope for engaging critically with the consequences of mining not only in narrow economic terms but also in regard to political, social and environmental costs and benefits. Further, as Goodman and Worth (2008: 201) point out, to engage with the resource curse or cure question is to also engage more broadly with “the internal contradictions of capitalist development” as evident, for example, in divisions “between those who benefit from and those who bear the costs of accumulation” and the many conflicts—political, social, economic, environmental—attending resource extraction. It is in this sense that this volume mobilises the ‘resource curse or cure?’ motif.

Gender dimensions of resource extraction : the place of women

This chapter examines two core dimensions of women’s gendered experiences of mining in Australia and more specifically in Western Australia (WA). First, the chapter explores what has been and continues to be women’s principal relationship to mining encapsulated in the social and cultural identity of the ‘mining wife’ and, more recently, ‘fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) wife’. Second, the chapter addresses the fraught emergence of women as mineworkers. As the research presented in this chapter makes clear, the human cost of developmentalism was and continues to be deeply gendered.

Configurations of Gender, Class and Rurality in Resource Affected Rural Australia

Historically, class has been a key concern in studies of resource affected communities (e.g., Williamson 1982, Warwick and Littlejohn 1992). While work continues, particularly in Britain, today it reflects the rationalization of the British mining sector, and thus focuses largely on mining heritage (e.g., Strangleman et al. 1999, Dicks 2008). In contrast, this chapter examines class relations as manifest in a contemporary setting in rural Australia. This site, the Ravensthorpe Shire in the south west of Western Australia, relied largely on agriculture until 2004 when BHP Billiton commenced construction of a nickel mine in the area. This affected the entire Shire as well as the two rural communities of Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. The mine, which was officially opened in June 2008, is one of a large number of new mineral and energy developments being established in non metropolitan areas of the country as high international demand for resources fuels significant growth in the sector. In a single six month period in 2009, for example, 15 major minerals and energy projects were completed across the nation and a further 74 projects were at advanced stages (Australian Bureau of Agricultural Economics 2009). A number of these were, as was the case in Ravensthorpe, in what had been traditionally agricultural communities.