Estimation of energy saving of commercial building by living wall and green facade in sub-tropical climate of Australia

This paper investigates energy saving potential of commercial building by living wall and green façade system using Envelope Thermal Transfer Value (ETTV) equation in Sub-tropical climate of Australia. Energy saving of four commercial buildings was quantified by applying living wall and green façade system to the west facing wall. A field experimental facility, from which temperature data of living wall system was collected, was used to quantify wall temperatures and heat gain under controlled conditions. The experimental parameters were accumulated with extensive data of existing commercial building to quantify energy saving. Based on temperature data of living wall system comprised of Australian native plants, equivalent temperature of living wall system has been computed. Then, shading coefficient of plants in green façade system has been included in mathematical equation and in graphical analysis. To minimize the air-conditioned load of commercial building, therefore to minimize the heat gain of commercial building, an analysis of building heat gain reduction by living wall and green façade system has been performed. Overall, cooling energy performance of commercial building before and after living wall and green façade system application has been examined. The quantified energy saving showed that only living wall system on opaque part of west facing wall can save 8-13 % of cooling energy consumption where as only green façade system on opaque part of west facing wall can save 9.5-18% cooling energy consumption of commercial building. Again, green façade system on fenestration system on west facing wall can save 28-35 % of cooling energy consumption where as combination of both living wall on opaque part of west facing wall and green façade on fenestration system on west facing wall can save 35-40% cooling energy consumption of commercial building in sub-tropical climate of Australia.

Reduced-Size microstrip patch antenna for Bluetooth applications

A novel reduced-size microstrip rectangular patch antenna for Bluetooth operation is presented in this paper. The proposed antenna operates in the 2400 to 2484 MHz ISM Band. Although an air substrate is introduced, antenna occupies a small volume of 33.3×6.6×0.8 mm3. The gain and the impedance bandwidth of the antenna are predicted using a commercial Finite Element Method software package. The predicted results show good agreement with measured data.

Error correction in second language writing : teachers’ beliefs, practices, and students’ preferences

Error correction is perhaps the most widely used method for responding to student writing. While various studies have investigated the effectiveness of providing error correction, there has been relatively little research incorporating teachers' beliefs, practices, and students' preferences in written error correction. The current study adopted features of an ethnographic research design in order to explore the beliefs and practices of ESL teachers, and investigate the preferences of L2 students regarding written error correction in the context of a language institute situated in the Brisbane metropolitan district. In this study, two ESL teachers and two groups of adult intermediate L2 students were interviewed and observed. The beliefs and practices of the teachers were elicited through interviews and classroom observations. The preferences of L2 students were elicited through focus group interviews. Responses of the participants were encoded and analysed. Results of the teacher interviews showed that teachers believe that providing written error correction has advantages and disadvantages. Teachers believe that providing written error correction helps students improve their proof-reading skills in order to revise their writing more efficiently. However, results also indicate that providing written error correction is very time consuming. Furthermore, teachers prefer to provide explicit written feedback strategies during the early stages of the language course, and move to a more implicit strategy of providing written error correction in order to facilitate language learning. On the other hand, results of the focus group interviews suggest that students regard their teachers' practice of written error correction as important in helping them locate their errors and revise their writing. However, students also feel that the process of providing written error correction is time consuming. Nevertheless, students want and expect their teachers to provide written feedback because they believe that the benefits they gain from receiving feedback on their writing outweigh the apparent disadvantages of their teachers' written error correction strategies.

Investigation to enhance high speed rail accessibility

High Speed Rail (HSR) is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide as a safe and efficient transport option for long-distance travel. Designed to win market shares from air transport, HSR systems optimise their productivity between increasing speeds and station spacing to offer high quality service and gain ridership. Recent studies have investigated the effects that the deployment of HSR infrastructure has on spatial distribution and the economic development of cities and regions. Findings appear mostly positive at higher geographical scales, where HSR links connect major urban centres several hundred kilometres apart and already well positioned within a national or international context. Also, at the urban level, studies have shown regeneration and concentration effects around HSR station areas with positive returns on city’s image and economy. However, doubts persist on the effects of HSR at an intermediate scale, where the accessibility trade off on station spacing limits access to many small and medium agglomerations. Thereby, their ability to participate in the development opportunities facilitated by HSR infrastructure is significantly reduced. The locational advantages deriving from transport improvements appear contrasting especially in regions that tend to have a polycentric structure, where cities may present greater accessibility disparities between those served by HSR and those left behind. This thesis fits in this context where intermediate and regional cities do not directly enjoy the presence of an HSR station while having an existing or planned proximate HSR corridor. With the aim of understanding whether there might be a solution to this apparent incongruity, the research investigates strategies to integrate HSR accessibility at the regional level. While current literature recommends to commit with ancillary investments to the uplift of station areas and the renewal of feeder systems, I hypothesised the interoperability between the HSR and the conventional networks to explore the possibilities offered by mixed traffic and infrastructure sharing. Thus, I developed a methodology to quantify the exchange of benefits deriving from this synergistic interaction. In this way, it was possible to understand which level of service quality offered by alternative transit strategies best facilitates the distribution of accessibility benefits for areas far from actual HSR stations. Therefore, strategies were selected for their type of service capable of regional extensions and urban penetrations, while incorporating a combination of specific advantages (e.g. speed, sub-urbanity, capacity, frequency and automation) in order to emulate HSR quality with increasingly efficient services. The North-eastern Italian macro region was selected as case study to ground the research offering concurrently a peripheral polycentric metropolitan form, the presence of a planned HSR corridor with some portions of HSR infrastructure implementation, and the project to develop a suburban rail service extended regionally. Results show significant distributive potential, in terms of network effects produced in relation with HSR, in increasing proportions for all the strategies considered: a regional metro rail strategy (abbreviated RMR), a regional high speed rail strategy (abbreviated RHSR), a regional light rail transit (abbreviated LRT) strategy, and a non-stopping continuous railway system (abbreviated CRS) strategy. The provision of additional tools to value HSR infrastructure against its accessibility benefits and their regional distribution through alternative strategies beyond the actual HSR stations, would have great implications, both politically and technically, in moving towards new dimensions of HSR evaluation and development.

Review of "Violence, Prejudice and Sexuality" by Stephen Tomsen (Routledge, New York and London, 2009)

Tomsen’s book Violence, Prejudice and Sexuality engages with important questions about sexuality and anti homosexual sentiment that criminologists have grappled with for some time. Tomsen’s work refines these questions in the context of essentialism, and notes how this concept has enabled only very specific ways of thinking about and analysing violence, prejudice, and sexuality. Indeed, thinking about the nexus between these three concepts are now almost taken for granted. As Tomsen demonstrates in his discussion of historical understandings of sexual desire, although social constructionism and queer perspectives have challenged essentialist notions of sexuality, research has in many respects upheld a binary understanding of heterosexuality as normal and homosexuality as abnormal. Interestingly, essentialist binaries like this have been conveniently employed in more recent times when activists align with minority status to gain basic human rights. While no one could deny the importance of access to rights and justice, Tomsen notes the danger inherent in arguments like this that draw on essentialism. He argues we are working through similar dichotomies of heterosexuality as normal and homosexuality as abnormal set up in very early research on sexual desire. The key difference now is that, in the rush towards public and political citizenship, ‘heterosexuals are recast as “perpetrators” and homosexuals as “victims”’ (Tomsen 2009: 16). Violence, Prejudice and Sexuality importantly notes this is no less an essentialist dichotomy and no less divisive....

The effect of lumbar support on the trunk muscle activity and pelvic tilt in a passenger vehicle car seat

In order to gain a competitive edge in the market, automotive manufacturers and automotive seat suppliers have identified seat ergonomics for further development to improve overall vehicle comfort. Adjustable lumbar support devices have been offered since long as comfort systems in either a 2-way or 4-way adjustable configuration, although their effect on lumbar strain is not well documented. The effect of a lumbar support on posture and muscular strain, and therefore the relationship between discomfort and comfort device parameter settings, requires clarification. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of a 4-way lumbar support on lower trunk and pelvis muscle activity, pelvic tilt and spine curvature during a car seating activity. 10 healthy subjects (5 m/f; age 19-39) performed a seating activity in a passenger vehicle with seven different static lumbar support positions. The lumbar support was tested in 3 different height positions in relation to the seatback surface centreline (high, centre, low), each having 2 depths positions (lumbar prominence). An extra depth position was added for the centre position. Posture data were collected using a VICON MX motion capture system and NORAXON DTS goniometers and inclinometer. A rigid-body model of an adjustable car seat with four-way adjustable lumbar support was constructed in UGS Siemens NX and connected to a musculoskeletal model of a seated-human, modelled in AnyBody. Wireless electromyography (EMG) was used to calibrate the musculoskeletal model and assess the relationship between (a) muscular strain and lumbar prominence (normal to seatback surface) respective to the lumbar height (alongside seatback surface), (b) hip joint moment and lumbar prominence (normal to seatback surface) respective to lumbar height (alongside seatback surface) and (c) pelvic tilt and lumbar prominence (normal to seatback surface) respective to the lumbar height (alongside seatback surface). This study was based on the assumption that the musculoskeletal human model was seated at the correct R-Point (SgRP), determined via the occupant packaging toolkit in the JACK digital human model. The effect of the interaction between the driver/car-seat has been investigated for factors resulting from the presence and adjustment of a 4-way lumbar support. The results obtained show that various seat adjustments, and driver’s lumbar supports can have complex influence on the muscle activation, joint forces and moments, all of which can affect the comfort perception of the driver. This study enables the automotive industry to optimise passenger vehicle seat development and design. It further more supports the evaluation of static postural and dynamic seat comfort in normal everyday driving tasks and can be applied for future car design to reduce investment and improve comfort.

Investigation of cooling energy performance of commercial building in sub-tropical climate through the application of green roof and living wall

This paper investigates cooling energy performance of commercial building before and after green roof and living wall application based on integrated building heat gain model developed from Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) of building wall and steady state heat transfer process of roof in sub-tropical climate. Using the modelled equation and eQUEST energy simulation tool, commercial building envelope parameters and relevant heat gain parameters have been accumulated to analyse the heat gain and cooling energy consumption of commercial building. Real life commercial building envelope and air-conditioned load data for the sub-tropical climate zone have been collected and compared with the modelled analysis. Relevant temperature data required for living wall and green roof analysis have been collected from experimental setup comprised of both green roof and west facing living wall. Then, Commercial building heat flux and cooling energy performance before and after green roof and living wall application have been scrutinized.

Workforce indicators of health literacy

The concept of health literacy has evolved over the last forty years from an individual, literacy driven focus in clinical settings to one associated with a contemporary approach to health promotion. The World Health Organization has defined health literacy as ‘the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health’ (World Health Organization, 1998, p. 10). The conceptual evolution of health literacy has seen a shift beyond a functional orientation to also recognise cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences. This more comprehensive view of health literacy acknowledges factors like efficacy, motivation, self-efficacy, autonomy, social support and empowerment. A health literate workforce could present benefits for the employee and employer...

(Un)doing gender : ways of being in an age of uncertainty

Children’s literature has conventionally and historically been concerned with identity and the often tortuous journey to becoming a subject who is generally older and wiser, a journey typically characterised by mishap, adventure, and detours. Narrative closure in children’s and young adult novels and films typically provides a point of self-realisation or self-actualisation, whereby the struggles of finding one’s “true” identity have been overcome. In this familiar coming-of-age narrative, there is often an underlying premise of an essential self that will emerge or be uncovered. This kind of narrative resolution provides readers with a reassurance that things will work for the best in the end, which is an enduring feature of children’s literature, and part of liberal-humanism’s project of harmonious individuality. However, uncertainty is a constant that has always characterised the ways lives are lived, regardless of best-laid plans. Children’s literature provides a field of narrative knowledge whereby readers gain impressions of childhood and adolescence, or more specifically, knowledge of ways of being at a time in life, which is marked by uncertainty. Despite the prevalence of children’s texts which continue to offer normative ways of being, in particular, normative forms of gender behaviour, there are texts which resist the pull for characters to be “like everyone else” by exploring alternative subjectivities. Fiction, however, cannot be regarded as a source of evidence about the material realities of life, as its strength lies in its affective and imaginative dimensions, which nevertheless can offer readers moments of reflection, recognition, or, in some cases, reality lessons. As a form of cultural production, contemporary children’s literature is highly responsive to social change and political debates, and is crucially implicated in shaping the values, attitudes and behaviours of children and young people.

Caring for women suffering depression in the postnatal period

The research and theoretical perspectives that underpin knowledge of depression in the postnatal period have tended to rely on standardized measures and 'objective' data which combine to disempower women's individual experiences. From a feminist perspective, contradictions exist between women's accounts of the early days and months following childbirth and the diagnosis of postnatal depression made by some health professionals. A framework for nursing care that uses the strengths of feminist and cognitive therapies is suggested. From this feminist-cognitive perspective, mental health nursing care will provide opportunities for women suffering depression to debrief the experience of birth and pregnancy, manage conflicts about identity, gain a sense of survival, and develop a new perspective.

VET and VET educators : understanding teacher dilemmas in providing quality educational experience to international students in Brisbane

In the past fifteen years, increasing attention has been given to the role of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in attracting large numbers of international students and its contribution to the economic development of Australia. This trend has given rise to many challenges in vocational education, especially with regard to providing quality education that ensures international students’ stay in Australia is a satisfactory experience. Teachers are key stakeholders in international education and share responsibility for ensuring international students gain quality learning experiences and positive outcomes. However, the challenges and needs of these teachers are generally not well understood. Therefore, this paper draws on the dilemmas faced by teachers of international students associated with professional, personal, ethical and educational aspects. This paper reports on a Masters Research project that is designed to investigate the dilemmas that teachers of international students face in VET in Australia, particularly in Brisbane. This study uses a qualitative approach within the interpretive constructivist paradigm to gain real-life insights through responsive interviewing and inductive data analysis. While the data collection has been done, the analysis of data is in progress. Responsive interviews with teachers of VET with different academic and national backgrounds, ages, industry experience have identified particular understandings, ideologies and representations of what it means to be a teacher in today's multicultural VET environment; provoking both resistances and new pedagogical understanding of teacher dilemmas and their work environment through the eyes of teachers of international students. The paper considers the challenges for the VET practitioners within the VET system while reflecting on the theme for the 2011 AVETRA conference, “Research in VET: Janus- Reflecting Back, Projecting Forward” by focusing particularly on “Rethinking pedagogies and pathways in VET work through the voice of VET workers”.

Design and implementation of wideband baluns for Archimedean spiral antennas

The demand for high-speed data services for portable device has become a driving force for development of advanced broadband access technologies. Despite recent advances in broadband wireless technologies, there remain a number of critical issues to be resolved. One of the major concerns is the implementation of compact antennas that can operate in a wide frequency band. Spiral antenna has been used extensively for broadband applications due to its planar structure, wide bandwidth characteristics and circular polarisation. However, the practical implementation of spiral antennas is challenged by its high input characteristic impedance, relatively low gain and the need for balanced feeding structures. Further development of wideband balanced feeding structures for spiral antennas with matching impedance capabilities remain a need. This thesis proposes three wideband feeding systems for spiral antennas which are compatible with wideband array antenna geometries. First, a novel tapered geometry is proposed for a symmetric coplanar waveguide (CPW) to coplanar strip line (CPS) wideband balun. This balun can achieve the unbalanced to balanced transformation while matching the high input impedance of the antenna to a reference impedance of 50 . The discontinuity between CPW and CPS is accommodated by using a radial stub and bond wires. The bandwidth of the balun is improved by appropriately tapering the CPW line instead of using a stepped impedance transformer. Next, the tapered design is applied to an asymmetric CPW to propose a novel asymmetric CPW to CPS wideband balun. The use of asymmetric CPW does away with the discontinuities between CPW and CPS without having to use a radial stub or bond wires. Finally, a tapered microstrip line to parallel striplines balun is proposed. The balun consists of two sections. One section is the parallel striplines which are connected to the antenna, with the impedance of balanced line equal to the antenna input impedance. The other section consists of a microstrip line where the width of the ground plane is gradually reduced to eventually resemble a parallel stripline. The taper accomplishes the mode and impedance transformation. This balun has significantly improved bandwidth characteristics. Characteristics of proposed feeding structures are measured in a back-to-back configuration and compared to simulated results. The simulated and measured results show the tapered microstrip to parallel striplines balun to have more than three octaves of bandwidth. The tapered microstrip line to parallel striplines balun is integrated with a single Archimedean spiral antenna and with an array of spiral antennas. The performance of the integrated structures is simulated with the aid of electromagnetic simulation software, and results are compared to measurements. The back-to-back microstrip to parallel strip balun has a return loss of better than 10 dB over a wide bandwidth from 1.75 to 15 GHz. The performance of the microstrip to parallel strip balun was validated with the spiral antennas. The results show the balun to be an effective mean of feeding network with a low profile and wide bandwidth (2.5 to 15 GHz) for balanced spiral antennas.

3D reconstruction of long bones utilising magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

The design of pre-contoured fracture fixation implants (plates and nails) that correctly fit the anatomy of a patient utilises 3D models of long bones with accurate geometric representation. 3D data is usually available from computed tomography (CT) scans of human cadavers that generally represent the above 60 year old age group. Thus, despite the fact that half of the seriously injured population comes from the 30 year age group and below, virtually no data exists from these younger age groups to inform the design of implants that optimally fit patients from these groups. Hence, relevant bone data from these age groups is required. The current gold standard for acquiring such data–CT–involves ionising radiation and cannot be used to scan healthy human volunteers. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been shown to be a potential alternative in the previous studies conducted using small bones (tarsal bones) and parts of the long bones. However, in order to use MRI effectively for 3D reconstruction of human long bones, further validations using long bones and appropriate reference standards are required. Accurate reconstruction of 3D models from CT or MRI data sets requires an accurate image segmentation method. Currently available sophisticated segmentation methods involve complex programming and mathematics that researchers are not trained to perform. Therefore, an accurate but relatively simple segmentation method is required for segmentation of CT and MRI data. Furthermore, some of the limitations of 1.5T MRI such as very long scanning times and poor contrast in articular regions can potentially be reduced by using higher field 3T MRI imaging. However, a quantification of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) gain at the bone - soft tissue interface should be performed; this is not reported in the literature. As MRI scanning of long bones has very long scanning times, the acquired images are more prone to motion artefacts due to random movements of the subject‟s limbs. One of the artefacts observed is the step artefact that is believed to occur from the random movements of the volunteer during a scan. This needs to be corrected before the models can be used for implant design. As the first aim, this study investigated two segmentation methods: intensity thresholding and Canny edge detection as accurate but simple segmentation methods for segmentation of MRI and CT data. The second aim was to investigate the usability of MRI as a radiation free imaging alternative to CT for reconstruction of 3D models of long bones. The third aim was to use 3T MRI to improve the poor contrast in articular regions and long scanning times of current MRI. The fourth and final aim was to minimise the step artefact using 3D modelling techniques. The segmentation methods were investigated using CT scans of five ovine femora. The single level thresholding was performed using a visually selected threshold level to segment the complete femur. For multilevel thresholding, multiple threshold levels calculated from the threshold selection method were used for the proximal, diaphyseal and distal regions of the femur. Canny edge detection was used by delineating the outer and inner contour of 2D images and then combining them to generate the 3D model. Models generated from these methods were compared to the reference standard generated using the mechanical contact scans of the denuded bone. The second aim was achieved using CT and MRI scans of five ovine femora and segmenting them using the multilevel threshold method. A surface geometric comparison was conducted between CT based, MRI based and reference models. To quantitatively compare the 1.5T images to the 3T MRI images, the right lower limbs of five healthy volunteers were scanned using scanners from the same manufacturer. The images obtained using the identical protocols were compared by means of SNR and contrast to noise ratio (CNR) of muscle, bone marrow and bone. In order to correct the step artefact in the final 3D models, the step was simulated in five ovine femora scanned with a 3T MRI scanner. The step was corrected using the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm based aligning method. The present study demonstrated that the multi-threshold approach in combination with the threshold selection method can generate 3D models from long bones with an average deviation of 0.18 mm. The same was 0.24 mm of the single threshold method. There was a significant statistical difference between the accuracy of models generated by the two methods. In comparison, the Canny edge detection method generated average deviation of 0.20 mm. MRI based models exhibited 0.23 mm average deviation in comparison to the 0.18 mm average deviation of CT based models. The differences were not statistically significant. 3T MRI improved the contrast in the bone–muscle interfaces of most anatomical regions of femora and tibiae, potentially improving the inaccuracies conferred by poor contrast of the articular regions. Using the robust ICP algorithm to align the 3D surfaces, the step artefact that occurred by the volunteer moving the leg was corrected, generating errors of 0.32 ± 0.02 mm when compared with the reference standard. The study concludes that magnetic resonance imaging, together with simple multilevel thresholding segmentation, is able to produce 3D models of long bones with accurate geometric representations. The method is, therefore, a potential alternative to the current gold standard CT imaging.

An investigation of market segmentation theory and its impact on effective fundraising

This paper presents the findings of an indepth study into the effects and success of marketing segmentation, target marketing and fundraising. Organisations are constantly seeking new ways and more efficient means to raise funds so that they can fulfill their objectives. These organisations review and evaluate their resources to gain competitive advantage and increased fundraising success...

Individual differences in drivers’ cognitive processing of road safety messages

Using Gray and McNaughton’s (2000) revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (r-RST), we examined the influence of personality on processing of words presented in gain-framed and loss-framed anti-speeding messages and how the processing biases associated with personality influenced message acceptance. The r-RST predicts that the nervous system regulates personality and that behaviour is dependent upon the activation of the Behavioural Activation System (BAS), activated by reward cues and the Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS), activated by punishment cues. According to r-RST, individuals differ in the sensitivities of their BAS and FFFS (i.e., weak to strong), which in turn leads to stable patterns of behaviour in the presence of rewards and punishments, respectively. It was hypothesised that individual differences in personality (i.e., strength of the BAS and the FFFS) would influence the degree of both message processing (as measured by reaction time to previously viewed message words) and message acceptance (measured three ways by perceived message effectiveness, behavioural intentions, and attitudes). Specifically, it was anticipated that, individuals with a stronger BAS would process the words presented in the gain-frame messages faster than those with a weaker BAS and individuals with a stronger FFFS would process the words presented in the loss-frame messages faster than those with a weaker FFFS. Further, it was expected that greater processing (faster reaction times) would be associated with greater acceptance for that message. Driver licence holding students (N = 108) were recruited to view one of four anti-speeding messages (i.e., social gain-frame, social loss-frame, physical gain-frame, and physical loss-frame). A computerised lexical decision task assessed participants’ subsequent reaction times to message words, as an indicator of the extent of processing of the previously viewed message. Self-report measures assessed personality and the three message acceptance measures. As predicted, the degree of initial processing of the content of the social gain-framed message mediated the relationship between the reward sensitive trait and message effectiveness. Initial processing of the physical loss-framed message partially mediated the relationship between the punishment sensitive trait and both message effectiveness and behavioural intention ratings. These results show that reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity traits influence cognitive processing of gain-framed and loss-framed message content, respectively, and subsequently, message effectiveness and behavioural intention ratings. Specifically, a range of road safety messages (i.e., gain-frame and loss-frame messages) could be designed which align with the processing biases associated with personality and which would target those individuals who are sensitive to rewards and those who are sensitive to punishments.