On-road ultrafine particle concentration in the M5 East road tunnel, Sydney, Australia

The human health effects following exposure to ultrafine (<100nm) particles (UFPs) produced by fuel combustion, while not completely understood, are generally regarded as detrimental. Road tunnels have emerged as locations where maximum exposure to these particles may occur for the vehicle occupants using them. This study aimed to quantify and investigate the determinants of UFP concentrations in the 4km twin-bore (eastbound and westbound) M5 East tunnel in Sydney, Australia. Sampling was undertaken using a condensation particle counter (CPC) mounted in a vehicle traversing both tunnel bores at various times of day from May through July, 2006. Supplementary measurements were conducted in February, 2008. Over three hundred transects of the tunnel were performed, and these were distributed evenly between the bores. Additional comparative measurements were conducted on a mixed route comprising major roads and shorter tunnels, all within Sydney. Individual trip average UFP concentrations in the M5 East tunnel bores ranged from 5.53 × 104 p cm-3 to 5.95 × 106 p cm-3. Data were sorted by hour of capture, and hourly median trip average (HMA) UFP concentrations ranged from 7.81 × 104 p cm-3 to 1.73 × 106 p cm-3. Hourly median UFP concentrations measured on the mixed route were between 3.71 × 104 p cm-3 and 1.55 × 105 p cm-3. Hourly heavy diesel vehicle (HDV) traffic volume was a very good determinant of UFP concentration in the eastbound tunnel bore (R2 = 0.87), but much less so in the westbound bore (R2 = 0.26). In both bores, the volume of passenger vehicles (i.e. unleaded gasoline-powered vehicles) was a significantly poorer determinant of particle concentration. When compared with similar studies reported previously, the measurements described here were among the highest recorded concentrations, which further highlights the contribution road tunnels may make to the overall UFP exposure of vehicle occupants.

Using the imagination : consumer evoking and thematizing of the fantastic imaginary

This article explores the process by which consumers evoke and thematize the fantastic imaginary when playing a fantasy-based trading card game. Interviews with 15 informants, all players of Magic: The Gathering, serve as data. The result is a new framework that reveals how the fantastic imaginary is evoked and thematized. A typology of thematizing strategies employed by consumers is also presented. Implications are discussed in relation to consumer research, imagination theory, literary theory of the evoked fantastic imaginary, and the imaginary in play.

Skydweller and representations of the adolescent crisis : group identity versus alienation

This document contains a creative work – the text of a young adult novel, Skydweller – and an exegesis discussing the ways in which identity and the adolescent crisis of group identity versus alienation are represented in young adult science fiction/fantasy novels.

The empty city

Picture Book, Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book 2008 What would you do if you were the only one in a deserted city? Where would you go, and what would you do? The Empty City taps into a fantasy that many of us have had as children to be allowed to explore, unhindered, the ordinarily crowded environment of a shopping centre.

Order supported by law : the enforcement of norms in virtual communities

As online social spaces continue to grow in importance, the complex relationship between users and the private providers of the platforms continues to raise increasingly difficult questions about legitimacy in online governance. This article examines two issues that go to the core of egitimate governance in online communities: how are rules enforced and punishments imposed, and how should the law support legitimate governance and protect participants from the illegitimate exercise of power? Because the rules of online communities are generally ultimately backed by contractual terms of service, the imposition of punishment for the breach of internal rules exists in a difficult conceptual gap between criminal law and the predominantly compensatory remedies of contractual doctrine. When theorists have addressed the need for the rules of virtual communities to be enforced, a dichotomy has generally emerged between the appropriate role of criminal law for 'real' crimes, and the private, internal resolution of 'virtual' or 'fantasy' crimes. In this structure, the punitive effect of internal measures is downplayed and the harm that can be caused to participants by internal sanctions is systemically undervalued.

The embodied hybrid space : designing for digital encounters in physical environments

The emergence of mobile and ubiquitous computing has created what is referred to as a hybrid space – a virtual layer of digital information and interaction opportunities that sits on top and augments the physical environment. The increasing connectedness through such media, from anywhere to anybody at anytime, makes us less dependent on being physically present somewhere in particular. But, what is the role of ubiquitous computing in making physical presence at a particular place more attractive? Acknowledging historic context and identity as important attributes of place, this work embarks on a ‘global sense of place’ in which the cultural diversity, multiple identities, backgrounds, skills and experiences of people traversing a place are regarded as social assets of that place. The aim is to explore ways how physical architecture and infrastructure of a place can be mediated towards making invisible social assets visible, thus augmenting people’s situated social experience. Thereby, the focus is on embodied media, i.e. media that materialise digital information as observable and sometimes interactive parts of the physical environment hence amplify people’s real world experience, rather than substituting or moving it to virtual spaces.

Something rotten in the state of Minnesota: or the morality of backwoodsmen: 'A Simple Plan'

'A Simple Plan' is a deceptively complex and multilayered film, combining elements of Celtic mythology with the morality play and the windfall fantasy gone disastrously wrong. Despite its blending of realism and heavyhanded symbolism, and its abundant trans-textual gestures, 'A Simple Plan' is in many ways defiantly not a 90s movie: its leading characters are fashionably flawed, but they are neither sensitive, nor honourable, nor heroic; there are no startling special effects or intricate timeshifts; and it desperately gives the impression of depth, of being emphatically more than mere superficial excess. At a stretch it almost appears to be a throwback to the 1930s Production Code emphasis on the role of cinema in moral instruction; while good hardly triumphs over evil, venality is painfully and emphatically punished. But in other ways it is a quintessential late 90s film: an American/British/Japanese/German/French co-production, 'A Simple Plan' acts most palpably as a commentary on the moral, economic and social condition of the United States at the end of the American century.

The water catchment : fast forward to the past

The Water Catchment: fast forward to the past comprises two parts: a creative piece and an exegesis. The methodology is Creative Practice as Research; a process of critical reflection, where I observe how researching the exegesis, in my case analysing how the social reality of an era in which an author writes affects their writing of the protagonist's journey, and how this in turn shapes how I write the hero's pathway in the creative piece. The genre in which the protagonist's journey is charted and represented is dystopian young adult fiction; hence my creative piece, The Water Catchment, is a novel manuscript for a dystopian young adult fantasy. It is a speculative novel set in a possible future and poses (and answers) the question: What might happen if water becomes the most powerful commodity on earth? There are two communities, called 'worlds' to create a barrier and difference where physical ones are not in evidence. A battle ensues over unfair conditions and access to water. In the end the protagonist, Caitlyn, takes over leadership heralding a new era of co-operation and water management between the two worlds. The exegesis examines how the hero's pathway, the journey towards knowledge and resolution, is best explored in young adult literature through dystopian narratives. I explore how the dystopian worlds of Ursula Le Guin's first and last books of The Earthsea Quartet are foundational, and lay this examination over an analysis of both the hero's pathway within and the social contexts outside of the novels. Dystopian narratives constitute a liberating space for the adolescent protagonist between the reliance on adults in childhood and the world of adults. In young adult literature such narratives provide fertile ground to explore those aspects informing an adolescent's future.

Urban consolidation : reality or fantasy

Urban consolidation has been a policy objective of many local and state governments in Australia for the past decade. Densification of city centres and other identified activity centres is a sensible solution to a plethora of policy objectives including: growth management, housing affordability, housing choice and infrastructure utilisation etc whilst preserving the fabric of existing neighbourhoods. However despite the plethora of supportive policies and ripe redevelopment sites, urban sprawl continues to permeate city fringes and affordable urban densification in the post GFC environment slips into the “too hard” basket. This article discusses current issues facing the development industry, highlighting factors contributing to the disequilibrium between demand and supply in the medium to high density residential markets.

The importance of science fiction and other STEM-related mass media in young people’s decisions to enrol in university STEM courses

This paper presents Australian results from the Interests and Recruitment in Science (IRIS) study with respect to the influence of STEM-related mass media, including science fiction, on students’ decisions to enrol in university STEM courses. The study found that across the full cohort (N=2999), students tended to attribute far greater influence to science-related documentaries/channels such as Life on Earth and the Discovery Channel, etc. than to science-fiction movies or STEM-related TV dramas. Males were more inclined than females to consider science fiction/fantasy books and films and popular science books/magazines as having been important in their decisions. Students taking physics/astronomy tended to rate the importance of science fiction/fantasy books and films higher than students in other courses. The implications of these results for our understanding of influences on STEM enrolments are discussed.

From true story to Morning Glory : fantasy and reality in journalism movies

Many movies have been made about journalists, including some of cinema’s all-time classics. Fewer have been made about the process of journalism, however, and fewer still have captured that process in a way which reflects the reality of a hyperactive, stressedout trade that at its best confronts power and risks everything to expose its abuse. Those deemed to come close to that gritty realism regularly feature in those polls of the films journalists themselves think are the best representations of their oft-maligned profession. These are the films in which journalists like to think they see themselves. They are part of the professional mythology of journalistic practice.