Hybrid life-cycle inventory for road construction and use

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique that is used worldwide by clients and their design team to assess the impact of
their projects on the environment. The main advantage of LCA is in supporting decision making with quantitative data. LCA inventories
can be either fully developed or streamlined. Fully developed LCAs are time-consuming and costly to prepare. Streamlined LCAs can be
used as an effective decision-making tool when considering environmental performance during the design process, but with a loss of
inventory completeness. Acknowledging the advantages and disadvantages of both types of LCA, this paper proposes a hybrid LCA
method that uses input-output data to fill in those gaps routinely left in conventional LCA inventories.

The long and winding road : the development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of highly protected marine protected areas in Victoria, Australia

In 2002, the state of Victoria, Australia increased its “no-take” marine protected areas (MPAs) 100 fold to cover over 5% of its coastal waters in a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine national parks and sanctuaries. Given the ambitious targets set for MPA establishment globally in 2003 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development this apparently remarkable achievement could be an example to other nations and states attempting to establish substantial MPA systems.

This paper describes and discusses the factors that contributed to the establishment of the Victorian system and the relevance of these factors to other jurisdictions.

'Green' treatment of acid mine drainage - a step towards sustainability

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the mining and mineral processing industries and must incorporate the associated waste products. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one such by-product and is one of the most serious environmental problems facing the minerals industry today. The oxidation of sulphidic mine wastes often continues for a substantial period of time after mine closure, resulting in difficult and costly remediation and rehabilitation works. Mining companies are often reluctant to spend increasing amounts of money on waste treatment when the mine life is limited or even finished. Hence a simple, low maintenance and low-cost method of treating AMD is required. Whilst this paper does not address the issue of AMD, it does propose methods for removal of individual species from AMD with potential benefits, including raising AMD pH.

A novel concept of using biosolids as a biological adsorbent, or ‘biosorbent’, of metals from AMD is being investigated at a laboratory/pilot scale level. Biosolids are a by-product resulting from the biological treatment of wastewater, and have been previously shown to adsorb metals from aqueous solutions. This could lead to an environmentally sustainable or ‘green’ method for treating both AMD discharges and disposing/reusing the biosolids.

The result of a laboratory-scale study of the biosorption of Zn(II) is presented in this paper. Physical parameters including reaction kinetics, mixing speed and solution pH were investigated. Solution pH also rose an average of 2 pH units over the 24 hour equilibrium time – a valuable side effect when treating acid mine drainage. The outcome of the study highlights the usefulness of biosolids as a biosorbent for the removal/recovery of metal ions from acid mine drainage. A simple, low-cost treatment technology requiring low maintenance would be beneficial to the mining industry to address some issues relating to AMD and would help integrate environmental and economic considerations into sustainable environmental management.

The road to internet banking: understanding emerging customer issues

This paper presents findings from an empirical study of banking customer experiences with the adoption of Internet banking. Using a qualitative, interpretive grounded theory approach and single and group interviews, the study explores customer perceptions and experiences and provides an understanding of how and why specific factors affect their decision whether or not to bank on the Internet in the current era. The findings are used to develop a theoretical framework which conceptualizes and links consumer issues influencing the adoption of this application, and we also provide a set of recommendations for banks. Specifically, the findings suggest that convenience – in particular, time savings – is the major motivator to bank on the Internet, while there are a range of other influential factors which could be modulated by banks. The results also highlight increasing online risk acceptance by customers and the growing importance of deep levels of customer support for online services. Key gender differences in attitudes to Internet banking are highlighted. This study suggests that organizations will improve their management of customer attitudes to new Internet service applications by understanding the need to proactively address customer fears and misconceptions about the technologies involved.

At home on the road? Can drivers' relationships with their cars be associated with territoriality?

The current research explores the relationship between people and their cars within the framework of Altman's theory of human territoriality. It further develops the research of Sandqvist by examining the descriptions given by people with differing ownership and uses of their cars and exploring the congruence between these and the characteristics used to describe human territories. Thirteen focus groups were held with young drivers between the ages of 18 and 25 years, drivers over the age of 25 who are parents of pre-license age children, drivers over the age of 25 who do not regularly transport children, and drivers of work vehicles. Analyses of discussions revealed that drivers’ descriptions of the relationship with their car could be matched with Brown and Altman's descriptions of territory types. However, variations existed both between and within individuals as to the application of the labels ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘public’ territory to the car. Implications for the understanding of road user behaviour and the further development of theory on the car as a place or an object in terms of territoriality are discussed.

The normative distribution of chest tube drainage volume after coronary artery bypass grafting

Background
Little evidence exists to describe expected volumes of chest tube (CT) drainage after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Objectives
The study objective was to map the trajectory of CT drainage volumes from insertion to removal after CABG.

Design

This was a retrospective, descriptive study.
Patients
The study included 239 patients who underwent CABG at a single metropolitan hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Results
The sample (N = 234), aged 68.7 years (standard deviation [SD] 9.9), was predominantly male (N = 185, 79.1%). The mean duration of CT insertion was 45.2 hours (SD 26.7), and total drainage volume was 1300.6 mL (SD 763.8). Drainage volumes plateau to 31 mL per hour, 8 hours after surgery. From 24 to 48 hours, the mean drainage was 21 mL per hour. Drainage volumes varied between genders.

Conclusions
Evidence of similar drainage patterns in other populations is difficult to locate. If the pattern of drainage shown in this study is consistent, experimental intervention studies comparing standard removal time and earlier removal are recommended. If not, prospective collection of relevant preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative factors across multiple sites is necessary to determine which patient or practice variations influence CT drainage patterns after CABG.

Road-sign identification using ensemble learning

Ensemble learning that combines the decisions of multiple weak classifiers to from an output, has recently emerged as an effective identification method. This paper presents a road-sign identification system based upon the ensemble learning approach. The system identifies the regions of interest that are extracted from the scene into the road-sign groups that they belong to. A large road-sign image dataset is formed and used to train and test the system. Fifteen groups of road signs are chosen for identification. Five experiments are performed and the results are presented and discussed.

Sudden drawdown and drainage of a horizontal aquifer

Drainage of a saturated horizontal aquifer following a sudden drawdown is reanalyzed using the Boussinesq equation. The effect of the finite length of the aquifer is considered in detail. An analytical approximation based on a superposition principle yields a very good estimate of the outflow when compared to accurate numerical solutions. An illustration of the new analytical approach to analyze basin-scale field data is used to demonstrate possible field applications of the new solution.