Nondiscretionary residential water use : the impact of habits and water-efficient technologies

Several studies published in the last few decades have demonstrated a low price-elasticity for residential water use. In particular, it has been shown that there is a quantity of water demanded that remains constant regardless of prices and other economic factors. In this research, we characterise residential water demand based on a Stone-Geary utility function. This specification is not only theory-compatible but can also explicitly model a minimum level of consumption not dependent on prices or income. This is described as minimum threshold or nondiscretionary water use. Additionally, the Stone-Geary framework is used to model the subsistence level of water consumption that is dependent on the temporal evolution of consumer habits and stock of physical capital. The main aim of this study is to analyse the impact of water-saving habits and water-efficient technologies on residential water demand, while additionally focusing attention on nondiscretionary uses. This is informed by an empirical application using data from a survey conducted among residents of Brisbane City Council, Australia. The results will be especially useful in the design of water tariffs and other water-saving policies.

Talk in activity during young children’s use of digital technologies at home

Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little is known, however, about their social interactions with family members when engaged with these technologies. This article examines video-recorded interactions between a father and his two young children, one aged 18 months using an iPhone and one aged three years accessing an iPad. Drawing on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, analysis establishes ways the family members engage and disengage in talk so as to manage their individual activity with mobile devices and accomplish interaction with each other. Findings are relevant for understanding children’s everyday practices with mobile technologies.

Perdido ties together Shell digital oilfield technologies

Located in the Gulf of Mexico in nearly 8,000 ft of water, the Perdido project is the deepest spar application to date in the world and Shell’s first fully integrated application of its inhouse digital oilfield technology— called “Smart Field”—in the Western hemisphere. Developed by Shell on behalf of partners BP and Chevron, the spar and the subsea equipment connected to it will eventually capture about an order of magnitude more data than is collected from any other Shelldesigned and -managed development operating in the Gulf of Mexico. This article describes Shell’s digital oilfield design philosophy, briefly explains the five design elements that underpin “smartness” in Shell’s North and South American operations and sheds light on the process by which a highly customized digital oilfield development and management plan was put together for Perdido. Although Perdido is the first instance in North and South America in which these design elements and processes were applied in an integrated way, all of Shell’s future new developments in the Western hemisphere are expected to follow the same overarching design principles. Accordingly, this article uses Perdido as a real-world example to outline the high-level details of Shell’s digital oilfield design philosophy and processes.

Children and information communication technologies in the media : a study using moral panic theory

This thesis is an investigation of the media's representation of children and ICT. The study draws on moral panic theory and Queensland newspaper media, to identify the impact of newspaper reporting on the public's perceptions of young people and ICT.

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Communities and Technologies

The Communities and Technologies 2013 conference received 46 submissions for full papers and 12 submissions for research in progress papers. From these submissions, 17 papers were selected to appear at the conference (29%). All submitted papers were subjected to double blind peer review by an independent international program committee of 51 experts.

Using digital technologies at home

Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little is known, however, about their social interactions with family members when engaged with these technologies. This article examines video recorded interactions between a father and his two young children, one aged 18 months using an iPhone, and one aged three years accessing an iPad. Drawing on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, this analysis establishes ways the family members engage and disengage in talk to manage their individual activity with mobile devices and accomplish interaction with each other. Findings are relevant for understanding children’s everyday practices with mobile technologies.

Specification & design of safety technologies for complex socio-technical systems : low-cost level crossings case study

The introduction of safety technologies into complex socio-technical systems requires an integrated and holistic approach to HF and engineering, considering the effects of failures not only within system boundaries, but also at the interfaces with other systems and humans. Level crossing warning devices are examples of such systems where technically safe states within the system boundary can influence road user performance, giving rise to other hazards that degrade safety of the system. Chris will discuss the challenges that have been encountered to date in developing a safety argument in support of low-cost level crossing warning devices. The design and failure modes of level crossing warning devices are known to have a significant influence on road user performance; however, quantifying this effect is one of the ongoing challenges in determining appropriate reliability and availability targets for low-cost level crossing warning devices.

Treating the whole not the hole : necessary coupling of technologies for diabetic foot ulcer treatment

Highlights • Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a major complication of diabetes. • We describe the development of next-generation technologies for DFU repair. • We highlight the modest success of growth factor-, scaffold-, and cell-based DFU therapies. • We rationalize that combination therapies will be necessary to enable effective and reliable DFU repair.

An additive model for spatio-temporal smoothing of cancer mortality rates

In this paper, a Bayesian hierarchical model is used to anaylze the female breast cancer mortality rates for the State of Missouri from 1969 through 2001. The logit transformations of the mortality rates are assumed to be linear over the time with additive spatial and age effects as intercepts and slopes. Objective priors of the hierarchical model are explored. The Bayesian estimates are quite robustness in terms change of the hyperparamaters. The spatial correlations are appeared in both intercepts and slopes.

Ambient ionisation mass spectrometry for the characterisation of polymers and polymer additives : A review

The purpose of this review is to showcase the present capabilities of ambient sampling and ionisation technologies for the analysis of polymers and polymer additives by mass spectrometry (MS) while simultaneously highlighting their advantages and limitations in a critical fashion. To qualify as an ambient ionisation technique, the method must be able to probe the surface of solid or liquid samples while operating in an open environment, allowing a variety of sample sizes, shapes, and substrate materials to be analysed. The main sections of this review will be guided by the underlying principle governing the desorption/extraction step of the analysis; liquid extraction, laser ablation, or thermal desorption, and the major component investigated, either the polymer itself or exogenous compounds (additives and contaminants) present within or on the polymer substrate. The review will conclude by summarising some of the challenges these technologies still face and possible directions that would further enhance the utility of ambient ionisation mass spectrometry as a tool for polymer analysis. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

New technologies for assessing the contact lens wearing eye

New technologies for examination of the anterior eye in contact lens practice don’t appear to have taken a huge leap in the past decade however there a several novel adaptations of existing technology worthy of note. In other areas of health we have self-diagnosis via smartphone or other gadgets adapted as medical devices. In practice and research in vitro and in vivo new adaptive technologies have expanded our capabilities in assessing the anterior eye, in particular corneal and conjunctival confocal microscopy.

On the importance of an acid additive in the synthesis of pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazoles by direct copper-catalyzed amination

Pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazoles1, 2a are interesting compounds both from the viewpoint of medicinal chemistry2–7 (solubility,7 DNA intercalation3) and materials chemistry8 (fluorescence). Of note among the former is the antibiotic drug Rifaximin,5 which contains this heteroaromatic core. The classical synthetic approach for the assembly of pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazoles is by [3+3] cyclocondensation of benzimidazoles containing a methylene group at C2 with appropriate bielectrophiles.2a However, these procedures are often low-yielding, involve indirect/lengthy sequences, and/or provide access to a limited range of products, primarily providing derivatives with substituents located on the pyridine ring (A ring, Scheme 1).2–4 Theoretically, a good alternative synthetic method for the synthesis of pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazoles with substituents in the benzene ring (C ring) should be accessible by intramolecular transition-metal-catalyzed CN bond formation in N-(2-chloroaryl)pyridin-2-amines, based on chemistry recently developed in our research group.9 These substrates themselves are easily available through SNAr or selective Pd-catalyzed amination10 of 2-chloropyridine with 2-chloroanilines.11 If a synthetic procedure that eliminated the need for preactivation of the 2-position of the 2-chloroarylamino entity could be developed, this would be even more powerful, as anilines are more readily commercially available than 2-chloroanilines. Therefore the synthesis of pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazoles (4) by a transition-metal-catalyzed intramolecular CH amination approach from N-arylpyridin-2-amines (3) was explored (Scheme 1).

Tomorrow's Technologies

Australian research and technological solutions are now being applied throughout the world.

Genetic technologies and the regulation of reproductive decision-making in Australia

This article provides a critical analysis of the current Australian regulatory landscape at the interface between genetics and reproductive decision- making. The authors argue that a comparative analysis with other countries and international law and a contextual examination of the way law regulates concepts such as disease and health, abnormality and normality is necessary before we can develop appropriate policy and legislative responses in this area. Specific genetic testing technologies are considered including prenatal genetic testing, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and inheritable genetic modification. An increasing number of members of the Australian community are using genetic testing technologies when they decide to have a baby. The authors argue that as concepts of disease and health vary among members of the community and the potential to test for traits other than illness increases, a new tension arises between an ethic of individual choice and a role for government in regulating reproductive decision-making.

A design approach to the study of people's experiences with technologies in the context of public transport

Relevant to the study of people’s attitudes towards public transport use is the consideration to the role of technology as part of the travel experience. Technologies aim to enhance daily tasks but tend to change the way people interact with products and can be perceived as difficult to use. This is critical in the context of “public use” where products and services are to be used by the population at large: adults, children, elderly, people with disabilities, and tourists. From different perspectives, the topic of users and the use of technologies have been studied in the social sciences and human computer interaction fields; however, earlier approaches fail to address the ways in which experiential knowledge informs people’s interactions with products and technologies, and how such information could guide the design of future technologies. This paper describes a pilot study, part of a larger ongoing exploratory research that investigates people’s experiences with infrastructure, systems, and technologies in the context of public transport. The methodological approach included focus groups, field observations, and retrospective verbal reports. At this stage, the study found that four context led factors were the primary source of reference informing participants’ actions and interactions; they are: (i) context >> experience, (ii) context >> interface, (iii) context >> knowledge, (iv) context >> emotion.