Property : a regulatory instrument for protecting private and public interests in the environment

Property in an elusive concept. In many respects it has been regarded as a source of authority to use, develop and make decisions about whatever is the subject matter of this right of ownership. This is true whether the holder of this right of ownership is a private entity or a public entity. Increasingly a right of ownership of this kind has been recognised not only as a source of authority but also as a mechanism for restricting or limiting and perhaps even prohibiting existing or proposed activities that impact upon the environment. It is increasingly therefore an instrument of regulation as much as an instrument of authorisation. The protection and conservation of the environment are ultimately a matter of the public interest. This is not to suggest that the individual holders of rights of ownership are not interested in protecting the environment. It is open to them to do so in the exercise of a right of ownership as a source of authorisation. However a right of ownership – whether private or public – has become increasingly the mechanism according to which the environment is protected and conserved through the use of rights of ownership as a means of regulation. This paper addressed these issues from a doctrinal as well as a practical perspective in how the environment is managed.

Gamifying everyday activities using mobile sensing

The addition of game design elements to non-game contexts has become known as gamification. Previous research has suggested that framing tedious and non-motivating tasks as game-like can make them enjoyable and motivating (e.g., de Oliveira, et al., 2010; Fujiki, et al., 2007; Chiu, et al., 2009). Smartphone applications lend themselves to being gamified as the underlying mobile technology has the ability to sense user activities and their surrounding environment. These sensed activities can be used to implement and enforce game-like rules based around many physical activities (e.g., exercise, travel, or eating). If researchers wish to investigate this area, they first need an existing gamified application to study. However if an appropriate application does not exist then the researcher may need to create their own gamified prototype to study. Unfortunately, there is little previous research that details or explains the design and integration of game elements to non-game mobile applications. This chapter explores this gap and shares a framework that was used to add videogame-like achievements to an orientation mobile application developed for new university students. The framework proved useful and initial results are discussed from two studies. However, further development of the framework is needed, including further consideration of what makes an effective gamified experience.

Electrical property and characterization of nano-SnO2/wollastonite composite materials

Nano-tin oxide was deposited on the surface of wollastonite using the mixed solution including stannic chloride pentahydrate precursor and wollastonite by a hydrolysis precipitation process. The antistatic properties of the wollastonite materials under different calcined conditions and composite materials (nano-SnO2/wollastonite, SW) were measured by rubber sheeter and four-point probe (FPP) sheet resistance measurement. Effects of hydrolysis temperature and time, calcination temperature and time, pH value and nano-SnO2 coating amount on the resistivity of SW powders were studied, and the optimum experimental conditions were obtained. The microstructure and surface properties of wollastonite, precipitate and SW were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), specific surface area analyzer (BET), thermogravimetry (TG), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier translation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) respectively. The results showed that the nano-SnO2/wollastonite composite materials under optimum preparation conditions showed better antistatic properties, the resistivity of which was reduced from 1.068 × 104 Ω cm to 2.533 × 103 Ω cm. From TG and XRD analysis, the possible mechanism for coating of SnO2 nanoparticles on the surface of wollastonite was proposed. The infrared spectrum indicated that there were a large number of the hydroxyl groups on the surface of wollastonite. This is beneficial to the heterogeneous nucleation reaction. Through morphology, EDS and XPS analysis, the surface of wollastonite fiber was coated with a layer of 10–15 nm thickness of tin oxide grains the distribution of which was uniform.

Property case competition : multi-stakeholder reflection

Pacific Rim Real Estate Society has conducted four property case competitions from 2009 to 2012. The competition provides opportunities for undergraduate students to present their proposal on a given case study. All students were locked down with their four team members for five hours without external help to ensure a level playing field across participants. Students prepared their presentation and defended their arguments in front of experts in property industry and academia. The aim of this paper is reflecting on the feedback received from stakeholders involved in the case competition. Besides exploring what students have gained from the competitions, this paper provides an insight on the opportunities and challenges for the new format of competition to be introduced in 2013. Over the last four competitions, there were three universities participated in all the four consecutive events, four universities partook in two events and another four universities only competed once. Some universities had a great advantage by having previous experiences by participating in similar international business competitions. Findings show that the students have benefited greatly from the event including improving their ability in problem solving and other non-technical skills. Despite the aforementioned benefits, the PRRES closed-book case competition is proven not viable thus future competition needs to minimise the travel and logistic cost.

Sunshine, rainfall, humidity and child pneumonia in the tropics : time-series analyses

Few studies have formally examined the relationship between meteorological factors and the incidence of child pneumonia in the tropics, despite the fact that most child pneumonia deaths occur there. We examined the association between four meteorological exposures (rainy days, sunshine, relative humidity, temperature) and the incidence of clinical pneumonia in young children in the Philippines using three time-series methods: correlation of seasonal patterns, distributed lag regression, and case-crossover. Lack of sunshine was most strongly associated with pneumonia in both lagged regression [overall relative risk over the following 60 days for a 1-h increase in sunshine per day was 0·67 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0·51–0·87)] and case-crossover analysis [odds ratio for a 1-h increase in mean daily sunshine 8–14 days earlier was 0·95 (95% CI 0·91–1·00)]. This association is well known in temperate settings but has not been noted previously in the tropics. Further research to assess causality is needed.

Sensing place : embodiment, sensoriality, kinesis, and children behind the camera

This article is a call to literacy teachers and researchers to embrace the possibility of attending more consciously to the senses in digital media production. Literacy practices do not occur only in the mind, but involve the sensoriality, embodiment, co-presence, and movement of bodies. This paper theorises the sensorial and embodied dimension of children’s filmmaking about place in two communities in Australia. The films were created by pre-teen Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in Logan, Queensland, and by Indigenous teenagers at the Warralong campus of the Strelley Community School in remote Western Australia. The films were created through engagement in cross-curricular units that sensitised the students’ experience of local places, gathering corporeal information through their sensing bodies as they interacted with the local ecology. The analysis highlights how the sensorial and bodily nature of literacy practice through documentary filmmaking was central to the children’s formation and representation of knowledge, because knowledge and literacy practices are not only acquired through the mind, but are also reliant on embodiment, sensoriality, co-presence, and kinesics of the body in place.

Anodic formation of a thick three-dimensional nanoporous WO3 film and its photocatalytic property

We report an efficient solar-light-driven photocatalyst based on three-dimensional nanoporous tungsten trioxide (WO3) films. These films are obtained by anodizing W foils in fluoride-containing electrolytes at room temperature and under low applied voltages with an efficient growth rate of 2 μm h− 1. The maximum thickness of the films is ~ 3 μm that exceeds those of previously reported anodized WO3 films in fluoride-containing electrolytes. By investigating the photocatalytic properties of the films with thicknesses ranging from ~ 0.5 to ~ 3 μm, the optimum thickness of the nanoporous film is found to be ~ 1 μm, which demonstrates an impressive 120% improvement in the photocatalytic performance compared to that of a RF-sputtered nanotextured film with similar weights. We mainly ascribe this to large surface area and smaller bandgap.

The Law of Real Property Mortgages [2nd. Ed.]

This book examines the principles and practice of real estate mortgages in an easily accessible text referenced to all the Australian States. It specifically deals with the major theoretical and practical aspects of the land mortgage, including vitiating factors in formation, mortgagees’ powers and duties and mortgagors’ rights – both statutory and other – as well as assignment, insurance and discharge. It focuses exclusively on real estate mortgages and provides a thorough account of the law through analysis of the plethora of court decisions and statutory provisions in this area. Duncan and Dixon analyse the substance of the mortgage transaction from creation through to rights of enforcement. In its detailed consideration of the rights and obligations of mortgagors and mortgagees, it covers topics such as priorities and tacking, insurance, variation and assignment, rights of discharge, entry into possession, foreclosure and power of sale. In addition, the book contains a separate chapter on factors that may affect the validity and enforcement of a mortgage, together with separate consideration of a mortgagee’s right to enforce a guarantee provided on behalf of a mortgagor, and the rights and liabilities associated with a receivership regime initiated by

Brand value of property in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand

This paper aims to evaluate the brand value of property in subdivision developments in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. The result has been determined by the application of a hedonic price model. The development of the model is developed based on a sample of 1,755 property sales during the period of 1992-2010 in eight zones of the BMR. The results indicate that the use of a semi-logarithmic model has stronger explanatory power and is more reliable. Property price increases 12.90% from the branding. Meanwhile, the price annually increases 2.96%; lot size and dwelling area have positive impacts on the price. In contrast, duplexes and townhouses have a negative impact on the price compared to single detached houses. Moreover, the price of properties which are located outside the Bangkok inner city area is reduced by 21.26% to 43.19%. These findings also contribute towards a new understanding of the positive impact of branding on the property price in the BMR. The result is useful for setting selling prices for branded and unbranded properties, and the model could provide a reference for setting property prices in subdivision developments in the BMR.

The impact of mining and smelting activities on property values : a study of Mount Isa city, Queensland, Australia

Much publicity has been given to the problem of high levels of environmental contaminants, most notably high blood lead concentration levels among children in the city of Mount Isa because of mining and smelting activities. The health impacts from mining-related pollutants are now well documented. This includes published research being discussed in an editorial of the Medical Journal of Australia (see Munksgaard et al. 2010). On the other hand, negative impacts on property prices, although mentioned, have not been examined to date. This study rectifies this research gap. This study uses a hedonic property price approach to examine the impact of mining- and smelting-related pollution on nearby property prices. The hypothesis is that those properties closer to the lead and copper smelters have lower property (house) prices than those farther away. The results of the study show that the marginal willingness to pay to be farther from the pollution source is AUS $13 947 per kilometre within the 4 km radius selected. The study has several policy implications, which are discussed briefly. We used ordinary least squares, geographically weighted regression, spatial error and spatial autoregressive or spatial lag models for this analysis.

Design and flight testing of an integrated solar powered UAV and WSN for remote gas sensing

This paper describes a generic and integrated solar powered remote Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) gas sensing system. The system uses a generic gas sensing system for CH4 and CO2 concentrations using metal oxide (MoX) and non-dispersive infrared sensors, and a new solar cell encapsulation method to power the UASs as well as a data management platform to store, analyse and share the information with operators and external users. The system was successfully field tested at ground and low altitudes, collecting, storing and transmitting data in real time to a central node for analysis and 3D mapping. The system can be used in a wide range of outdoor applications, especially in agriculture, bushfires, mining studies, opening the way to a ubiquitous low cost environmental monitoring. A video of the bench and flight test performed can be seen in the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwas7stYIxQ.

Hexagon platinum Schottky contact with ZnO thin film for hydrogen sensing

This paper reports on the study of the effect on adding total peripheries and sharp edges to the Schottky contact as a hydrogen sensor. Schottky contact was successfully designed and fabricated as hexagon-shape. The contact was integrated together with zinc oxide thin film and tested towards 1% hydrogen gas. Simulations of the design were conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics to observe the electric field characteristic at the contact layer. The simulation results show higher electric field induced at sharp edges with 4.18×104 V/m. Current-voltage characteristic shows 0.27 V voltage shift at 40 μA biased current.

Applying quantile regression for modeling equivalent property damage only crashes to identify accident blackspots

Hot spot identification (HSID) aims to identify potential sites—roadway segments, intersections, crosswalks, interchanges, ramps, etc.—with disproportionately high crash risk relative to similar sites. An inefficient HSID methodology might result in either identifying a safe site as high risk (false positive) or a high risk site as safe (false negative), and consequently lead to the misuse the available public funds, to poor investment decisions, and to inefficient risk management practice. Current HSID methods suffer from issues like underreporting of minor injury and property damage only (PDO) crashes, challenges of accounting for crash severity into the methodology, and selection of a proper safety performance function to model crash data that is often heavily skewed by a preponderance of zeros. Addressing these challenges, this paper proposes a combination of a PDO equivalency calculation and quantile regression technique to identify hot spots in a transportation network. In particular, issues related to underreporting and crash severity are tackled by incorporating equivalent PDO crashes, whilst the concerns related to the non-count nature of equivalent PDO crashes and the skewness of crash data are addressed by the non-parametric quantile regression technique. The proposed method identifies covariate effects on various quantiles of a population, rather than the population mean like most methods in practice, which more closely corresponds with how black spots are identified in practice. The proposed methodology is illustrated using rural road segment data from Korea and compared against the traditional EB method with negative binomial regression. Application of a quantile regression model on equivalent PDO crashes enables identification of a set of high-risk sites that reflect the true safety costs to the society, simultaneously reduces the influence of under-reported PDO and minor injury crashes, and overcomes the limitation of traditional NB model in dealing with preponderance of zeros problem or right skewed dataset.

Laser-to-radar sensing redundancy for resilient perception in adverse environmental conditions

This paper presents an approach to promote the integrity of perception systems for outdoor unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) operating in challenging environmental conditions (presence of dust or smoke). The proposed technique automatically evaluates the consistency of the data provided by two sensing modalities: a 2D laser range finder and a millimetre-wave radar, allowing for perceptual failure mitigation. Experimental results, obtained with a UGV operating in rural environments, and an error analysis validate the approach.