Sky high and back again : the evolution of simulation-based design from aerospace to construction

Emerging from the challenge to reduce energy consumption in buildings is a need for research and development into the more effective use of simulation as a decision-support tool. Despite significant research, persistent limitations in process and software inhibit the integration of energy simulation in early architectural design. This paper presents a green star case study to highlight the obstacles commonly encountered with current integration strategies. It then examines simulation-based design in the aerospace industry, which has overcome similar limitations. Finally, it proposes a design system based on this contrasting approach, coupling parametric modelling and energy simulation software for rapid and iterative performance assessment of early design options.

Evolution of life drama program

Life Drama is a program of drama-based experiential learning activities involving groups of community leaders and members. The three-year project evolved from a theatre-in-education approach to an intercultural theatre approach incorporating Papua New Guinean performance traditions. It involved Australian, English and Papua New Guinean researchers at four key sites: Tari, Southern Highlands Province; Port Moresby, National Capital District; Madang, Madang Province; and Karkar Island, Madang Province. The project was innovative in a number of ways, including: a Participatory Action Research approach, involving community leaders at various levels as co-researchers; a participatory theatre approach as opposed to a performance approach; emphasis on sexual health promotion and HIV prevention through an experiential learning paradigm; addressing the norms and realities of the community rather than targeting only individual behaviour; an International Theatre Research Laboratory to explore the fusion of traditional cultural elements with contemporary health promotion aims; and an innovative method-assemblage approach to collecting and triangulating quantitative, qualitative, and performative data. The project attracted over $350,000 in funding and support from the Australian Research Council, National AIDS Secretariat in PNG, and private sector and non-government partners. Findings were presented at various conferences and symposia including the annual Medical Symposium in Wewak (2010), the triennial Research in Drama Education conference in Exeter (2011), and the International Research in Drama Education conference (Sydney 2009 and Limerick 2012). A number of peer-reviewed journal articles have been published. Elements of the program have been incorporated into the University of Goroka's compulsory HIV awareness program for undergraduate students. A national dissemination strategy for Life Drama in Papua New Guinea is now underway, with seed funding of AUD$74,000 from the National AIDS Council Secretariat, PNG.

Evolution of traffic management measures on road traffic noise

Road traffic noise affects the quality of life in the areas adjoining the road. The effect of traffic noise on people is wide ranging and may include sleep disturbance and negative impact on work efficiency. To address the problem of traffic noise, it is necessary to estimate the noise level. For this, a number of noise estimation models have been developed which can estimate noise at the receptor points, based on simple configuration of buildings. However, for a real world situation we have multiple buildings forming built-up area. In such a situation, it is almost impossible to consider multiple diffractions and reflections in sound propagation from the source to the receptor point. An engineering solution to such a real world problem is needed to estimate noise levels in built-up area.

From 'Neighbours' to 'Packed to the Rafters': accounting for longevity in the evolution of Aussie soaps

If there is one television programming staple for which Australian television drama is known internationally, it is the long-running television soap, with Neighbours (originally produced by Grundy in 1985) lauded as 'the most outstanding example of Australian series export' (Cunningham and Jacka, 1996). Twenty-five years on, this program still airs on domestic and international TV schedules five days a week, despite waning popularity with local Australian audiences. Considering past interest in the success and longevity of this soap, it is apposite to look again at the continuing progress of Neighbours foremost as a global brand. In comparison, Packed to the Rafters is treated here as a contemporary version of familiar Aussie themes related to everyday middle-class suburbia, populated with blue skies and feel-good characters expressing wholesome family values, but with a stylistic innovation defined here as domestic realism. As part of the production ecology of the late 2000s, Packed to the Rafters demonstrates the considerable role for local drama productions as loss leaders and flagship programming for commercial free-to-air networks up against an increasingly difficult domestic market.

Evolution of the extinct Sabretooths and the American cheetah-like cat

The sabretooths (Smilodon and Homotherium) and the American cheetah-like cat (Miracinonyx) were the top predators in Late Pleistocene America, but became extinct about 13 thousand years ago. As the evolutionary history of these taxa remains poorly understood , we analysed their phylogenetic relationship to extant felids. In contrast to previous molecular studies , our results show that the sabretooths diverge early and are not closely related to any living cats. This supports their morphological placement in a separate subfamily (Machairodontinae). Despite its remarkable morphological similarity to the African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), Miracinonyx appears to have evolved from a puma-like ancestor, presumably in response to similar ecological pressures.

Tracking the magmatic evolution of island arc volcanism : insights from a high-precision Pb isotope record of Montserrat, Lesser Antilles

The volcanic succession on Montserrat provides an opportunity to examine the magmatic evolution of island arc volcanism over a ∼2.5 Ma period, extending from the andesites of the Silver Hills center, to the currently active Soufrière Hills volcano (February 2010). Here we present high-precision double-spike Pb isotope data, combined with trace element and Sr-Nd isotope data throughout this period of Montserrat's volcanic evolution. We demonstrate that each volcanic center; South Soufrière Hills, Soufrière Hills, Centre Hills and Silver Hills, can be clearly discriminated using trace element and isotopic parameters. Variations in these parameters suggest there have been systematic and episodic changes in the subduction input. The SSH center, in particular, has a greater slab fluid signature, as indicated by low Ce/Pb, but less sediment addition than the other volcanic centers, which have higher Th/Ce. Pb isotope data from Montserrat fall along two trends, the Silver Hills, Centre Hills and Soufrière Hills lie on a general trend of the Lesser Antilles volcanics, whereas SSH volcanics define a separate trend. The Soufrière Hills and SSH volcanic centers were erupted at approximately the same time, but retain distinctive isotopic signatures, suggesting that the SSH magmas have a different source to the other volcanic centers. We hypothesize that this rapid magmatic source change is controlled by the regional transtensional regime, which allowed the SSH magma to be extracted from a shallower source. The Pb isotopes indicate an interplay between subduction derived components and a MORB-like mantle wedge influenced by a Galapagos plume-like source.

Emergent innovation through the co-evolution of informal and formal media economies

Well-established distinctions between amateur and professional are blurring as the impact of social media, changes in cultural consumption, and crises in copyright industries’ business models are felt across society and economy. I call this the increasingly rapid co-evolution of the formal market and informal household sectors and analyse it through the concept of ‘social network markets’ – individual choices are made on the basis of other’s choices and such networked preferencing is enhanced by the growing ubiquity of social media platforms. This may allow us better to understand sources of disruption and innovation in audiovisual production and distribution in wealthy Western markets which are as significant as those posed by informal practices outside the West. I examine what is happening around the monetization and professionalization of online video (YouTube, for example) and the socialization of professional production strategies (transmedia, for example) as innovation from the margins.

The evolution of QUT’s Student Success Program : 20,000 students later

“The Student Success Program (SSP) is a monitoring and early intervention program in operation at QUT designed to identify and support those students deemed to be at risk of disengaging for their learning and their institution” (Nelson, Quinn, Marrington & Clarke, 2011, p. 83). This report reflects on the development of the program since its inception in 2007. In acknowledging similar initiatives within the sector that monitor student learning engagement, the Nuts & Bolts session allows for identification and discussion of the critical success factors for these intervention and support programs.

Adaptive evolution of color vision as seen through the eyes of butterflies

Butterflies and primates are interesting for comparative color vision studies, because both have evolved middle- (M) and long-wavelength- (L) sensitive photopigments with overlapping absorbance spectrum maxima (lambda(max) values). Although positive selection is important for the maintenance of spectral variation within the primate pigments, it remains an open question whether it contributes similarly to the diversification of butterfly pigments. To examine this issue, we performed epimicrospectrophotometry on the eyes of five Limenitis butterfly species and found a 31-nm range of variation in the lambda(max) values of the L-sensitive photopigments (514-545 nm). We cloned partial Limenitis L opsin gene sequences and found a significant excess of replacement substitutions relative to polymorphisms among species. Mapping of these L photopigment lambda(max) values onto a phylogeny revealed two instances within Lepidoptera of convergently evolved L photopigment lineages whose lambda(max) values were blue-shifted. A codon-based maximum-likelihood analysis indicated that, associated with the two blue spectral shifts, four amino acid sites (Ile17Met, Ala64Ser, Asn70Ser, and Ser137Ala) have evolved substitutions in parallel and exhibit significant d(N)/d(S) >1. Homology modeling of the full-length Limenitis arthemis astyanax L opsin placed all four substitutions within the chromophore-binding pocket. Strikingly, the Ser137Ala substitution is in the same position as a site that in primates is responsible for a 5- to 7-nm blue spectral shift. Our data show that some of the same amino acid sites are under positive selection in the photopigments of both butterflies and primates, spanning an evolutionary distance >500 million years.

Visualizing the evolution of knowledge management capability in construction firms

A firm, as a dynamic, evolving, and quasi-autonomous system of knowledge production and application, develops knowledge management capability (KMC) through strategic learning in order to sustain competitive advantages in a dynamic environment. Knowledge governance mechanisms and knowledge processes connect and interact with each other forming learning mechanisms, which carry out double loop learning that drives genesis and evolution of KMC to modify operating routines that effect desired performance. This paper reports a study that was carried out within a context of construction contractors, a type of project-based firms, operating within the dynamic Hong Kong construction market. A multiple-case design was used to incorporate evidence from the literature and interviews, with the help of system dynamics modeling, to visualize the evolution of KMC. The study demonstrates the feasibility to visualize how a firm's KMC matches its operating environment over time. The findings imply that knowledge management (KM) applications can be better planned and controlled through evaluation of KM performance over time from a capability perspective.

Early-mid Cretaceous tectonic evolution of eastern Gondwana : from silicic LIP magmatism to continental rupture

The Early–mid Cretaceous marks the confluence of three major continental-scale events in eastern Gondwana: (1) the emplacement of a Silicic Large Igneous Province (LIP) near the continental margin; (2) the volcaniclastic fill, transgression and regression of a major epicontinental seaway developed over at least a quarter of the Australian continent; and (3) epeirogenic uplift, exhumation and continental rupturing culminating in the opening of the Tasman Basin c. 84 Ma. The Whitsunday Silicic LIP event had widespread impact, producing both substantial extrusive volumes of dominantly silicic pyroclastic material and coeval first-cycle volcanogenic sediment that accumulated within many eastern Australian sedimentary basins, and principally in the Great Australian Basin system (>2 Mkm3 combined volume). The final pulse of volcanism and volcanogenic sedimentation at c. 105–95 Ma coincided with epicontinental seaway regression, which shows a lack of correspondence with the global sea-level curve, and alternatively records a wider, continental-scale effect of volcanism and rift tectonism. Widespread igneous underplating related to this LIP event is evident from high paleogeothermal gradients and regional hydrothermal fluid flow detectable in the shallow crust and over a broad region. Enhanced CO2 fluxing through sedimentary basins also records indirectly, large-scale, LIP-related mafic underplating. A discrete episode of rapid crustal cooling and exhumation began c. 100–90 Ma along the length of the eastern Australian margin, related to an enhanced phase of continental rifting that was largely amagmatic, and probably a switch from wide–more narrow rift modes. Along-margin variations in detachment fault architecture produced narrow (SE Australia) and wide continental margins with marginal, submerged continental plateaux (NE Australia). Long-lived NE-trending cross-orogen lineaments controlled the switch from narrow to wide continental margin geometries.