Race, the senses, and the materials of writing practices

The paper is a critical argument foregrounding race, the senses, and the materials of literacy practices. The author argues that counter-colonial literacies in the contemporary times require openly acknowledgement of the influences of white imperialism and racism in dominant schooling practices. The first concern is narrow conceptions of literacy and schooling that follow a white racial script, and which function as a form of historical reproduction, control, and privilege. The second is the need to acknowledge the need to rediscover the sensory nature of literacy practices that is intrinsic to many cultures, and which is transformed in human interactions with new digital forms of textual production. The final argument is the need to attend to the materiality of literacy practices, including the meanings connected to the material ecology. This principle is particularly relevant to Indigenous culture and experience, but likewise, to all digital environments where the materials of literacy practices are continually shifting.

Verification and Operation of Adaptive Materials in Space

Piezoelectric polymers based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) are of interest as smart materials for novel space-based telescope applications. Dimensional adjustments of adaptive thin polymer films are achieved via controlled charge deposition. Predicting their long-term performance requires a detailed understanding of the piezoelectric property changes that develop during space environmental exposure. The overall materials performance is governed by a combination of chemical and physical degradation processes occurring in low Earth orbit as established by our past laboratory-based materials performance experiments (see report SAND 2005-6846). Molecular changes are primarily induced via radiative damage, and physical damage from temperature and atomic oxygen exposure is evident as depoling, loss of orientation and surface erosion. The current project extension has allowed us to design and fabricate small experimental units to be exposed to low Earth orbit environments as part of the Materials International Space Station Experiments program. The space exposure of these piezoelectric polymers will verify the observed trends and their degradation pathways, and provide feedback on using piezoelectric polymer films in space. This will be the first time that PVDF-based adaptive polymer films will be operated and exposed to combined atomic oxygen, solar UV and temperature variations in an actual space environment. The experiments are designed to be fully autonomous, involving cyclic application of excitation voltages, sensitive film position sensors and remote data logging. This mission will provide critically needed feedback on the long-term performance and degradation of such materials, and ultimately the feasibility of large adaptive and low weight optical systems utilizing these polymers in space.

Use of 3D printed materials as tissue-equivalent phantoms

This study used the specific example of 3D printing with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as a means to investigate the potential usefulness of benchtop rapid prototyping as a technique for producing patient specific phantoms for radiotherapy dosimetry. Three small cylinders and one model of a human lung were produced via in-house 3D printing with ABS, using 90%, 50%, 30% and 10% ABS infill densities. These phantom samples were evaluated in terms of their geometric accuracy, tissue equivalence and radiation hardness, when irradiated using a range of clinical radiotherapy beams. The measured dimensions of the small cylindrical phantoms all matched their planned dimensions, within 1mm. The lung phantom was less accurately matched to the lung geometry on which it was based, due to simplifications introduced during the phantom design process. The mass densities, electron densities and linear attenuation coefficients identified using CT data, as well as the results of film measurements made using megavoltage photon and electron beams, indicated that phantoms printed with ABS, using infill densities of 30% or more, are potentially useful as lung- and tissue-equivalent phantoms for patient-specific radiotherapy dosimetry. All cylindrical 3D printed phantom samples were found to be unaffected by prolonged radiation and to accurately match their design specifications. However, care should be taken to avoid oversimplifying anatomical structures when printing more complex phantoms.

Environmental efficiency of energy, materials, and emissions

This study estimates the environmental efficiency of international listed firms in 10 worldwide sectors from 2007 to 2013 by applying an order-m method, a non-parametric approach based on free disposal hull with subsampling bootstrapping. Using a conventional output of gross profit and two conventional inputs of labor and capital, this study examines the order-m environmental efficiency accounting for the presence of each of 10 undesirable inputs/outputs and measures the shadow prices of each undesirable input and output. The results show that there is greater potential for the reduction of undesirable inputs rather than bad outputs. On average, total energy, electricity, or water usage has the potential to be reduced by 50%. The median shadow prices of undesirable inputs, however, are much higher than the surveyed representative market prices. Approximately 10% of the firms in the sample appear to be potential sellers or production reducers in terms of undesirable inputs/outputs, which implies that the price of each item at the current level has little impact on most of the firms. Moreover, this study shows that the environmental, social, and governance activities of a firm do not considerably affect environmental efficiency.

A review of benchmarking in carbon labelling schemes for building materials

As one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the building and construction sector is facing increasing pressure to reduce its life cycle GHG emissions. One central issue in striving towards reduced carbon emissions in the building and construction sector is to develop a practical and meaningful yardstick to assess and communicate GHG results through carbon labelling. The idea of carbon labelling schemes for building materials is to trigger a transition to a low carbon future by switching consumer-purchasing habits to low-carbon alternatives. As such, failing to change purchasing pattern and behaviour can be disastrous to carbon labelling schemes. One useful tool to assist customers to change their purchasing behaviour is benchmarking, which has been very commonly used in ecolabelling schemes. This paper analyses the definition and scope of benchmarking in the carbon labelling schemes for building materials. The benchmarking process has been examined within the context of carbon labelling. Four practical issues for the successful implementation of benchmarking, including the availability of benchmarks and databases, the usefulness of different types of benchmarks and the selection of labelling practices have also been clarified.

A mathematical model for intermittent microwave convective (IMCD) drying of food materials

Intermittent microwave convective drying (IMCD) is an advanced technology that improves both energy efficiency and food quality in drying. Modelling of IMCD is essential to understand the physics of this advanced drying process and to optimize the microwave power level and intermittency during drying. However, there is still a lack of modelling studies dedicated to IMCD. In this study, a mathematical model for IMCD was developed and validated with experimental data. The model showed that the interior temperature of the material was higher than the surface in IMCD, and that the temperatures fluctuated and redistributed due to the intermittency of the microwave power. This redistribution of temperature could significantly contribute to the improvement of product quality during IMCD. Limitations when using Lambert's Law for microwave heat generation were identified and discussed.

BPMVM Evaluation Experiment Materials

All the materials used for our two experimental studies for evaluating the BPMVM modeller.

Australian Consumer Law Commentary and Materials [5th Ed.]

"The Australian Consumer Law came into operation on 1 January 2011 as a single national law. It replaced 17 different pieces of Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation relating to consumer protection. Its introduction meant that for the first time, consumers throughout Australia had the same rights and remedies and correspondingly, businesses had the same obligations and responsibilities towards consumers without the barrier of confusing and expensive local variations in the law. Australian Consumer Law: Commentary and Materials contains up-to-date material on the Australian Consumer Law, and in particular the fifth edition incorporates: a revised treatment of unconscionability, taking account of the changes to Part 2-2 of the ACL that became effective in 2012; other State and Federal provisions relating to unfair terms and cases such as Kakavas v Crown Melbourne, ACCC v Lux Distributors, Director of Consumer Affairs v Scully and PT Ltd v Spuds Surf; a comprehensive treatment of the impact of Google v ACCC, Forrest v ASIC and ACCC v TPG – the trilogy of decisions that provide the most recent insights into the High Court’s thinking on aspects of the prohibitions of misleading conduct in the ACL and the Corporations Act 2001; numerous decisions of note; and the possible impact of the Harper Review."--publisher website

Re-valuing construction materials and components through design for disassembly

The construction industry accounts for a significant portion of the material consumption of our industrialised societies. That material consumption comes at an environmental cost, and when buildings and infrastructure projects are demolished and discarded, after their useful lifespan, that environmental cost remains largely unrecovered. The expected operational lifespan of modern buildings has become disturbingly short as buildings are replaced for reasons of changing cultural expectations, style, serviceability, locational obsolescence and economic viability. The same buildings however are not always physically or structurally obsolete; the materials and components within them are very often still completely serviceable. While there is some activity in the area of recycling of selected construction materials, such as steel and concrete, this is almost always in the form of down cycling or reprocessing. Very little of this material and component resource is reuse in a way that more effectively captures its potential. One significant impediment to such reuse is that buildings are not designed in a way that facilitates easy recovery of materials and components; they are designed and built for speed of construction and quick economic returns, with little or no consideration of the longer term consequences of their physical matter. This research project explores the potential for the recovery of materials and components if buildings were designed for such future recovery; a strategy of design for disassembly. This is not a new design philosophy; design for disassembly is well understood in product design and industrial design. There are also some architectural examples of design for disassembly; however these are specialist examples and there is no significant attempt to implement the strategy in the main stream construction industry. This paper presents research into the analysis of the embodied energy in buildings, highlighting its significance in comparison with operational energy. Analysis at material, component, and whole-of-building levels shows the potential benefits of strategically designing buildings for future disassembly to recover this embodied energy. Careful consideration at the early design stage can result in the deconstruction of significant portions of buildings and the recovery of their potential through higher order reuse and upcycling.

Fiber Bragg grating accelerometer based on a transversely rotating stick

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) accelerometers using transverse forces with an inertial object placed at the middle of the FBG have a high sensitivity but low resonant frequency. The resonant frequency 26 Hz and sensitivity at 6 Hz 1.29 nm/g were reported based on a 50mm-long FBG accelerometer. We demonstrate that the first FBG accelerometer based on a transversely rotating stick, which can, at the same or even larger size, keep the high sensitivity and significantly increase the low resonant frequency. In our experiments, a 77.5mm-long FBG accelerometer has achieved a similar sensitivity but 65% higher resonant frequency. This novel structure not only significantly widens the potential applications of FBG accelerometers by increasing their resonant frequencies but also provides a new route to design other accelerometers, e.g. micro accelerometers.

Separate or simultaneous removal of radioactive cations and anions from water by layered sodium vanadate-based sorbents

Nanofibers of sodium vanadate, consisting of very thin negatively charged layers and exchangeable sodium ions between the layers, are efficient sorbents for the removal of radioactive 137Cs+ and 85Sr2+ cations from water. The exchange of 137Cs+ or 85Sr2+ ions with the interlayer Na+ ions eventually triggered structural deformation of the thin layers, trapping the 137Cs+ and 85Sr2+ ions in the nanofibers. Furthermore, when the nanofibers were dispersed in a AgNO3 solution at pH >7, well-dispersed Ag2O nanocrystals formed by firmly anchoring themselves on the fiber surfaces along planes of crystallographic similarity with those of Ag2O. These nanocrystals can efficiently capture I– anions by forming a AgI precipitate, which was firmly attached to the substrates. We also designed sorbents that can remove 137Cs+ and 125I– ions simultaneously for safe disposal by optimizing the Ag2O loading and sodium content of the vanadate. This study confirms that sorbent features such as fibril morphology, negatively charged thin layers and readily exchangeable Na+ ions between the layers, and the crystal planes for the formation of a coherent interface with Ag2O nanocrystals on the fiber surface are very important for the simultaneous uptake of cations and anions.

Melt electrospinning of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) scaffolds: Phenomenological observations associated with collection and direct writing

Melt electrospinning and its additive manufacturing analogue, melt electrospinning writing (MEW), are two processes which can produce porous materials for applications where solvent toxicity and accumulation in solution electrospinning are problematic. This study explores the melt electrospinning of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds, specifically for applications in tissue engineering. The research described here aims to inform researchers interested in melt electrospinning about technical aspects of the process. This includes rapid fiber characterization using glass microscope slides, allowing influential processing parameters on fiber morphology to be assessed, as well as observed fiber collection phenomena on different collector substrates. The distribution and alignment of melt electrospun PCL fibers can be controlled to a certain degree using patterned collectors to create large numbers of scaffolds with shaped macroporous architectures. However, the buildup of residual charge in the collected fibers limits the achievable thickness of the porous template through such scaffolds. One challenge identified for MEW is the ability to control charge buildup so that fibers can be placed accurately in close proximity, and in many centimeter heights. The scale and size of scaffolds produced using MEW, however, indicate that this emerging process will fill a technological niche in biofabrication.

SnO2 decorated graphene nanocomposite anode materials prepared via an up-scalable wet-mechanochemical process for sodium ion batteries

A facile and up-scalable wet-mechanochemical process is designed for fabricating ultra-fine SnO2 nanoparticles anchored on graphene networks for use as anode materials for sodium ion batteries. A hierarchical structure of the SnO2@graphene composite is obtained from the process. The resultant rechargeable SIBs achieved high rate capability and good cycling stability.

Surface materials and aspects of care: A study in modes of being in a visual art practice

Through creative practice and written research, this thesis explores the peculiar qualities of surface materials, revealing a broader ethos of practice which I identify as care. I propose that care arises as a mode of being between artist and work, work and beholder, and between the parts of the work. The thesis situates the art practice within an ethical framework, premised on, but extending, Heidegger's ontological equation of care with being. The original contribution is in the claim that the particular qualities of worldly matter generate the terms for care as a particular mode of engagement that is reciprocal and intransitive.

Raman spectroscopy techniques for detection of energetic materials at high and low concentration

This thesis presents the development of a rapid, sensitive and reproducible spectroscopic method for the detection of TNT in forensic and environmental applications. Simple nano sensors prepared by cost effective methods were utilized as sensitive platforms for the detection of TNT by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The optimization of the substrate and the careful selection of a suitable recognition molecule contributed to the significant improvements of sensitive and selective targeting over current detection methods. The work presented in this thesis paves the way for effective detection and monitoring of explosives residues in law enforcement and environmental health applications.