Integrating eco-efficiency assessment of commercial buildings into the design process : LCADesign

The ability to assess a commercial building for its impact on the environment at the earliest stage of design is a goal which is achievable by integrating several approaches into a single procedure directly from the 3D CAD representation. Such an approach enables building design professionals to make informed decisions on the environmental impact of building and its alternatives during the design development stage instead of at the post-design stage where options become limited. The indicators of interest are those which relate to consumption of resources and energy, contributions to pollution of air, water and soil, and impacts on the health and wellbeing of people in the built environment as a result of constructing and operating buildings. 3D object-oriented CAD files contain a wealth of building information which can be interrogated for details required for analysis of the performance of a design. The quantities of all components in the building can be automatically obtained from the 3D CAD objects and their constituent materials identified to calculate a complete list of the amounts of all building products such as concrete, steel, timber, plastic etc. When this information is combined with a life cycle inventory database, key internationally recognised environmental indicators can be estimated. Such a fully integrated tool known as LCADesign has been created for automated ecoefficiency assessment of commercial buildings direct from 3D CAD. This paper outlines the key features of LCADesign and its application to environmental assessment of commercial buildings.

LCADesign : an integrated approach to automatic eco-efficiency assessment of commercial buildings

Buildings consume resources and energy, contribute to pollution of our air, water and soil, impact the health and well-being of populations and constitute an important part of the built environment in which we live. The ability to assess their design with a view to reducing that impact automatically from their 3D CAD representations enables building design professionals to make informed decisions on the environmental impact of building structures. Contemporary 3D object-oriented CAD files contain a wealth of building information. LCADesign has been designed as a fully integrated approach for automated eco-efficiency assessment of commercial buildings direct from 3D CAD. LCADesign accesses the 3D CAD detail through Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) - the international standard file format for defining architectural and constructional CAD graphic data as 3D real-world objects - to permit construction professionals to interrogate these intelligent drawing objects for analysis of the performance of a design. The automated take-off provides quantities of all building components whose specific production processes, logistics and raw material inputs, where necessary, are identified to calculate a complete list of quantities for all products such as concrete, steel, timber, plastic etc and combines this information with the life cycle inventory database, to estimate key internationally recognised environmental indicators such as CML, EPS and Eco-indicator 99. This paper outlines the key modules of LCADesign and their role in delivering an automated eco-efficiency assessment for commercial buildings.

Making sense of working lives and working choices : the role of satirical cartoons

This study examined the tone and content of 107 political, satirical cartoons images published in the popular culture forum of mainstream newspapers. The cartoons illustrated the reform of the industrial relations system in Australia in 2005 and 2006. The images were conveyed in a moderate tone. That is, they were more about poking fun at and questioning authority and power, rather than simply describing the issues on one hand, or demonstrating any revolutionary fervor on the other. The cartoons’ content represented many of the concerns and issues being voiced by employer groups, government, opposition, unions and the media at the time. Themes likely to evoke a strong response from the readership included the importance of a collective response in voicing opposition to the legislation and enacting change, the risks to fundamental working conditions, the stealth and dogma associated with the rollout of the changes and the increasing disparity in wealth and power between employers and workers. The images were an important part of the wider discourse and a mechanism which helped place industrial relations squarely in the minds of working Australians.

Cryoreservation of alginate-fibrin beads involving bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells by vitrification

Application of cell-–biomaterial systems in regenerative medicine can be facilitated by their successful low temperature preservation. Vitrification, which avoids ice crystal formation by amorphous solidification, is an emerging approach to cryopreservation. Developing vitrification strategy, effective cryopreservation of alginate–fibrin beads with porcine mesenchymal stromal cells has been achieved in this study. The cell–biomaterial constructs were pre-cultured for 20 days before cryopreservation, allowing for cell proliferation and construct stabilization. Ethylene glycol (EG) was employed as the basic cryoprotectant for two equilibration solutions. Successful cryopreservation of the constructs was achieved using vitrification solution composed of penetrating (EG MW 62 Da) and non-penetrating (sucrose MW 342 Da) cryoprotectants. Stepwise procedure of introduction to and removal of cryoprotectants was brief; direct plunging into liquid nitrogen was applied. Cell viability, evaluated by combining live/death staining and confocal laser microscopy, was similar for both control and vitrified cells in the beads. No detectable damage of microstructure of cryopreserved beads was found as shown by scanning electron microscopy. Both osteogenically induced control and vitrified cells in the constructs were equally capable of mineral production and deposition. There was no statistically significant difference in metabolic activity and proliferation between both groups during the entire culture period. Our study leads to the conclusion that the developed cryopreservation protocol allowed to maintain the integrity of the beads while preserving the ability of the pig bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells to proliferate and subsequently differentiate; demonstrating that vitrification is a promising approach for cryopreser-vation of “ready-to-use” cell–biomaterial constructs.

Vitreous cryopreservation of nanofibrous tissue-engineered constructs generated using mesenchymal stromal cells

Development of an effective preservation strategy to fulfill off-the-shelf availability of tissue-engineered constructs (TECs) is demanded for realizing their clinical potential. In this study, the feasibility of vitrification, ice-free cryopreservation, for precultured ready-to-use TECs was evaluated. To prepare the TECs, bone marrow-derived porcine mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were seeded in polycaprolactone-gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds and cultured for 3 weeks before vitrification treatment. The vitrification strategy developed, which involved exposure of the TECs to low concentrations of cryoprotectants followed by a vitrification solution and sterile packaging in a pouch with its subsequent immersion directly into liquid nitrogen, was accomplished within 11min. Stepwise removal of cryoprotectants, after warming in a 38 degrees C water bath, enabled rapid restoration of the TECs. Vitrification did not impair microstructure of the scaffold or cell viability. No significant differences were found between the vitrified and control TECs in cellular metabolic activity and proliferation on matched days and in the trends during 5 weeks of continuous culture postvitrification. Osteogenic differentiation ability in vitrified and control groups was similar. In conclusion, we have developed a time- and cost-efficient cryopreservation method that maintains integrity of the TECs while preserving MSCs viability and metabolic activity, and their ability to differentiate.

Towards Humane Technologies: Biotechnologies, New Media and Ethics

What are the ethical and political implications when the very foundations of life —things of awe and spiritual significance — are translated into products accessible to few people? This book critically analyses this historic recontextualisation. Through mediation — when meaning moves ‘from one text to another, from one discourse to another’ — biotechnology is transformed into analysable data and into public discourses. The unique book links biotechnology with media and citizenship. As with any ‘commodity’, biological products have been commodified. Because enormous speculative investment rests on this, risk will be understated and benefit will be overstated. Benefits will be unfairly distributed. Already, the bioprospecting of Southern megadiverse nations, legally sanctioned by U.S. property rights conventions, has led to wealth and health benefits in the North. Crucial to this development are biotechnological discourses that shift meanings from a “language of life” into technocratic discourses, infused with neo-liberal economic assumptions that promise progress and benefits for all. Crucial in this is the mass media’s representation of biotechnology for an audience with poor scientific literacy. Yet, even apparently benign biotechnology spawned by the Human Genome Project such as prenatal screening has eugenic possibilities, and genetic codes for illness are eagerly sought by insurance companies seeking to exclude certain people. These issues raise important questions about a citizenship that is founded on moral responsibility for the wellbeing of society now and into the future. After all, biotechnology is very much concerned with the essence of life itself. This book provides a space for alternative and dissident voices beyond the hype that surrounds biotechnology.

The studio sans frontières : the open-studio as an answer to the challenges of teaching contemporary art

Since at least the 1960s, art has assumed a breadth of form and medium as diverse as social reality itself. Where once it was marginal and transgressive for artists to work across a spectrum of media, today it is common practice. In this ‘post-medium’ age, fidelity to a specific branch of media is a matter of preference, rather than a code of practice policed by gallerists, curators and critics. Despite the openness of contemporary art practice, the teaching of art at most universities remains steadfastly discipline-based. Discipline-based art teaching, while offering the promise of focussed ‘mastery’ of a particular set of technical skills and theoretical concerns, does so at the expense of a deeper and more complex understanding of the possibilities of creative experimentation in the artist’s studio. By maintaining an hermetic approach to medium, it does not prepare students sufficiently for the reality of art making in the twenty-first century. In fact, by pretending that there is a select range of techniques fundamental to the artist’s trade, discipline-based teaching can often appear to be more engaged with the notion of skills preservation than purposeful art training. If art schools are to survive and prosper in an increasingly vocationally-oriented university environment, they need to fully synthesise the professional reality of contemporary art practice into their approach to teaching and learning. This paper discusses the way in which the ‘open’ studio approach to visual art study at QUT endeavours to incorporate the diversity and complexity of contemporary art while preserving the sense of collective purpose that discipline-based teaching fosters. By allowing students to independently develop their own art practices while also applying collaborative models of learning and assessment, the QUT studio program aims to equip students with a strong sense of self-reliance, a broad awareness and appreciation of contemporary art, and a deep understanding of studio-based experimentation unfettered by the boundaries of traditional media: all skills fundamental to the practice of contemporary art.

Ecological sustainability : what role for public health education?

This article explores the notion of ecological sustainability in the context of public health education and the contribution Universities can make in creating environments that include ecologically sustainable practices. It considers the important role of environmental health in building a sustainable future for the population as a central plank of public health. It presents the evidence for the need for comprehensive approaches to ecological sustainability within the University and offers suggestions about how this can take place. It concludes by arguing that to date there is a substantial gap between the rhetoric and the reality in the University context.

Providing youth with skills, training and employment opportunities through ICT Initiatives

Youth population is increasing explosively particularly in developing countries as a result of rapid urbanization. This increase is bringing large number of social and economic problems. For instance the impacts of job and training availability, and the physical, social and cultural quality of urban environment on young people are enormous, and affect their health, lifestyles, and well-being (Gleeson and Sipe 2006). Besides this, globalization and technological developments are affecting youth in urban areas in all parts of the world, both positively and negatively (Robertson 1995). The rapidly advancing information and communications technologies (ICTs) helps in addressing social and economic problems caused by the rapid growth of urban youth populations in developing countries. ICTs offer opportunities to young people for learning, skill development and employment. But there are downsides: young people in many developing countries lack of having broad access to these new technologies, they are vulnerable to global market changes, and ICTs link them into global cultures which promote consumer goods, potentially eroding local cultures and community values (Manacorda and Petrongolo 1999). However we believe that the positives outweigh such negatives. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the world’s young population number more than they ever have. There are over a billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24, which 85 per cent of them live in developing countries and mainly in urban environments. Many of these young people are in the process of making, or have already made, the transition from school to work. During the last two decades all around the world, these young people, as new workers, have faced a number of challenges associated with globalization and technological advances on labour markets (United Nations 2004). The continuous decrease in the manufacturing employment is made many of the young people facing three options: getting jobs in the informal economy with insecurity and poor wages and working conditions, or getting jobs in the low-tier service industries, or developing their vocational skills to benefit from new opportunities in the professional and advanced technical/knowledge sectors. Moreover in developing countries a large portion of young people are not even lucky enough to choose among any of these options, and consequently facing long-term unemployment, which makes them highly vulnerable. The United Nations’ World Youth Employment report (2004) indicates that in almost all countries, females tend to be far more vulnerable than males in terms of long-term unemployment, and young people who have advanced qualifications are far less likely to experience long-term unemployment than others. In the limited opportunities of the formal labour market, those with limited vocational skills resort to forced entrepreneurship and selfemployment in the informal economy, often working for low pay under hazardous conditions, with only few prospects for the future (United Nations 2005a). The International Labour Organization’s research (2004) revealed that the labour force participation rates for young people decreased by almost four per cent (which is equivalent of 88 million young people) between 1993 and 2003. This is largely as a result of the increased number of young people attending school, high overall unemployment rates, and the fact that some young people gave up any hope of finding work and dropped out of the labour market. At the regional level, youth unemployment was highest in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (25.6%) and sub-Saharan Africa (21%) and lowest in East Asia (7%) and the industrialized economies(13.4%) (International Labour Organization 2004). The youth in economically disadvantaged regions (e.g. the MENA region) face many challenges in education and training that delivers them the right set of skills and knowledge demanded by the labour market. As a consequence, the transition from school to work is mostly unsuccessful and young population end up either unemployed or underemployed in the informal sectors (United Nations 2005b). Unemployment and lack of economic prospects of the urban youth are pushing many of them into criminal acts, excessive alcohol use, substance addiction, and also in many cases resulting in processes of social or political violence (Fernandez-Maldonado 2004; United Nations 2005a). Long-term unemployment leads young people in a process of marginalisation and social exclusion (United Nations 2004). The sustained high rates of long-term youth unemployment have a number of negative effects on societies. First, it results in countries failing to take advantage of the human resources to increase their productive potential, at a time of transition to a globalized world that inexorably demands such leaps in productive capacity. Second, it reinforces the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Third, owing to the discrepancy between more education and exposure to the mass media and fewer employment opportunities, it may encourage the spread of disruptive behaviours, recourse to illegal alternatives for generating income and the loss of basic societal values, all of which erode public safety and social capital. Fourth, it may trigger violent and intractable political conflicts. And lastly, it may exacerbate intergenerational conflicts when young people perceive a lack of opportunity and meritocracy in a system that favours adults who have less formal education and training but more wealth, power and job stability (Hopenhayn 2002). To assist in addressing youth’s skill training and employment problems this paper scrutinises useful international practices, policies, initiatives and programs targeting youth skill training, particularly in ICTs. The MENA national governments and local authorities could consider implementing similar initiative and strategies to address some of the youth employment issues. The broader aim of this paper is to investigate the successful practice and strategies for the information and communication related income generation opportunities for young people to: promote youth entrepreneurship; promote public-private partnerships; target vulnerable groups of young people; narrow digital divide; and put young people in charge. The rest of this paper is organised in five parts. First, the paper provides an overview of the literature on the knowledge economy, skill, education and training issues. Secondly, it reviews the role of ICTs for vocational skill development and employability. Thirdly, it discusses the issues surrounding the development of the digital divide. Fourthly, the paper underlines types and the importance of developing ICT initiatives targeting young people, and reviews some of the successful policy implementations on ICT-based initiatives from both developed and developing countries that offer opportunities to young people for learning, skill development and employment. Then the paper concludes by providing useful generalised recommendations for the MENA region countries and cities in: advocating possible opportunities for ICT generated employment for young people; and discussing how ICT policies could be modified and adopted to meet young people’s needs.

The impact of “empirical facts” on legal scholarship and legal research training

Lawyers have traditionally viewed law as a closed system, and doctrinal research has been the research methodology used most widely in the profession. This reflects traditional concepts of legal reasoning. There is a wealth of reliable and valid social science data available to lawyers and judges. Judges in fact often refer to general facts about the world, society, institutions and human behaviour (‘empirical facts’). Legal education needs to prepare our students for this broader legal context. This paper examines how ‘empirical facts’ are used in Australian and other common law courts. Specifically, the paper argues that there is a need for enhanced training in non-doctrinal research methodologies across the law school curriculum. This should encompass a broad introduction to social science methods, with more attention being paid to a cross-section of methodologies such as content analysis, comparative law and surveys that are best applied to law.

Are country and cultural values interchangeable? : a case example using occupational stress and coping

Cross-cultural research in occupational stress and coping has produced a wealth of knowledge. Although advancement has been made, there are still problems to be solved. One of these problems is the confusion generated in the literature by researchers claiming nation or country as representing cultural values, and the use of the two terms interchangeably. It remains unclear whether this practice is correct. The present paper reported on this by using 511 full time employees from Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to study occupational stress and coping. Results revealed that cultural value paradigm (i.e., Individualism-Collectivism) was distributed across the three nations, such that over 60% of participants across the three nations were either high or low in both I-C paradigms. The findings also indicated that the relationship between cultural value paradigm and country impacted on stress and coping differently. The study shows that significant differences exist within country, as well as between countries, such that any attempt to equate ‘culture’ with ‘country’ becomes problematic. Therefore, these findings establish that country or nation was not the same as culture values and could not be used interchangeably.

On the affinity of Chuaria–Tawuia complex : a multidisciplinary study

In this study, biometric and structural engineering tool have been used to examine a possible relationship within Chuaria–Tawuia complex and micro-FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analyses to understand the biological affinity of Chuaria circularis Walcott, collected from the Mesoproterozoic Suket Shales of the Vindhyan Supergroup and the Neoproterozoic Halkal Shales of the Bhima Group of peninsular India. Biometric analyses of well preserved carbonized specimens show wide variation in morphology and uni-modal distribution. We believe and demonstrate to a reasonable extent that C. circularis most likely was a part of Tawuia-like cylindrical body of algal origin. Specimens with notch/cleft and overlapping preservation, mostly recorded in the size range of 3–5 mm, are of special interest. Five different models proposed earlier on the life cycle of C. circularis are discussed. A new model, termed as ‘Hybrid model’ based on present multidisciplinary study assessing cylindrical and spherical shapes suggesting variable cell wall strength and algal affinity is proposed. This model discusses and demonstrates varied geometrical morphologies assumed by Chuaria and Tawuia, and also shows the inter-relationship of Chuaria–Tawuia complex. Structural engineering tool (thin walled pressure vessel theory) was applied to investigate the implications of possible geometrical shapes (sphere and cylinder), membrane (cell wall) stresses and ambient pressure environment on morphologically similar C. circularis and Tawuia. The results suggest that membrane stresses developed on the structures similar to Chuaria–Tawuia complex were directly proportional to radius and inversely proportional to the thickness in both cases. In case of hollow cylindrical structure, the membrane stresses in circumferential direction (hoop stress) are twice of the longitudinal direction indicating that rupture or fragmentation in the body of Tawuia would have occurred due to hoop stress. It appears that notches and discontinuities seen in some of the specimens of Chuaria may be related to rupture suggesting their possible location in 3D Chuaria. The micro-FTIR spectra of C. circularis are characterized by both aliphatic and aromatic absorption bands. The aliphaticity is indicated by prominent alkyl group bands between 2800–3000 and 1300–1500 cm−1. The prominent absorption signals at 700–900 cm−1 (peaking at 875 and 860 cm−1) are due to aromatic CH out of plane deformation. A narrow, strong band is centred at 1540 cm−1 which could be COOH band. The presence of strong aliphatic bands in FTIR spectra suggests that the biogeopolymer of C. circularis is of aliphatic nature. The wall chemistry indicates the presence of ‘algaenan’—a biopolymer of algae.