Impact of past and future residential housing development patterns on energy demand and related emissions

The continued outward growth from a central business district has been the dominant characteristic of most cities in Australia. However, this feature is seen as unsustainable and alternative scenarios to contain the outward growth are being proposed. Melbourne is currently grappling with this issue while simultaneously trying to reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Housing size, style and its location are the three principal factors which determine the emissions from the residential sector. This paper describes a methodology to assess the combined impact of these factors on past and possible future forms of residential development in Melbourne. The analysis found that the location of the housing and its size are the dominant factors determining energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Dynamic shot suggestion filtering for home video based on user performance

This paper presents novel additions to our existing amateur media creation framework. The framework provides at-capture guidance to enable the home movie maker to realize their aesthetic and narrative goals and automation of post-production editing. A common problem with the amateur filming context is its contingent nature, which often results in the failure to gain footage vital to the user's goals, even with at-capture software embedding. Accordingly, we have modelled minimizing the difference between target and captured footage at a given time during filming as a probability distribution divergence problem. We apply two policies of feedback to the user on their performance, passive communication via a suggestion desirability measure, and active filtering of undesirable suggestions. We demonstrate the framework using each policy with a simulation of various user and filming situations with promising results.

Expansion of congested railway capacity using triple-track line operation based on hourly passenger demand

This paper proposes a method of improving level of service in congested urban railways by means of a triple-track line operation for a highly dense urban area with special travel demand characteristics. Where the future travel demand forecasts show sluggish growth or no growth at all, there is little to no incentives for heavy railway investments like quadruple-track extension and construction of new railway routes to alleviate current railway congestion problems. In such a situation, triple-track line operation can be the best alternative due to its moderate investment cost and ease in land acquisition for just an additional single track along the existing tracks. Our simulation investigation in one of the congested railway lines in Tokyo showed that triple track line operation increases railway capacity by 26% and shortens travel time by 38% in peak direction during morning peak hours. These results are encouraging and are useful for removing current railways problems in Tokyo and in similar urban situations elsewhere.

Parents' and children's views on whether active video games are a substitute for the 'real thing'

Background:
Research has examined the energy cost associated with playing seated and active video games (AVGs), but not whether AVGs may benefit fundamental movement skills (FMS) in typically developing children. Improving FMS proficiency is a priority given its association with physical activity. This study aimed to identify children’s and parents’ perceptions of: (1) AVGs as a tool for developing FMS and (2) whether any skills gained during AVG play had potential to transfer to real life.

Methods:
This qualitative descriptive study included 29 parents of children aged 9–10 years who participated in semi-structured telephone interviews and 34 children who participated in six group discussions at school. Interview and discussion group data were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically.

Results:
Parents and children had different perspectives on the potential of AVGs for FMS, which largely rested on different views of ‘reality’. Parents felt AVGs were not a substitute for the ‘real thing’, and therefore had limited FMS benefits. Overall, parents thought any FMS gained through AVGs would have poor transferability to ‘real life’. In contrast, children had a more fluid and expansive view of reality which incorporated both ‘real life’ and ‘virtual’ space. Whilst children could articulate limitations of AVGs for skill learning, they still reported extensive use of AVGs as a learning tool for movement skill, and considered that skill acquisition was highly transferable.

Conclusions:
Despite contrasting beliefs from parents and children, children used AVGs for FMS learning. Future research needs to determine whether actual FMS benefits are gained through AVGs.

The impact of trade liberalization on import demand

In this paper, we empirically analyze the effects of trade reforms on import demand and derive their implications on economic development in Turkey, a country that underwent sudden and substantial trade liberalization in the mid-1980s. The tool for this analysis is the estimation of disaggregated import demand elasticities. The adoption of a more liberal trade regime as well as radical attempts to foster economic development makes the Turkish experience particularly interesting for analysis. Almost all of our elasticities are estimated to be significant, unlike those of most previous studies in the literature on other countries. We test for different elasticities over “closed” and “open” economy periods, and find that the effects of the trade reforms of the 1980s were significant for a number of industries that form the backbone of the Turkish economy. We also compare our results with elasticity estimates from past studies for developed countries.

Impact of an active video game on healthy children’s physical activity

OBJECTIVE: This naturalistic study tests whether children receiving a new (to them) active video game spontaneously engage in more physical activity than those receiving an inactive video game, and whether the effect would be greater among children in unsafe neighborhoods, who might not be allowed to play outside.

METHODS: Participants were children 9 to 12 years of age, with a BMI >50th percentile, but <99th percentile; none of these children a medical condition that would preclude physical activity or playing video games. A randomized clinical trial assigned children to receiving 2 active or 2 inactive video games, the peripherals necessary to run the games, and a Wii console. Physical activity was monitored by using accelerometers for 5 weeks over the course of a 13-week experiment. Neighborhood safety was assessed with a 12 item validated questionnaire.

RESULTS: There was no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at anytime, than children receiving the inactive video games. The outcomes were not moderated by parent perceived neighborhood safety, child BMI z score, or other demographic characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: These results provide no reason to believe that simply acquiring an active video game under naturalistic circumstances provides a public health benefit to children.

The effects of the late 2000s global financial crisis on Australia's construction demand

An accurate measurement of the impacts of external shocks on construction demand will enable construction industry policymakers and developers to make allowances for future occurrences and advance the construction industry in a sustainable manner. This paper aims to measurethe dynamic effects of the late 2000s global financial crisis on the level of demand in the Australian construction industry. The vector error correction (VEC) model with intervention indicators is employed to estimate the external impact from the crisis on a macro-level construction economic indicator, namely construction demand. The methodology comprises six main stages to produce appropriate VEC models that describe the characteristics of the underlying process. Research findings suggestthat overall residential and non-residential construction demand were affected significantly by the recent crisis and seasonality. Non-residentialconstruction demand was disrupted more than residential construction demand at the crisis onset. The residential constructionindustry is more reactive and is able to recover faster following the crisis in comparison with the non-residential industry. The VEC model with intervention indicators developed in this study can be used as an experiment for an advanced econometric method. This can be used to analyse the effects of special eventsand factors not only on construction but also on other industries.

Students' intercultural development through language learning in Vietnamese tertiary education: a case study on the use of film as an innovative approach

Vietnam's open-door policy, its socialist-oriented market economy, recent growth in cross-border education and skills mobility, regionalisation and globalisation have created an increasing demand for Vietnamese graduates to develop not only their English language but also their intercultural competence. This paper discusses the issue of student intercultural learning and development in the Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) class. Especially, it addresses the use of film as an innovative approach to engage Vietnamese students in intercultural learning and development in the EFL classroom. The study reported in this paper draws on rich sources of data which include in-depth interviews with students, student reflective journals and video-recorded class observations at a university in central Vietnam. Overall, five key themes relating to student intercultural learning through film have been identified in this study. These include enhancing knowledge about cultural differences, engaging in cross-cultural comparison, breaking cultural stereotypes, immersing students in authentic learning and living in the world of ‘other’ culture and the integrated mode of intercultural language learning. The study is a significant contribution to scholarly research on the use of media objects to enhance student intercultural learning in language classrooms in developing countries.