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.

The impact of safety measures on the re-offence and crash rates of drink-driving offenders in Victoria

Alcohol is a major factor in road deaths and serious injuries. In Victoria, between 2008 and 2013, 30% of drivers killed were involved in alcohol-related crashes. From the early 1980s Victoria progressively introduced a series of measures, such as driver licence cancellation and alcohol interlocks, to reduce the level of drink-driving on Victoria's roads. This project tracked drink-driving offenders to measure and understand their re-offence and road trauma involvement levels during and after periods of licensing and driving interventions. The methodology controlled for exposure by aggregating crashes and traffic violations within relevant categories (e.g. licence cancelled/relicensed/relicensing not sought) and calculated as rates 'per thousand person-years'. Inferential statistical techniques were used to compare crash and offence rates between control and treatment groups across three distinct time periods, which coincided with the introduction of new interventions. This paper focuses on the extent to which the Victorian drink-driving measures have been successful in reducing re-offending and road trauma involvement during and after periods of licence interventions. It was found that a licence cancellation/ban is an effective drink-driving countermeasure as it reduced drink-driving offending and drink-driving crashes. Interlocks also had a positive effect on drink-driving offences as they were reduced during the interlock period as well as for the entire intervention period. Possible drink-driving policy implications are briefly discussed.

An optimal design for screening trials

Yao, Begg, and Livingston (1996, Biometrics 52, 992-1001) considered the optimal group size for testing a series of potentially therapeutic agents to identify a promising one as soon as possible for given error rates. The number of patients to be tested with each agent was fixed as the group size. We consider a sequential design that allows early acceptance and rejection, and we provide an optimal strategy to minimize the sample sizes (patients) required using Markov decision processes. The minimization is under the constraints of the two types (false positive and false negative) of error probabilities, with the Lagrangian multipliers corresponding to the cost parameters for the two types of errors. Numerical studies indicate that there can be a substantial reduction in the number of patients required.

Neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis

Two groups of patients with cystic fibrosis were compared. The screened group, detected with an improved neonatal screening assay for immunoreactive trypsin, developed fewer chest infections requiring treatment and gained more weight than the unscreened group. Early diagnosis by screening seems to affect early morbidity.

Embedding sustainability in a real-world context: Developing a world class early learning centre

This symposium describes what is possible when early childhood professionals work with designers to develop a vision for an exemplary early childhood centre with a focus on Education for Sustainability (EfS). The symposium provides insights into cross-disciplinary initiatives between QUT Early childhood and Design staff and students, who have worked together with the iconic Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, to explore imperatives around EfS, including leadership and professionalism. This practical, real world project has seen all stakeholders engage in a focus on sustainability which has opened new ways of thinking about early childhood centre design. Cross-disciplinarity has created space to re-think the potential of the disciplines to interweave, and in so doing opened different ways for thinking about early childhood centres – their operation and their function. For the first time in Queensland, this project creates strategic alliances between EfS, childcare, business and sustainable design. EfS is essential for addressing local and global environmental issues and early childhood EfS research has been gaining international momentum, with governments nominating this area as having significant capacity to empower communities and promote change. While models for collaboration exist in the early childhood programs in Reggio Emilia, we offer sustainability as a unique and contemporary focus with immense potential to generate international and national interest. To date Early Childhood degree students enrolled in a leadership and management unit/subject have worked collaboratively with Design students to explore the sustainable design of the proposed Lone Pine early childhood centre. Providing students with a ‘real world’ project sees them re-positioned from ‘novice’ to ‘professional’, where their knowledge, expertise and perspectives are simultaneously validated and challenged. These learning experiences are enabling students to practice a new model of early childhood leadership, one that is vital for leading in an increasingly complex world. The symposium will be comprised of three discrete, though interconnected presentations, that work together to tell the story of this project. Three key facets of the project will be explored during the 90 minute session, as the perspectives of key stakeholders are shared. The first presentation (A/Prof Julie Davis, Dr Lyndal O’Gorman& Dr Megan Gibson) will outline the role of QUT School of Early Childhood staff and students, with attention to the ways in which the project was embedded in students’ work in the final year of their degree program of study. The second presentation (Ms Lindy Osborne) will provide insights into the Design students’ collaborative work in the project. Finally, the key role of the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and their commitment for EfS (Ms Peta Wilson & Dr Sue Elliott) will map out the philosophy that underpins the project. Together, the authors will conclude key project outcomes that have been achieved through this real-world, cross-disciplinary work.

Preservice early childhood teachers and designers partnering for change at The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: An interdisciplinary education and design for sustainability project

This presentation discusses and critiques a current case study of a project in which Early Childhood preservice teachers are working in partnership with Design students to develop principles and concepts for the design and construction of an early childhood centre. This centre, to be built on the grounds of the iconic Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane , focuses on Education for Sustainability (EfS), sustainable design and sustainable business. Interdisciplinary initiatives between QUT staff and students from two Faculties (Education and Creative Industries) have been situated in the real –world context of this project. This practical, authentic project has seen stakeholders take an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, opening up new ways of thinking about early childhood centre design, particularly with respect to operation and function. Interdisciplinarity and a commitment to genuine partnerships have created intellectual spaces to re-think the potential of the disciplines to be interwoven so that future professionals from different fields might come together to learn from each other and to address the sustainability imperative. The case study documents and explores the possibilities that the Lone Pine project offers for academics and students from Early Childhood and Design to collaboratively inform the Sanctuary’s vision for the Centre. The research examines how students benefit from practical, real world, community-integrated learning; how academic staff across two disciplines are able to work collaboratively within a real-world context; and how external stakeholders experience and benefit from the partnership with university staff and students. Data were collected via a series of focus group and individual interviews designed to explore how the various stakeholders (staff, students, business partners) experienced their involvement in the interdisciplinary project. Inductive and deductive thematic analysis of these data suggest many benefits for participants as well as a number of challenges. Findings suggest that the project has provided students with ‘real world’ partnerships that reposition early childhood students’ identities from ‘novice’ to ‘professional’, where their knowledge, expertise and perspectives are simultaneously validated and challenged in their work with designers. These partnerships are enabling preservice teachers to practice a new model of early childhood leadership in sustainability, one that is vital for leading for change in an increasingly complex world. This presentation celebrates, critiques and problematises this project, exploring wider implications for other contexts in which university staff and students may seek to work across traditional boundaries, thus building partnerships for change.

Early detection of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese and Indian adult population

Objectives of this study were to determine secular trends of diabetes prevalence in China and develop simple risk assessment algorithms for screening individuals with high-risk for diabetes or with undiagnosed diabetes in Chinese and Indian adults. Two consecutive population based surveys in Chinese and a prospective study in Mauritian Indians were involved in this study. The Chinese surveys were conducted in randomly selected populations aged 20-74 years in 2001-2002 (n=14 592) and 35-74 years in 2006 (n=4416). A two-step screening strategy using fasting capillary plasma glucose (FCG) as first-line screening test followed by standard 2-hour 75g oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) was applied to 12 436 individuals in 2001, while OGTTs were administrated to all participants together with FCG in 2006 and to 2156 subjects in 2002. In Mauritius, two consecutive population based surveys were conducted in Mauritian Indians aged 20-65 years in 1987 and 1992; 3094 Indians (1141 men), who were not diagnosed as diabetes at baseline, were reexamined with OGTTs in 1992 and/or 1998. Diabetes and pre-diabetes was defined following 2006 World Health Organization/ International Diabetes Federation Criteria. Age-standardized, as well as age- and sex-specific, prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes in adult Chinese was significantly increased from 12.2% and 15.4% in 2001 to 16.0% and 21.2% in 2006, respectively. A simple Chinese diabetes risk score was developed based on the data of Chinese survey 2001-2002 and validated in the population of survey 2006. The risk scores based on β coefficients derived from the final Logistic regression model ranged from 3 – 32. When the score was applied to the population of survey 2006, the area under operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the score for screening undiagnosed diabetes was 0.67 (95% CI, 0.65-0.70), which was lower than the AUC of FCG (0.76 [0.74-0.79]), but similar to that of HbA1c (0.68 [0.65-0.71]). At a cut-off point of 14, the sensitivity and specificity of the risk score in screening undiagnosed diabetes was 0.84 (0.81-0.88) and 0.40 (0.38-0.41). In Mauritian Indian, body mass index (BMI), waist girth, family history of diabetes (FH), and glucose was confirmed to be independent risk predictors for developing diabetes. Predicted probabilities for developing diabetes derived from a simple Cox regression model fitted with sex, FH, BMI and waist girth ranged from 0.05 to 0.64 in men and 0.03 to 0.49 in women. To predict the onset of diabetes, the AUC of the predicted probabilities was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.56-0.68) in men and 0.64(0.59-0.69) in women. At a cut-off point of 0.12, the sensitivity and specificity was 0.72(0.71-0.74) and 0.47(0.45-0.49) in men; and 0.77(0.75-0.78) and 0.50(0.48-0.52) in women, respectively. In conclusion, there was a rapid increase in prevalence of diabetes in Chinese adults from 2001 to 2006. The simple risk assessment algorithms based on age, obesity and family history of diabetes showed a moderate discrimination of diabetes from non-diabetes, which may be used as first line screening tool for diabetes and pre-diabetes, and for health promotion purpose in Chinese and Indians.

Mammographic mass-screening and future breast cancer burden in Finland

A population-based early detection program for breast cancer has been in progress in Finland since 1987. According to regulations during the study period 1987-2001, free of charge mammography screening was offered every second year to women aged 50-59 years. Recently, the screening service was decided to be extended to age group 50-69. However, the scope of the program is still frequently discussed in public and information about potential impacts of mass-screening practice changes on future breast cancer burden is required. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to present methodologies for taking into account the mass-screening invitation information in breast cancer burden predictions, and to present alternative breast cancer incidence and mortality predictions up to 2012 based on scenarios of the future screening policy. The focus of this work is not on assessing the absolute efficacy but the effectiveness of mass-screening, and, by utilizing the data on invitations, on showing the estimated impacts of changes in an existing screening program on the short-term predictions. The breast cancer mortality predictions are calculated using a model that combines incidence, cause-specific and other cause survival on individual level. The screening invitation data are incorporated into modeling of breast cancer incidence and survival by dividing the program into separate components (first and subsequent rounds and years within them, breaks, and post screening period) and defining a variable that gives the component of the screening program. The incidence is modeled using a Poisson regression approach and the breast cancer survival by applying a parametric mixture cure model, where the patient population is allowed to be a combination of cured and uncured patients. The patients risk to die from other causes than breast cancer is allowed to differ from that of a corresponding general population group and to depend on age and follow-up time. As a result, the effects of separate components of the screening program on incidence, proportion of cured and the survival of the uncured are quantified. According to the predictions, the impacts of policy changes, like extending the program from age group 50-59 to 50-69, are clearly visible on incidence while the effects on mortality in age group 40-74 are minor. Extending the screening service would increase the incidence of localized breast cancers but decrease the rates of non-localized breast cancer. There were no major differences between mortality predictions yielded by alternative future scenarios of the screening policy: Any policy change would have at the most a 3.0% reduction on overall breast cancer mortality compared to continuing the current practice in the near future.

Pre-service early childhood teachers and designers partnering for change at The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: An interdisciplinary education and design for sustainability project

This presentation discusses and critiques a current case study of a project in which Early Childhood preservice teachers are working in partnership with Design students to develop principles and concepts for the design and construction of an early childhood centre. This centre, to be built on the grounds of the iconic Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane , focuses on Education for Sustainability (EfS), sustainable design and sustainable business. Interdisciplinary initiatives between QUT staff and students from two Faculties (Education and Creative Industries) have been situated in the real –world context of this project. This practical, authentic project has seen stakeholders take an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, opening up new ways of thinking about early childhood centre design, particularly with respect to operation and function. Interdisciplinarity and a commitment to genuine partnerships have created intellectual spaces to re-think the potential of the disciplines to be interwoven so that future professionals from different fields might come together to learn from each other and to address the sustainability imperative. The case study documents and explores the possibilities that the Lone Pine project offers for academics and students from Early Childhood and Design to collaboratively inform the Sanctuary’s vision for the Centre. The research examines how students benefit from practical, real world, community-integrated learning; how academic staff across two disciplines are able to work collaboratively within a real-world context; and how external stakeholders experience and benefit from the partnership with university staff and students. Data were collected via a series of focus group and individual interviews designed to explore how the various stakeholders (staff, students, business partners) experienced their involvement in the interdisciplinary project. Inductive and deductive thematic analysis of these data suggest many benefits for participants as well as a number of challenges. Findings suggest that the project has provided students with ‘real world’ partnerships that reposition early childhood students’ identities from ‘novice’ to ‘professional’, where their knowledge, expertise and perspectives are simultaneously validated and challenged in their work with designers. These partnerships are enabling preservice teachers to practice a new model of early childhood leadership in sustainability, one that is vital for leading for change in an increasingly complex world. This presentation celebrates, critiques and problematises this project, exploring wider implications for other contexts in which university staff and students may seek to work across traditional boundaries, thus building partnerships for change.

NEESTIMATOR v2: re-implementation of software for the estimation of contemporary effective population size (N-e) from genetic data

NeEstimator v2 is a completely revised and updated implementation of software that produces estimates of contemporary effective population size, using several different methods and a single input file. NeEstimator v2 includes three single-sample estimators (updated versions of the linkage disequilibrium and heterozygote-excess methods, and a new method based on molecular coancestry), as well as the two-sample (moment-based temporal) method. New features include the following: (i) an improved method for accounting for missing data; (ii) options for screening out rare alleles; (iii) confidence intervals for all methods; (iv) the ability to analyse data sets with large numbers of genetic markers (10000 or more); (v) options for batch processing large numbers of different data sets, which will facilitate cross-method comparisons using simulated data; and (vi) correction for temporal estimates when individuals sampled are not removed from the population (Plan I sampling). The user is given considerable control over input data and composition, and format of output files. The freely available software has a new JAVA interface and runs under MacOS, Linux and Windows.

Psychological consequences of false-positive screening mammograms in the UK

- Objectives To identify the psychological effects of false-positive screening mammograms in the UK. - Methods Systematic review of all controlled studies and qualitative studies of women with a false-positive screening mammogram. The control group participants had normal mammograms. All psychological outcomes including returning for routine screening were permitted. All studies had a narrative synthesis. - Results The searches returned seven includable studies (7/4423). Heterogeneity was such that meta-analysis was not possible. Studies using disease-specific measures found that, compared to normal results, there could be enduring psychological distress that lasted up to 3 years; the level of distress was related to the degree of invasiveness of the assessment. At 3 years the relative risks were, further mammography, 1.28 (95% CI 0.82 to 2.00), fine needle aspiration 1.80 (95% CI 1.17 to 2.77), biopsy 2.07 (95% CI 1.22 to 3.52) and early recall 1.82 (95% CI 1.22 to 2.72). Studies that used generic measures of anxiety and depression found no such impact up to 3 months after screening. Evidence suggests that women with false-positive mammograms have an increased likelihood of failing to reattend for routine screening, relative risk 0.97 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.98) compared with women with normal mammograms. - Conclusions Having a false-positive screening mammogram can cause breast cancer-specific distress for up to 3 years. The degree of distress is related to the invasiveness of the assessment. Women with false-positive mammograms are less likely to return for routine assessment than those with normal ones.

Screening Eucalyptus cloeziana and E. argophloia populations for resistance to Puccinia psidii

Disease screening to determine the threat Puccinia psidii poses to plantation and native eucalypts in Australia was undertaken in half-sib families of two contrasting eucalypt species, Eucalyptus cloeziana and E. argophloia. Artificial inoculation with a single-lesion isolate of P. psidii was used to screen these species for resistance to the biotype of P. psidii established in Australia. The objective was to characterize resistance to P. psidii within these two distinct species: E. argophloia, a vulnerable species with a narrow distribution, and E. cloeziana, a species with a broad and extensive distribution in Queensland. Results for E. cloeziana indicate that inland provenances are more resistant to P. psidii infection than provenances from coastal regions. Heritability estimates for the two assessment systems used (resistance on a 1-to-5 ordinal scale verses resistance on a 0-to-1 binomial scale) were low to high (0.24 to 0.63) for E. argophloia and moderate to high (0.4 to 0.91) for E. cloeziana, indicating a significant level of additive genetic variance for rust resistance within the populations. This study demonstrates the potential to select resistant families within the tested populations and indicates that P. psidii could detrimentally affect these species in native forests, nurseries, and plantations. Disease screening to determine the threat Puccinia psidii poses to plantation and native eucalypts in Australia was undertaken in half-sib families of two contrasting eucalypt species, Eucalyptus cloeziana and E. argophloia. Artificial inoculation with a single-lesion isolate of P. psidii was used to screen these species for resistance to the biotype of P. psidii established in Australia. The objective was to characterize resistance to P. psidii within these two distinct species: E. argophloia, a vulnerable species with a narrow distribution, and E. cloeziana, a species with a broad and extensive distribution in Queensland. Results for E. cloeziana indicate that inland provenances are more resistant to P. psidii infection than provenances from coastal regions. Heritability estimates for the two assessment systems used (resistance on a 1-to-5 ordinal scale verses resistance on a 0-to-1 binomial scale) were low to high (0.24 to 0.63) for E. argophloia and moderate to high (0.4 to 0.91) for E. cloeziana, indicating a significant level of additive genetic variance for rust resistance within the populations. This study demonstrates the potential to select resistant families within the tested populations and indicates that P. psidii could detrimentally affect these species in native forests, nurseries, and plantations.

Re-inventing the f word - it's feminism!

This article discusses approaches to feminist art practice by early career Australian women artists in the context of 'Contemporary Australia: Women', an exhibition held at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane in 2012.

Early diagnosis of breast cancer

The greatest effect on reducing mortality in breast cancer comes from the detection and treatment of invasive cancer when it is as small as possible. Although mammography screening is known to be effective, observer errors are frequent and false-negative cancers can be found in retrospective studies of prior mammograms. In the year 2001, 67 women with 69 surgically proven cancers detected at screening in the Mammography Centre of Helsinki University Hospital had previous mammograms as well. These mammograms were analyzed by an experienced screening radiologist, who found that 36 lesions were already visible in previous screening rounds. CAD (Second Look v. 4.01) detected 23 of these missed lesions. Eight readers with different kinds of experience with mammography screening read the films of 200 women with and without CAD. These films included 35 of those missed lesions and 16 screen-detected cancers. CAD sensitivity was 70.6% and specificity 15.8%. Use of CAD lengthened the mean time spent for readings but did not significantly affect readers sensitivities or specificities. Therefore the use of applied version of CAD (Second Look v. 4.01) is questionable. Because none of those eight readers found exactly same cancers, two reading methods were compared: summarized independent reading (at least a single cancer-positive opinion within the group considered decisive) and conference consensus reading (the cancer-positive opinion of the reader majority was considered decisive). The greatest sensitivity of 74.5% was achieved when the independent readings of 4 best-performing readers were summarized. Overall the summarized independent readings were more sensitive than conference consensus readings (64.7% vs. 43.1%) while there was far less difference in mean specificities (92.4% vs. 97.7%). After detecting suspicious lesion, the radiologist has to decide what is the most accurate, fast, and cost-effective means of further work-up. The feasibility of FNAC and CNB in the diagnosis of breast lesions was compared in non-randomised, retrospective study of 580 (503 malignant) breast lesions of 572 patients. The absolute sensitivity for CNB was better than for FNAC, 96% (206/214) vs. 67% (194/289) (p < 0.0001). An additional needle biopsy or surgical biopsy was performed for 93 and 62 patients with FNAC, but for only 2 and 33 patients with CNB. The frequent need of supplement biopsies and unnecessary axillary operations due to false-positive findings made FNAC (294 ) more expensive than CNB (223 ), and because the advantage of quick analysis vanishes during the overall diagnostic and referral process, it is recommendable to use CNB as initial biopsy method.

Screening for partner violence among family mediation clients: Differentiating types of abuse

Family mediation is mandated in Australia for couples in dispute over separation and parenting as a first step in dispute resolution, except where there is a history of intimate partner violence. However, validation of effective well-differentiated partner violence screening instruments suitable for mediation settings is at an early phase of development. This study contributes to calls for better violence screening instruments in the mediation context to detect a differentiated range of abusive behaviors by examining the reliability and validity of both established scales, and newly developed scales that measured intimate partner violence by partner and by self. The study also aimed to examine relationships between types of abuse, and between gender and types of abuse. A third aim was to examine associations between types of abuse and other relationship indicators such as acrimony and parenting alliance. The data reported here are part of a larger mixed method, naturalistic longitudinal study of clients attending nine family mediation centers in Victoria, Australia. The current analyses on baseline cross-sectional screening data confirmed the reliability of three subscales of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2), and the reliability and validity of three new scales measuring intimidation, controlling and jealous behavior, and financial control. Most clients disclosed a history of at least one type of violence by partner: 95% reported psychological aggression, 72% controlling and jealous behavior, 50% financial control, and 35% physical assault. Higher rates of abuse perpetration were reported by partner versus by self, and gender differences were identified. There were strong associations between certain patterns of psychologically abusive behavior and both acrimony and parenting alliance. The implications for family mediation services and future research are discussed.