The comparison of international and local sustainable assessment tools of landscape design for housing estate developments : case of Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

Various countries have been introducing sustainable assessment tools for real estate design to produce integrated sustainability components not just for the building, but also the landscape component of the development. This paper aims to present the comparison between international and local assessment tools of landscape design for housing estate developments in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. The methodologies used are to review, then compare and identify discrepancy indicators among the tools. This paper will examine four international tools; LEED for Neighbourhood Development (LEED – ND) of United State of America (USA), EnviroDevelopment standards of Australia, Residential Landscape Sustainability of United Kingdom (UK) and Green Mark for Infrastructure of Singapore; and three BMR’s existing tools; Land Subdivision Act B.E. 2543, Environmental Impact Assessment Monitoring Awards (EIA-MA) and Thai’s Rating for Energy and Environmental Sustainability of New construction and major renovation (TREES-NC). The findings show that there are twenty two elements of three categories which are neighbourhood design, community management, and environmental condition. Moreover, only one element in neighbourhood designs different between the international and local tools. The sustainable assessment tools have existed in BMR but they are not complete in only one assessment tool. Thus, the development of new comprehensive assessment tool will be necessary in BMR; however, it should meet the specific environment and climate condition for housing estate development at BMR.

Multi-criteria ranking and receptor modelling of airborne fine particles at three sites in the Pearl River Delta region of China

The multi-criteria decision making methods, Preference METHods for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) and Graphical Analysis for Interactive Assistance (GAIA), and the two-way Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor model were applied to airborne fine particle compositional data collected at three sites in Hong Kong during two monitoring campaigns held from November 2000 to October 2001 and November 2004 to October 2005. PROMETHEE/GAIA indicated that the three sites were worse during the later monitoring campaign, and that the order of the air quality at the sites during each campaign was: rural site > urban site > roadside site. The PMF analysis on the other hand, identified 6 common sources at all of the sites (diesel vehicle, fresh sea salt, secondary sulphate, soil, aged sea salt and oil combustion) which accounted for approximately 68.8 ± 8.7% of the fine particle mass at the sites. In addition, road dust, gasoline vehicle, biomass burning, secondary nitrate, and metal processing were identified at some of the sites. Secondary sulphate was found to be the highest contributor to the fine particle mass at the rural and urban sites with vehicle emission as a high contributor to the roadside site. The PMF results are broadly similar to those obtained in a previous analysis by PCA/APCS. However, the PMF analysis resolved more factors at each site than the PCA/APCS. In addition, the study demonstrated that combined results from multi-criteria decision making analysis and receptor modelling can provide more detailed information that can be used to formulate the scientific basis for mitigating air pollution in the region.

Integrated governance arrangements of airport-region urban infrastructure development : gaining insights from urban infrastructure development in the Brisbane airport region

Polarising the issue of governance is the increasingly acknowledged role of airports in regional economic development, both as significant sources of direct employment and as attractants of commerce through enhanced mobility (Vickerman, Spiekermann & Wegener 1999; Hakfoort, Poot & Rietveld 2001). Most airports were once considered spatially removed from their cities, but as cities have expanded their airports no longer sit distinct of the urban environment. This newfound spatial proximity means that decisions for land use and development on either city or airport land are likely to have impacts that affect one another in either or both the short- or long-term (Stevens, Baker and Freestone 2007). These impacts increase the demand for decision making to find ways of integrating strategies for future development to ensure that airport developments do not impede the sustainable growth of its city, and likewise that city developments do not impede the sustainable growth of its airport (Gillen 2006). However questions of how, under what conditions, and to what extent decision making integration might be suitable for “airport regions” are yet to be explored let alone answered.

Impact of zooming and enhancing Region of Interests for optimizing user experience on mobile sports video

In mobile videos, small viewing size and bitrate limitation often cause unpleasant viewing experiences, which is particularly important for fast-moving sports videos. For optimizing the overall user experience of viewing sports videos on mobile phones, this paper explores the benefits of emphasizing Region of Interest (ROI) by 1) zooming in and 2) enhancing the quality. The main goal is to measure the effectiveness of these two approaches and determine which one is more effective. To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the overall user experience, the study considers user’s interest in video content and user’s acceptance of the perceived video quality, and compares the user experience in sports videos with other content types such as talk shows. The results from a user study with 40 subjects demonstrate that zooming and ROI-enhancement are both effective in improving the overall user experience with talk show and mid-shot soccer videos. However, for the full-shot scenes in soccer videos, only zooming is effective while ROI-enhancement has a negative effect. Moreover, user’s interest in video content directly affects not only the user experience and the acceptance of video quality, but also the effect of content type on the user experience. Finally, the overall user experience is closely related to the degree of the acceptance of video quality and the degree of the interest in video content. This study is valuable in exploiting effective approaches to improve user experience, especially in mobile sports video streaming contexts, whereby the available bandwidth is usually low or limited. It also provides further understanding of the influencing factors of user experience.

Influence of historic land use change on the biosphere-atmosphere-exchange of C and N trace gases in the humid, subtropical region of Queensland

Increases in atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) due to human activities have been linked to climate change. GHG emissions from land use change and agriculture have been identified as significant contributors to both Australia’s and the global GHG budget. This is expected to increase over the coming decades as rates of agriculture intensification and land use change accelerate to support population growth and food production. Limited data exists on CO2, CH4 and N2O trace gas fluxes from subtropical or tropical soils and land uses. To develop effective mitigation strategies a full global warming potential (GWP) accounting methodology is required that includes emissions of the three primary greenhouse gases. Mitigation strategies that focus on one gas only can inadvertently increase emissions of another. For this reason, detailed inventories of GHGs from soils and vegetation under individual land uses are urgently required for subtropical Australia. This study aimed to quantify GHG emissions over two consecutive years from three major land uses; a well-established, unfertilized subtropical grass-legume pasture, a 30 year (lychee) orchard and a remnant subtropical Gallery rainforest, all located near Mooloolah, Queensland. GHG fluxes were measured using a combination of high resolution automated sampling, coarser spatial manual sampling and laboratory incubations. Comparison between the land uses revealed that land use change can have a substantial impact on the GWP on a landscape long after the deforestation event. The conversion of rainforest to agricultural land resulted in as much as a 17 fold increase in GWP, from 251 kg CO2 eq. ha-1 yr-1 in the rainforest to 889 kg CO2 eq. ha-1 yr-1 in the pasture to 2538 kg CO2 eq. ha-1 yr-1 in the lychee plantation. This increase resulted from altered N cycling and a reduction in the aerobic capacity of the soil in the pasture and lychee systems, enhancing denitrification and nitrification events, and reducing atmospheric CH4 uptake in the soil. High infiltration, drainage and subsequent soil aeration under the rainforest limited N2O loss, as well as promoting CH4 uptake of 11.2 g CH4-C ha-1 day-1. This was among the highest reported for rainforest systems, indicating that aerated subtropical rainforests can act as substantial sink of CH4. Interannual climatic variation resulted in significantly higher N2O emission from the pasture during 2008 (5.7 g N2O-N ha day) compared to 2007 (3.9 g N2O-N ha day), despite receiving nearly 500 mm less rainfall. Nitrous oxide emissions from the pasture were highest during the summer months and were highly episodic, related more to the magnitude and distribution of rain events rather than soil moisture alone. Mean N2O emissions from the lychee plantation increased from an average of 4.0 g N2O-N ha-1 day-1, to 19.8 g N2O-N ha-1 day-1 following a split application of N fertilizer (560 kg N ha-1, equivalent to 1 kg N tree-1). The timing of the split application was found to be critical to N2O emissions, with over twice as much lost following an application in spring (emission factor (EF): 1.79%) compared to autumn (EF: 0.91%). This was attributed to the hot and moist climatic conditions and a reduction in plant N uptake during the spring creating conditions conducive to N2O loss. These findings demonstrate that land use change in subtropical Australia can be a significant source of GHGs. Moreover, the study shows that modifying the timing of fertilizer application can be an efficient way of reducing GHG emissions from subtropical horticulture.

Rapid displacement of dengue virus type 1 by type 4, Pacific region, 2007-2009

Since 2000-2001, dengue virus type 1 has circulated in the Pacific region. However, in 2007, type 4 reemerged and has almost completely displaced the strains of type 1. If only 1 serotype circulates at any time and is replaced approximately every 5 years, DENV-3 may reappear in 2012.

User-driven saliency maps for evaluating Region-of-Interest detection

Detection of Region of Interest (ROI) in a video leads to more efficient utilization of bandwidth. This is because any ROIs in a given frame can be encoded in higher quality than the rest of that frame, with little or no degradation of quality from the perception of the viewers. Consequently, it is not necessary to uniformly encode the whole video in high quality. One approach to determine ROIs is to use saliency detectors to locate salient regions. This paper proposes a methodology for obtaining ground truth saliency maps to measure the effectiveness of ROI detection by considering the role of user experience during the labelling process of such maps. User perceptions can be captured and incorporated into the definition of salience in a particular video, taking advantage of human visual recall within a given context. Experiments with two state-of-the-art saliency detectors validate the effectiveness of this approach to validating visual saliency in video. This paper will provide the relevant datasets associated with the experiments.

From margins to mainstream : how screen and creative industries developed in the Northern Rivers region of NSW : 2000–2010

This thesis explores the proposition that growth and development in the screen and creative industries is not confined to the major capital cities. Lifestyle considerations, combined with advances in digital technology, convergence and greater access to broadband are altering requirements for geographic location, and creative workers are being drawn away from the big metropolises to certain regional areas. Regional screen industry enclaves are emerging outside of London, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, in Nova Scotia in Canada and in New Zealand. In the Australian context, the proposition is tested in an area regarded as a ‘special case’ in creative industry expansion: the Northern Rivers region of NSW. A key feature of the ‘specialness’ of this region is the large number of experienced, credited producers who live and operate their businesses within the region. The development of screen and creative industries in the Northern Rivers over the decade 2000 – 2010 has implications for regional regeneration and offers new insights into the rapidly changing screen industry landscape. This development also has implications for creative industry discourse, especially the dominance of the urban in creative industries thought. The research is pioneering in a number of ways. Building on the work conducted for my Masters thesis in 2000, a second study was conducted during the research phase, adapting creative industries theory and mapping methods, which have been largely city and nation-centric, and applying them to a regional context. The study adopted an action research approach as an industry development strategy for screen industries, while at the same time developing fine-grained ground up methods for collecting primary quantitative data on the size and scope of the creative industries. In accordance with the action research framework, the researcher also acted in the dual roles of industry activist and screen industry producer in the region. The central focus of the research has been both to document and contribute to the growth and development of screen and creative industries over the past decade in the Northern Rivers region. These interventions, along with policy developments at both a local and national level, and broader global shifts, have had the effect of repositioning the sector from a marginal one to a priority area considered integral to the future economic and cultural life of the region. The research includes a detailed mapping study undertaken in 2005 with comparisons to an earlier 2000 study and to ABS data for 2001 and 2006 to reveal growth trends. It also includes two case studies of projects that developed from idea to production and completion in the region during the decade in question. The studies reveal the drivers, impediments and policy implications for sustaining the development of screen industries in a regional area. A major finding of the research was the large and increasing number of experienced producers who operate within the region and the leadership role they play in driving the development of the emerging local industry. The two case studies demonstrate the impact of policy decisions on local screen industry producers and their enterprises. A brief overview of research in other regional areas is presented, including two international examples, and what they reveal about regional regeneration. Implications are drawn for creative industries discourse and regional development policy challenges for the future.

The validation of the rating for subdivision neighbourhood sustainability design (RSNSD) In Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand

In recent years, the problems resulting from unsustainable subdivision development have become significant problems in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. Numbers of government departments and agencies have tried to eliminate the problems by introducing the rating tools to encourage the higher sustainability levels of subdivision development in BMR, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Monitoring Award (EIA-MA) and the Thai’s Rating for Energy and Environmental Sustainability of New construction and major renovation (TREES-NC). However, the EIA-MA has included the neighbourhood designs in the assessment criteria, but this requirement applies to large projects only. Meanwhile, TREES-NC has focused only on large scale buildings such as condominiums, office buildings, and is not specific for subdivision neighbourhood designs. Recently, the new rating tool named “Rating for Subdivision Neighbourhood Sustainability Design (RSNSD)” has been developed. Therefore, the validation process of RSNSD is still required. This paper aims to validate the new rating tool for subdivision neighbourhood design in BMR. The RSNSD has been validated by applying the rating tool to eight case study subdivisions. The result of RSNSD by data generated through surveying subdivisions will be compared to the existing results from the EIA-MA. The selected cases include of one “Excellent Award”, two “Very Good Award”, and five non-rated subdivision developments. This paper expects to prove the credibility of RSNSD before introducing to the real subdivision development practises. The RSNSD could be useful to encourage higher sustainability subdivision design level, and then protect the problems from further subdivision development in BMR.

Evaluation of novel Streptococcus pyogenes vaccine candidates incorporating multiple conserved sequences from the C-repeat region of the M-protein

A major challenge for Streptococcus pyogenes vaccine development is the identification of epitopes that confer protection from infection by multiple S. pyogenes M-types. Here we have identified and characterised the distribution of common variant sequences from individual repeat units of the C-repeat region (CRR) of M-proteins representing 77 different M-types. Three polyvalent fusion vaccine candidates (SV1, SV2 and SV3) incorporating the most common variants were subsequently expressed and purified, and demonstrated to be alpha-helical by Circular Dichroism (CD), a secondary conformational characteristic of the CRR in the M-protein. Antibodies raised against each of these constructs recognise M-proteins that vary in their CRR, and bind to the surface of multiple S. pyogenes isolates. Antibodies raised against SV1, containing five variant sequences, also kill heterologous S. pyogenes isolates in in vitro bactericidal assays. Further structural characterisation of this construct demonstrated the conformation of SV1 was stable at different pHs, and thermal unfolding of SV1 a reversible process. Our findings demonstrate that linkage of multiple variant sequences into a single recombinant construct overcomes the need to embed the variant sequences in foreign helix promoting flanking sequences for conformational stability, and demonstrates the viability of the polyvalent candidates as global S. pyogenes vaccine candidates.

Measuring bitrate and quality trade-off in a fast region-of-interest based video coding

Prevailing video adaptation solutions change the quality of the video uniformly throughout the whole frame in the bitrate adjustment process; while region-of-interest (ROI)-based solutions selectively retains the quality in the areas of the frame where the viewers are more likely to pay more attention to. ROI-based coding can improve perceptual quality and viewer satisfaction while trading off some bandwidth. However, there has been no comprehensive study to measure the bitrate vs. perceptual quality trade-off so far. The paper proposes an ROI detection scheme for videos, which is characterized with low computational complexity and robustness, and measures the bitrate vs. quality trade-off for ROI-based encoding using a state-of-the-art H.264/AVC encoder to justify the viability of this type of encoding method. The results from the subjective quality test reveal that ROI-based encoding achieves a significant perceptual quality improvement over the encoding with uniform quality at the cost of slightly more bits. Based on the bitrate measurements and subjective quality assessments, the bitrate and the perceptual quality estimation models for non-scalable ROI-based video coding (AVC) are developed, which are found to be similar to the models for scalable video coding (SVC).

Study of the effectiveness of outrigger system for high-rise composite buildings for cyclonic region

The demands of taller structures are becoming imperative almost everywhere in the world in addition to the challenges of material and labor cost, project time line etc. This paper conducted a study keeping in view the challenging nature of high-rise construction with no generic rules for deflection minimizations and frequency control. The effects of cyclonic wind and provision of outriggers on 28-storey, 42-storey and 57-storey are examined in this paper and certain conclusions are made which would pave way for researchers to conduct further study in this particular area of civil engineering. The results show that plan dimensions have vital impacts on structural heights. Increase of height while keeping the plan dimensions same, leads to the reduction in the lateral rigidity. To achieve required stiffness increase of bracings sizes as well as introduction of additional lateral resisting system such as belt truss and outriggers is required.