Search

Recycled concrete waste in the form of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) is presently used mostly as a road base filler in Australia. However, instead of producing natural aggregate (NA) to manufacture natural aggregate concrete (NAC) to use in structural concrete, there is potential to use RCA to manufacture recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). While the material performance of RAC compared to NAC is analysed in the existing literature, it is not evident whether the use of RCA in structural concrete results in financial and environmental benefits. Previous literature analysing these aspects mostly focuses on a single area of investigation. This paper presents an integrated methodology for the assessment of the use of RCA replacing NA in structural concrete, considering technical, financial, environmental and social perspectives. Cost-benefit assessment (CBA) has been used to evaluate the internalised impacts as well as external costs concerning the use of both RAC and NAC. The scope of each discipline-focused assessment is presented demarcating the relevant scope for further study, and the specific tools and methodologies to be adopted are specified. Finally, amalgamating the different discipline-focused assessments, a unique approach for comparing a sustainable, alternative raw material for concrete, is presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation are problems of significant proportion for children & young people living in out-of-home care. The aim of this review was to conduct a scoping exercise of the evidence about preventing these problems with the intent of summarising and disseminating knowledge to policy-makers, practitioners and researchers. Five electronic databases were searched in November and December 2016, including: PscyhINFO; Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts; SocINDEX; Web of Science; and Education Resource Information Centre. The search was guided by the research question: What is known about preventing Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation for children & young people living in residential out-of-home care settings? Twenty papers were included in the review, including: seven peer-reviewed journal articles; three reports for government; two presentation transcripts; two literature reviews; one qualitative research report; one report for a government inquiry; one submission to a government inquiry; one consultation paper for a government inquiry; one guideline; and one educational resource. Three major thematic categories were identified in the evidence: (i) constructing educative interventions for children & young people and workers ; (ii) targeting grooming and problematic sexual behavior ; and (iii) providing a holistic response and a way out . The review revealed that the current prevention response to Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation for children & young people living in residential care is under-developed. Promising program, service or practice elements relating to the prevention of Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation were identified and three interventions suggested for future prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data ambiguity and invalidity can cause significant expensive issues in the cadastral domain (e.g. legal disputes). An automated data validation can significantly help to reduce the potential issues. Quality assurance has been comprehensively investigated in various domains, however, the validation of 3D cadastral data is still in its early development. The availability of various regular and irregular shapes for 3D cadastral objects and modern building designs has resulted in a critical need for developing validation rules to ensure data validity and quality. The land registry in Victoria, Australia, is investigating the technical requirements for implementing a 3D digital cadastre. The study of 3D cadastral data validation requirements has been part of this ongoing investigation. This study is being undertaken in three main phases including 1) developing geometrical validation rules, 2) developing non-geometrical validation rules, 3) implementing an online service to validate 3D cadastral data. This paper aims to discuss the initial outcomes of the first phase of the aforementioned study which has focused on developing geometrical validation rules for 3D cadastral objects. The paper reviews the development of four geometrical validation rules which have been formalised using mathematical expressions to check the individual 3D parcels and their relationships with adjoining or neighbouring parcels. The first validation rule checks the compatibility of the cancelled parcel against the created parcels. The second rule deals with parcel collision detection which is required for flagging unacceptable intersection of 3D objects. The third rule ensures the faces forming a 3D parcel are flat. The fourth validation rule assures 3D objects are watertight. The paper concludes with a discussion around the impacts of the proposed validation checks on the subdivision process and future research for the Victorian 3D digital cadastre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a complex geography to Aboriginal-dingo-settler-dog relationships in Australia. This paper examines aspects of that geography in a world heritage area, heavily contested by multiple stakeholders for whom the dingo has come to represent resource and identity, as well as a powerful symbol of nature. The Butchulla people were recently recognised in Australian law as holding native title to world-heritage listed K’gari-Fraser Island, a decision that confers recognition and consultation rights; however, genuine ownership and control of the island is denied through a lack of joint management of the island. This paper reviews evidence from some Butchulla people who declare their ongoing dispossession through various discourses and actions that attempt to circumvent extinguishment of their title to territory. They implied that dingoes have equally endured dispossession and extinguishment of territory through common colonial discourses that subjugate the ‘other’, albeit Butchulla people and dingoes have different forms of resistance and agency. Butchulla people in our study parallel their treatment under colonial structures of governance with those of the dingo in that both have endured limited freedom of movement and expressions of sovereignty. We argue some Butchulla people liken notions of dingo agency and resistance with their own attempts to assert sovereignty and responses to displacement. Aligning with the dingo (and broader discourses and politics that surround the dingo) may afford Butchulla people a greater entitlement to be a major voice in dingo 'management' specifically, and management of the island more broadly, than their native title resolution confers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are pervasive indoor air pollutants. This paper systematically evaluates 25 years (1991–2016) of investigations of VOCs within indoor environments in Australia. Among 31 papers evaluated, the most frequently studied environment was domestic housing (61%), and the most frequently quantified compound was formaldehyde (81%). Active sampling techniques were used in 82% of studies of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX), and in 38% of studies of formaldehyde and other carbonyls. New homes had the highest VOC levels among all studies of domestic housing. For nearly all pollutants, indoor levels were several times higher than outdoor levels. Among the most prevalent compounds indoors were terpenes, such as d-limonene and α-pinene. All studies were conducted at a regional or local level, and no study reported statistically representative indoor VOC data for the Australian population. The evaluation revealed a diversity of sampling approaches and techniques, pointing to the importance of a standard approach for collecting and reporting data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although nearly all Australian children are vaccinated against pneumococcal disease, pneumococcal vaccine uptake is low among high-risk adults. This study aimed to identify perceived barriers to pneumococcal vaccination among high-risk adults. This paper reports combined data on pneumococcal vaccination collected from three different online, cross-sectional surveys that were administered in Australia between August 2019 and September 2020. Using Poisson regression, we identified characteristics and beliefs associated with self-reported pneumococcal vaccination among adults aged 65 and over or with chronic health conditions. The weighted estimate for pneumococcal vaccine coverage was 24% for high-risk adults under 65 and 53% for adults aged 65 and over. Nearly half of those under 65 reported they had never heard of the pneumococcal vaccine, while 26% of those aged 65 and over had never heard of the vaccine. Among those under 65, pneumococcal vaccination was associated with high perceived disease susceptibility (PR = 1.97, 95% CI: 1.23, 3.18), not having heard of the pneumococcal vaccine (PR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.28–0.69), awareness that their chronic health condition puts them at increased risk of pneumonia (PR = 2.44, 95% CI: 1.51–3.98), and having a doctor recommend the vaccine (PR = 3.02, 95% CI: 2.05–4.44). Among adults aged 65 and over, self-reported pneumococcal vaccination was associated with influenza vaccination in the previous 12 months (PR = 4.28, 95% CI: 2.85–6.44) and awareness that they are eligible for free pneumococcal vaccination (PR = 5.02, 95% CI: 2.34–10.77). Awareness of pneumococcal vaccines was low among adults at high risk of pneumococcal disease, which appears to be contributing to low vaccine uptake. A doctor's recommendation was associated with increased uptake of pneumococcal vaccine, so interventions should be developed to promote pneumococcal vaccine uptake in GP practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Providing a more effective Weighed DTW for traffic flow data analysis. • Systematically analysing and labelling a large real traffic dataset from the City of Melbourne. • GWDTW outperforms Euclidean and DTW using k-medoid for clustering traffic flow data. This paper presents a novel similarity measure to identify interesting traffic patterns on a large traffic flow time series data for the central suburbs of Melbourne city in Australia. This new measure is a weighted Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) method based on Gaussian probability function, named GWDTW, that reflects the relative importance of peak hours. We have shown its superior performance over two benchmark similarity measures, the Euclidean distance and conventional DTW measure, on the intersection clustering task using k -medoids clustering algorithm, with respect to both internal and external evaluation measures. With intensive evaluation, the results show that GWDTW is a very effective similarity measure for modelling traffic behaviours, which can provide policy makers with more valuable information for infrastructure design, and smart city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore wind energy and wave energy are two exploitable sources of renewable energy available in the same marine environment. A co-located energy harvesting system of these two resources has the potential to play a leading role in the recent renewable energy mix mandate. A co-located system of mature offshore wind technology and a nascent wave energy technology can exploit the synergies of the two technologies, including the reduced cost, the easy operation and maintenance, and more importantly the potential of decreased power variability. This paper deals with a multi-site analysis of wind and wave power resources, and the estimation of exploitable energy through different wind turbines and wave energy converters (WECs). Results are presented for NSW Australia, but the devised strategy is generic and can be implemented in any region. Ten WECs, with different operating principles, are used for the estimation of the exploitable wave power, and the best performing converter is considered for the co-located wind-wave farm. A power fluctuation factor is introduced to quantify the reduction in power variability of the co-located wind-wave farm. Different percentage mixes of wind and wave energy are evaluated for the co-located wind-wave farm in the multi-site analysis. •A multi-site analysis of wind and wave for estimation of exploitable energy. •Performance evaluation of wind and wave energy conversion technologies. •Power variability representation with power fluctuation factor for a co-located farm. •Characterization of percentage share of wind and wave in a co-located farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To validate the Period ImPact and Pain Assessment (PIPPA) self-screening tool for menstrual disturbance in teenagers. Cross-sectional study. Three senior high schools in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia. A total of 1066 girls between 15 and 19 years of age. A quantitative paper survey collected self-reports of menstrual bleeding patterns, typical and atypical symptoms, morbidities, and interference with daily activities. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to examine associations between PIPPA questions. Generalized linear models compared total score and subscores by validation criteria: pain, school absence, and body mass index (BMI). Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the predictiveness of menstrual disturbance indicators by total PIPPA score. Reports of pain, interference, and concern within the PIPPA items and between both the MDOT and PIPPA questionnaires were significantly correlated (P <.0001). The indicator "missing school" was highly associated (P <.0001) with pain and interference. Obesity (BMI ≥30) was associated with higher PIPPA scores, as was underweight (BMI≤18.4). Where 0 = no disturbance, 5 = high disturbance, aggregated PIPPA scores found 75% scoring 0-2 (out of 5) and 25% scoring 3-5 (257/1037). High scores of 4 or 5 (out of 5) were 7% (72/1037) and 3.7% (38/1037), respectively. PIPPA is a valid screening tool for pain-related menstrual disturbance that affects functioning in young women. PIPPA subdomains of pain/interference have good validity relative to indicators of pain and interference and are responsive to age, BMI, and school absence differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Municipal authorities' nature-based urban sustainability strategies include composting household food waste. • Deleuze and Guattari's assemblage thinking is employed to better understand why households compost. • A composting sensory ethnography mapped the affective intensities that enhanced or diminished composting. • Pleasures of composting were enhanced by following scientific guidelines of the nutrient cycle and ecosystems. • Experimentation arose from a heightened sense of self from the discomforting sensations of breaking scientific guidelines. This paper seeks to better understand urban sustainability experimentation with reference to the bodily sensations of composting household food waste. Taking our lead from Deleuze and Guattari, we argue that experimentation is not just the result of the scientific knowledge of how to compost, but the sensations of bringing together materials, human, non-humans, and ideas into a working arrangement. We draw on Deleuze and Guattari's notion of molar, molecular and rupture lines to offer a way to envisage experimentation as an affective dimension that emerges from the opposing forces that dissolve and support bodily capacities to care for compost as working socio-material arrangements that make, remake, and unmake composting bodies and spaces. Based on a sensory composting ethnography conducted with 21 individuals of European ancestry and tertiary education in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, we provide two significant insights. First, we argue that implications for the bodily capacity to care for compost are discerned from the sensations of molar lines of scientific household food waste management. The subjectivities and backyard territories created by the affective intensities of composting occur along molar lines of environmental citizenship that are narrated as pleasure, satisfaction, and love. Second, we illustrate how composting experimentation involves a heightened sensation of the self in backyards, through molecular lines generated by the presence of certain smells, temperatures, food waste, plants or animals that challenged the liveable order of backyards. We advance geographical scholarship by bringing new ways of approaching household sustainability transitions by conceiving of experimentation from the perspective of molar and molecular lines and how these may be used to apprehend sensations which stabilise, or undo, a sense of self and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to recognise and account for the influence of working from home on commuting activity has never been so real as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only does this change the performance of the transport network, it also means that the way in which transport modellers and planners use models estimated on a typical weekday of travel and expand it up to the week and the year must be questioned and appropriately revised to adjust for the quantum of working from home. Although teleworking is not a new phenomenon, what is new is the ferocity by which it has been imposed on individuals throughout the world, and the expectation that working from home is no longer a temporary phenomenon but one that is likely to continue to some non-marginal extent given its acceptance and revealed preferences from both many employees and employ where working from home makes good sense. This paper formalises the relationship between working from home and commuting by day of the week and time of day for two large metropolitan areas in Australia, Brisbane and Sydney, using a mixed logit choice model, identifying the influences on such choices together with a mapping model between the probability of working from home and socioeconomic and other contextual influences that are commonly used in strategic transport models to predict demand for various modes by location. The findings, based on Wave 3 (approximately 6 months from the initial outbreak of the pandemic) of an ongoing data collection exercise, provide the first formal evidence for Australia in enabling transport planners to adjust their predicted modal shares and overall modal travel activity for the presence of working from home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Asymmetric and nonlinear effects of consumer sentiments on industry stock returns and volatility in Australia is examined. • We use the consumer sentiments of rural Australia and different age groups. • We apply the nonparametric causality-in-quantile model. • Asymmetric and unidirectional causality-in-returns from consumer sentiments to industry stock returns is found. • The causality-in-variance result indicates a transfer of risk from sentiments to industry stock returns. This paper investigates the empirical evidence of the effects of public sentiments on industry stock returns and volatility dynamics in Australia based on the states of the market that relates to the conditional quantiles of public sentiments and sectoral stocks, using the robust nonparametric causality-in -quantile test. We adopt the monthly overall consumer sentiments index and four of its components including the sentiments for rural Australia and the age groups 18–24, 25–44, and 45 and above. Our nine industry stocks include Health Care, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Utilities Financials, Real Estate, Industrials, Basic Materials and Energy, with data spanning from October 1974 to October 2020. The results from the nonlinear causality test show a directional and bidirectional causality between measures of consumer sentiments and returns of industry stocks. Interestingly, we note that the sentiments of individuals aged 45 and above cause the returns of all the nine sectors. Next, we explore the predictive power of sentiments on industry stock returns, using the nonparametric causality-in-quantile test. We find that the predictability between sentiments and industry stock returns is high in the normal market state but drops when the consumers' perceptions enter into the extreme bearish and bullish states. Additionally, the findings show a risk (volatility) transfer from sentiments to the industry stock returns in some cases under different market conditions. We offer some implications based on our findings for the stakeholders and market participants who develop their strategies depending on market conditions and sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigated strategies that can deliver NZE performance for high-rise residential buildings in Australia. • It was challenging for tropical, subtropical and cold temperate climates to meet the NZE targets. • Design and optimisation of the envelope was effective in overcoming the challenges imposed by the more demanding climates. • The impacts of shading from neighbouring buildings presented the largest obstacle to energy production through the façade. • Study demonstrated a need to include density factors in the design consideration for NZE high-rise residential designs. Net-Zero Energy (NZE) buildings are gaining popularity globally as a solution to reduce operational energy usage and limit greenhouse gas emissions in the building industry. Their deployment is occurring rapidly as many countries are planning to make it mandatory for new developments. Despite the advancements in research in the various aspects of NZE, significant barriers do exist to its successful adoption and implementation, particularly with respect to high-rise residential buildings which are becoming a major portion of the housing supply in Australia. One of the challenges attributed to the achievement of NZEB performance is the uncertainty involved in selecting appropriate solution strategies that could deliver quality performances. This paper investigated strategies that can deliver NZE performance for high-rise residential buildings in Australia. A calibrated model of 26 storey high-rise apartment building with 396 units was prepared for detailed analysis of NZE strategies using building simulation. The impact of various interventions was evaluated across cities in five climate zones in Australia and a guideline for solution sets that can deliver the goal for each climate zone is presented. The findings show that NZE performance for high-rise residential buildings can be realised in Australia, albeit with some limitations. While the tropical, subtropical and cold temperate climates appear to be more challenging, proper design and optimisation of the envelope proved to be effective in overcoming the challenges imposed by the more demanding climates. The impacts of shading from neighbouring buildings and objects presented the largest impediment to energy production through the façade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the electricity sector has seen a significant increase in the number of residential battery systems, as well as increasing interest in using them to reduce demand during network peaks. Although there is an abundance of literature assessing this ability using modelled residential batteries, there is a lack of detailed assessment using deployed residential batteries. This paper analyses 1-min resolution data from 15 non-coordinated residential batteries deployed in Australia across 6 network peak demand periods. A novel metric was used to quantify errors in BESS load-following, which occurred when the batteries did not completely mitigate grid import and export even when they had sufficient energy capacity and rated power. On average the 15 batteries discharged around 25% of their rated power during network demand peaks, whereas those that load-followed discharged around 40%. Despite the small sample size, these results suggest that the outcomes from modelled batteries represent the ideal upper bound and the actual performance of some batteries is likely to be lower. This there is a need for more research into the actual operation of deployed batteries, and what this means for the current modelled findings regarding their ability to reduce demand during network peaks. • Analysis of operation of residential batteries (BESS) was performed using 1-min data. • Examined 90 cases of response from uncoordinated BESS during demand peaks. • In 44 cases, the uncoordinated BESS reduced household grid import on average by 90%. • Those BESS discharged on average 40%–50% of their rated power during the peaks. • Coordinating residential BESS may potentially double their demand peak reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Medical Imaging & Radiation Sciences is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper estimates the wellbeing effects of the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires, the deadliest wildfire event in Australia's known history. Using subjective wellbeing data from a nationally representative longitudinal study and adopting an individual fixed-effects approach, our results identify a significant reduction in life satisfaction for individuals residing in close proximity of the wildfires. The negative wellbeing effect is valued at A$52,300. This corresponds to 80% of the average annual income of a full-time employed adult in the state of Victoria. The satisfaction domain most negatively affected is how safe the person feels, and the group most affected are people with low social support. A delayed adverse mental health effect is also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture policies in Australia have long encouraged productivist agriculture that aims to maximise yields through intensive production. Many have argued Australian farmers are trapped on the productivist treadmill as a result and there is evidence of an Australian farming culture where productivism is internalised as the standard of good farming. In this paper, I share the stories and experiences of commercial farmers in two regions of rural Australia who view good farming as production that moves them away from extractive productivism and towards a way of producing food that lets them and their non-human counterparts survive well. • Australian farmers have historically been impelled to productivist agriculture • In contrast to dominant notions of good farming as productivist agriculture, interviews with commercial farmers in Australia suggest that 'good farming' means suriving well. • Good farmers pay attention to the complexity of ecological systems and adopte a view of nature as integral to production. • More research is needed to determine how and to what extent notions of stewardship as anchored in control of nature are being untethered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate prediction of power load is helpful to make reasonable power generation plans and scientific dispatching schemes and achieve the goal of energy saving and emission reduction. There are many factors influencing the power load, and there may be a nonlinear relationship between the power load and these influencing factors. A new fractional multivariate grey Bernoulli model, referred to as MFGBM (q, r, N), is developed in this article for the short-term prediction of power load. The fractional differential equation and fractional accumulation generation are integrated into MFGBM (q, r, N). Second, this paper improves the grey wolf algorithm to better optimize many parameters in the model. The algorithm is improved by using a chaotic Tent map to optimize the initial population composition, adding inertia weights to change the position vector of the grey wolf, and introducing a nonlinear function and Lévy flight to enhance local exploitation and global exploration ability. Finally, this paper selects the daytime and nighttime power loads in Australia and takes the electricity price, humidity, and temperature as the influencing factors to validate the prediction capability of MFGBM (q, r, N). Our findings indicate that MFGBM (q, r, N) is highly applicable to short-term power system prediction. • The multivariate grey Bernoulli model is proposed to predict short-term power load. • The improved grey wolf algorithm is proposed to avoid falling into local optimum. • 3. The non-singular Caputo fractional derivative and Laplace transform are introduced. • The fractional-order operator is introduced to reduce the influence of randomness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant improvements in health and longevity, the gender gap in health persists. Using longitudinal data from 15 waves of the HILDA survey for the period from 2005 to 2019, this paper examines the impacts of risky addictive behaviors given by smoking, drinking and gambling on health outcomes and the gender gap in general and mental health in Australia. To identify the causal effects of cigarette and alcohol consumption, we utilize exogeneous policy changes in the Australian Wine Equalization Tax (WET) and cigarette excise taxes to instrument alcohol and cigarette consumption, respectively. For gambling, we utilize state-level number of gambling machines to instrument the problem gambling severity index. We find that Australian females tend to have better general health but worse mental health outcomes than their male counterparts. More importantly, our instrumental variable estimates reveal the role of risky addictive behaviors in influencing the gender gap in health. Specifically, smoking and gambling widen the gender gap in general health, whereas alcohol consumption plays no role in affecting the gender gap in general health. For mental health, our results show that smoking and gambling reduce the gender gap in mental health, whereas alcohol consumption tends to increase the gender gap in mental health. We find that social support, neighborhood trust, dietary choice and life satisfaction are important channels through which risky addictive behaviors influence general and mental health outcomes. Our results have important policy implications as health quality in general, and gender health equality in particular, are important determinants of standards of living, productivity, and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peak period of an energy-generating wave is one of the most important parameters that describe the spectral shape of the oceanic wave, as this indicates the duration for which the waves prevail with respect to their maximum extractable energy. In this paper, a half-hourly peak wave energy period (T P) forecast model is constructed using a suite of statistically significant lagged inputs based on the partial auto-correlation function with an extreme learning machine model developed and its predictive utility is benchmarked against deep learning models, i.e., convolutional neural network (CNN/CovNet) and recurrent neural network (RNN) models and other traditional M5tree, Conditional Maximization based Multiple Linear Regression (MLR-ECM) and MLR models. The objective model (ELM) vs. the comparison models (CNN, RNN, M5tree, MLR-ECM, and MLR) were trained and validated independently on the test dataset obtained from coastal zones of eastern Australia that have a high potential for implementation of wave energy generation systems. The outcomes ascertain that the ELM model can generate significantly accurate predictions of the half-hourly peak wave energy period, providing a good level of accuracy relative to deep learning models in selected coastal study zones. The study establishes the practical usefulness of the ELM model as being a noteworthy methodology for the applications in renewable and sustainable energy resource management systems. • A real-time peak wave energy period forecasting model is constructed using ELM model. • The advance ELM is benchmarked against a deep learning and other traditional models. • The advance ELM generates better predictions than deep learning models in this region. • ELM model provides significant energy management implications for ocean waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessments of hydrogen project viability typically focus on evaluating specific sites for development, or providing generic cost-estimates that are independent of location. In reality, the success of hydrogen projects will be intimately linked to the availability of local energy resources, access to key infrastructure and water supplies, and the distance to export ports and energy markets. In this paper, we present an economic model that incorporates assessments of these regional factors to identify areas of high economic potential for hydrogen production – the so-called "Economic Fairways" for such projects. In doing so, the model provides a tool that can be used to inform investors and policy makers on the available opportunities for hydrogen development and their infrastructure requirements. The model includes analysis of the regional economic potential for both blue and green hydrogen projects. It accounts for hydrogen production from renewable (wind and solar) sources, as well as non-renewable sources (steam-methane reformation and coal gasification) combined with carbon capture and storage. Results from case studies conducted with the tool are presented, illustrating the potential for hydrogen production across Australia. • We present a new model to map the economic fairways for hydrogen production. • The model considers production costs, and resource and infrastructure availability. • The model accounts for both green and blue methods of production. • Results illustrating the potential for Australian hydrogen production are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing potential benefits of thermostable vaccines delivered through Micro Array Patch (MAP) has received great attention in low and middle-income countries. The experience may or may not be the same in developed countries where the infrastructure is more developed. It is anticipated that transforming the vaccine supply chain from syringe-and-needle to thermostable MAP-delivered vaccines will result in reduced supply chain costs – including manufacturing/supply, logistics/distribution, and administration costs – as well as reduced wastes and improved safety. This paper provides an end-to-end supply chain analysis comparing the key aspects (cost, safety and environmental aspects) of the conventional syringe-and-needle vaccine supply chain with those of the MAP vaccine supply chain for influenza vaccine delivery in Australia. Directions for future research in this area will be provided. To determine the potential supply chain impacts of replacing syringe-and-needle flu vaccine with MAP-enabled thermostable flu vaccine in Australia. We analyze the current flu vaccine supply chain in Australia to identify practical limitations and opportunities for improvement. Data/information is collected through interviewing the key stakeholders across vaccine supply chain including vaccine manufacturers, logistics providers, clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies. A detailed practice-informed analysis is completed on the key operations of the flu vaccine supply chain. Barriers and limitations of the conventional flu vaccine are discussed, along with potential improvements that can be achieved through the implementation of MAP-enabled flu vaccine delivery. We discuss how technology-driven innovations can help advance vaccine supply chains, improve vaccine visibility, reduce wastes, and enable informed decision-making. We find that the benefits of moving from syringe-and-needle vaccines to thermostable MAP-delivered vaccines are beyond transportation and storage cost saving. Potential benefits through cost saving, waste reduction, and service level improvement are discussed along with various safety and wellbeing consequences followed by directions for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is anticipated that transforming the vaccine supply chain from syringe-and-needle to thermostable vaccines enabled by Micro Array Patch (MAP) will result in reduced supply chain costs as well as reduced wastes (environmental impact) and improved safety. This paper provides a thorough cost comparison of the conventional syringe-and-needle vaccine supply chain versus the MAP vaccine supply chain for influenza vaccine delivery in Australia. To determine the potential cost implications and general benefits of replacing syringe-and-needle flu vaccine with MAP-enabled thermostable flu vaccine in Australia. We first provide a snapshot of the existing flu vaccine supply chain in Australia including its limitations and opportunities for improvement. Data/information is collected through interviewing the key stakeholders across vaccine supply chain including vaccine manufacturers, logistics providers, clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies. A cost/benefit analysis of the anticipated supply chain of the MAP-enabled vaccine will reveal the opportunities and challenges of supply chain transformation for flu vaccine delivery in Australia. Our high-level practice-informed cost/benefit analysis identifies cold chain removal as an important source of cost saving, but administrative cost savings appear to be even more significant (e.g., time saving for nurses and those involved in cold chain management). Our analysis also identifies the key benefits and limitations of vaccine supply chain transformation in Australia. We conclude that the benefits of moving from syringe-and-needle vaccines to thermostable MAP-delivered vaccines are beyond transportation and storage cost saving. Potential benefits through cost saving, waste reduction, and service level improvement are discussed along with various safety and wellbeing consequences as well as directions for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how individuals evaluate different shared parking features, as an emerging concept. In this paper, we develop a latent class behavioural model for a sample of 1,008 residents in New South Wales, Australia to explore different segments of taste and preference for shared parking. The outcome of this study extends our understanding about the emerging concept of shared parking by quantifying monetary value, in terms of willingness-to-pay, of different features of this new emerging phenomenon. This study contributes to the literature by providing firsthand insights about how demand for shared parking is formed and how different policy implication can be made accordingly. The results indicate that pricing persists to be the sole most effective parking policy, however non-price-related attributes can help decision makers to make more informative decision when it comes to different pricing schemes. The study also highlights that shared parking can perform a significant role in accommodating the surplus arising from the excessive parking demand and inadequate supply up to almost 40% of demand. The outcome of this study is anticipated to inform and equip city authorities with advanced knowledge about such an emerging phenomenon which can help developing regulations before the concept is out of control. Information from this study can also guide the private sector and the wider community to identify and develop opportunities related to shared parking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the empirical link between retirement and the supply of volunteer labor, using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. To identify the causal impact, we exploit a major reform of the Australian Age Pension which has significantly changed the retirement incentives of older people. We find positive and significant effects of retirement status on the voluntary work provision of older men and women. Longer time spent in retirement increases the unpaid labor supply of women, while there is no such evidence for men. We further find evidence of intra-household retirement externalities: older people's retirement impacts positively on the volunteer behavior of their family members. Our findings suggest that the Australian Age Pension reform aiming at working life prolongation has led to an unintended shrinkage of the volunteer workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This aim of this paper is to set the scene for the need for impact assessment and return on investment in funded cardiovascular research in Australia, starting with the historical perspective on waste in health and medical research. Recently there has been a substantial move from discussion and policy about the need for research translation, into practice and application via the evolution of funding streams like the Australian Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF). Health and medical research funders play a critical role in both setting the expectations for research translation and impact and helping researchers to meet these expectations. As a leading cause of death, cardiovascular disease is a national health priority, recognised as such with a AUD$220 million MRFF allocation to the Cardiovascular Health Mission. Focussing on cardiovascular research, we address some of the barriers researchers face in prospectively planning for research translation and impact assessment, and call for an ecosystem that supports a return on investment for all stakeholders, especially the community and patient end-users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Helplines are generally a population-level resource for providing free, timely, easy-to-access, and anonymous counseling and/or information. Helplines have been developed and widely implemented for specific use by young people. The current study aimed to systematically review the literature to determine the status of research into the use of helplines among young people.Method: Following the PRISMA checklist, 5 electronic databases were searched using relevant terms for literature published until May 2020. The extracted studies were summarized with the intention of identifying key themes that highlighted common findings, key implications, and important gaps in understanding.Results: A total of 52 articles fitting study inclusion criteria were identified. Most studies were quantitative papers from the United States and Australia. The types of helpline interactions studied were a mixture of telephone-based and SMS/text-based interactions. Three major themes were identified: awareness of and engagement with helpline services, nature of problems faced by young people, and service-related factors. Subthemes were use and awareness, barriers to help seeking, psychosocial problems, suicidality, telephone- versus text-based interactions, counselor-caller interaction, and provision of services to historically and systemically marginalized groups.Conclusion: It appears that helplines may provide a beneficial service to youths, and that myriad psychosocial concerns provide the basis for calling. The literature is limited by a lack of controlled trials, on one hand, and complex methodological/ethical barriers preventing such trials, on the other hand. However, more research is needed before conclusions regarding effectiveness in youths can be made, particularly for services provided to systemically marginalized groups and using online text-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pluralistic agricultural advisory systems comprise diverse actors, including public and private research, development, and extension (RD&E) providers, and private sector agricultural advisors. Co-innovation, as a collaborative engagement involving the full range of actors, is regarded as useful when addressing issues arising from this complexity. However, what helps or hinders successful co-innovation with public and private actors in real-world situations is still under-described in the literature. A deeper understanding of the social interactions and practices of doing co-innovation in specific settings is required to achieve successful co-innovation outcomes. This paper asks: What key features of practice support co-innovation with public and private system actors? And: How can enhanced understanding of practice assist in strengthening co-innovation processes? We present findings from research funded by the Australian government from 2015 to 2018 to strengthen private sector extension roles and connections between the RD&E functions in Australia's pluralistic advisory system. Four action research pilots were co-designed with system actors to support co-innovation. These were: Involving agricultural supply chain actors in collaborative agricultural R&D; Increasing farm advisor capacity to engage with digital agricultural technologies; Improving career pathways for new entrants in the advisory and extension sector; and Improving knowledge flows in the advisory and extension system. We found that co-innovation requires potentially profound social change; a shaking up of expectations about roles, responsibilities, and institutionalised processes. The research also suggests that the requirement for social change is underacknowledged in current co-innovation practice, with implications for the success or failure of co-innovation partnerships. Applying a practice theory perspective, our research highlights features of practice that constrained and enabled co-innovation in the four pilots. In doing so, the research provides insights to assist in successful operationalisation of co-innovation involving the private sector in pluralistic agricultural advisory systems. • Co-innovation is complex but achievable in pluralistic agricultural advisory systems. • Social dynamics and practices matter when operationalising co-innovation processes. • Nuanced understanding of practices improves co-innovation design and implementation. • Co-innovation with public and private actors must accommodate commercial realities. • The practice perspective is relevant at the broader level of AIS scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southwestern Australia has a Mediterranean-type climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters that support vegetation types ranging from tall closed forest and open woodland, to dense, low heath. At the Last Glacial Maximum, the coast was located as far as 100 km distant of its current location, after which rising post-glacial sea levels radically altered the southwestern coastline, drowning large tracts of the continental shelf, creating islands and rocky cliffs from areas of higher relief, and altering delicately balanced coastal ecosystems. For Aboriginal people living in southwestern Australia these changes would have substantially altered the availability and reliability of important plants and animals, both on the coastal plain and within littoral and estuarine environments, which raises the question of how we define and distinguish the economic strategies employed by people occupying these liminal, transitional landscapes. This paper reviews all available securely dated archaeofaunal records from 31 archaeological sites within the southwestern Australian coastal zone to develop a general economic model of Aboriginal occupation of the region's changing Holocene coastal zones. Faunal records were grouped by bioregion to investigate regional variation in environmental and cultural trends. Archaeological, palaeontological, and palaeoclimatic evidence indicates that people adapted as the coastal plain transformed during the Holocene, altering subsistence strategies and land management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Breast cancer survivors are at greater risk for cardiovascular-related mortality compared to women without breast cancer. Accordingly, attention to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease must be a priority in the long-term management of these patients. With the exponential rise in cancer survivors, there is a need for innovative cardio-oncology programs. This paper describes the study design of a randomised controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of a smartphone-based cardiovascular risk reduction program in improving physical activity and cardiovascular health in patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer.Methods and Analysis: The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and usability of a smartphone-based model of care for exercise promotion, cardiovascular risk reduction and community engagement in women undergoing treatment for breast cancer. This will be achieved by testing our personalised smartphone application "BreastMate", as an adjunct to standard care in a single-blinded, parallel, randomised controlled trial. The primary outcome of the trial is change in exercise capacity, as measured by the 6-minute walk test distance at 12 months compared to baseline. Secondary endpoints include improvements in cardiovascular risk factor status and quality of life, received dose intensity of chemotherapy and major adverse cardiovascular events.Ethics: Multicentre ethical approval has been granted by the Austin Hospital (HREC/47081/Austin/2018).Dissemination Of Results: The analysed results will be published in a peer reviewed journal on completion of the clinical trial.Registration Details: SMART-BREAST has been prospectively registered with the Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR12620000007932). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than ten years ago, Linda Butler (2003a) published a well-cited article claiming that the Australian science policy in the early 1990s made a mistake by introducing output based funding. According to Butler, the policy stimulated researchers to publish more but at the same time less good papers, resulting in lower total impact of Australian research compared to other countries. We redo and extend the analysis using longer time series, and show that Butlers’ main conclusions are not correct. We conclude in this paper (i) that the currently available data reject Butler’s claim that “journal publication productivity has increased significantly… but its impact has declined”, and (ii) that it is hard to find such evidence also with a reconstruction of her data. On the contrary, after implementing evaluation systems and performance based funding, Australia not only improved its share of research output but also increased research quality, implying that total impact was greatly increased. Our findings show that if output based research funding has an effect on research quality, it is positive and not negative. This finding has implications for the discussions about research evaluation and about assumed perverse effects of incentives, as in those debates the Australian case plays a major role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on empirical, qualitative research conducted in a rural region of Northern New South Wales, Australia. Using a Feminist Standpoint approach, this paper examines the housing pathways in relation to the current circumstances of single, older, non-home owning rural/regional women who live independently. Between June and December 2011, 47 eligible women aged 45 years and over were interviewed and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. Key findings are that relationship dissolution and a gendered ethic of care had a cumulative and negative effect over the life course, for which the participants paid a large material penalty. We attempt to show how these women have been caught in the crosshairs of changing cultural norms which may still be current in rural/regional Australia. This study is important in raising the visibility of this specific cohort in rural communities so that policymakers can plan for their future housing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper aimed to investigate whether distinct sleep quality subtypes predicted health-related quality of life in a nonclinical sample of children.Methods: This paper utilized data from two waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a cohort study that follows a representative population of children in Australia. This paper examined data from Waves 4 and 5 of the LSAC (covering the period 2010-2012) and included 3974 children aged 10-11 years at Wave 4 (51.4% male). Multiple dimensions of sleep quality were assessed using a combination of child- and parent-reported measures. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed through the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory.Results: Latent class analysis indicated six distinct sleep quality classes in children, namely good sleep, moderate sleep quality, mild sleep disturbances, short sleep, long sleep, and disordered sleep. In general, the disordered sleep and minor sleep disturbance classes had poorer HRQOL, which worsened over time. The long sleep and moderate sleep quality classes also showed some decreases in HRQOL over time.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that there are distinct sleep quality subtypes in children that could have implications for HRQOL. These findings may inform future strategies to promote improved sleep and HRQOL in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this paper is to select an economically suitable sustainable standalone power supply system for a remote off-grid town in Western Australia. Existing power systems of such remote towns in Australia have adverse environmental impacts and contribute to global warming due to the utilization of fossil fuels, especially diesel and gas. The possible electricity supply systems for such towns can vary from a diesel/gas generator towards a hybrid system composed of a generator, wind turbine, photovoltaic system, and battery energy storage. In order to limit the cost of the system and to propose the most economically feasible solution, various combinations of supply systems are considered. These systems are analyzed in this paper by the help of HOMER software to determine the optimal architecture and the control strategy of the supply system. This study has used real demand data of the town, as well as the prices of different electrical components in the Australian market. The scenario which yields the minimum cost of energy is defined and suggested. Also, a decision-making based technique is proposed to help the local electricity utility in finding the suitable solution in the case of budget limits on the investment and annual operation and maintenance. Another aim of this analysis is to investigate and illustrate the impact of a small annual load growth on the size of the selected components for the selected power system, as well as the total net present cost and the cost of electricity. A sensitivity analysis is also performed to analyze the impact of uncertainties of some of the parameters in the outcome of the study to obtain the optimized cost of the selected system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a discrete set of issues pertaining to the constitution of addiction in law. Based on qualitative interviews undertaken with lawyers in Australia and Canada, I examine how addiction figures in lawyers' daily practice. Drawing on ideas from science and technology studies scholars Sheila Jasanoff, Michael Lynch and Bruno Latour, and building on recent research I undertook on legal addiction veridiction, I explore the constitution of addiction 'facts' in law. I examine how and when lawyers claim to make decisions about addiction in the course of their legal practice. Lawyers report playing a central role in the making of decisions about addiction, at multiple stages of the legal process including: before taking cases on, while running cases in court, and while negotiating and/or settling cases. I argue that these decisions can be properly described as 'quasi-expert' determinations with important parallels to scientific, technological and medical claims often made in legal settings by more conventional 'expert witnesses'. I call these 'quasi-expert' decisions because they are decisions of the kind that might be assumed to be the purview of scientific or medical experts and because they have tangible implications for clients. Lawyers uniquely constitute addiction in unique ways, drawing on a combination of factors, including their own experience with and observations about addiction, the experiences of family members who have experienced alcohol and other drug problems, relevant legal concepts and frameworks, popular and scientific claims about addiction, emotions and values, including the gender politics of alcohol and other drug addiction. These addiction 'facts' can have a range of material and discursive effects, including potentially adverse implications for people characterised as 'addicts'. I conclude the paper with a discussion of some implications of these practices, and with reflections on how we might address these issues in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regular recreational book reading is a practice that confers substantial educative benefit. However, not all book types may be equally beneficial, with paper book reading more strongly associated with literacy benefit than screen-based reading at this stage, and a paucity of research in this area. While children in developed countries are gaining ever-increasing levels of access to devices at home, relatively little is known about the influence of access to devices with eReading capability, such as Kindles, iPads, computers and mobile phones, on young children's reading behaviours, and the extent to which these devices are used for reading purposes when access is available. Young people are gaining increasing access to devices through school-promoted programs; parents face aggressive marketing to stay abreast of educational technologies at home; and schools and libraries are increasingly their eBook collections, often at the expense of paper book collections. Data from the 997 children who participated in the 2016 Western Australian Study in Children's Book Reading were analysed to determine children's level of access to devices with eReading capability, and their frequency of use of these devices in relation to their recreational book reading frequency. Respondents were found to generally underutilise devices for reading purposes, even when they were daily book readers. In addition, access to mobile phones was associated with reading infrequency. It was also found that reading frequency was less when children had access to a greater range of these devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how migration infrastructure conditions migrant mobilities within receiving states. The paper examines two infrastructural case studies, language testing and housing markets, in relation to Asian ‘middling’ migrants, that is, the relatively educated and skilled but not elite, who arrive in Australia on temporary visas. The analysis highlights the interplays and dependencies of different ‘logics of operation’ (Xiang and Lindquist, 2014) of infrastructure in relation to these migrants’ status mobilities and housing mobilities within the receiving society. The paper draws on data from in-depth narrative interviews with migrants to also understand how infrastructure produces perceptions and meaning-making around the migration process. This analysis reveals that, in this empirical context, migration infrastructure produces varied kinds of spatio-temporal insecurity as much as it mediates mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel is a critical material for modern-day societies, and more than half of the world’s steel is used in buildings. As the extraction of iron ore and the production and transport of manufactured steel have significant environmental costs, the fate of steel is important for socio-technical transitions towards more sustainable materials use. Using steel in buildings as a case study socio-technical transition, this paper develops a novel application of the multi-level perspective (MLP) that adopts an explicitly material lens. We focus on the circulation of steel between three key life stages for buildings which are treated as socio-technical regimes as described in the MLP. Drawing on concepts from assemblage theory, we consider the role played by the material and expressive qualities of steel within each of these regimes. Our material focus also requires attention to the spatial dimensions of these three regimes and their implications for socio-technical transitions. We describe the nexus of material affordances and inter-scalar relations that influences the use of steel in buildings and consider the potential for change. The main contribution of this paper is to extend the MLP to incorporate a focus on materiality and, in a related way, spatiality. Based on the analysis presented we consider how steel use in Australian buildings may be rendered more sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that infrastructure unevenness rigidifies into more lasting structures of socio-economic and political privilege and advantage. This paper focuses on telecommunication infrastructure as the backbone of the fast-growing digital economy, and raises important questions about the early National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout in Australia. The paper asks whether there was any case of pork barrelling in the selection of early release sites that enjoyed a regional competitive advantage against other localities that had to wait several years to receive the infrastructure. The answer to this question then leads to a second question about the degree to which voting in the early NBN release sites has swung following the infrastructure rollout. In order to answer these questions the paper examines the voting patterns in the earlier NBN release sites versus all electorates in the Federal elections in 2007–2013 using the data available via Australian Electoral Commission. Findings show trends of politically targeted funding, followed by vote swing in the very next election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to the most recent statistics from the World Health Organization, 1.2 million people die or are injured on the world's roads every year. Drink-driving continues to be a major risk factor for road traffic crashes, with 22% of serious road injuries (SRIs) in Victoria involving a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) equal to or above the legal driving limit of 0.05g/mL. Use of police and hospital data to determine alcohol involvement in SRIs is not reliable, with researchers using proxy measures such as high alcohol hours (HAH). This paper examines patterns of alcohol-related SRIs based on reported BAC versus the surrogate HAH measure.Methods: Trends over a 10year period (2000-2010) were examined, comparing four different SRI rates (low alcohol hours (LAH), LAH with positive BAC, HAH, HAH with positive BAC). Discontinuities in the data series were also examined. SRI data were drawn from the Road Networks Database of VicRoads containing information on all reported road crashes in Victoria.Results: For the 10year period there were 52,286 reported SRIs relating to the driver. Of the incidents where a driver's reading was recorded, 44% had a recorded BAC exceeding Victoria's legal limit of 0.05% and a further 23% had a BAC below the legal limit. During the period over 17,000 (or 34%) SRIs occurred during HAH. Where a BAC had been recorded during HAH, almost 60% exceeded the legal limit and a further 20% had some positive recording of BAC. Where SRI drivers had a recorded BAC during LAH, 58% had a positive BAC (31% with a BAC over the legal limit). While it is likely that an SRI occurring during HAH will be associated with a positive BAC (80%), of which 60% will be above the legal limit, almost 60% of SRIs during LAH had a positive BAC, with 31% above the legal limit.Conclusion: There was no significant change in overall alcohol-related SRI rates between 2000 and 2010, suggesting that policies and procedures implemented to decrease drink-driving have not reduced alcohol-related SRI rates. In the absence of a reliable direct measure (i.e., BAC readings) this paper demonstrated the utility of the surrogate HAH measure for determining changes in alcohol-related serious road injuries. Further, the unmet need for routine BAC testing in SRIs occurring during LAH requires further exploration given the significant proportion of SRIs involving positive BAC during these times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing worldwide recognition of the influence of urban development on the hydrological functions of water, there is growing pressure for urban planning to play a greater role in water resources management. Planning for green open spaces in particular can play an important role, as they support important ecosystem services, including those that assist in flood management. It has been argued that interconnected and strategically planned networks of green open spaces should be planned for early in land use planning and design processes, with consideration of water-related ecosystem values and landscape functions in concert with land development, growth management and physical infrastructure planning. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of green open space planning for water sensitive cities and supportive planning measures, there are few analyses of the actual inclusion of this recognition in plans and strategies, or the presence of related actions and planning mechanisms. This paper addresses this gap by comparatively analysing the approaches taken to regional green open space planning in three Australian capital city-regions. Findings indicate the acknowledgement of relationships between flood regulation and green open space planning and various associated planning mechanisms. However, there is limited explicit integration of flood management and green open spaces planning, and significant on-ground barriers to enabling this integration to occur given the legacy of past planning decisions and the lack of information to support implementation. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research to assist planning for green open spaces as an ally to ecosystem services relating to flood management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent enhancements of the National Construction Code have reduced the amount of energy required to heat and cool Australian homes. To date, the result of these changes, within Australia's temperate and cool-temperate climates, is generally warmer internal temperatures. However, many of these warmer homes are presenting condensation and mould. This is demonstrating a general non-awareness of vapour pressure management within the Australian design and construction professions. This paper discusses research from the architectural and medical science disciplines. The paper identifies a significant gap in appropriate building regulation and building science knowledge within this field in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In Australia, co-benefits have rarely entered policy discourse and have so far failed to gain traction in climate change-related policy debates. This is partly due to the dominant perception about the difficulties associated with identifying, quantifying and incorporating co-benefits into decision-making frameworks. There is also limited understanding on the part of policy-makers about the profound policy implications of a ‘co-benefits approach’ as a paradigm that can address multiple policy goals, including addressing climate change impacts, achieving sustainable development, and enhancing health, wellbeing and liveability. Objectives Our paper addresses this gap by contributing to current understandings of the ‘co-benefits approach’ as a means of integrating climate concerns into local planning and development control in general. At a more specific level, the paper provides an insight into the Australian local government policy context to illustrate how to plan, generate and purposively promote co-benefits in planning urban built environments. Methods A desktop review of NSW councils’ web sites and their climate change-related policies was undertaken. A comprehensive online survey was subsequently conducted to investigate the extent to which councils have adopted a ‘co-benefits approach’ in their low carbon policies. Results Major barriers to integrating co-benefits in the policy process were identified in this research. They include: (i) local government's current practice of single-sectoral policy development; (ii) absence of an integrated and co-ordinated ‘whole-of-government approach’ to address climate change impact; (iii) over-reliance on quantitative decision-support frameworks; and (iv) over-emphasis on short term and readily quantifiable monetary consideration of benefits. Conclusion Local government's over-emphasis on readily quantifiable ‘monetary considerations’ in targeting benefits from climate change policies excludes a wide range of environmental, social and health benefits from incorporation in policy. This limits the achievement of optimal policy outcomes across multiple sectors using a co-benefits approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents preliminary findings of a recent research project on the barriers that lower-income households in four Australian cities – Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, and Darwin – face in reducing their carbon consumption, and the impact of programs implemented by federal and state governments and support organisations to assist such reductions. Following a brief explanation of the methodology (policy reviews, focus group discussions with lower-income households, and interviews with support service providers and advocacy groups), it outlines issues that underlie the complexity of carbon reduction among lower income households. These include housing quality and tenure; health conditions; and user understanding and perspectives on low carbon living and environmental decision-making. This is followed by a review of the types of carbon reduction programs currently available to households living in different Australian jurisdictions. The paper will then reflect on focus group participants’ views of their access to these programs, their perceived effectiveness in achieving genuine carbon reduction, and how these programs fit in (or not) to the less formal carbon reduction techniques already employed by lower income households. It also highlights the challenges and limitations support service providers and advocacy groups face in connecting lower-income households to carbon reduction programs. It concludes with a discussion of potential policy avenues to address the barriers to low carbon living and ensure the intended outcomes of these carbon reduction programs are met in the longer term for those on lower incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a project currently underway to investigate how an open exchange standard for modelling information at the scale of an urban precinct can be used to support integrated solutions to achieve low carbon targets in the built environment. The project is part of a major research initiative to deliver on low carbon targets in Australia. The project builds on the concept of BIM to develop an object-oriented approach to modelling the built environment at a broader urban scale, focusing in the first instance on a precinct, being any region within an urban context that can be regarded as an integrated whole for the purposes of planning, design or management. This approach is referred to as precinct information modelling (PIM) and provides a key mechanism to bridge the information modelling gap between building scale (BIM) and the spatial scale. The paper argues the case for such an approach, proposing that the current IFC data model, and recent work that is investigating how that data model can be extended to handle transport infrastructure elements such as roads and bridges, can be adapted with modest extensions to serve this purpose. The paper describes this approach, proposing an initial data model and addressing several key strategies and principles that influence the work (e.g. commonality of concepts to maintain semantic integrity and the use of data dictionaries to define concept hierarchies). The paper offers a review of current approaches, reflects on a couple of trial implementations and provides a discussion of how this work can be carried forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the approach in regenerating an aging city block into a new high performing skyscraper in the Sydney. The project incorporated some of the latest technical innovations in reducing carbon emissions, reducing water consumption and ultimately achieving a 6 Star Green Star commercial office development. The 50 Storey development accommodates 55,963m 2 of commercial office space. The building achieved a World Leadership 6 Star Green Star environmental rating through a number of technical innovations including a high performance curtain wall façade, a hybrid air conditioning system comprising of a combination of low temperature VAV with active perimeter chilled beams, tri-generation, low energy lighting system, and rainwater harvesting. The paper describes the technical innovations and resilient infrastructure that was installed that allowed the building to achieve the low carbon environmental performance. Performance monitoring undertaken demonstrates the building's actual performance. This presentation demonstrates that with a commitment from the developer, design team, and the builder, all future skyscrapers can achieve very high environmentally sustainable performance whilst still providing strong business cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The siting of both onshore and offshore wind farms has caused controversy in a number of countries, particularly in Europe, which currently has the world’s largest array of offshore wind turbines. Like the rest of the world there has been a dramatic increase in wind farm development In Australia over the last two decades but none of this has occurred in the offshore environment. Australian wind farms are predominantly located onshore around the southern part of the continent where wind energy is high. This has specifically affected rural coasts where it has created planning and land use policy issues along with environmental impacts and associated public and political reaction. This paper examines the geographic spread, timing and concentration of Australian wind farms around the coast. It also examines the extent to which scientific knowledge on wind farm impacts is incorporated into different state and federal land use and environmental policy and legislative frameworks. The paper concludes that the rapidity in the expansion of the Australian wind energy sector has outpaced strategic land use planning resulting in a piece-meal and cumulative wind farm development on rural coasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial economic opportunities have been identified in many Australian fisheries but may remain unimplemented due to the perception that the role of government is to ensure harvests are biologically sustainable, while economic decisions should be left to the commercial industry. This paper explores the role of government in driving changes that increase revenue and profit from fisheries (termed economic benefit). Australian fisheries resources are managed by eight different jurisdictions. While each have separate legislation, there is invariably a responsibility to manage on behalf of, and to the benefit of the public, who are the owners of the resource. This paper uses case studies to explore how government can struggle to determine the public interest, separate this from private interests and then implement management changes to ensure the public utility is maximised. Common problems were: (i) overarching economic objectives, which define who should benefit, were often ambiguous and open to interpretation; (ii) the public interest was usually abstract and often under-represented in decision-making processes, (in contrast to industry, who have direct representation); (iii) special interest groups were often able to lobby against changes; and (iv) government was often reluctant to seize opportunities to increase economic benefit when there was significant industry opposition to management changes. In drawing attention to these challenges and how they have been overcome historically, it is argued that government has both a role and requirement under their legislative objectives to take the lead in implementing measures that increase the economic benefit from Australian fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some countries have places with foreign-like scenery that attracts domestic visitors to enjoy overseas-like travel experiences. However, such overseas-like travel experiences have not been widely utilized for domestic tourism development. This is likely due to the lack of awareness among the scientific community and tools for effectively identifying such travel experiences. To address the related gaps and technical challenges, this paper investigates the potential of abroad-at-home as a type of domestic tourism for promoting domestic tourism. This paper also introduces a novel technique called concept modeling that identifies abroad-at-home travel experiences from travel photos taken within a country. A case study on a large-scale dataset of more than 265,000 geotagged travel photos taken in Australia demonstrated the effectiveness of this method. The proposed method and findings are valuable for tourism organizations that use abroad-at-home travel experiences for domestic tourism development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oceans and coasts provide important ecosystem, livelihood, and cultural values to humans and the planet but face current and future compounding threats from anthropogenic activities associated with expanding populations and their use of and reliance on these environments. To respond to and mitigate these threats, there is a need to first systematically understand and categorise them. This paper reviewed 226 articles from the period 2010–2020 on threats to Australia's oceans and coasts, resulting in the identification of a total of 307 threats. Threats were grouped into three broad categories — threats from use and extraction; environmental and human-induced threats; and policy and socio-political threats —then ranked by frequency. The most common 'threats from use and extraction' were recreational activities, non-point source pollution, and urban development; the most common 'environmental and human-induced threat' was increased temperatures; and the most common 'policy and socio-political threat' was policy gaps and failures (e.g., a lack of coastal climate adaptation policies). The identification of threats across all three categories increased over time; however, the identification of 'threats from use and extraction' increased most rapidly over the last four years (2017–2020). Threats were most often described for their impacts on environmental values (68%), followed by economic (14%), socio-cultural (12%), and Indigenous (6%) values. Only 45 of the 226 papers (20%) discussed multiple threats. The threats facing Australia's oceans and coasts are rising, cumulative, and multi-faceted, and the inherent tensions between varied uses, along with intensification of uses that derive short-term anthropogenic benefit, will continue to degrade the ecological sustainability of ocean and coastal systems if actions are not taken. [Display omitted] • Threats to Australia's oceans and coasts described in the academic literature from 2010 to 2020 were systematically reviewed. • 307 threats were identified across three categories, with most threats in the group "environmental and human-induced threats". • Threats were described as impacting environmental (68%), economic (14%), socio-cultural (12%), and Indigenous (6%) values. • Only 45 of the 226 papers (20%) discussed multiple threats. • Findings highlight the cumulative and multi-faceted threats facing Australian oceans and coasts that must be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]