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Modelling Green Building Water Use, Certifications and Redevelopment: How Green Signalling Affects Water Use in Australian Office Buildings
No full textGreen building certifications are a key strategy in the attempt to achieve urban sustainability. Certifications are built on the foundation of efficiency through the reduction of water-and energy-use. They are designed to work by creating visible environmental credentials for market differentiation. In the past 20 years, green building certifications have gone global and a whole industry now delivers green buildings for both the residential and commercial building markets. This thesis quantitatively examines the impact of successive certifications and redevelopment activities on water-use in Australian office buildings following certification between 2005 and 2019. The thesis examines factors leading to water- use certification, and the influence of policy mandating public disclosure of energy-use (i.e., policy spillover). The results show that water certification leads to a reduction in water-use. But only to a point. There is a plateau of mean water-use after nine successive certifications. The models also show clear evidence of policy spillover. The number of water certifications increases markedly following the mandating of energy disclosure. However, the certification of water-use is most strongly associated with large buildings and those located in prime markets (i.e., CBD locations). This confirms the heuristic that certification supports those most able to adapt (i.e., with significant funds) and those who seek to differentiate themselves in the most competitive environments (i.e., CBD). This means that investors primarily value the green signalling returns of water-use certification. A focus on the competitive market of Sydney CBD shows that redevelopments and/or major retrofit is required to significantly reduce water-use. This contrasts with the energy literature where measurable reductions are observed following small, everyday activities (like changing light bulbs). Redevelopment activities are somewhat counter to sustainability as they are resource- and emissions-intensive. An alternative may be to re-calibrate certifications and award a higher certification without the need for redevelopment. While this may not reduce water-use to the same extent, it may reduce unnecessary redevelopment activities. The other recommendation is to re-focus market attention on the initial building design phase to avoid infrastructure lock-in in the first place
Validation of the Mini‐IPIP6 Short‐Form Personality Inventory: Honesty‐Humility Predicts Cooperation in Economic Games
No full textThis study validated the Mini‐IPIP6 short‐form measure of Honesty‐Humility to predict cooperative behaviour in online economic games. A subsample of participants from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study completed four online economic games for money, in addition to the Mini‐IPIP6 six‐factor personality inventory (N = 979). Cooperative behaviour was modelled as a latent variable reflecting behaviour across the four games. Honesty‐Humility was the sole personality dimension associated with cooperative behaviour, even after adjusting for relevant demographics (including gender, age, ethnicity, socio‐economic status, education and religiosity). Consistent with the hypothesised adaptive benefits of Honesty‐Humility (i.e., gains from cooperation, mutual help and non‐aggression), people higher in Honesty‐Humility cooperated more with anonymous others in online economic exchanges for money when there was a risk of exploitation. Given the nature of the games, people higher in Honesty‐Humility tended to earn more money if their partner cooperated, but less if their partner defected. These results validate the Mini‐IPIP6 measure of Honesty‐Humility and support its convergent and discriminant validity. These results highlight the predictive validity of the Mini‐IPIP6 measure of Honesty‐Humility and show it is reliably associated with cooperative behaviour
The Self-Education of Humanity
No full textIf education is to provide the “entry” to democratic alternatives encompassing egalitarianism it needs to enhance students’ capacity for thinking the unthinkable. Concomitantly, for students to develop their agency to act on this thinking, they need to develop consciousness of their efficacy. The present work addresses the issue of how consciousness of one’s efficacy to make changes in one’s world parallels the growth of this same efficacy in the human species from the earliest hominids to space walkers. Hence an approach to education based on (i) the cognitive development of students in transforming their worldviews, themselves, and the world to enhance democracy, autonomy, and freedom and (ii) the participation by these individuals in the self-education of humanity. This dialectic is captured in the concept of “socio-ontological praxis.” Further, it is argued that action for social change can reshape the underlying structures and causal relations of society and that the requirement of the developing individuals and society to expand their autonomy and efficacy creates a dialectic between this development, global knowledge, and social institutions requiring this very reshaping of social structures. Support is provided by way of individual and historical exemplars of the arguments
The role of composite habits in asset prices and business cycles: a Bayesian approach
No full textHabit formation defined over a composite measure of consumption and leisure helps align predicted asset pricing and business cycle moments with their observed counterparts. We employ Bayesian maximum-likelihood techniques to assess the empirical significance of generalized composite habits within a production-based asset pricing model. Using U.S. quarterly data on output, consumption, investment, and hours worked, our findings indicate a very high level of habit intensity and a moderate degree of habit persistence, although the data are less informative regarding the latter. Overall, the estimated model successfully matches the observed equity premium and key business cycle moments
The Architect, The Performer and The Ghost
No full textAt its core this study examines the fundamental human experience of lack and the perpetual cycle of desire—to desire or to be desired. Through the lens of architecture as a site of theatrical performance, it delves into the interplay of visibility and invisibility, revealing how these forces shape the delicate relationships between individuals and their environments. To be visible is to be recognised, and to be invisible is to be deprived of any recognition.
Architecture mediates power and perception, staging interactions where the gaze dictates control. Through a redesign of the St James Theatre's interior into three apartments, to investigate the shifting dynamics between subject and object and examine how control is consciously or subconsciously exchanged within architectural space. Thus, the apartments, embedded within a former performance space, inherit the performative nature of the theatre, where residents become actors and audience within an environment shaped by shifting gazes and power dynamics.
A central premise of this research is that a gaze, in isolation, holds no inherent meaning, rather by reshaping both object and subject, positioning the two as active participants in a more significant performance where control and power are in constant flux. Within this exchange, the object can become the subject, and the subject can just as quickly become the object.
Insights from Beatriz Colomina's 'Sexuality and Space' and Slavoj Žižek's 'Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture' enhance these dynamics as they offer more profound insights into the fundamental nature of the constant need for desire—situating architecture within the frameworks of desire, surveillance, and power. Colomina's work highlights how architecture is inherently exhibitionist and voyeuristic, structuring how bodies are seen and displayed. Žižek's analysis of the gaze emphasises that meaning is never neutral but always mediated by unconscious desire. Additionally, Foucault's concept of Panopticism informs the discussion on visibility as a mechanism of control, shaping how individuals navigate space.
Framing architecture as a stage for the constantly shifting dynamics of power, this thesis conceptualises an adaptive reuse of the St James Theatre to explore architectural space as a performative negotiation of desire. Utilising a narrative methodology it offers an original way of constructing and interrogating spaces through the manipulation of the gaze. Exploring framing and visibility — the gaze becomes the active force - provoking, engaging and reflecting, the complexities of human existence.
Ultimately, this thesis will challenge conventional notions of architecture as a static, objective entity, reframing it as a performative medium. It will explore how architecture, as a space of continual interplay, can actively participate in the drama of human existence, revealing the provocativeness of human lack and desire within the context of the St James Theatre
Do opportunities exist to improve the use of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery? Perspectives of patients and staff in a multimethod study in New Zealand
No full textObjectivesThe WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) can improve patient outcomes through checks and enhancing the safety climate, provided the team engage. Patients are central to that team and may be awake during part or all of many procedures. Their greater inclusion in the SSC process could enhance its checking objectives by using patient knowledge of details relevant to proposed procedures, and its objective of improving culture by emphasising patient identity, seeing patients as individuals rather than items on a production line. We aimed to evaluate SSC use, including clinicians' and patients' perspectives, in cardiothoracic operating rooms (CTORs) and cardiac catheterisation laboratories (CCLs), and to identify opportunities to refine its use in these spaces.DesignWe undertook a multimethod study based on positivism and interpretivism, with evaluation of SSC administration and interviews. We evaluated SSC administration during 20 Sign Ins, 20 Time Outs and 20 Sign Outs in CTORs and 20 Time Outs in CCLs (11 coronary angiography and 9 electrophysiology cases) using the WHO Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (WHOBARS, 1-7, where higher scores indicate better practice). We additionally interviewed 10 clinicians and 17 patients about their experiences and perceptions of safety and SSC use. We undertook thematic analysis of interview data.SettingCTORs and CCLs in an Auckland public hospital.ParticipantsWe observed 171 clinicians during 20 cases. We interviewed 10 clinicians (Pakeha/New Zealand/European n=6; male n=5; doctor n=5). We interviewed 17 patients (Pakeha/New Zealand/European n=12; male n=10; age range 45-81 years).ResultsIn CTORs, the SSC was used in full: median (IQR) WHOBARS score was 5.9 (5.2, 6.5). In CCLs, its use differed between electrophysiology and angiography CCLs: median (IQR) WHOBARS score was 4.50 (3.2, 5.6). In both CTORs and CCLs, high levels of carefulness and respect between team members were observed. Clinicians described the SSC as valuable and identified context-related reasons for variations in its use. Patients wanted to feel cared for and respected (including culturally). The SSC contributed positively to this. Clinicians expressed reservations about increasing patients' involvement with the SSC. However, patients' comments supported their increased engagement in the SSC process (including establishing their preferred names).ConclusionsThe SSC is used at Auckland City Hospital with some variation between services and with high levels of carefulness and respect. The SSC increased patients' sense of being cared for. With modification (eg, by verifying their preferred name during the Sign In phase), the SSC could enhance patients' perception of being seen as individuals, their cultural safety and the safety climate in operating and procedure rooms, and hence potentially improve patient outcomes. Our findings reinforce the value of regular evaluation and context-relevant modification of SSC for its effective use
MVDR beamforming for underdetermined sound source separation using iterative psd estimation in beamspace
No full textWe present an iterative beamforming framework that combines minimum-variance distortionless response
(MVDR) beamforming with power spectral density (PSD) estimation in beamspace. This framework leverages the sparsity
of speech in the time-frequency (TF) domain to improve the
performance of MVDR beamforming for underdetermined sound
source separation. Initially, PSD of interferences are estimated in
beamspace using multiple fixed beamformers. These estimates are
used to compute MVDR weights for each TF bin, attenuating the
dominant interferers in each bin. In each iteration, the enhanced
spatial selectivity of the MVDR outputs refines the interference
PSD estimates, which in turn improve the subsequent weight
computations. This iterative process preserves the distortionless
response of MVDR beamforming while eliminating the need for
nonlinear post-filtering and its associated artefacts. Simulations
and real-world experiments conducted across diverse acoustic
environments demonstrate substantial improvements in signalto-interference ratio (SIR) and short-time objective intelligibility
(STOI) compared to conventional MVDR. Notably, under anechoic conditions, the proposed method approaches the SIR improvement of a time-frequency MVDR beamformer constructed
with oracle source PSD
“My body feels fucking great during sex”: Fat, Wāhine, Māori and sex(uality) – a Kōrero of sovereignty, desirability, deservedness, and pleasure
No full textAs Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori have rich expressions of sex(uality);
we see this in our whakapapa, our ancestry, and the pūrākau of Hinenuitepō, one of the
most powerful Māori deities, ancestors, and wāhine of Te Ao Māori. Hinenuitepō is a guide
and a guardian of us, particularly as we move from Te Ao Mārama, the world of light, to Te
Pō and Rarohenga, the world of night and the underworld. However, often colonial,
gendered re-presentations of powerful wāhine Māori depict us as passive, meek, evil,
ashamed, or destructive. Hinenuitepō is an atua with irrefutable sexual power, energy,
and agency. (Re)tellings of Hinenuitepō highlight the ways in which her body sovereignty
has been impacted and restricted, and how she re-claims her mana tinana. For wāhine
Māori, Hinenuitepō is an example straight from our whakapapa of how we can conceive,
relate to, and enact our own body sovereignty. In conceptualizing fat wāhine Māori sexual
agency, we utilize these pūrākau from our whakapapa and our application of sovereignty,
agency, pleasure, and consent can be seen in our bodies and our stories. This Kaupapa
Māori research explores the kōrero and pūrākau of fat Māori wāhine from Aotearoa New
Zealand. It re-centers and explores these sexual experiences and expressions and examines
the ways in which we (re)prioritize, enact, and honor our mana, as well as the intersections
of sovereignty, agency, desirability, and deservedness within our sexual experiences
An Exploration of The Education Inequity of Rural-To-Urban Migrant Students in Nanjing, China
No full textOver the past three decades, China’s rapid economic development and urban construction have been accompanied by the world’s most significant internal population movement. Hundreds of thousands of internal migrants migrated to cities in search of better work and educational opportunities. Due to the restrictions from public policies, rural-to-urban migrant children have long been disadvantaged in receiving education in urban areas. However, research showed that both the social, cultural, and political contexts regarding the school admission of rural-to-urban migrant children have significantly changed over time, as have the demographic characteristics of rural-to-urban migrant children and their families. Given these changes over time, it is timely to re-examine the educational inequities rural-to-urban migrants might experience and their potential causes. This thesis uses Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice to map the biases and disadvantages experienced by rural-to-urban migrants and their children. Specifically, it explores how policy and academic discourses change over time and reflect the biases towards them illustrating changes in the habitus of policymakers and academic researchers. This thesis further examines the current urban education field and the relationship between rural-to-urban migrant families’ capital and school admission outcomes after the changes in both school admission policies and rural-to-urban migrants’ demographic characteristics. This thesis, with publications, employed a multiple-methods research design and comprised five studies.
This thesis enriches Bourdieu’s theory of practice by proposing how the changing social, cultural and political contexts could influence the structure of the urban education field through different agents (i.e., policymakers and scholars). It highlights that the academic and policy discourses may reflect the biases towards rural-to-urban migrants, and the biased discourses might, in return, strengthen the inequity of rural-to-urban migrants. The thesis calls for societal efforts to eliminate biases towards rural-to-urban migrants and encourages policymakers and scholars to engage in anti-bias practices
Preventing psychosis in people at clinical high risk: an updated meta-analysis by the World Psychiatric Association Preventive Psychiatry section
No full textRecently published large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have questioned the efficacy of preventive interventions in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to include this new evidence and provide future directions for the field. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and a pre-registered protocol, with a literature search conducted from inception to November 2023. We included RCTs that collected data on psychosis transition (the primary outcome) in CHR-P. Secondary outcomes were symptoms severity and functioning. Investigated time points were 6,12,24,36, and +36 months. We used odd ratios (ORs) and standardised mean differences (SMD) as summary outcomes. Heterogeneity was estimated with the Higgins I2. Twenty-four RCTs, involving 3236 CHR-P individuals, were included. Active interventions were Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), family-focused therapy, Integrated Psychological Therapy, antipsychotics, omega-3 fatty acids, CBT plus risperidone, minocycline, and other non-pharmacological approaches (cognitive remediation, sleep-targeted therapy, brain stimulation). Results showed no evidence that any of the investigated active interventions had a sustained and robust effect on any of the investigated outcomes in CHR-P, when compared to control interventions, including CBT on transition to psychosis at 12 months (9 RCTs; OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.39-1.06; I2: 21%; P = 0.08). These results highlight the need for novel treatment approaches in CHR-P. Future studies should consider the heterogeneity of this clinical population and prioritise stratification strategies and bespoke treatments