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Dataset for the paper "Wellbeing in science education: A qualitative exploration of students’ values"
No full textThis dataset accompanies the manuscript "Wellbeing in science education: A qualitative exploration of students’ values" from the International Journal of Science Education. The article is currently in press and will be published in the near future.This codebook provides the first systematic documentation of students' science-related values in the literature.</p
Automated property parcel classification using very high-resolution land cover imagery and multi-modal deep learning: Effective city-scale monitoring for urban expansion outcome modelling
No full textThis study addresses the challenges of monitoring urban development where sprawl, infill and soft densification are prevalent. To accurately identify the spatial distribution and characteristics of different development types, a multi-modal deep learning model was developed to predict parcel-level development types using very high-resolution land cover maps and tabular data representing parcel attributes of surface cover, built form and dwelling counts. This model was compared to a range of supervised and unsupervised classification models and evaluated in two contexts: (i) within Perth, where training data was abundant, and (ii) when generalising models to other cities across Australia. To undertake this analysis, a ground truth dataset of almost 70,000 labelled parcels were sampled from Perth, Western Australia, with fine-tuning and test datasets produced for other Australian cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide). The multi-modal deep learning model achieved an overall accuracy of 94% when evaluated in Perth and overall accuracy ranging from 91% to 94% when evaluated in other cities. The model was more accurate in classifying visually distinct development types that are relevant to monitoring infill and densification and performed well in transferring to other cities. These results indicate that deep learning models and transfer learning workflows can be leveraged to develop generalisable urban development type mapping models. This approach opens opportunities for multi-city analyses to further understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban growth and densification, and provides data to guide and evaluate the effects of policy that seeks to balance the need for housing our growing populations with maintaining healthy natural environments.</p
Happiness strategies for children used by preschool teachers: an exploratory study in Hue City
No full textThis study explores the happiness strategies used by preschool teachers for children. A survey was conducted on 2,583 preschool teachers in Hue City using the Scale of Happiness Strategies for Children used by Preschool Teachers by Bakkaloğlu et al. (2019). The research results show that building positive relationships with children and participating in games with children are two effective strategies for creating happiness for children in the classroom. Positive communication and organizing appropriate activities are specific strategies that teachers regularly implement. Meanwhile, building surprises and giving children candy are less frequently implemented. The research results provide a basis for recommending activities that create happiness for children in the classroom, contributing to building a happy preschool.</p
Challenges in Door-to-Balloon Time of Myocardial Infarction: A Qualitative Study
No full textBackground: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction is the most complicated type of myocardial infarction and often requires aggressive and rapid medical treatment. Door-to-balloon time is a quality indicator used to measure the promptness and prognostic outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention. A delay in door-to-balloon time (>90 minutes) is influenced by several factors, including patient characteristics, healthcare practices, and the characteristics of healthcare workers. Aim: This study is a part of a large multi-phase study in a major tertiary care hospital in Oman. In this phase, the study aims to explore barriers and challenges that are experienced by healthcare workers in the Emergency Room and Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory in managing ST- segment elevation myocardial infarction patients’ door-to-balloon time. Method: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the views and experiences of nurses and doctors in the Emergency Room and the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to build and refine a list of themes and subthemes and identify supporting quotes. Results: Ten nurses and doctors from the Emergency Room and Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory were interviewed. The findings included three main themes that encompass challenges in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction management: 1) Barriers to success, 2) People factors, and 3) Quality improvement. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest quality improvement strategies may include updating protocols on an ongoing basis to consider changes in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction care management to achieve door-to-balloon time <90 minutes.</p
Advancing wastewater sludge valorisation: Evaluating hydrothermal treatment and anaerobic digestion integration pathways
No full textIntegrating hydrothermal treatment (HT) with anaerobic digestion (AD) offers an innovative approach to enhance energy and nutrient recovery from sewage sludge. While previous studies have primarily focused on downstream configurations employing digested sludge (DS) as HT feedstock, upstream coupling involving the use of primary sludge (PS) and thickened waste-activated sludge (TWAS) has received limited attention. This study systematically evaluates one downstream and two upstream HT–AD configurations to identify the most efficient valorisation route. The digestion of PS with the liquid phase from hydrothermally treated TWAS resulted in the highest biomethane yield of 184.1 mL/g VS and achieved over 90 % biodegradability. Despite an initial lag phase of 25 days due to high NH4+ concentrations and microbial inhibition (11.4 %), microbial viability improved to 61.3 % post-digestion, with Methanosarcina emerging as the dominant genus. Enhanced nutrient content and reduced heavy metals in the digestate underscore the benefits of upstream HT–AD integration.</p
Analysing emotions in engineering students’ reflections using appraisal theory through an artificial intelligence tool
No full textThis study combines Scherer's Component Process Model (CPM) with a generative AI tool to analyse emotional appraisals of 80 engineering students in a team-based graduate-level subject focused on innovation, professional skills and professional identity transformation. Despite emotions being central to learning, engineering education research has limited theoretical frameworks for analysing students' emotions reported in reflective tasks. We employed a novel combination of manual and AI-assisted thematic coding to analyse students' reflective writings using CPM. The methodology proved effective for coding emotional components. It successfully produced patterns of appraisals within reflections, and differences of appraisals between international/domestic and male/female reflections, consistent with theoretical expectations. The methodology demonstrated feasibility and utility, whilst revealing important limitations and affordances. This research provides a foundation for combining theoretical frameworks and AI-assisted analytic methods to understand students' emotional reflections. It offers directions for future empirical research based on the observed strengths and limitations of our approach.</p
Designing Climate-Sensitive Cities: Integrating Architecture, Landscape, and Resilience
No full textThe increase in extreme weather underscores the critical need for combining innovative architecture, urban, and landscape design to render our cities more resilient. Conventional approaches, heavily relying on energy consuming and dioxide producing technology, often falter during extreme events, worsening climate challenges. A project in Melbourne exemplifies a shift towards nature-inspired, distributed designs implementing passive strategies of shading, ventilation, water capture, and evaporative cooling. It transformed underused urban spaces into “climate oases” connected through walkable ecological corridors to mitigate urban heat and flooding while providing social and recreational benefits. Its design combined architectural, urban, and ecological strategies in interconnected city ecologies involving buildings, landscapes, and human activities. Local climate adaptation could similarly inform architectural and urban strategies in other locations across the globe. They could similarly draw on the needs of each climate: tropical cities would benefit from embracing cross-ventilation and shade, arid regions from integrating cooling gardens and introverted dense layouts, temperate climates from seasonal strategies alternating rain and sun protection, while cold areas could optimize sun exposure and wind protection. A study of climate design principles across architecture, urban, and landscape sections demonstrate tailored approaches for specific climates over one-size-fits-all models. They combine strategies to drive innovative urban ecologies that prioritize human and environmental well-being. While the Melbourne Cool Lines initiative exemplifies the integration of climate sensitive urban and ecological approaches within existing urban areas, the typological study ignites discussions on how to take these ideas into different contexts, transforming cities into resilient ecosystems that could better respond to changing climates.</p
Crystallisation, dissolution and diffusion in a Solid-Metal in Liquid-Metal colloidal system
No full textThe presence of solvated metallic elements with high mobility enables many applications of liquid metals (LMs) such as in catalysis, phase change materials, welding, soldering, and additive manufacturing. While the processes of crystallisation and dissolution in LM resemble those of traditional solvents, they have not been studied in great detail. Furthermore, crucial observations of solute mass transport speeds (flux) in LM have not been evaluated yet, despite being discovered within catalytic environments. Thereby for processes like phase change materials and additive manufacturing, the fundamental chemistry is underexplored. We hypothesise that a deeper understanding of these fundamental properties is obtained by studying the phase-change behaviour of solid metal in liquid metal colloidal systems. We have employed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine the dissolution and crystallisation processes of a Ga-Cu colloidal system. This approach involves in-situ heating and cooling TEM analysis with a specialised TEM holder. TEM analysis shows that upon heating, the Ga2Cu crystal begins to dissolve from its outermost layers, progressing until complete dissolution occurs. Recrystallisation then occurs in a supercooled environment, where the solute rapidly crystallises. This crystallisation process involves substantial mass transport within the LM, allowing for the estimation of the directional atom flux of Cu (valued −0.02 mol/m2s at 178 °C).</p
Assessment of waste-integrated concrete products: a cradle-to-cradle perspective
No full textPurpose: Bricks and roof tiles are commonly employed in construction, posing environmental challenges due to their substantial use of natural resources. Efforts to mitigate these concerns include the integration of recycled materials. However, within the framework of life cycle assessment (LCA), it is imperative to ascertain that the incorporation of recycled materials enhances the sustainability of the product across its entire life cycle. This research presents a thorough cradle-to-cradle LCA of concrete bricks and roof tiles integrated with waste materials utilized in Australia housing construction compared to conventional Portland cement-based concrete products. The research also examines how the selection of allocation methods for raw materials impacts the results of the LCA during the manufacture stage of the concrete products. Methods: This study conducts a cradle-to-cradle LCA of waste-integrated concrete bricks and roof tiles, using pond ash and unwashed recycled glass sand due to their widespread availability and proven performance. It examines three allocation methods (no allocation, mass, and economic allocation) for the initial raw waste materials for a cradle-to-gate boundary application (the allocation method is excluded from the secondary use of the recycled materials). LCA modelling is performed using SimaPro 9.3.0.3 software, with data support from Ecoinvent v.3.8 (2021) and AusLCI v.1.42 (2023) databases with system models based on the cut-off approach. Results and discussion: The study highlights that integrating waste materials into bricks and roof tiles reduces environmental impacts across most categories compared to conventional products. The combination of pond ash and recycled glass sand can reduce GWP by 9.86% and 8.21% for roof tiles for bricks within the cradle-to-gate scenario. Mass and economic allocation contribute to slightly higher impacts, approximately 0.789–1.188% and 0.061–0.138%, respectively. Waste-integrated concrete products generally exhibit lower environmental impacts across midpoint categories compared to conventional products in the cradle-to-cradle boundary. GWP waste-integrated bricks and roof tiles are lower than those of conventional products by 8.00–8.72% and 5.51–6.35%, respectively. Moreover, among the three post-demolition scenarios, when credits for waste material substitution are not considered, recycling demolished material into recycled aggregates utilizing the standard recycling method emerges as the most environmentally advantageous approach, outperforming landfilling and recycled demolished aggregate using the advanced recycling method. However, when credits are assigned for the utilization of recycled materials, Scenario 3 demonstrates lower environmental impacts than Scenario 2, except for ODP in WCB and WCR. The production of ultrafine powders as SCMs in Scenario 3 reduces GP cement demand, further lowering the impacts and emphasizing the importance of adopting a lifecycle perspective in LCA to fully capture the benefits of recycling. Conclusions and recommendations: Incorporating pond ash and unwashed recycled glass sand holds promise for mitigating environmental impacts. Recycling demolished concrete as recycled aggregate for concrete using standard recycling methods was found to be the best scenario at end-of-life compared with sending to landfill and using advanced recycling methods. A deliberate selection of raw materials, coupled with exploring the advantages of integrating innovative cementitious materials and substituting aggregates, is crucial for advancing an environmentally conscious recycling process. Additional research and development are vital to identify the most effective combinations for utilizing waste materials in concrete products, thereby improving sustainability without compromising performance.</p
Partnerships to protect nature: A Community of Practice approach to human behavior change research and practice
No full textBiodiversity conservation requires transformative change in our relationships with nature. Innovative policy can support this change, yet designing and implementing such policy requires new knowledge and culture shifts. Transdisciplinary research partnerships between academia and government can support these changes, yet they entail friction between knowledges (e.g., social science and natural sciences) and organizational cultures (e.g., academic and government priorities and practices). Social learning theories, such as Communities of Practice (CoP), can help participants to work through friction, providing a platform for partnerships that benefit scientific research progress, policy needs, and the professional development of CoP members. We (academics and government practitioners) developed a transdisciplinary CoP grounded in collective impact principles to explore questions aligned with our shared goal of enhancing human‐nature relationships, with a particular focus on environmental and behavioral psychology. We report on perceived barriers including lack of time, funding, and skills in transdisciplinary facilitation, and recommend that challenges could be addressed by holding regular, structured meetings; routinely evaluating progress on shared objectives; encouraging shared ownership among CoP members; fostering diversity among members and collaborators; embedding staff or students in cross‐institutional positions; and seeking administrative support from university or government partners. These changes could strengthen the foundations of transdisciplinary collaborations, fostering trusting relationships that support social learning and achieve transformative shifts.</p