85000 research outputs found
Sort by
Urban Heat Resilience: Bridging Science, Policy, and Sustainable Design, Flagship Report
No full textBangkok, like many rapidly urbanizing cities in Southeast Asia, faces an escalating threat from extreme
urban heat, exacerbated by the urban heat effect and global climate change. This challenge
disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, including women, children, the elderly, persons
with disabilities, low-income households, and informal settlement residents, who often lack adequate
adaptive capacity and resources.
This report, drawing from the "Urban Heat Resilience: Bridging Science, Policy, and
Sustainable Design" project, presents a comprehensive analysis of urban heat risks in Bangkok and
the potential of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as a key mitigation strategy. Building on this, the report
also incorporates specific findings and policy insights from the Vietnam Urban Heat Status report,
detailing observed temperature shifts, urban heat island effects, health impacts, and policy landscapes
within Vietnamese cities, offering learnings applicable to second-tier Mekong cities in Vietnam.
Utilizing the TARGET urban climate model, simulations for both present-day (1985-2014) and
projected mid-century conditions (2036–2065) demonstrate that central and western districts with
high imperviousness experience the greatest heatwave burden, with up to 100 heatwave days per
season, lasting weeks at a time, and with significant thermal intensity. Without intervention,
many districts could see an additional 40–60 heatwave days per year by mid-century.
Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), which involve widespread increases in pervious, green, and
irrigated surfaces, particularly in highly impervious areas, are projected to significantly mitigate these
impacts. The NBS scenario suggests a reduction of up to 24 heatwave days in hotspots, shorter
heatwave events (over 30 days reduction in duration in some areas), and meaningful reductions in
heatwave severity (up to 0.4°C during extreme events). These benefits are spatially consistent with
intervention areas, highlighting the strong local cooling effects and spillover benefits of NBS.
Crucially, the project emphasizes a Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI)
Action Plan to ensure that heat resilience efforts are inclusive and equitable. This plan integrates
GEDSI principles into all project phases, from data collection and policy design to implementation and
monitoring, prioritizing the needs of vulnerable populations.
While NBS offers a substantial buffer against climate-driven urban heat, it is not a standalone solution.
A comprehensive, multi-layered adaptation strategy is required, combining NBS with broader systemic
measures such as inclusive heat alert systems, cooling centers, hydration points, and integrated urban
planning and policy that accounts for social equity. This project aims to bridge the gap between scientific
understanding, policy frameworks, and practical implementation to build a more heat-resilient,
equitable, and livable Bangkok, with learnings applicable to other Mekong cities in Vietnam.</p
Flow behavior in idealized & realistic upper airway geometries
No full textThis study investigated the flow characteristics in idealized and realistic upper airway models during oral inhalation, focusing on their ability to replicate airflow dynamics and turbulence that impact pharmaceutical aerosol delivery. While idealized airway models, such as the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) model, are widely used in regulatory testing, they lack anatomical fidelity, potentially underestimating critical features, including the laryngeal jet formation, which are essential for accurate particle deposition predictions. Understanding the implications of idealized and realistic models is addressed using Large Eddy Simulations (LES) at inhalation rates of 15 and 30 L/min. Four airway models were analyzed: the USP model, the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) model, and two realistic models reconstructed from CT scans of healthy adults. The findings revealed the limitations of the USP model, while the VCU models demonstrated laminar flow behavior with a laryngeal jet with a lower magnitude compared to the realistic models. The realistic models (R01 and R02) exhibited more complex flow features, including an earlier laryngeal jet formation, emphasizing the importance in understanding the limitations of idealized models and the variations between realistic models.</p
Bioinspired Asymmetrical Pleated Textile With Unidirectional Transport Channel for Personal Moisture and Thermal Management
No full textAsymmetrical pleated textile with unidirectional water transport plays a vital role in maintaining personal moisture and thermal comfort. Inspired by the cactus branch, in this work, an asymmetrical pleated structure textile embedded with a unidirectional water transport channel was proposed by seamless weft knitting technology. This innovative textile with differential capillary effect can swiftly transport water within 1 s, with an accumulative one‐way transport index (AOTI) of 499.57%. This textile also exhibits excellent external water repellency with a stable contact angle exceeding 120°. Most importantly, water repellency, water collection, and directional water transport ability are integrated into one unified system by means of the asymmetrical pleated structure, thereby ensuring both safety and comfort for the wearer. The advanced fabrics meet high transmission indexes and fast transport rates, which are expected to provide a fresh avenue for the development and creation of more efficient and adaptive personal moisture and thermal management fabrics.</p
Spacecraft Attitude Control Using Inertial Morphing
No full textThis research explores the application of Inertial Morphing (IM) as an alternative method for spacecraft attitude control. The primary objective is to design and develop a smart mechatronic prototype with IM capabilities, representing a spacecraft, to experimentally demonstrate attitude control using the Garriott's-Dzhanibekov's effect and understand the parameters that would help in the design process.
The research uses Euler equations of rigid body motion to measure angular velocities, while angular momentum sphere and kinetic energy ellipsoid from classical mechanics to visualize the motion of the experiments. Exploring key non dimensional parameters that can be utilized for initial development of a system performing IM is explained.
Detailed CAD designs of two prototypes with IM capabilities were developed using AutoDesk's Fusion 360 software and advance simulations were conducted using the Application Programming Interface (API) for real time analysis of the designs during development. The prototype explores two different types of scissors mechanisms and one with a single moving component. The design analysis explores key parameters to consider for future design of IM systems for specific time period to perform inversions.
The experiments required a microgravity environment and the prototypes were developed in compliance with the parabolic flights. But for rapid experimental analysis, an air-bearing type test setup wad developed to provide floatation to the prototype in the air with very little friction. This research uses the developed test setup prove the concept of IM with the prototype.
The final part of the research is performing analysis on current or past spacecrafts properties to determine the time period of flipping motion, if they would ever spin about the intermediate axis. Additionally, another IM technique is explored with CubeSat as a representation to investigate IM and its feasibility on existing satellites.</p
Stories of Wear & Care
No full textThis book is a collection of 24 garment-led stories gathered across six semi-structured, in-person group conversations with people from our Brunswick, Merri-bek and wider Melbourne community, as part of the ‘Wear & Care’ Research Project.‘A Garment’s Life: Conversation Series’ was created to cultivate discussions about how we wear and care for our clothing in ways that support a “rewilding” of fashion. “Rewilding” fashion describes actions that support new cultures in how we better use, make and recreate clothing, and how we experience fashion outside of the commercial industry.One of our key research aims was to bring together local people to learn about their practices of mending, repairing and sharing clothing that support a community response towards developing a new fashion system. The research had a particular focus on activities embraced in the home or collaboratively in the community. Taking into consideration the changing fashion landscape in Australia and shifting social values in Brunswick, Melbourne, we used garment-led interviews and storytelling to establish a safe and supportive environment in which people could share their lived experiences naturally and honestly.Our Community Collaborators were invited to bring along a garment from their wardrobe that had been mended, repaired, or shared, or a special garment with a story behind it. We gathered groups of three to five Collaborators, with each person, in turn, presenting their chosen piece and generously sharing the tales it told, allowing each garment to guide the narrative. The clothing textures, tatters, embellishments, stains, markings, and mends were illuminated by stories of loss, change, connection, joy, optimism, and reclamation.Local contemporary artist Jody Haines joined each session to document the clothing through photographs and to create a garment-centred portrait with each of our Community Collaborators.Although we began with an open but simple proposition of what to bring along, the stories themselves expanded to encompass far more than what flaw, spill or general wear and tear may have been mended, or how a garment was shared and with whom. The stories alongside the group conversations revealed intricate weavings of values, influences, motivations, memories, relationships, and practices. The garments formed markers of moments in life, statements of values, tools to signify care and to nurture relationships, and connectors between siblings, grandparents and grandchildren, mothers and daughters.In this book, alongside the stories, we offer eight themes emerging out of the conversations that speak to both the complexity of our connections to clothes and contemporary understandings of fashion explored deeply in academic fashion discourse far beyond the purpose of this book.The intent of this book is to celebrate the lives of garments and the stories they hold. It offers a glimpse into the humble practices embedded in the clothes that support a “rewilding” of fashion. In reading this collection, we wish to generate a deeper consideration of your own wear and care practices, captured amongst the garments living in your wardrobe. You might be a wearer, a clothing sharer, a mender, or a garment maker. In whatever way you position yourself in connection to the garments you own, wear, repair, or share, we hope you might find a little of yourself reflected within this book that inspires you to share your own garment stories.</p
Recent advances in synthesis and application of Magnéli phase titanium oxides for energy storage and environmental remediation
No full textHigh-temperature reduction of TiO2 causes the gradual formation of structural defects, leading to oxygen vacancy planar defects and giving rise to Magnéli phases, which are substoichiometric titanium oxides that follow the formula TinO2n−1, with 4 ≤ n ≤ 9. A high concentration of defects provides several possible configurations for Ti4+ and Ti3+ within the crystal, with the variation in charge ordered states changing the electronic structure of the material. The changes in crystal and electronic structures of Magnéli phases introduce unique properties absent in TiO2, facilitating their diverse applications. Their exceptional electrical conductivity, stability in harsh chemical environments and capability to generate hydroxyl radicals make them highly valuable in electrochemical applications. Additionally, their high specific capacity and corrosion resistance make them ideal for energy storage facilities. These properties, combined with excellent solar light absorption, have led to their widespread use in electrochemical, photochemical, photothermal, catalytic and energy storage applications. To provide a complete overview of the formation, properties, and environmental- and energy-related applications of Magnéli phase titanium suboxides, this review initially highlights the crystal structure and the physical, thermoelectrical and optical properties of these materials. The conventional and novel strategies developed to synthesise these materials are then discussed, along with potential approaches to overcome challenges associated with current issues and future low-energy fabrication methods. Finally, we provide a comprehensive overview of their applications across various fields, including environmental remediation, energy storage, and thermoelectric and optoelectronic technologies. We also discuss promising new directions for the use of Magnéli phase titanium suboxides and solutions to challenges in energy and environment-related applications, and provide guidance on how these materials can be developed and utilised to meet diverse research application needs. By making use of control measures to mitigate the potential hazards associated with their nanoparticles, Magnéli phases can be considered as versatile materials with potential for next generation energy needs.</p
“Hey, you’re a woman, I hear we haven’t been supporting you!”: Jazz, gender and strategies for success since “#MeToo”
No full textPurposeIn this article, I examine the strategies for success practised by women and other gender minority jazz musicians in Melbourne. Research has established that jazz is dominated by men, with women experiencing marginalization and exclusion in education and venues.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on interviews with women and other gender minority jazz musicians I identify strategies for success that have emerged since #MeToo.FindingsIn so doing, I shift the focus from the structures and practices that limit women, to solutions as these are enacted in Melbourne, Australia.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings demonstrate that the culture of jazz is changing in relation to gender, at least beyond the realm of tertiary education.Practical implicationsThe research makes a valuable contribution to the literature on gender and jazz.Originality/valueThe research makes a valuable contribution to the literature on gender and jazz.</p
Exploring entrepreneurial actions of logistics firms for achieving success: An application of entrepreneurial action theory
No full textThis paper explores how Entrepreneurial Action Theory (EAT) enhances our understanding of action development in logistics firms and enriches the knowledge of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in the logistics sector. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study conducts in-depth interviews with 21 senior employees and managers from logistics firms in Vietnam. This study identifies five dimensions of CSFs and highlights the importance of knowledge in four key areas. Additionally, it identifies four key environmental changes that impact the success of logistics firms. The integration of these findings with EAT leads to a proposed theoretical framework explaining the entrepreneurial actions of logistics firms in their pursuit of success. The paper provides valuable insights into achieving success in the contemporary era and outlines appropriate actions for logistics firms.</p
Renewed Aspirations for Schools as Community Hubs
No full textThis book explores the expanded roles of schools, investigating how they may offer more to their communities than formal education. It also discusses what schools can gain from their communities through various forms of partnership and collaboration. We explore this ‘more than a school’ idea through past examples, in current practice, and as a model for schools into the future. Uniquely, the book investigates these issues from a spatial perspective, adopting the view that school and urban infrastructure, including buildings and landscaped outdoor areas (i.e., space), matters in the context of school-community relations. Indeed, we suggest that it mediates these relations, even though such influence is infrequently mentioned in the existing literature. Aligning our research with the spatial turn in the social sciences, we argue that research into school-community connections has tended to view such relations as fundamentally social, omitting adequate consideration of the role that space plays in enabling and/or constraining connections between school adminis-trators, students, teachers, parents, carers, and members of the wider community. Adopting a spatial approach, a range of new perspectives are offered with respect to fostering stronger school-community connections through engaging thoughtfully with the built environment. The recurring themes of partnering, planning, designing, and enabling schools as community hubs are used to structure the 20 chapters that follow the initial scene-settings chapters.</p
Leadership and corporate social responsibility: a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis (1980–2023)
No full textPurpose The aim of the paper is to conduct a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis of the relationship between leadership and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It seeks to investigate the impact of different leadership styles on CSR outcomes and organizational performance while exploring key themes such as transformational leadership, ethical leadership and responsible leadership, and their influence on CSR initiatives and stakeholder engagement. Design/methodology/approach The study examines a vast array of literature from 1980 to 2023 across various disciplines using the Scopus database. The analysis focuses on identifying the mediating role of organizational factors, such as ethical culture and intellectual capital, in the relationship between leadership styles and CSR outcomes. Findings The study highlights the significance of responsible leadership in promoting CSR practices and enhancing firm performance. It identifies the influence of transformational, ethical and responsible leadership styles on CSR initiatives and stakeholder engagement, emphasizing the importance of an ethical culture and intellectual capital as mediating factors. Originality/value This study provides a theoretical and practical implications of the intersection between leadership and CSR. By synthesizing an extensive literature and conducting a bibliometric analysis, it offers valuable insights and suggests directions for future research, thereby contributing to the understanding of how leadership styles impact CSR initiatives and organizational performance.</p