134125 research outputs found
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Thermal performance of aluminium-timber composite frames in curtain wall systems
No full textSpace heating and cooling account for a significant portion of building operational energy use, with considerable heat exchange occurring through the building envelope. Aluminium-framed curtain walls are widely adopted for their structural performance, durability, and corrosion resistance, yet their high thermal conductivity contributes to significant building energy loss. This study introduces a novel aluminium-timber composite curtain wall frame where aluminium serves as a structural core encased by glulam timber, combining durability with superior thermal performance. A comprehensive parametric study was conducted using a hybrid assessment approach following ISO 10077-2:2017 standards. Thirty-six configurations were evaluated across three timber species, three thicknesses, various thermal break and structural design options. Results demonstrate that the composite frame achieves substantial U-value reductions compared to conventional aluminium frames. Thermal breaks provide an additional reduction, enabling U-values below 2.0 W/m2 · K when combined with cedar timber. The structural glazing offered an additional 35–40% improvement over captive glazing. The analytical method showed excellent agreement with numerical simulations, enabling rapid design optimisation. The linear regression analysis also demonstrates a clear linear relationship between the thermal performance of the frame and the window panel. This hybrid evaluation methodology provides designers with a practical tool for early-stage thermal optimisation without requiring expensive physical testing, supporting the development of high-performance, energy-efficient curtain wall systems for sustainable building design.Full Tex
Mechanically stable defective Mo2TiX2O2 MXenes as potential electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction toward methanol production
No full textThe electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid fuels offers a sustainable pathway to mitigate greenhouse emissions while storing renewable energy in chemical form. MXenes are promising candidates for this reaction due to their exceptional conductivity and tunable surface chemistry. Herein, we applied density functional theory to reveal that defect-engineered double transition metal (DTM) MXenes can exhibit remarkable catalytic enhancement. The formation of a mechanically stable metal‑oxygen-vacancy pair center in Mo2TiC2O2 is energetically allowed, which can significantly lower the overpotential for methanol formation to only 0.46 V. The reaction proceeds via the formate pathway, where the vacancy pair center acts as a Lewis acidic site that strongly anchors the nucleophilic oxygen atom of CO2. This acid-based interplay drives efficient activation, stabilizes key intermediates, and suppresses the competing hydrogen evolution reaction. These findings position defective DTM MXenes as highly promising electrocatalysts and underscore the pivotal role of defect engineering in tailoring MXenes for efficient CO2 conversion.Full Tex
Blowin’ in the wind: Onshore winds drive the occurrence of bluebottles (Physalia spp.) at east Australian beaches
No full textBluebottles (Physalia spp.) are a floating siphonophore that inhabit coastal waters and can become stranded on beaches around the world. They inflict painful stings on beachgoers which can place significant strain on surf life saving personnel. With little capacity for active (directed) swimming, their movement and distribution is driven by physical atmospheric and oceanographic processes and other biological processes (e.g., reproduction). This study combines multiple long term and spatially extensive datasets documenting their occurrence along the east coast of Australia with high resolution oceanographic and atmospheric reanalysis products to investigate (1) how the occurrence of beached bluebottles relates to public safety concerns (i.e., sting rates) and (2) potential drivers of occurrence (in terms of beaching, stings per swimmers, or abundance of left- or right-handed bluebottles). We find that the risk of being stung increases rapidly as the number of beached bluebottles increases, suggesting that bluebottles on the beach is a good indicator that they are also in the water. Wind appears to be the primary driver of their occurrence, with onshore winds (≈ 20–180°) leading to the highest likelihood of occurrence, especially under stronger wind speeds (≥ 8 m s−1) with patterns consistent with the theoretical and experimentally determined drift trajectories for bluebottles. Finally, we demonstrate some ability to predict occurrence and make recommendations for further development of a predictive model to assist stakeholders in mitigating the adverse effects of large swarms at beaches.Full Tex
From tools to thinking partners: Cognitive and pedagogical shifts in design education through generative AI
Full text linkGenerative Artificial Intelligence is reshaping design education by influencing how students develop ideas and make creative decisions. Unlike earlier digital shifts that mainly changed production methods, generative AI introduces cognitive changes by moving part of ideation and evaluation into human–AI collaboration. This study offers a rare perspective by comparing design educators’ views on integrating AI in El Salvador and Indonesia, with Denmark as a comparison case. Using a qualitative interpretive approach, interviews with nine academics reveal key themes such as AI as a thinking partner, the persistence of manual-first pedagogy and the rising importance of prompt literacy. Findings show that in resource-limited programs, manual-first traditions provide an important foundation for making curatorial judgments about AI-generated ideas, while Denmark educators use a more structured integration aligned with industry demands. Design educators emphasise ethical awareness and critical judgment, framing AI as a catalyst for rethinking creative processes rather than replacing them.Full Tex
EffEctiveness of Prophylactic fOam dressings in the prevention of saCral pressure injuries in at-risk hospitalised patients (EEPOC): A randomised control trial
Full text linkBackground: Hospital-acquired pressure injuries are a serious patient safety issue with the sacrum the most common location. Silicone foam border dressings are increasingly used in hospitalised patients, yet their clinical and cost-effectiveness in preventing pressure injuries is unclear in some patient cohorts. Objective: To determine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a silicone foam border dressing in preventing sacral hospital acquired pressure injuries in at-risk medical-surgical patients. Methods: A prospective, multi-site, parallel group, pragmatic, superiority randomised controlled trial was conducted in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Medical-surgical adult patients (≥ 18 years) at-risk of pressure injury were recruited and randomly allocated to either an intervention (sacral dressing plus routine care) or control (routine care only) group. The Primary outcome was development of a new sacral pressure injury. Daily, blinded, and independent outcome assessments were conducted off-site for up to 14 days using edited photographs of deidentified participants' sacra. Intention-To-Treat analyses were performed using both best-case and worse-case scenarios. Additional complete case analyses were conducted as part of sensitivity analyses. Secondary outcomes comprised time to onset of hospital-acquired sacral pressure injury, severity, incidence rates per 1000 trial days (days patients were in the trial), incidence rates per 1000 hospital days (days patients were in hospital), and cost-effectiveness that compared the difference in pressure injury incidence between groups. Results: Of the 1121 eligible patients approached, 958 agreed to participate. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between intervention and control groups. Cumulative incidence of sacral pressure injury was 1.67 % (8/478) and 1.25 % (6/480) in the intervention and control groups respectively (p = 0.592). There was an increased risk of pressure injury for those in the intervention group (Relative Risk: 1.34 (95 % CI 0.47–3.83)), but the effect was not statistically significant and confidence intervals wide. Distribution of secondary outcomes was also similar in both the intervention and control groups. The intervention was more costly than the control showing an incremental cost of 74.10–$125.60) associated with using the dressings. Conclusions: The study did not provide evidence that silicone foam border dressings reduced the incidence of sacral hospital acquired pressure injuries in adult medical-surgical patients at risk of pressure injuries. Additionally, the silicone foam dressings incurred higher incremental costs than routine care. Trial registration number: ACTRESN12619000763145, Registered 22/05/2019, first recruitment 10/07/2020.Full Tex
IEGSCL: Interaction-Enhanced Graph Neural Sequence Contrastive Learning for Microscopic Diffusion Prediction
No full textUnderstanding the complex relationships and behavioral preferences among users in social networks is crucial for elucidating the mechanisms of information diffusion. While recent information diffusion prediction methods, empowered by graph neural networks, have advanced the learning of user representations, they rarely exploit spread interaction feedback. This feedback reflects users’ interests in engaging with information and serves as a key driver of information diffusion. Moreover, the underutilization of unlabeled data leads to an overreliance on labeled data, consequently constraining the model’s self-learning and generalization capabilities. To address these limitations, we propose a novel microscopic diffusion prediction model based on interaction-enhanced graph neural sequence contrastive learning (IEGSCL). Specifically, we construct a triple graph to explore the diversity of user relationships and preferences through the lenses of trust and interaction. A self-supervised graph contrastive learning module is designed to transfer user intents, maximizing the utility of unlabeled data and tackling the feature extraction challenge. Furthermore, we devise an information-driven gating strategy that adaptively modulates the contributions of social and interactive intents to cascade participation, thereby effectively integrating interaction feedback into the cascade modeling. Finally, we employ maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) to enforce distributional consistency between global relationship representations and local cascade encodings. Extensive experiments on four public datasets validate the superior performance of the proposed model over existing baselines.No Full Tex
Fabrication of CALF-20 pellets via binder optimization: Balancing mechanical integrity and CO2 adsorption performance
No full textCALF-20 (Calgary Framework 20), a hydrophobic metal-organic framework (MOF) with exceptional CO₂ affinity and stability, holds promise for integration into industrial carbon capture processes. However, its synthesis typically yields microcrystalline powders, which are impractical for industrial deployment due to challenges in handling, morphological control, and mechanical robustness. To address this limitation, we systematically evaluated four commercially available polymeric binders—polysulfone (PSU), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinyl formal (PVF), and cellulose acetate (CA)—for shaping CALF-20 into mechanically stable pellets. The influence of binder composition on crystallinity, porosity, CO₂ adsorption capacity, and mechanical strength was investigated. Among the formulations tested, CALF-20 shaped with CA exhibited optimal performance, retaining high CO₂ uptake while achieving superior mechanical integrity. The CA-based composites were further characterized for their CO₂/N₂ selectivity, isosteric heat of adsorption, and adsorption kinetics. Additionally, the shaped pellets demonstrated excellent recyclability over multiple adsorption-desorption cycles. This study provides a practical and scalable approach to MOF shaping, paving the way for their industrial implementation in CO₂ capture technologies.No Full Tex
SO2-tolerant electrochemical CO2 capture and NaHCO3 conversion enabled by saline water electrolysis
No full textElectrochemical carbon capture offers a sustainable route to mitigate CO2 emissions, but practical deployment is often limited by modest capture rates and system complexity. Here we report a saline–water electrolysis strategy that simultaneously captures CO2 and converts it to sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) without external chemical additives. Hydroxide ions (OH−) generated in situ at the cathode via the hydrogen-evolution reaction (HER) enable rapid CO2 absorption and selective conversion to NaHCO3 by maintaining the catholyte at pH 8–9, consistent with thermodynamic speciation. In simulated flue gas, the system delivers a CO2 capture rate of 5.27 mmolCO2 cm−2 h−1 (55.6 kgCO2 m−2 day−1) at 300 mA cm−2, >99.5% capture efficiency, >90% faradaic efficiency, and energy consumption as low as 87 kJ molCO2−1 (1.98 GJ tCO2−1). The process is tolerant to sulfur dioxide (SO2), maintaining ∼85% NaHCO3 conversion for >240 h with 1.0% SO2 in the feed. Using pure water as the catholyte enables direct production of high-purity NaHCO3, enhancing operational flexibility. Techno-economic analysis indicates capture costs with US$90.3 per tCO2 when co-located with a desalination facility and low-cost electricity, while considering the revenues from products NaHCO3, H2 and Cl2 can further improve the economics. This multifunctional, impurity-resistant, and renewable-compatible approach offers a practical, scalable pathway for industrial CO2 capture and mineralization.No Full Tex
Mismatch Between Antecubital Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Insertion and Contrast CT Use in the Emergency Department: A Retrospective Analysis
No full textBackground: Antecubital fossa (ACF) placement of peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) is generally not recommended due to higher infection and device failure risk. However, ACF placement is common and justified in emergency departments (EDs) if injection of contrast for computed tomography (CT) is anticipated. However, it is unknown how successful ED staff are at correctly predicting contrast-enhanced CT need. Aim: To determine the prevalence of ACF PIVC insertions in EDs, their association with contrast-enhanced CT use, and key patient and clinical predictors of contrast administration. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in a metropolitan ED in Australia. Out of 1196 patients, 447 patients were eligible and included in the data analysis. The primary outcome was the proportion of ACF PIVCs linked to subsequent contrast-enhanced CT. Secondary analyses explored demographic and clinical predictors of contrast-enhanced imaging. Results: Overall, 80% of PIVCs were inserted in the ACF. However, only 27% of patients subsequently underwent contrast-enhanced CT, indicating that approximately 73% of ACF insertions were potentially avoidable. Multivariate analysis revealed that female patients (OR = 0.599, p = 0.044), and gastrointestinal (OR = 3.397, p = 0.002) or neurological conditions (OR = 5.101, p < 0.001) had significantly higher odds of receiving contrast-enhanced CT. Conclusion: This study identifies a clear discrepancy between clinical guidelines and actual practice. Many ACF insertions appear to be based on incorrect assumptions rather than confirmed clinical need. The findings highlight the need for more targeted, evidence-based decision-making in EDs.No Full Tex
Smartphone sharing with intimate partners in Australia: Characteristics and implications for cybersecurity
Full text linkThis article reports findings from the first study to investigate smartphone sharing in intimate relationships in Australia. Efforts to strengthen cybersecurity have been hindered by a lack of knowledge about the prevalence and dynamics of smartphone sharing, resulting in blind spots in cybersecurity design and policy. Based on a survey of 967 Australian adults who use smartphones and have been in an intimate relationship, we found that 70% share access to their mobile phones with their intimate partners. This high rate of shared access indicates that one-user, one-device threat models are inadequate for promoting cybersecurity in realistic use conditions. Such models are particularly ill-suited to intimate relationship contexts where the parties are more likely to share devices than not. Our findings provide previously unavailable baseline information about mainstream smartphone-sharing practices. This evidence can be used to improve privacy protections for telecommunications users in Australia and elsewhere.Full Tex