Opposite nonlinear effects of unemployment and sentiment on male and female suicide rates: Evidence from Australia.

We investigate gender differences in the effects of unemployment and sentiment on suicide rates. Using monthly Australian data, we find a positive relationship between the unemployment rate and the suicide rate, and a negative relationship between consumer sentiment and the suicide rate. However, there is strong evidence of nonlinearity in the effects of both unemployment and sentiment on suicide rates, with substantial gender differences. For men, an increase in the unemployment rate increases the suicide rate, but an unemployment decrease has no effect; we find the opposite for women. For men, an increase in sentiment has stronger effects on the suicide rate than a decrease in sentiment. Again, we observe the opposite effect for women. Among sentiment components, forward-looking expectations are stronger predictors of suicide rates than present conditions. Sentiment has a much stronger effect on male suicide rates than on female suicide rates

Exploration of Current Builders’ Capacities to Deliver Zero Energy Buildings in China

To strengthen the global fight against climate change, China pledges to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. As one of the major energy consumption sectors in China, the building industry’s role in CO2 emission reductions is critical to the successful pursuit of the carbon neutrality goal. The concept of zero energy buildings (ZEBs) has gained increasing attention in China due to its effective efforts on energy saving and emission reduction. The objectives of this research are to investigate current builders’ capacities for delivering ZEBs in China, to explore the differences in design and construction capacities of conventional and ZEB builders in China, and to assess the potentials of boosting Chinese builders' capacities for delivering ZEBs in the future. The research methods embrace several steps. Firstly, a checklist was developed based on the literature review to assess Chinese builders’ capacities to deliver ZEBs. Secondly, relationships between different checklist questions were analyzed using association rule in software SPSS modeler. Thirdly, builders were clustered using TwoStep Cluster Analysis in software SPSS modeler. The findings of this research suggest that most Chinese builders, even ZEB builders have insufficient ZEB design and construction knowledge. ZEB demonstration projects are mainly developed in cooperation with foreign professional institutions. Moreover, conventional builders are less competitive than ZEB builders in passive design capacity, energy efficient building design capacity, renewable energy generation capacity and research capacity, which are the key skills that conventional builders are supposed to improve. Furthermore, one-third of conventional builders have NZEBs or ULEBs production experience. They have acquired related ZEB delivery capacities and they are the most likely ZEB builders in the future

ZEMCH International Research 2020

ZEMCH is the acronym of “Zero Energy Mass Custom Home” and this research network was established with the aim of encouraging the active participation of academic researchers, , policy makers, and industry stakeholders, tackling issues arising in the delivery of socially, economically, environmentally and humanly sustainable built environments in developed and developing countries. Essentially, homes need to be designed and operated in such a way that helps to secure or improve physical and mental health and wellbeing of the occupants with diverse socio-economic backgrounds and cultural differences. Moreover, housing is also a complex system of energy and environment. Subsequently, energy use in buildings tends to generate negative impacts on environmental consequences and, thus, it cannot be undermined. Gradually, house-builders and housing manufacturers are becoming more aware of, and responsive to, the necessity for delivering zero energy/emission mass custom homes (i.e., ZEMCH) that contribute to alleviating the negative environmental impacts of climate change, while accommodating individual needs and demands of housing. This Special Issue is titled “ZEMCH International Research 2020”, reflecting the outcomes of the ZEMCH International Conference 2019, and aims to address innovative developments, state-of-the-art technologies and ideas in areas related to design, production and marketing issuessurrounding the ZEMCH delivery and operation around the globe. Selected authors from the ZEMCH 2019 conference are invited to submit their adapted papers to this Special Issue. Moreover, we also encourage researchers who were unable to participate in the 2019 conference to submit their research outcomes to this edition, which will be fully peer-reviewed, with the view to further selection and publication

Indoor Air Quality Vulnerability Mapping of Urban Dwellings in Bangladesh

Unwanted summer, extreme heat waves and air pollution have created severe human health and well-being issues. For instance, in Bangladesh, these phenomena have been noticed, particularly between March to July. As opposed to the norm, the dwellings' indoor air quality (IAQ) tends to be unacceptable, resulting in a severe impact on human health. Current research identified that the number of heatstroke patients increases every year in the tropical region where the children and elderly are being affected severely. Besides the IAQ issue, local housing is responsible for the relatively high energy use through space cooling in the tropical region for ensuring indoor thermal comfort and air quality. IAQ enhancement in line with energy efficiency measures through passive design strategies is becoming a significant challenge in the housing sector. Thus, this study investigates the IAQ-related issues around typical urban apartment dwellings in Bangladesh's major cities as case studies. The transient data to monitor the levels of TVOC (mg/m3), PM2.5 (μg/m3), PM10 (μg/m3), HCHO (mg/m3), air temperature (oC) as well as relative humidity (%) were collected using environmental data loggers. At the same time, a questionnaire survey related to occupants' socio-demographic profile, health and well-being was also conducted to grasp their living conditions. Finally, in line with the data analysis, a parametric simulation was conducted to develop a correlational vulnerability mapping between the collated IAQ results and the occupants' health and well-being circumstances

An analysis of the Labour, Financial and Social Impact of Covid-19 in Young Adults’ Lives

This research report examines the labour, financial and material impact of COVID-19 on members of cohort 2 (aged 33) of the Life Patterns program. It does so by drawing on data from a 2021 survey question related to the impact of COVID-19. This open-ended question asked the participants to consider the impact of COVID-19 in terms of their work, income, and ability to pay living expenses. The survey was completed by 470 participants, and 71 percent wrote a response to this question. Of the total cohort, almost a third decided not to respond to this open-ended question (29%), a third (31%) mentioned being negatively impacted by the crisis, another third (30%) stated no impact, and 10 percent commented that COVID-19 had impacted them positively (mostly through their ability to save money, although a small number also commented on the benefits of working from home, including having their partner helping in the house and with their children)

Towards Equitable Access to Public Health Pathogen Genomics in the Western Pacific.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest and understanding of the utility of pathogen genomics across the Western Pacific region. Access to genomic data enhances surveillance and response to COVID-19, and will also support surveillance of other infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistant pathogens. Models of access can be determined based on intended purpose, use and sustainability. Achieving equitable access to genomics across the Western Pacific will contribute to the development of a regional public health genomics network to respond to major disease threats in the future

Exploration of Human-Centered Mass Customisation and Personalisation Potentials for Flood Shelter Evolution in Australia

Natural disasters have always plagued human life. Due to the global warming caused by frequent occurrence of floods, it has brought immeasurable impacts on politics, economy and human life. The relevant technology and development of post-disaster reconstruction and the physical and psychological humanitarian assistance to the disaster-affected population have been paid more and more attention by the governments and organizations of various countries. At present, with the development of science and technology, mass customisation has been widely used in the construction market. However, there is insufficient theoretical or practical research on post-flood mass customized reconstruction based on the needs and demands of the affected population and buildings. Therefore, this paper will focus on Australia's flood issues and to clarify the lack of “customisability” of today’s post-flood shelter to accommodate human needs and demands for health, well-being, inclusiveness and affordability and stress the mass customisation and personalisation potentials to the improvement. Furthermore, this paper will explore a research framework by introducing human-centered mass customization to post-flood housing design under the theoretical research of mass-customisation and occupants’ needs and demands. In detail, according to the study of post-flooding issues and current protecting shelter in Australia, a clear housing and occupants’ needs and demands could be quantified. Then, deducing a conceivable research framework to emphasize the relationship between human needs with theories of human-centered mass customisation and personalisation based on these advantages in post-disaster housing reconstruction

Evolutionary modeling reveals enhanced mutational flexibility of HCV subtype 1b compared with 1a.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of liver-associated disease and liver cancer. Of the major HCV subtypes, patients infected with subtype 1b have been associated with having a higher risk of developing chronic infection and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, underlying reasons for this increased disease severity remain unknown. Here, we provide an evolutionary rationale, based on a comparative study of fitness landscape and in-host evolutionary models of the E2 glycoprotein of HCV subtypes 1a and 1b. Our analysis demonstrates that a higher chronicity rate of 1b may be attributed to lower fitness constraints, enabling 1b viruses to more easily escape antibody responses. More generally, our results suggest that differences in evolutionary constraints between HCV subtypes may be an important factor in mediating distinct disease outcomes. Our analysis also identifies antibodies that appear escape-resistant against both subtypes 1a and 1b, providing directions for designing HCV vaccines having cross-subtype protection

Affordable Heating System Exploration for a Net Zero Energy Experimental Home in Melbourne, Australia

This research explores affordable heating for hydronic systems of a net zero energy experiment home built in Melbourne, Australia. For this research purpose, a 3m-wide 6m-long outbuilding is built next to a backyard garage. Inexpensive 12mm-dia poly tubes are spaced 100mm inside the 55mm-thick tiled concrete which rests on 100mmT (R2.5 m2·K/W) recycled cold-room panels laid on ground. This hydronic floor and ground is insulated from the outdoors by 400mm-deep 40mm-thick (R1 m2·K/W) polystyrene. Simulations show that heating this hydronic floor by a vertical ground heat exchanger with 17°C bottom temperature, together with a hydronic wall radiator heated by 30 evacuated tubes and a 2-cubic meter thermal storage, the indoors could reach the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) respective night and day heating thermostats of 15°C and 20°C across winter. This assumes that the indoor had been at NatHERS temperatures for 5-6 years for the temperature at the bottom surface of the floor to stabilize. Since this warmup period has not been met, the results in this paper show the temperatures with water heated by a sawdust/wood burner. An experiment was also conducted with a compost pile. Two months after its initial 1-month exothermic phase, the temperature at the center was still 32°C. Thus, compost piles will be located outside external walls to help keep the perimeter of the floor warm. To obtain affordable hot water for the indoors to reach 20°C, a 6m-long 750mm-wide flat-belt collector was boxed up and covered with glass. In late autumn, it could only heat water by only 1-2°C and was thus not used in winter. However, by late spring, the empty poly belt had melted, indicating that, the temperature under the glass had reached above 50°C. Typical meteorological year data shows that the solar radiation has tripled that in autumn. Therefore, for future winter experiments, the weak solar radiation would be concentrated, by say, a north-facing parabolic trough with an aperture three times the area of a glazed metallic collector

Life Cycle Energy Analysis of a House in UAE

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) about 70% of total energy produced is consumed by building sector, and this compares with the global average of about 40%. Energy usage in buildings has often been discussed from the standpoint of operational energy, mainly used for purposes of heating or cooling. In recent times the discussion on building energy consumption has also raised the need for investigating the energy embodied in the construction of buildings and manufacturing of their constituent materials and components. This reorientation of energy consciousness in the construction industry is of critical importance in efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of the built environment. In United Arab Emirates, significant efforts have been made in recent times to reduce the operational energy consumption; however, embodied energy consumption is nearly unaddressed. The challenge this paper addresses is the need to review not only the operational (OPE) energy of a building but also its initial (IEE) and recurrent embodied energy (REE). The aim of this paper, therefore, is to calculate the energy consumption of a residential building over its life in UAE, and to identify the significance of embodied energy. A case study residential building in the UAE was selected as a representative example of government-built homes for UAE citizens for the purpose of this investigation. Using an input-output hybrid approach to calculate the energy required at the time of its construction and REE value calculated over a period of 50 years, the study compares the IEE, OPE and REE for the case study to extrapolate comparative data. Results from this study suggest the importance of including the initial and recurrent embodied energy of buildings in building life cycle energy analyses, which in this case represented 18% and 17% of the life cycle energy of the building. The anticipated merit of this study to building professionals is an appreciation and holistic consideration of the life cycle embodied energy of building design towards promoting a reduction in total building energy consumption