Sustainable buildings that encourage sustainable behaviour

This paper represents the ongoing study of theory and practice in relation to the development of sustainable buildings and the embedding of sustainable features to optimise their potential for teaching and learning about sustainability. It is hoped this will lead not only to a raising of awareness of the impact of buildings on the natural environment but to enable people to positively change their behaviours in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability in and around their own built environments. The primary focus of the research is on the design, construction and use of the Twickenham River Centre as a leading example of sustainable design with environmental education at its heart

Marching to their own drum : British Army officers as military commandants in the Australian colonies and New Zealand 1870-1901

Between 1870 and 1901, seventeen officers from the British army were appointed by the governments of the Australian colonies and New Zealand as commanders of their colonial military forces. There has been considerable speculation about the roles of these officers as imperial agents, developing colonial forces as a wartime reserve to imperial forces, but little in depth research. This thesis examines the role of the imperial commandants with an embryonic system of imperial defence and their contribution to the development of the colonial military forces. It is therefore a topic in British imperial history as much as Australian and New Zealand military history. British officers were appointed by colonial governments to overcome a shortfall in professional military expertise but increasingly came to be viewed by successive British administrations as a means of fulfilling an imperial defence agenda. The commandants as men-on-the-spot , however, viewed themselves as independent reformers and got offside with both the imperial and colonial governments. This fact reveals that the commandants occupied a difficult position between the aspirations of London and the reality of the colonies. They certainly brought an imperial perspective to their commands and looked forward to the colonies playing a role on the imperial stage but generally did so in terms of a personal agenda rather than one set by London. This assessment is best demonstrated in the commandants independent stance at the outset of the South African War. The practice of appointing British commandants in Australasia was fraught with problems because of an inherent conflict in the goals of the commandants and their colonial governments. It resembles the Canadian experience of the British officers which reveals that the system of imperials military appointments as a whole was flawed. The problem remained that until a sufficient number of colonial officers had the prerequisite professional expertise for high command there was no alternative. The commandants were therefore the beginning rather than the end of a traditional reliance upon British military expertise. The lasting legacy of the commandants for the military forces of Australia and New Zealand was the development of colonial officers, transference of British military traditions, and the encouragement of a colonial military identity premised on the expectation of future participation in defence of the empire. The study provides a major revision to the existing historiography of imperial officers in the colonies, one which concludes that far from being imperial agents they were largely marching to their own drum

The one day of the year : ANZAC day in Aotearoa/New Zealand 1946-1990

Every year on 25 April New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day. The day is set aside to remember the nation's war dead. This thesis examines the observance of Anzac Day from 1946 to 1990 and argues that as New Zealand's most important day of commemoration it unlocks the changing social and cultural system of which it was a part. The thesis primarily examines Anzac Day historically although an anthropological 'examination is also undertaken by deconstructing Anzac Day 1955. This deconstruction reveals not one but two rituals. The public ritual expressed sorrow and pride. It was provided with meaning by the public mythology of war. On the other hand, the ritual of ex-service personnel was primarily concerned with a renewal of their wartime culture and provided meaning by shared experiences of the reality of war. The two rituals were thus opposed although they continually overlapped during the day and shared its central axiom - remembrance. Anzac Day also expressed a national mythology of New Zealand as a harmonious and egalitarian nation. A close reading of the day's observance, however, discloses the limitations of that mythology and the reality of social and cultural divisions. The proximity of the Second World War losses made Anzac Day 1946 a holy day. The passage of time ameliorated the nation's grief so that by the late 1950s Anzac Day was just a holiday for many New Zealanders. This development led to the statutory introduction of the half-day observance in 1966. During the late 1960s and early 1970s Anzac Day became the centre of controversy as anti-Vietnam War protesters challenged the meaning of the day. This same generation and their children returned to Anzac Day services during the 1980s and in the process revived the day. Anzac Day now provided an opportunity for New Zealanders to commemorate their new sense of national identity and their feelings about war and peace. By 1990, Anzac Day was a holiday for New Zealanders but it also continued to be their most important national day - "the one day of the year". Anzac Day is also important to the historian because it provides a reading of the New Zealand way of life and how it has changed since the Second World War. The changing observance of Anzac Day from a holy day to a holiday between 1946 and 1990 revealed the wider secularisation of New Zealand society. This thesis further concludes that Anzac Day does not provide evidence for the existence of a New Zealand civil religion. New Zealanders also became less militaristic and war less central to their sense of national identity. They also became less imperialistic and more overtly nationalist in an independent and indigenous sense. Anzac Day expressed these changes. The day's observance also reflected changes in social relations (between men and women, Maori and Pakeha, Protestant and Catholic) and particularly the declining numbers and influence of ex-service personnel. Above all, this study of Anzac Day provides an insight into how New Zealanders slowly emerged from the shadow of war

Minimizing Black Bear Problems at New York State Public Campgrounds

The black bear\u27s omnivorous foraging behavior has been both beneficial and detrimental to its coexistence with modern humans. The ability to feed on a variety of animal and vegetable matter, alive or dead, has been advantageous to the black bear\u27s survival as its range has diminished. Although black bears have an innate aversion to people, many have learned to tolerate humans to acquire easily obtainable high energy concentrated artificial foods. Human carelessness in the storage and disposal of foods within or near bear habit at has resulted in conflicts between campers and wild bears. Forest Preserve public campgrounds create a unique situation by concentrating people and food in remote forested environments frequented by black bears. The failure to effectively deal with this situation resulted in chronic bear-human problems at approximately one-third of New York\u27s Forest Preserve public campgrounds. In addition to loss of food, some people suffered property damage and a few sustained physical injuries. Alleviation of bear nuisance activity typically included attempts to capture and relocate bothersome bears. The high cost and ultimate failure of this approach led to the destruction of many bears while little long-term improvement was achieved

Restless Spirit, Resolute Conviction: The Life and Times of Joseph ‘Ivo’ Evison

At first glance, Joseph Evison's life was a confusion of convictions and contradictions, played out in the pages of the many newspapers he edited and wrote for in New Zealand and Australia. A late nineteenth-century Freethinker, he would go on to edit a Catholic newspaper, just as he would readily criticise the British Empire, in spite of serving in its army and navy. Despite his obvious intricacies, historians have not been kind to Evison, reducing him to a mere one line curiosity, implying that he shifted causes to follow the money or because he was a simple contrarian at heart. However, Evison's unsettled nature means a study of his life and ideologies adds to a number of other histories including those of Freethought, Catholicism, conservatism, colonial settlers, empire, transmission of ideas, reader culture and biographical studies. This thesis therefore attempts to chronicle Evison's life, before arguing that his changing causes was down to deep-seated secularist and libertarian convictions, which left him always fighting for what he perceived as the underdog, against both the state and the Protestant majority. To do so, it not only studies his writing, which remains vibrant and engaging even today, but also his editing style at various newspapers and his speeches during a short-lived political career

An experimental study into the effect of the pilot injection timing on the performance and emissions of a high-speed common-rail dual-fuel engine

Dual fuel technology has the potential to offer significant improvements in emissions of carbon dioxide from light-duty compression ignition engines. In these smaller capacity high speed engines, where the combustion event can be temporally shorter, the injection timing can have an important effect on the performance and emissions characteristics of the engine. This paper discusses the use of a 0.51-litre single-cylinder high speed direct injection diesel engine modified to achieve port directed gas injection. The effect of pilot diesel injection timing on dual fuel engine performance and emissions was investigated at engine speeds of 1500 and 2500 rpm and loads equivalent to 0.15, 0.3, 0.45 and 0.6 MPa gross indicated mean effective pressure, for a fixed gas substitution ratio (on an energy basis) of 50%. Furthermore, the effect of pilot injection quantity was investigated at a constant engine speed of 1500 rpm by completing a gaseous substitution sweep at the optimised injection timing for each load condition. The results identify the limits of single injection timing during dual fuel combustion and the gains in engine performance and stability that can be achieved through optimisation of the pilot injection timing. Furthermore, pilot injection timing and quantity were shown to have fundamental effects on the formation and emission of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and total hydrocarbons. The potential for dual fuel combustion to achieve significant reductions in specific CO2 was also highlighted, with reductions of up to 30% being achieved at full load compared to the baseline diesel case

The drag on a microcantilever oscillating near a wall

Motivated by devices such as the atomic force microscope, we compute the drag experienced by a cylindrical body of circular or rectangular cross-section oscillating at small amplitude near a plane wall. The body lies parallel to the wall and oscillates normally to it; the body is assumed to be long enough for the dominant flow to be two-dimensional. The flow is parameterized by a frequency parameter γ² (a Strouhal number) and the wall–body separation Δ (scaled on body radius). Numerical solutions of the unsteady Stokes equations obtained using finite-difference computations in bipolar coordinates (for circular cross-sections) and boundary-element computations (for rectangular cross-sections) are used to determine the drag on the body. Numerical results are validated and extended using asymptotic predictions (for circular cylinders) obtained at all extremes of (γ, Δ)-parameter space. Regions in parameter space for which the wall has a significant effect on drag are identified.R. J. Clarke, S. M. Cox, P. M. Williams and O. E. Jense

Joint action goals reduce visuomotor interference effects from a partner’s incongruent actions

Joint actions often require agents to track others’ actions while planning and executing physically incongruent actions of their own. Previous research has indicated that this can lead to visuomotor interference effects when it occurs outside of joint action. How is this avoided or overcome in joint actions? We hypothesized that when joint action partners represent their actions as interrelated components of a plan to bring about a joint action goal, each partner’s movements need not be represented in relation to distinct, incongruent proximal goals. Instead they can be represented in relation to a single proximal goal – especially if the movements are, or appear to be, mechanically linked to a more distal joint action goal. To test this, we implemented a paradigm in which participants produced finger movements that were either congruent or incongruent with those of a virtual partner, and either with or without a joint action goal (the joint flipping of a switch, which turned on two light bulbs). Our findings provide partial support for the hypothesis that visuomotor interference effects can be reduced when two physically incongruent actions are represented as mechanically interdependent contributions to a joint action goal

Event Rates, Hospital Utilization, and Costs Associated with Major Complications of Diabetes: A Multicountry Comparative Analysis

Philip Clarke and colleagues examined patient-level data for over 11,000 participants with type 2 diabetes from 20 countries and find that major complications of diabetes significantly increased hospital use and costs across settings

Energy dependence of {\rm K}S0^0_{\rm S} and hyperon production at CERN SPS

Recent results on K$^0_{\rm S}$ and hyperon production in Pb-Pb collisions at 40 and 158 $A$ GeV/$c$ beam momentum from the NA57 experiment at CERN SPS are presented. Yields and ratios are compared with those measured by the NA49 experiment, where available. The centrality dependence of the yields and a comparison with the higher collision energy data from RHIC are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of QM2004 conferenc