The Educational Green: Researching Ways of Combining Professions

The Educational Green was an innovative 3rd year design studio held in 2007 in the faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. The studio both informed and was informed by the authors’ involvement in a Research Council (RC) grant (ongoing 2007-2010). It involved collaboration between university staff and students, a teacher educator and staff and students at a local secondary school as a case study and the studio leader wished to experiment with her teaching, evaluate it and respond to her evaluation immediately. Keywords: School Design; Environmentally Responsible; Sustainability</p

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Active Noise Cancellation: Analog Circuit

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is a technology used in many commercial and professional products, one of which are ANC headphones that provide a listener with the comfort of attenuation of ambient noise. ANC is possible due to the wave interference phenomenon and is implemented using a combination of analog circuitry and digital algorithms in commercial headphones. The aim of this project was to explore the possibility of successfully implementing ANC using only analog circuitry. This project concludes that it is possible to implement Active Noise Cancellation using analog circuitry, but such implementation introduces a trade-off between which frequencies one desires to cancel the most. This project also touches on the importance of using a microphone in the ANC circuit that can pick up the noise from a distance and does not introduce much electrical noise to the signal. The circuit that includes a microphone and a pre-amplifier provided 1-4 dB of cancellation in the 80-200 Hz frequency range, little to no cancellation in the 200-500 Hz frequency range, and some noise amplification in the 500-1000 Hz range. The waveform generator fed circuit without a microphone provided over 5 dB of noise cancellation in the 80-120 Hz range, with the highest being 14 dB at 100 Hz. It also provided over 3 dB of noise cancellation in the 120-800 Hz range with some outlying frequencies, and some ambient noise amplification in the 800-1000 Hz range. The results show the possibility of implementing ANC using analog circuitry only, however they also show the trade-offs introduced from the decision to use analog circutry only

Position of low-cost banks on the financial market in the Czech Republic

In addition to insurance companies, pension funds, cooperative banks, investment companies, investment and share funds, and leasing companies, banks represent the most important segment of the financial sector with a stake of nearly 80% of total assets. The balance sum of the banking sector of the Czech Republic amounted to 5,476 billion CZK as of 1.3.2015. Innovative, low-cost players have become the latest trend on the banking market, presenting an alternative to traditional banking. They enforce a business mode of retail banking based on an internet platform. This paper defines and evaluates their activities compared to transnational companies in terms of business success and clients´ perception.peer-reviewe

Lynch syndrome: still not a familiar picture

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Germ line mutations in mismatch repair genes underlie Lynch syndrome and predispose carriers for colorectal carcinoma and malignancies in many other organ systems. Case presentation: A large Lynch syndrome family with 15 affected family members and involvement in 7 organs is reported. It illustrates a lack of awareness and knowledge about this hereditary tumor syndrome among doctors as well as patients. None of the described family members underwent presymptomatic screening on the basis of the family history. Conclusion: Hereditary features, like young age at diagnosis, multiple tumors in multiple organs and a positive family history, should lead to timely referral of suspected cases for genetic counseling and diagnostics. For Lynch syndrome, these features can be found in the Amsterdam and Bethesda criteria. Subsequently, early identification of mutation carriers might have diminished, at least in part, the high and early morbidity and mortality observed in this family. Background Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is an important cause of cancer-relate

Sustainability in production: Exploring eco-creativity within the parameters of conventional theatre

Contemporary ecological concerns bring with them an opportunity for innovation; to rethink traditional practices and forge new approaches that not only strive for sustainability, but also push intellectual and creative boundaries. Despite this, current notions of sustainability are still dominated by suppositions of creative limitations; the perception that sustainability and theatre do not mix is a common assumption. This paper explores the possibilities of sustainable production practices within the parameters of conventional theatre. Using a practice-led research project, Helicopter (Melbourne Theatre Company, 2012), the investigation examines the designer’s journey of integrating creative processes with eco-efficiency, aesthetics, organisational considerations and director’s expectations. In this context, the designer considers how sustainable strategies might drive the creative process and aesthetics, given altered constraints, requirements and opportunities. While there are challenges and barriers to implementing sustainable approaches in conventional theatre productions, the paper reveals how thinking about environmental considerations creates exciting new avenues for exploration—including new ways of thinking about how scenographies are designed, constructed and distributed for a sustainable paradigm

Possible roles for environmental Life Cycle Assessment in building specifications

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic methodology for evaluating the envi­ronmental impacts of different product systems. It is a useful tool for comparing different alternative products or systems (including buildings. However, complex­ities of the built environment and limitations in current LCA data and methodol­ogy make implementation of LCA into decision making for building design and specification, very difficult. Streamlined LCA techniques and life cycle thinking are currently the easiest ways to introduce LCA to the building sector. However, in the future, with new developments in LCA. more rigorous tools should become available

Correction of the Claim for Microfinance Market of 1.5 Billion Clients

Since the beginnings of modern microfinance in the 70s, the industry continued to grow rapidly, albeit fueled by dubious assumptions related to market potential. Boosted by Nobel Prize award, thousands of new MFIs are currently being created in the lure of market potential, estimated at one and half billion of unattended clients. The estimates, however, differ drastically and there is no wide scale assessment available deducing the unattainable market strata, detrimental to sustainable microfinance, from the inflated estimates. The exaggerations are to be denoted as unrealistic and excluded from the global estimates. This study intends to quantify the market wrongly assumed to form part of the microfinance market and to deduce the real size of the potential global microfinance sector, appraising the size of the market that should not be counted into the integral demand, since it is unsustainable or harmful to the players involved

Analytical model to study a new design concept for providing comfort in hot arid climate

A special design of clothing based on ‘sombrero-effect’ by inclined wedge providing shadow on the base material has been proposed and investigated analytically in this study to improve the thermo-physiological comfort under dry and hot environment. The design involves small strips of opaque surface on the base fabric of the outerwear to provide tiny shadows at an inclination. The analysis of the heat and mass transfer in the proposed design enables numerical prediction of cooling heat flow at skin surface level. The predicted values are then compared with experimental data by simulating the conditions using a vertical skin model. The effects of certain material properties, particularly the colour of fabric and type of fibre have been studied and the role of the important design parameter, such as ‘shade angle’ or the angle of inclined strips has been investigated experimentally. It is observed that the analytical framework of heat and mass transfer in such a system is able to give useful results

Verbetering van de positie van vrouwen in de Europese Gemeenschap

Affairs in the field of equal treatment of women and men in the European Community