A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment for Utilising Laminated Veneer Bamboo as a Primary Structural Material in High-Rise Residential Buildings

In a time when construction is ranked as one of the world’s least sustainable industries consuming about half of the world’s non-renewable resources (Hinson, 2012), it is important to develop and advance the methods and means by which we select and use building materials and how we design, engineer and construct our architecture. This research aimed to evaluate a method for utilising laminated veneer bamboo (LVB) as a primary structural material in high-rise residential buildings and evaluate the environmental potential of LVB through a comparative life cycle analysis (LCA). The process of life cycle analysis was completed through the development of a Revit® model and utilising the Tally® life cycle assessment application. A comparative LCA, in particular the global warming potential between laminated veneer bamboo and cross laminated timber, was conducted using a case study model of Stadthaus, Murray Grove, London. This 9-story residential building is constructed using cross laminated timber (CLT) as the primary building material and provides a highly appropriate comparison for this research on the selection of laminated veneer bamboo as an alternative structural material to CLT. The structural aspect of this study aimed to evaluate the mechanical properties of a laminated veneer bamboo sheet product. The capabilities of LVB were reviewed by means of a comparative analysis against timber sheet products (OSB, Plywood). By utilising the strength of engineered bamboo efficiently, a diaphragm panel system was designed and tested as part of the LCA study as an alternative to the CLT panels that were used in the construction of Stadthaus at Murray Grove, London. The literature review and primary research present the environmental value of selecting bamboo as an alternative building material to steel, concrete and engineered timber, three of the most widely used primary structural materials in building projects today. These primary building materials, in particular concrete and steel, are energy intensive in their production1 and application and have a high global warming potential when compared to ‘green’ construction materials, for instance, timber and bamboo. The hypothesis is that engineered bamboo, through its potential to be efficiently designed for use in small and large scale buildings, has the potential to be an alternative, environmentally friendly, primary structural material. Bamboo is, based on its properties, an underutilised resource. Ongoing research and previous studies in Europe and Asia (Chung & Yu, 2002; Li, Zhang, Huang, & Deeks, 2013; C.S. Verma & Chariar, 2012) have shown that engineered bamboo can match the strengths of steel and in some cases far exceed those of engineered timber products. These studies show that there is a potential to utilise engineered bamboo for use as a primary structural material

An exploration of the relationship between transformational leadership, employee engagement, and individual performance with the design and validation of a questionnaire

Leadership is an important performance impacting factor that all organizations need to consider. It is a concept that has developed well beyond the era of "The Great Man" theory that implies that certain individuals are born leaders and that others are not. From an academic research perspective, leadership is a complex and multi-dimensional area of study. It is a key element and driving force in the science of management. It is complex in that it affects every area of life, and it is therefore difficult to apply a universal definition or ideal description of what a good leader is. Leadership is multi-dimensional in that it has different forms and interacts with multiple other management related themes. This research provides evidence that transformational leadership is an approach that management professionals should apply in current times with regards to increasing individual performance. As well as the review of existing literature, this research provides empirical evidence of the positive impact that transformational leadership has on individual performance by creating a space in which individuals can engage themselves and become more performant, resulting in greater overall organizational performance. The literature review section will discuss the relevance of these three themes within a management context, as well as present evidence of their relationship to each other. The primary goal of this study was to design and validate an instrument that is capable of measuring the impact that transformational leadership has on individual performance by determining the degree to which it interacts with employee engagement and their subsequent effect of this interaction on individual performance. The primary data that was collected was subjected to a statistical analysis process that proved reliability and validity.A liderança é um fator importante de impacto de desempenho que todas as organizações precisam de considerar. É um conceito que se desenvolveu muito para além da era da teoria do "Grande Homem" que implica que certos indivíduos nascem líderes e que outros não. Do ponto de vista da investigação académica, a liderança é um complexo e multidimensional sãoum estudo. É um elemento-chave e força motriz na ciência da gestão. É complexo na forma como afeta todas as áreas da vida, pelo que é difícil aplicar uma definição universal ou uma descrição ideal do que é um bom líder. Por exemplo, pode-se concordar que uma equipa de futebol exigirá um tipo de líder autocrático que toma todas as decisões e fornece direções claras e precisas aos seguidores ou subordinados. No entanto, esta mesma abordagem não é adequada numa estrutura organizacional social, como uma instituição financeira ou uma empresa privada familiar, onde é necessária uma abordagem mais democrática e inclusiva devido à natureza da indústria e do sector. Um tipo ideal de liderança também pode depender de outros elementos, como a cultura ou a localização geográfica. Esta escola de pensamento também pode ser aplicada a outras indústrias e critérios demográficos e não é específica das anteriormente mencionadas. A liderança é multidimensional na qual tem diferentes formas e interage com vários outros temas relacionados com a gestão. Esta investigação fornece provas de que a liderança transformadora é uma abordagem que os profissionais de gestão devem aplicar nos tempos atuais no que diz respeito ao aumento do desempenho individual. Além da revisão da literatura existente, esta investigação fornece provas empíricas do impacto positivo que a liderança transformadora tem no desempenho individual, criando um espaço em que os indivíduos podem envolver-se e tornar-se mais performantes, resultando num maior desempenho organizacional global. A secção de revisão literária discutirá a relevância destes três temas num contexto de gestão, bem como a evidência presente da sua relação entre si. O objetivo primordial deste estudo foi conceber e validar um instrumento capaz de medir o impacto que a liderança transformadora tem no desempenho individual, determinando o grau em que interage com o envolvimento dos colaboradores e o seu efeito subsequente desta interação no desempenho individual. Houve também um processo de teste de meditação realizado que procurou determinar o papel do envolvimento na relação. A revisão literária explorou e desenvolveu a noção de que a liderança transformadora influencia positivamente o envolvimento e que os colaboradores mais empenhados têm um melhor desempenho. Para apoiar este objetivo, foram realizados testes de correlação e mediação. O procedimento para os testes de mediação baseou-se num modelo simples de mediação com uma variável mediadora. A razão para a realização de um processo de testes de mediação foi contribuir para uma maior perceção da forma como a liderança transformadora afeta o desempenho individual. O quadro para a investigação foi desenvolvido num contexto de desempenho organizacional. A lógica por trás deste raciocínio é que a soma do desempenho individual de uma organização irá afetar muito o desempenho global da organização. Os dados primários recolhidos foram submetidos a um processo de análise estatística que provou fiabilidade evalidade. A revisão da literatura, dos artigos académicos e dos estudos anteriores estrutura-se de uma forma que apresenta um caminho lógico para a compreensão da relação dos temas discutidos, discutindo primeiro a liderança transformadora e como impacta elementos de envolvimento. A natureza intangível e a falta de um consenso universal sobre o que constitui exatamente o empenhamento dificulta a quantificação. Deve aplicar-se um certo raciocínio lógico ao apresentar argumentos relacionados com o envolvimento. A análise discute a natureza do compromisso e procura fornecer provas que liguem um maior envolvimento ao aumento do desempenho. Finalmente, o desempenho individual é apresentado como um motor chave do sucesso organizacional. Um fator importante para as organizações considerarem é como medem o envolvimento e como traduzir os resultados da medição em passos acruiscos que irão, de facto, aumentar o desempenho individual em toda a organização. O desenho do questionário e a inclusão dos 24 itens foram desenvolvidos com base na investigação literária académica. Embora o senso comum implique que um colaborador mais motivado tem o potencial de se tornar mais empenhado e ter um desempenho melhor do que aquele que está menos empenhado, por exemplo, a natureza científica deste estudo de investigação quantitativa exige uma justificação para cada argumento ou discussão que é apresentado O mesmo se aplica à conceção do instrumento de medição. A este respeito, há uma secção do capítulo de revisão da literatura que se dedica a justificar a inclusão dos artigos no questionário. Os dados recolhidos após a distribuição do questionário foram analisados utilizando procedimentos de análise e teste comprovados e credíveis. Os resultados da análise apoiam as noções acima mencionadas que são apresentadas graficamente no quadro conceptualizado, fornecendo evidências empíricas que estabelecem o envolvimento como uma variável mediadora entre a liderança transformacional e o desempenho individual. Além disso, os testes estatísticos efetuados no questionário revelaram-no fiável e proporcionaram uma validação construtiva. A investigação apresentada a seguir pode apresentar limitações e isso é discutido para que os futuros investigadores possam usá-la ao mesmo tempo que compreendem os seus pontos fortes e fracos. É particularmente importante reconhecer as limitações de investigação ao conceber um instrumento de forma a avaliá-lo e adaptá-lo de modo a melhorar a sua utilização como uma ferramenta de medição credível. Esta investigação não procurou fornecer uma resposta ou solução exaustiva no que diz respeito às relações exploradas, nem para agir como um manual para os gestores melhorarem o desempenho individual dos subordinados. A natureza e o âmbito complexos do tema, bem como um ambiente em constante mudança, requerem pesquisas contínuas que possam contribuir para colmatar lacunas existentes no que diz respeito à compreensão da liderança transformacional e à forma como interage com outras variáveis relacionadas com a gestão chave. Os resultados apresentados a seguir podem não só ajudar os futuros investigadores, fornecendo-lhes uma plataforma desde o whish até elaborar o conceito apresentado, mas o instrumento ou partes do instrumento podem ser do interesse da gestão e dos profissionais de recursos humanos, ou organização que deseje melhorar o desempenho individual dos seus membros e fornecer uma visão imparcial da sua cultura de liderança. O que esta investigação estabelece e a seguir presente é o impacto que a liderança transformadora tem empenhamento e o impacto subsequente destas duas variáveis no desempenho individual

Stillorgan QBC Dwell Time Analysis

on the Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor (QBC), a key arterial bus corridor accessing Dublin city centre from its suburbs. The focus of the study was to understand the pattern of dwell-time on the corridor and to identify potential areas, if any, where service levels may be enhanced. The study should provide a beneficial and detailed observation of in-journey bus operations. This in turn can help to understand the impact of ticketing, boarding/alighting and other aspects of journey dwell within a high-level of service bus corridor. The Stillorgan QBC, between Foxrock Church and Leeson Street Bridge, comprises of 28 bus stops, 32 signalised junctions and measures approximately 9km. There are 60 locations, exclusive of running-time delays, where there is the potential for dwell to occur. 21 inbound journey time surveys were carried out in the morning commuter peak period over 7 days between the hours of 07:00 and 10:00, with 3 surveys carried out every day, one in each hour. Approximately 1,200 passenger boardings and 900 alightings were recorded. Individual fare transaction times were also surveyed. Several key findings emerged from the study. Dwell at junctions accounts for 13% of total journey time, with boarding and alighting accounting for 23%. 59% of passengers surveyed alight at four individual stops, and 24% of those surveyed board at two individual stops. Journey times are very variable, with a difference of 23 minutes between shortest and longest journeys (a variance of 110%). This has improved considerably since the last QBC Monitoring Report in 2010 when variances of 259% were recorded. Pre-paid tickets are the most popular and fastest method of payment with 55% of those surveyed using this method. Pre-paid ticket users take on average 7 seconds to board. There is no time-saving for LEAP Card (e-purse) users, who take on average 10 seconds to board (being the same for cash payers). The findings present evidence to support the implementation of off-board ticket purchase and/or the removal of both cash and e-purse ticket transactions from services. Service planning improvements, such as the consolidation of stops, multi-door entry/exit systems and measures to improve performance at junctions, are also suggested

Controlling insect pests with bacterial genes.

Abstract available in text

An N-terminal Peptide Extension Results in Efficient Expression, but not Secretion, of a Synthetic Horseradish Peroxidase Gene in Transgenic Tobacco

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Native horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) peroxidase, HRP (EC 1.11.1.7), isoenzyme C is synthesized with N-terminal and C-terminal peptide extensions, believed to be associated with protein targeting. This study aimed to explore the specific functions of these extensions, and to generate transgenic plants with expression patterns suitable for exploring the role of peroxidase in plant development and defence. METHODS: Transgenic Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) plants expressing different versions of a synthetic horseradish peroxidase, HRP, isoenzyme C gene were constructed. The gene was engineered to include additional sequences coding for either the natural N-terminal or the C-terminal extension or both. These constructs were placed under the control of a constitutive promoter (CaMV-35S) or the tobacco RUBISCO-SSU light inducible promoter (SSU) and introduced into tobacco using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. To study the effects of the N- and C-terminal extensions, the localization of recombinant peroxidase was determined using biochemical and molecular techniques. KEY RESULTS: Transgenic tobacco plants can exhibit a ten-fold increase in peroxidase activity compared with wild-type tobacco levels, and the majority of this activity is located in the symplast. The N-terminal extension is essential for the production of high levels of recombinant protein, while the C-terminal extension has little effect. Differences in levels of enzyme activity and recombinant protein are reflected in transcript levels. CONCLUSIONS: There is no evidence to support either preferential secretion or vacuolar targeting of recombinant peroxidase in this heterologous expression system. This leads us to question the postulated targeting roles of these peptide extensions. The N-terminal extension is essential for high level expression and appears to influence transcript stability or translational efficiency. Plants have been generated with greatly elevated cytosolic peroxidase activity, and smaller increases in apoplastic activity. These will be valuable for exploring the role of these enzymes in stress amelioration and plant development

Magnetically driven dielectric and structural behavior in Bi0.5La0.5FeO3

The authors would like to thank the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship (FDM), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for a studentship (CMK), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council for access to neutron facilities.A detailed structural analysis of the antiferromagnetic (Gz-type) lanthanum doped bismuth ferrite - Bi0.5La0.5FeO3 (Pn′ma′) – using variable-temperature powder neutron diffraction is reported. The analysis highlights a structural link between changes in the relative dielectric permittivity and changes in the FeO6 octahedral tilt magnitudes, accompanied by a structural distortion of the octahedra with corresponding A-site displacement along the c-axis; this behavior is unusual due to an increasing in-phase tilt mode with increasing temperature. The anomalous orthorhombic distortion is driven by magnetostriction at the onset of antiferromagnetic ordering resulting in an Invar effect along the magnetic c-axis and anisotropic displacement of the A-site Bi3+ and La3+ along the a-axis.PostprintPeer reviewe

Thermal evolution of the crystal structure of the orthorhombic perovskite LaFeO3

CALD and CMK were supported by EPSRC DTA studentships (EP/L505079/1).The thermal evolution of the crystal structure of the prototypical orthorhombic perovskite LaFeO3 has been studied in detail by powder neutron diffraction in the temperature range 25<T<1285 K. A conventional bond length/bond angle analysis, combined with an analysis in terms of symmetry-adapted modes, allows key aspects of the thermal behavior to be understood. In particular, the largest-amplitude symmetry modes (viz. in-phase and out-of-phase octahedral tilts, and A-site cation displacements) are shown to display relatively ‘normal’ behavior, increasing with decreasing temperature, which contrasts with the anomalous behavior previously shown by the derivative Bi0.5La0.5FeO3. However, an unexpected behavior is seen in the nature of the intra-octahedral distortion, which is used to rationalize the unique occurrence of a temperature dependent crossover of the a and c unit cell metrics in this compound.PostprintPeer reviewe

Superexchange-mediated negative thermal expansion in Nd-doped BiFeO3

We thank the Science and Technology Facilities Council for access to the ISIS neutron facility (RB1210111). CMK would like to thank the EPSRC for provision of a studentship via the doctoral training grant (EP/K503162/1).A detailed powder neutron diffraction study of Bi0.7Nd0.3FeO3 shows it is a Gz-type antiferromagnet adopting the space group Pn′ma ́. Detailed structural analysis using both Rietveld and symmetry mode analysis indicates that competition between geometric effects and magnetic superexchange results in unusual evolution of octahedral tilting and structural distortion on cooling. These changes are manifested in both the electrical response, which displays relaxer-type behaviour, and also in a region of negative thermal expansion below 200 K.PostprintPeer reviewe

The individual and the system : Assessing the stability of the output of a semi-automatic forensic voice comparison system

Semi-automatic systems based on traditional linguistic-phonetic features are increasingly being used for forensic voice comparison (FVC) casework. In this paper, we examine the stability of the output of a semi-automatic system, based on the long-term formant distributions (LTFDs) of F1, F2, and F3, as the channel quality of the input recordings decreases. Cross-validated, calibrated GMM-UBM log likelihood-ratios (LLRs) were computed for 97 Standard Southern British English speakers under four conditions. In each condition the same speech material was used, but the technical properties of the recordings changed (high quality studio recording, landline telephone recording, high bit-rate GSM mobile telephone recording and low bit-rate GSM mobile telephone recording). Equal error rate (EER) and the log LR cost function (Cllr) were compared across conditions. System validity was found to decrease with poorer technical quality, with the largest differences in EER (21.66%) and Cllr (0.46) found between the studio and the low bit-rate GSM conditions. However, importantly, performance for individual speakers was affected differently by channel quality. Speakers that produced stronger evidence overall were found to be more variable. Mean F3 was also found to be a predictor of LLR variability, however no effects were found based on speakers’ voice quality profiles

Mapping across feature spaces in forensic voice comparison: the contribution of auditory-based voice quality to (semi-)automatic system testing

In forensic voice comparison, there is increasing focus on the integration of automatic and phonetic methods to improve the validity and reliability of voice evidence to the courts. In line with this, we present a comparison of long-term measures of the speech signal to assess the extent to which they capture complementary speaker-specific information. Likelihood ratio-based testing was conducted using MFCCs and (linear and Mel-weighted) long-term formant distributions (LTFDs). Fusing automatic and semi-automatic systems yielded limited improvement in performance over the baseline MFCC system, indicating that these measures capture essentially the same speaker-specific information. The output from the best performing system was used to evaluate the contribution of auditory-based analysis of supralaryngeal (filter) and laryngeal (source) voice quality in system testing. Results suggest that the problematic speakers for the (semi-)automatic system are, to some extent, predictable from their supralaryngeal voice quality profiles, with the least distinctive speakers producing the weakest evidence and most misclassifications. However, the misclassified pairs were still easily differentiated via auditory analysis. Laryngeal voice quality may thus be useful in resolving problematic pairs for (semi-)automatic systems, potentially improving their overall performance