Developing sustainable communities : the case for Port Phillip Heads historic towns, Sorrento and Queenscliff

The Victorian towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff are located either side of Port Phillip Heads. Using these towns as case studies, this paper examines what happens to historic coastal townships caught up in the phenomenon of sea change. Both towns are currently facing huge planning battles and are trying to argue a case for heritage in the rush for expansion and modernisation. Newcomers like to emulate the metropolis in the seaside towns. Planners in the metropolis are asked to make decisions by developers who are thwarted by local municipalities. These towns encapsulate something of the dilemma that comes with a demographic shift from the metropolitan centre to coastal townships and demonstrate that the transition from urban life and built environment does not translate without cost to a fragile coastal environment. It is place itself that has attracted humans to Sorrento and Queenscliff over centuries. The seascape, the landscape, the environment drew the indigenous peoples here centuries ago. It provided abundant food and was inspiring. Europeans came at the very beginning of the 19th century seeking new lands. By the late decades of the 19th century Europeans discovered the seaside and its health giving qualities and built substantial Victorian edifices to house the influx of visitors and holiday-makers who arrived by ferry. However, not until the second half of the twentieth century did development begin to intrude significantly on the landscape. And by the twenty-first century evidence is mounting that development is destroying the sense and character of place, which initially enticed people to come here.<br /

The suburbanisation of the coastal communities of Sorrento and Queenscliff : measuring the effects of overdevelopment.

Architecture is often read as a marker of change. The Victorian towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff are undergoing immense change as a result of rapid modernisation and building due to the &lsquo;sea-change&rsquo; phenomenon. It has been argued that this is adversely affecting place, diminishing &lsquo;sense of place&rsquo;, destroying neighbourhood character and leading to unsustainable development. Planning strategies such as Melbourne 2030 have exacerbated this trend by advocating increasing population densities without regard to specific local environmental or historical conditions. Richard Neville comments generally that &lsquo;Architecture is a lightning rod for passions about community, development, taste and lifestyle. Few issues engage and enrage people more than development &ndash; whether a prominent public site &hellip; or a more local issue such as housing design or density.&rsquo; Anecdotally the increase in building footprint is one measure of cultural lifestyle change that has occurred in the last half century in the coastal areas of the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. While the change from the 1950s &lsquo;fibro shack&rsquo; to the 2000s supersize &lsquo;McMansion&rsquo; in Sorrento and Queenscliff demonstrates increasing prosperity and sophistication, these developments show little awareness of the local coastal landscape or place identity. If the impacts of this &lsquo;sea change&rsquo; phenomenon on place are to be considered as more than anecdotal, ways of evaluating these impacts are required. Monitoring and documenting the impact of changes to place will enable the researchers to quantify overdevelopment as site specific and recommend that modern planning schemes need to value and address place differently.<br /

A tale of two Victorian historic coastal towns : dilemmas of planning and conservation in Queenscliff and Sorrento

Change has engulfed the coastal fringe of Australia. In balancing the built and natural environment, community needs, cultural significance and economic sustainability, planners aim to improve quality of life and create vibrant communities. Yet managing place change, particularly in coastal areas, is fraught with tensions. Most planning discussions about the rapidity of change, the impact of the Sea Change process and increased development have focused upon the extensiveness of residential expansion and the housing styles that challenge the essence of the character of these coastal towns. Character and sense of place qualities are the very reasons that sea changers desire to engage with and reside within these communities. One aspect missing from this discussion and analysis is the impact that large-scale transformations of iconic buildings are having upon these places. This paper examines the consequences that major commercial development projects have upon the communities of Sorrento and Queenscliff. It considers changes (proposed or realised) to four landmark historic hotels: The Koonya and Continental in Sorrento; and the Ozone and Vue Grand in Queenscliff. This paper focuses on issues of planning, social engagement and community debate

Value-change and self-reflective practice in ecologically sustainable design

Ecologically sustainable design is a transformative design paradigm based on the theory of interdependence. This theory requires that the transformative agenda of design is holistic in practice. In effect, the requirement is for value-change on the part of the designer along with transformation of the built environment. This paper, based on recently completed research into design practice, argues that value-change rests on certainties that are drawn on intuitively while designing, and that this intuitive process is characteristic of design as praxis. It is further argued that design, as praxis, requires a phenomenological approach for inculcating value-change. A phenomenological approach relies on self-reflective practices exemplified by meditation and yoga that can focus on the designer&rsquo;s ethical know-how. A model for this approach to value-change, the biopsychosocial approach, already exists within clinical medicine. This paper presents findings from interviews with key architects practising self-reflection and/or ecologically sustainable design. These highlight the premium placed by these architects on both certainty and empathy, and how these values influence design as praxis. Formalising techniques for closer scrutiny of these values will highlight design as praxis. Doing so will critically strengthen ecologically sustainable design as holistic, transformative practice.<br /

Architecture, ethics and sustainability - an exploration

Globally we are grappling with the concept of sustainability. What does it mean and how should we respond to ensure that the planet and its ecosystems survive? While the problem of living in a sustainable way must be addressed by all sectors of society, architects are arguably in the \u27front line\u27 because of the impact of buildings in terms of resource use and waste generation. Most definitions of sustainability are unhelpful because of their wordiness, lack of detail or ambiguity. Others distort the concept of sustainability to allow business-as-usual (i.e. unsustainable) activity to continue. Using one particular model of sustainability, this paper explores the apparent contradictions between architectural practice in the residential sector, \u27sustainable\u27 housing and the desire to behave ethically. The paper begins with definitions of sustainability and ethics, together with some guiding principles. The literature examining the ethics of sustainable architecture is then reviewed. Two indicators are suggested to make a broad-brush assessment of sustainability. Current practice in Australian residential architectural design, both mainstream and \u27green\u27, is then critiqued against these indicators. Finally, some practical options for a practising architect faced with a client, who wants an \u27unsustainable\u27 house, are briefly explored.<br /

Criterion-Based Grading, Agile Goal Setting, and Course (Un)Completion Strategies

Peer reviewe

Periodontitis and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.

Periodontitis is common in the elderly and may become more common in Alzheimer's disease because of a reduced ability to take care of oral hygiene as the disease progresses. Elevated antibodies to periodontal bacteria are associated with an increased systemic pro-inflammatory state. Elsewhere raised serum pro-inflammatory cytokines have been associated with an increased rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. We hypothesized that periodontitis would be associated with increased dementia severity and a more rapid cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. We aimed to determine if periodontitis in Alzheimer's disease is associated with both increased dementia severity and cognitive decline, and an increased systemic pro inflammatory state. In a six month observational cohort study 60 community dwelling participants with mild to moderate Alzheimer's Disease were cognitively assessed and a blood sample taken for systemic inflammatory markers. Dental health was assessed by a dental hygienist, blind to cognitive outcomes. All assessments were repeated at six months. The presence of periodontitis at baseline was not related to baseline cognitive state but was associated with a six fold increase in the rate of cognitive decline as assessed by the ADAS-cog over a six month follow up period. Periodontitis at baseline was associated with a relative increase in the pro-inflammatory state over the six month follow up period. Our data showed that periodontitis is associated with an increase in cognitive decline in Alzheimer's Disease, independent to baseline cognitive state, which may be mediated through effects on systemic inflammation

A Motif Unique to the Human Dead-Box Protein DDX3 Is Important for Nucleic Acid Binding, ATP Hydrolysis, RNA/DNA Unwinding and HIV-1 Replication

DEAD-box proteins are enzymes endowed with nucleic acid-dependent ATPase, RNA translocase and unwinding activities. The human DEAD-box protein DDX3 has been shown to play important roles in tumor proliferation and viral infections. In particular, DDX3 has been identified as an essential cofactor for HIV-1 replication. Here we characterized a set of DDX3 mutants biochemically with respect to nucleic acid binding, ATPase and helicase activity. In particular, we addressed the functional role of a unique insertion between motifs I and Ia of DDX3 and provide evidence for its implication in nucleic acid binding and HIV-1 replication. We show that human DDX3 lacking this domain binds HIV-1 RNA with lower affinity. Furthermore, a specific peptide ligand for this insertion selected by phage display interferes with HIV-1 replication after transduction into HelaP4 cells. Besides broadening our understanding of the structure-function relationships of this important protein, our results identify a specific domain of DDX3 which may be suited as target for antiviral drugs designed to inhibit cellular cofactors for HIV-1 replication

Timing and Nature of the Deepening of the Tasmanian Gateway

Tectonic changes that produced a deep Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica are widely invoked as the major mechanism for Antarctic cryosphere growth and Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) development during the Eocene/Oligocene (E/O) transition (∼34–33 Ma). Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 189 recovered near-continuous marine sedimentary records across the E/O transition interval at four sites around Tasmania. These records are largely barren of calcareous microfossils but contain a rich record of siliceous- and organic-walled marine microfossils. In this study we integrate micropaleontological, sedimentological, geochemical, and paleomagnetic data from Site 1172 (East Tasman Plateau) to identify four distinct phases (A–D) in the E/O Tasmanian Gateway deepening that are correlative among ODP Leg 189 sites. Phase A, prior to ∼35.5 Ma: minor initial deepening characterized by a shallow marine prodeltaic setting with initial condensation episodes. Phase B, ∼35.5–33.5 Ma: increased deepening marked by the onset of major glauconitic deposition and inception of energetic bottom-water currents. Phase C, ∼33.5–30.2 Ma: further deepening to bathyal depths, with episodic erosion by increasingly energetic bottom-water currents. Phase D, \u3c30.2 Ma: establishment of stable, open-ocean, warm-temperate, oligotrophic settings characterized by siliceous-carbonate ooze deposition. Our combined evidence indicates that this early Oligocene Tasmanian Gateway deepening initially produced an eastward flow of relatively warm surface waters from the Australo-Antarctic Gulf into the southwestern Pacific Ocean. This “proto-Leeuwin” current fundamentally differs from previous regional reconstructions of eastward flowing cool water (e.g., a “proto-ACC”) during the early Oligocene and thereby represents an important new constraint for reconstructing regional- to global-scale dynamics for this major global change event

Migration Patterns, Use of Stopover Areas, and Austral Summer Movements of Swainson\u27s Hawks

From 1995 to 1998, we tracked movements of adult Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni), using satellite telemetry to characterize migration, important stopover areas, and movements in the austral summer. We tagged 46 hawks from July to September on their nesting grounds in seven U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Swainson’s Hawks followed three basic routes south on a broad front, converged along the east coast of central Mexico, and followed a concentrated corridor to a communal area in central Argentina for the austral summer. North of 20°N, southward and northward tracks differed little for individuals from east of the continental divide but differed greatly (up to 1700 km) for individuals from west of the continental divide. Hawks left the breeding grounds mid-August to mid-October; departure dates did not differ by location, year, or sex. Southbound migration lasted 42 to 98 days, northbound migration 51 to 82 days. Southbound, 36% of the Swainson’s Hawks departed the nesting grounds nearly 3 weeks earlier than the other radio-marked hawks and made stopovers 9.0–26.0 days long in seven separate areas, mainly in the southern Great Plains, southern Arizona and New Mexico, and northcentral Mexico. The birds stayed in their nonbreeding range for 76 to 128 days. All used a core area in central Argentina within 23% of the 738 800-km2 austral summer range, where they frequently moved long distances (up to 1600 km). Conservation of Swainson’s Hawks must be an international effort that considers habitats used during nesting and non-nesting seasons, including migration stopovers