Is the social agenda driving sustainable property development in Melbourne, Australia?

Purpose &ndash; Sustainable property development has increased in market share over the past two to three years globally and locally. This research aims to analyze the drivers and barriers to sustainable property development in Melbourne using the triple bottom line (TBL) theoretical framework. The TBL posits that sustainability has social, economic and environmental aspects to fulfil. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; A questionnaire was sent out to 190 developers in Melbourne who promoted sustainable property development to ascertain their views about the drivers and barriers. Findings &ndash; This research indicates that in the 2007 Melbourne market the drivers were social rather than economic. The data reveal that social reasons are considered more than economic arguments for incorporating sustainability into developments. The business case, or the economic drivers for sustainability alone do not convince developers. Research limitations/implications &ndash; The questionnaire survey informed us about developers\u27 views but not why they have these views. The sample was limited to Melbourne. Practical implications &ndash; More developments are required for developers to become convinced of the benefits. The relatively low price of energy undermines the business case for sustainability in property here and needs to be fully costed. Originality/value &ndash; This paper illustrates that whilst the theoretical framework cites three key areas for sustainability, the reality is that developers are currently driven by social and environmental factors primarily and the business case is not accepted by the majority of developers.<br /

Pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa Cina dalam menggalakkan interaksi pelajar berbilang kaum

Kebanyakan pelajar yang mempelajari bahasa Cina sebagai bahasa kedua di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam Malaysia adalah kaum Melayu, diikuti oleh kaum India dan bumiputera lain (Lau, Ng & Lee, 2011). Didapati bahawa pelajar-pelajar yang berlainan etnik jarang berinteraksi antara satu sama lain. Justeru, penyelidikan ini dijalankan untuk mengkaji kaedah-kaedah pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa Cina sebagai bahasa kedua yang membolehkan interaksi antara pelajar-pelajar yang berlainan etnik di universiti awam tempatan. Soal selidik diedarkan kepada pelajar-pelajar bukan Cina yang mempelajari bahasa Cina di lima buah universiti awam Malaysia. Tujuannya adalah untuk mengenal pasti cara-cara pembelajaran yang membolehkan mereka berinteraksi dengan pelajar-pelajar etnik lain dalam proses mempelajari bahasa Cina. Selain itu, 10 orang pensyarah dan guru bahasa Cina di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam juga ditemu bual untuk mengenal pasti cara pengajaran dan penilaian yang digunakan untuk menggalakkan interaksi antara pelajar-pelajar berlainan etnik. Maklum balas responden dianalisis dengan menggunakan kaedah kuantitatif. Didapati bahawa kaedah penilaian kursus seperti meminta pelajar bukan Cina merakamkan perbualan mereka dengan pelajar Cina serta kaedah ujian lisan yang melibatkan pelajar yang berlainan etnik kerap digunakan untuk mewujudkan interaksi. Selain itu, aktiviti main peranan, permainan bahasa, tugasan kumpulan, sistem pembimbing-dibimbing dan juga aktiviti-aktiviti di luar kelas juga membolehkan pelbagai etnik berinteraksi antara satu sama lain

Exploring rural secondary school students' attitude toward the Malayan tapir through salient beliefs

Environmental education programmes in Malaysia have been successful in increasing students' knowledge but not so in changing attitudes. To design educational programmes that changes attitudes, we need to understand the underlying determinant of attitude. The purpose of the study was to explore and elicit rural secondary school students' attitudes towards the Malayan tapir through their salient beliefs. Focusing on the cognitive and affective components of the attitude model, eighty-one secondary school students were asked to elucidate what they knew about the Malayan tapir through pictorial stimulation in focus group discussion. Students were observed to be intrigued by the physical characteristics of the Malayan tapir but knew little about its ecological function, natural habitat and threats while displaying positive and negative emotions in reaction to the pictures. Future research implications include the designing of an environmental education programme based on the observations of this study and measuring the effectiveness of the programme in influencing behaviour

Janus monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides.

Structural symmetry-breaking plays a crucial role in determining the electronic band structures of two-dimensional materials. Tremendous efforts have been devoted to breaking the in-plane symmetry of graphene with electric fields on AB-stacked bilayers or stacked van der Waals heterostructures. In contrast, transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers are semiconductors with intrinsic in-plane asymmetry, leading to direct electronic bandgaps, distinctive optical properties and great potential in optoelectronics. Apart from their in-plane inversion asymmetry, an additional degree of freedom allowing spin manipulation can be induced by breaking the out-of-plane mirror symmetry with external electric fields or, as theoretically proposed, with an asymmetric out-of-plane structural configuration. Here, we report a synthetic strategy to grow Janus monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides breaking the out-of-plane structural symmetry. In particular, based on a MoS2 monolayer, we fully replace the top-layer S with Se atoms. We confirm the Janus structure of MoSSe directly by means of scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and prove the existence of vertical dipoles by second harmonic generation and piezoresponse force microscopy measurements

Untangling the drivers of energy reduction in the UK productive sectors: Efficiency or offshoring?

The UK has been one of the few countries that has successfully decoupled final energy consumption from economic growth over the past 15 years. This study investigates the drivers of final energy consumption in the UK productive sectors between 1997 and 2013 using a decomposition analysis that incorporates two novel features. Firstly, it investigates to what extent changes in thermodynamic efficiency have contributed to overall changes in sectoral energy intensities. Secondly, it analyses how much of the structural change in the UK economy is driven by the offshoring of energy-intensive production overseas. The results show that energy intensity reductions are the strongest factor reducing energy consumption. However, only a third of the energy savings from energy intensity reductions can be attributed to reductions in thermodynamic efficiency with re- ductions in the exergy intensity of production making up the reminder. In addition the majority of energy savings from structural change are a result of offshoring, which constitutes the second biggest factor reducing energy consumption. In recent years the contributions of all decomposition factors have been declining with very little change in energy consumption after 2009. This suggests that a return to the strong reductions in energy consumption observed between 2001 and 2009 in the UK productive sectors should not be taken for granted. Given that further reductions in UK final energy consumption are needed to achieve global targets for climate change mitigation, additional policy interventions are needed. Such policies should adopt a holistic approach, taking into account all sectors in the UK economy as well as the relationship between the structural change in the UK and in the global supply chains delivering the goods and service for consumption and investment in the UK

Macroporous hydroxyapatite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications : physicochemical characterization and assessment of rat bone marrow stromal cell viability

In this work, a new methodology is reported for developing hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds using an organic sacrifice template. The novelty of work consists of possibility of obtaining porous and highly interconnected scaffolds mimicking the sacrificial component. Our purpose consisted of evaluating the physicochemical properties of the HA scaffolds by means of Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) attached with an Xray detector. The HA scaffolds obtained possess a porosity of !70%, and macropores diameter in the range of 50–600 lm. In contrast, results regarding the microcomputed tomography analysis have demonstrated both high pore uniformity and interconnectivity across the scaffolds. The compressive strength of the HA scaffolds was found to be 30.2 6 6.0 MPa. Bioactivity of the HA scaffolds was assessed by immersion into a simulated body fluid solution, in vitro. SEM observations have showed a deposition of apatite on the surface of the HA scaffolds, with a ‘‘cauliflower- like’’ morphology after 1 day, and tend to be more pronounced with the immersion time. The changes in calcium and phosphorus concentration were monitored by inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Cytotoxicity of the HA scaffolds was preliminarily investigated by carrying direct observation of mouse fibroblasts cells (L929 cell-line) death in the inverted microscope, and then cell viability was determined by means of carrying out a MTS assay. Complementarily, a luminescent cell viability assay based on the quantification of adenosine triphosphate was performed using rat bone marrow stromal cells (RBMSCs). A LIVE/DEAD assay and SEM analysis allowed the visualization of the RBMSCs adhesion and proliferation on the surface of the HA scaffolds. According to the results obtained from 3D architecture, mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and adhesion tests, it is suggested that HA scaffolds has potential to find applications in bone tissue engineering scaffolding.Contract grant sponsor: European NoE EXPERTISSUES; contract grant number: NMP3-CT-2004-50028

Lanthanum Oxyhalide Monolayers: An Exceptional Dielectric Companion to Two-Dimensional Semiconductors

Two-dimensional (2D) layered dielectrics offers a compelling route towards the design of next-generation ultimately compact nanoelectronics. Motivated by recent high-throughput computational prediction of LaO$X$ ($X$ = Br, Cl) as an exceptional 2D dielectrics that significantly outperforms HfO$_2$ even in the monolyaer limit, we investigate the interface properties between LaOX and the archetypal 2D semiconductors of monolayer transition metal dichacolgenides (TMDCs) $M$S$_2$ ($M$ = Mo, W) using first-principle density functional theory simulations. We show that LaO$X$ monolayers interacts weakly with $M$S$_2$ via van der Waals forces with negligible hybridization and interfacial charge transfer, thus conveniently preserving the electronic properties of 2D TMDCs upon contact formation. The conduction and valance band offsets of the interfaces exhibit a sizable value ranging from 0.7 to 1.4 eV, suggesting the capability of LaO$X$ as a gate dielectric materials. Based on Murphy-Good electron emission model, we demonstrate that LaOCl/MoS$_2$ is a versatile dielectric/semiconductor combinations that are compatible to both NMOS and PMOS applications with leakage current lower than $10^{-7}$ Acm$^{-2}$, while LaO$X$/WS$_2$ is generally compatible with PMOS application. The presence of an interfacial tunneling potential barrier at the van der Waals gap further provide an additional mechanism to suppress the leakage current. Our findings reveal the role LaO$X$ as an excellent dielectric companion to 2D TMDC and shall provide useful insights for leveraging the dielectric strength of LaO$X$ in the design of high-performance 2D nanodevices.Comment: 10 pages, 4 Figures, 3 Table

An alternating direction method for solving convex nonlinear semidefinite programming problems

An alternating direction method is proposed for solving convex semidefinite optimization problems. This method only computes several metric projections at each iteration. Convergence analysis is presented and numerical experiments in solving matrix completion problems are reported