The study described in this thesis investigates how the implementation of raised floor system (RFS) for the fitout of office buildings can be promoted in the Australian construction industry. It essentially achieves this goal through justifying the RFS fitout advantages, improving industry practitioners' awareness of the innovative technology, and identifying the barriers hindering RFS application, and exploring integrated approaches to overcome these barriers. Due to increasing levels of technological, environmental and organizational changes in office buildings, the traditional office building fitout method cannot deliver flexible services economically and in a timely manner. RFS is highlighted for its superior underfloor distribution technologies and ability to promote healthy workplace environments and organizational flexibilities. Despite the many benefits RFS may bring, this innovative technology has not been widely used. Therefore, for countries with potential growth in the office building market, including Australia, how to make this state-of-the-art fitout technology more acceptable is of great importance. To encourage the RFS implementation in office buildings, the research set up five objectives: (1) to justify the RFS advantages for office building fitout compared with traditional fitout method; (2) to identify and present appropriate specifications of RFS products and applications in order to improve industry practitioners' awareness on RFS fitout; (3) to identify and seek potential solutions to barriers hindering RFS fitout implementation; (4) to integrate the barriers and their solutions into RFS project delivery using constructability study; and (5) to formulate guidelines for RFS fitout implementation in office buildings in the Australian construction industry. A comprehensive research methodology consisting of questionnaire, semi-structured interview, site observations, focus groups, life cycle cost (LCC) comparison, and constructability study was structured to support the exploratory research. With a combined qualitative and quantitative data analysis method, the questionnaire and interview surveys revealed the low level recognition of RFS within the industry, and identified 20 significant influence factors (SIFs) and 15 real problems associated with RFS fitout implementation. The site observations and focus groups validated the survey findings and justified the RFS fitout advantages. Then, the LCC comparison established a model and verified the LCC benefits of RFS fitout through a case study. The final discussion on the SIFs, real problems and their solutions uncovered 36 project level critical factors pertaining to RFS fitout design, construction, operation and maintenance. A constructability study was employed to integrate these key factors into RFS fitout project delivery, such as construction knowledge inputs, team skills, and RFS fitout programs. More importantly, five key issues with significant influences were revealed. Further investigation of these key issues led to a framework for the constructability implementation, a contracting strategy with nominated specialist contractors under CM/GC, and a process-based conceptual model for the selection of RFS products. Based on these findings, a set of guidelines for the RFS fitout implementation in office buildings was formulated as a contribution to practice. Questionnaires were again used to invite comments on the key issues and guidelines, and the results proved the validity of the research outcomes.

An important element in the building fire safety of high-rise buildings in Hong Kong since 1996 has been the use of refuge floors in the building's evacuation system. To prevent smoke collecting and remaining in the refuge floors, the Building Code of Hong Kong requires these floors to have openings on opposite sides to provide adequate wind-induced ventilation. Other researchers using CFD simulations without wind tunnel verification have indicated that under certain conditions smoke could still remain on these floors and thereby reducing the fire safety of the refuge floors. This thesis explores these situations and presents a detailed scientific investigation of the wind movement in and around a refuge floor at mid-height of a high-rise building using wind tunnel testing together with CFD simulations (using CFD CFX-5.6 package). Besides identifying problem areas for smoke logging, this thesis also identifies how the design of a refuge floor can be modified to improve its fire safety. A significant factor on the fire safety of a refuge floor is the blocking effect of the building's central core and its effect on the wind-induced ventilation. Under Hong Kong Building Code, the central core can occupy up to 50% of the refuge floor. Previous investigators did not take into consideration the effect of the maximum core size on natural ventilation of the refuge floor. This thesis investigates the worst case scenario for a refuge floor that has a core occupying 50% of the floor and has two solid walls on opposite side of the floor to identify the problem areas where smoke could collect and remain. In exploring the worst case scenario with two parallel solid walls, the investigations revealed that the ceiling height and the wind direction have a significant effect on the wind ventilation of the refuge floor. These factors were not identified by previous investigators. In the case of the ceiling height, it was found that the head height of the refuge floor should be greater than 0.02 times the building height to achieve the desirable wind environment on the refuge floor. Regarding wind directions, the wind from most angles escapes the floor via the channel-like corridors next to the central core of the building. The main problem area occurred when the wind was perpendicular to the solid side walls. This resulted in noticeable stagnant areas where smoke could remain. To validate the CFD method used in the thesis, wind tunnel experiments were performed to provide the scientific field velocity data of wind flowing over the building and in the refuge floor located at mid-height of the building. Earlier researchers of the refuge floor did not have access to wind tunnel data of a refuge floor. In comparing the wind tunnel experiments with the CFD simulations used in the thesis, acceptable agreement was achieved. These results make it possible for a significant reduction in the CFD computational effort that previous studies required. Based on the findings of the investigations undertaken, design recommendations are proposed to improve the fire safety of the refuge floor in multistorey buildings in Hong Kong.

The analytic component of the thesis approaches major questions in Cultural Studies, Philosophy and Social Theory through an investigation of various forms of creative practice. I approach the question of agency, for instance, through a study of stage actors, who must recite set lines, and yet feel empowered precisely by the opportunity to act through them. Investigation of the author's own work as a poet and novelist serves to cast light upon ideology, ie. how one might use a constrained language and yet feel empowered to speak new things through it. I apply these investigations to Althusser, whose famous essay on the total power of ideological interpellation is permeated with theatrical metaphor. I suggest that Althusser is repressing the creative component of everyday life, something social theory has ever found hard to theorise. I proceed to suggest that the place where such processes are analysed is in the philosophy of science. The work of Charles Saunders Peirce on the experimental method is, my investigation uncovers, surprisingly geared toward the investigation of creativity. In science one has a method for, and an extensive literature on, discovering new phenomena. My thesis is that the experimental method of modern scientists, and the creative method of modern writers, both geared toward the production of things that are at once new and true, is largely the same. I use Peircean semiotics to argue that creative composition is about listening to the languages spoken all round you, and transcribing their objective contours. So as to have effect on others. Which is just like science. And in both instances we are endlessly spoken through at every moment by the myriad languages which interpellate us. Whence creativity (for those who are open to it). My three portfolio pieces are: Cube Root of Book: a series of one hundred and thirty two poems set at intervals along the descending spiral of a Fibonacci number sequence. The 14th Floor, an Hypothesis, an experimental novel, written quite literally as an experiment; i.e. having written the novel, I then wrote up a prac-report detailing what I had learnt about the performance of writing, including the above. Unaustralia, a Study of Heads, an attempt to show the relevance of these findings to Cultural Studies and other related practices. It centres on my new reading of Althusser, and is flanked by mini-ethnographies of creative practice, including the above. The poetry is presented as a major new creative work. The experimental novel/ book of philosophy as a substantial contribution to knowledge.

The pelvic floor muscles (PFM) form the base of the abdominal canister, and like the other muscle groups around the canister, the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, they contribute to and are affected by pressures within the canister. But they also have a role in organ support and continence. In urinary incontinence, clinical rehabilitation has targeted the PFM in isolation. It aims to build up strength and endurance of these muscles, but without consideration of the influence of intra-abdominal pressure, and therefore the co-ordination of muscles that generate that pressure, on PFM activity. Strengthening of the PFM has not resolved incontinence for all women, and the benefits are not sustained in the long term. Thus consideration of factors beyond the pelvic floor (PF) may lead to better outcomes for rehabilitation in both the short and long term. Thus these studies aimed to investigate the influences of abdominal muscle activity and spinal posture on the recruitment of the PFM. The studies firstly investigated the association between the abdominal and PFM during voluntary tasks. Further studies examined the effect of automatic recruitment of the PFM and the abdominal muscles with postural disturbances and changes in spinal posture, and whether there was a difference in recruitment between layers of the PFM complex during function. Electromyographic (EMG) studies, using fine wire and/or surface electrodes, were performed to record patterns of muscle activity, while, in selected studies, this was accompanied by pressures recorded within the stomach, urethra, bladder, vagina, anus and rectum, to monitor the effects of the striated muscle activity on intra-abdominal pressure and urethral function. When the PFM were voluntarily contracted in healthy women, there was a co-ordinated response in all the abdominal muscles, which varied with the position of the lumbar spine. Conversely, when the lower abdominal muscles were drawn in towards the spine there was an increase in IAP, urethral pressure and PFM EMG activity. Relaxation of the abdominal muscles and bulging of the relaxed abdominal wall decreased PFM activity and urethral pressure below their resting baselines. Thus, voluntary activation of the abdominal or PFM influences activity in the other muscle group. Other studies investigated the automatic responses of abdominal and PFM during breathing, postural perturbation, sitting and coughing. Quiet breathing was associated with modulation of PFM EMG with greater activity during expiration than inspiration, in association with variations in abdominal muscle activity. Hypercapnoea accentuated these results. Postural perturbations generated co-activation of the PF and abdominal muscles before the onset of deltoid activity with sustained activity through out repeated arm movements. Changes in spinal posture also affected PFM activity. Like the abdominal muscles, PFM were less active when sitting in a slumped position. Similar changes occurred in women with stress urinary incontinence but with lower pelvic floor muscle activity levels. Women with stress urinary incontinence also had less lordosis of the lumbar spine in upright sitting and a trend for greater superficial abdominal muscle activity than continent women. Activity of the superficial, but not deep, PFM during coughing, was affected by different sitting postures, with greater activity during coughing in slumped than in upright postures. Different breathing patterns and changes in posture also affected IAP and abdominal muscle recruitment patterns during coughing. Investigation of PFM activity during functional tasks indicates that factors beyond the PF influence its activity. The findings from these studies indicate that PFM activity is inter-related with spinal posture and abdominal muscle activity. While most of these studies were conducted in healthy women, there are a number of different types of PF problems in women, in which the mechanics of the dysfunction differ from stress urinary incontinence. PFM activity has not been investigated in all types of PF dysfunction. The findings of co-ordinated recruitment of the abdominal and PFM and the effect of spinal posture on PFM function provide some evidence that PFM rehabilitation should not be undertaken in isolation, and that there is a likely advantage from exercising with a neutral lumbar spine. There is a need for further investigation of this co-ordinated muscle recruitment in subjects with different types of dysfunction, not just stress urinary incontinence. Findings from such investigations could then point the way forward to improved rehabilitation methods for people with problems, and more suitable methods of maintaining pelvic floor health.

Licentiatavhandling (sammanfattning) Skara : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2005. / Härtill 2 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Botany, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geology, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-129).