Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play an increasingly significant role in the practice of sustainability. For HEIs in their early stages of sustainability, they are still in need of sustainable assessment tools (SATs) that are suitable for their local context and also lead international sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to develop a two-hierarchy sustainability assessment tool (THSus) for Chinese higher education institutions, including a quick analysis tool (QAT) and an in-depth benchmarking tool (IBT). The QAT provided a general overview of campus sustainability for HEIs to initiate initial actions and screen cases for the IBT. The IBT then provides more targeted analysis to plan long-term strategic changes. Based on the analysis of HEI cases, a 34-person Chinese research team was enlisted to discuss and select characteristics to formulate THSus. Indicators and weightings were developed according to the tool’s purpose and applied to 15 cases to test its effectiveness. Results showed that THSus is suitable for systematically analyzing campus issues, particularly in research areas. It offers a regional solution for Chinese campuses that is adaptable and considers the comprehensive core of sustainability.@en

Aggregate skeleton is the main load carrying part, which is important for the performance of asphalt mixture. Fine aggregate break the skeleton of coarse aggregate is defined as disruption. Based on the X-ray computed tomography and digital image process method, this paper aim to evaluate and verify the disruption in asphalt mixture, and then discuss the effect of disruption on the mesostructure and aggregate contact. Firstly, the aggregate classification and contact property calculation method are proposed. Based on the methods, the relation between disruption factor and contact property is analyzed. The results indicate that there is a strong linear trend between the distance of the main skeleton aggregate and disruption factor, and the disruption factor can well represent the expanding effect of disruption aggregate on the main skeleton aggregate. Additionally, higher disruption factor will leads to the decrease of the number of contact between the main skeleton aggregate and the increase of the contact number of the disruption aggregate. Further, if asphalt mixture has lower disruption factor, the internal contact between the main skeleton aggregates is closer.@en