http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12982 A broad class of optimization algorithms based on Bregman distances in Banach spaces is unified around the notion of Bregman monotonicity. A systematic investigation of this notion leads to a simplified analysis of numerous algorithms and to the development of a new class of parallel block-iterative surrogate Bregman projection schemes. Another key contribution is the introduction of a class of operators that is shown to be intrinsically tied to the notion of Bregman monotonicity and to include the operators commonly found in Bregman optimization methods. Special emphasis is placed on the viability of the algorithms and the importance of Legendre functions in this regard. Various applications are discussed. 2013-06-07T01:24:27.105Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12984 The aim of this paper is to characterize in terms of scalar quasiconvexity the vector-valued functions which are Κ-quasiconvex with respect to a closed convex cone Κ in a Banach space. Our main result extends a wellknown characterization of Κ-quasiconvexity by means of extreme directions of the polar cone of Κ, obtained by Dinh The Luc in the particular case when Κ is a polyhedral cone generated by exactly n linearly independent vectors in the Euclidean space ℝⁿ. 2013-06-04T23:45:17.234Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12983 The Bartle-Graves theorem extends the Banach open mapping principle to a family of linear and bounded mappings, thus showing that surjectivity of each member of the family is equivalent to the openness of the whole family. In this paper we place this theorem in the perspective of recent concepts and results, and present a general Bartle-Graves theorem for set-valued mappings. As applications, we obtain versions of this theorem for mappings defined by systems of inequalities, and for monotone variational inequalities. 2013-06-04T23:41:20.385Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12981 This article revisits the maximum entropy algorithm in the context of recovering the probability distribution of an asset from the prices of finitely many associated European call options via partially finite convex programming. We are able to provide an effective characterization of the constraint qualification under which the problem reduces to optimizing an explicit function in finitely many variables. We also prove that the value (or objective) function is lower semicontinuous on its domain. Reference is given to a website which exploits these ideas for the efficient computation of the maximum entropy solution (MES). 2013-06-04T23:02:56.979Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12854 Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2013-05-09T04:56:03.530Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10972 Thurston conjectured that a closed triangulated 3-manifold in which every edge has degree 5 or 6, and no two edges of degree 5 lie in a common 2-cell, has word-hyperbolic fundamental group. We establish Thurston's conjecture by proving that such a manifold admits a piecewise Euclidean metric of non-positive curvature and the universal cover contains no isometrically embedded flat planes. The proof involves a mixture of computer computation and techniques from small cancellation theory. 2013-05-07T03:40:57.881Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12808 Much has been written on shortest path problems with weight, or resource, constraints. However, relatively little of it has provided systematic computational comparisons for a representative selection of algorithms. Furthermore, there has been almost no work showing numerical performance of scaling algorithms, although worst-case complexity guarantees for these are well known, nor has the effectiveness of simple preprocessing techniques been fully demonstrated. Here, we provide a computational comparison of three scaling techniques and a standard label-setting method. We also describe preprocessing techniques which take full advantage of cost and upper-bound information that can be obtained from simple shortest path information. We show that integrating information obtained in preprocessing within the label-setting method can lead to very substantial improvements in both memory required and run time, in some cases, by orders of magnitude. Finally, we show how the performance of the label-setting method can be further improved by making use of all Lagrange multiplier information collected in a Lagrangean relaxation first step. 2013-04-26T01:02:35.275Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12788 Examination timetabling is a well-studied combinatorial optimization problem. We present a new hybrid algorithm for examination timetabling, consisting of three phases: a constraint programming phase to develop an initial solution, a simulated annealing phase to improve the quality of solution, and a hill climbing phase for further improvement. The examination timetabling problem at the University of Melbourne is introduced, and the hybrid method is proved to be superior to the current method employed by the University. Finally, the hybrid method is compared to established methods on the publicly available data sets, and found to perform well in comparison. 2013-04-19T04:13:32.388Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4039 The emerging paradigm for the delivery of courses and subjects in tertiary education is online. The Building programme in tne Scnool of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle is committed to the innovative delivery of constuction management education using integrated problem based learning and emerging technologies. The case study presented in this paper follows how a website was designed and integrated into a course. The survey of students showed that there was general acceptance of the concept. The case study ends by identifying key strengths and weaknesses of the website, how it has been modified to suit the new platform Blackboard and future directions. 2013-03-22T05:16:46.039Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4038 Problem-Based Learning (PBL) requires that the educational experience be student-cented and situated in a real-world context. Further, the motivation to learn is largely driven by the student's expectation and experience of assessment procedures. It is a challenge to design assessment processes that satisfy the simultaneous requirements of educational certification, quality assurance and problem realism, realistic outcomes whilst still encouraging creativity and deep leaning. This paper reports on a trial assessment strategy that seeks to address the challenge in a PBL context. 2013-03-22T05:15:15.598Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:887 By analyzing the quantization of audio signals as a deterministic finite-set constrained quadratic optimization problem, a new scheme, called moving-horizon optimal quantizer (MHOQ), is developed. The MHOQ includes a model of the ear's sensitivity to low-level noise power and minimizes directly the perceived error over a finite prediction horizon. Feedback is incorporated by means of the moving-horizon principle. With a prediction horizon equal to 1, the MHOQ reduces to the psychoacoustically optimal noise-shaping quantizer, widely used in practical applications. Larger prediction horizons outperform the noise shaper at the expense of only a small increase in computational complexity. 2013-03-17T23:53:39.953Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3528 In Objects of Desire: Design and Society 1750-1980, Adrian Forty notes that “organisations which extend over a large geographical area, perhaps across different countries and languages, have always had difficulties in maintaining their cohesion” (Forty, 1986, p. 223). An outside observer may assume that outlaw motorcycle groups from around the world are claiming exactly such cohesion through the recognisable similarities in the designs of their “colours” – the patches worn on the back of their leather jackets. Whilst all such groups wish to buy into a common worldview, the desire for (internal) demarcation is clearly also at stake. In the case of outlaw motorcycle club insignia, Forty’s principle of cohesion through design can be seen to be held in permanent tension by a basic tenet of fashion, as extrapolated by Georg Simmel in his well-known essay of 1904 – fashionable people will seek to change their look as soon as it is copied by other aspiring groups. In the world of fashion, it is the social elite (the aristocracy) that remains at the forefront of fashion. The leading outlaw motorcycle gangs do not change, however; their dominance is reflected in the design of their insignia, and it is this design that other groups wish to copy. Far from, changing to keep ahead, the elite group allows others only a limited access to its look. From an historical perspective the case of outlaw motorcycle club insignia lies at the intersection of various icons and artefacts of an intercultural nature: film and myth mix with American military heritage. This paper will seek to trace the roots of these infamous designs. 2013-03-11T00:50:33.979Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6478 This article deals with Dirichlet’s beta function. Using the recursion (37), we have verified numerically (up to n = 1000) that 16ⁿ ·un ∊ℤand d²₂n · 16ⁿ · vn ∊ℤ: this is more that one can get from Lemma 6, although it is not sufficient to prove the irrationality of Catalan’s constant. 2013-03-11T00:46:29.085Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12589 The paper explores the relevance of social enterprise to social work practice and policy development. Social enterprise refers to a broad set of approaches that use business acumen to address social goals. A marginal activity in social work for a long time, recently social enterprise has been thrust into the spotlight in debates about the future of social policy and community services. It is important that social workers understand the meaning and implications of social enterprise if they are to apply it critically and reflectively in practice and participate in contemporary debates about its relevance in promoting individual and community empowerment. The paper provides an overview of the meaning of social enterprise, outlines the reasons for the renewed focus on social enterprise and related concepts in social policy debates, particularly community economic development, and examines its underlying values. It concludes with a discussion of questions and concerns surrounding the implementation of social enterprise in Australia. 2013-03-06T03:30:05.714Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2712 In this paper we stress the importance of cross-cultural or inter-cultural dialogue within the indigenisation debate. To this end, we explore the notion of culture further and examine how we might begin to articulate particular cultures, such as Australian, African and North American culture. 2013-03-04T03:10:15.310Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12393 Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) 2013-02-27T03:50:05.725Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2793 When Hans Christian Andersen wrote 'The Little Match Girl' [1] he was not writing a product endorsement. Far from it. But we have been left with a glowing example of a product that was affective. The experience may have been fleeting, but the euphoric pleasure experienced by the girl was real. As we explore the notion of pleasure in the designed object we must not forget how much pleasure is context-driven. As designers, we must understand that context is not always in our control; that our designs, like our children, will live their own lives. Pleasure is found when the moment is right, when events align.This happens despite our planning and skill, or our analysis and rigour. The message of this paper, wrapped in the style of an Andersen story, looks at the relationship between two objects. One is desired, enjoyed, treasured, and the other an ordinary matchbox. Unwrap at your pleasure. 2013-02-27T01:50:11.509Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1392 2012-12-11T01:40:04.490Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1393 The relative roles of neural and pressure gradient factors, causing a fall or maintenance of bronchial blood flow in exercising sheep, are unknown. These were examined in sheep prepared under thiopentone/isoflurane general anaesthesia with a pulsed Doppler probe mounted on the bronchial artery, and aortic pressure (Pa) catheter in superficial cervical artery. After recovery, Swan-Ganz catheters were inserted under local anaesthesia into the pulmonary artery. Bronchial flow and conductance (Qbr, Cbr), and pressure gradients (Pg; i.e. aortic minus right atrial, Pg_RAP; pulmonary artery, Pg_Ppa; and, left atrial (wedge) Pg_LAP) were derived from continuous records, after switching between downstream sites during and after moderately severe treadmill exercise (3.8 km.h⁻¹, for 1.7 min, 6 min recovery). The protocol was repeated after combined α₁,α₂-adrenoceptor/cholinoceptor blockade using phentolamine methanesulfonate and methscopolamine bromide. Bronchial flow fell in both receptor intact (INT) and (BL) blocked state. Pa rose in INT, but downstream pressures rose only 3.7 (RAP), 2.8 (Ppa) and 2.0 (LAP) mmHg (P for each <0.05) in both INT and BL. Pg_RAP and Pg_Ppa did not rise, but Pg_LAP rose 4.0 mmHg (P < 0.05). In BL, Pa fell, as did Pg_RAP (7.0 mmHg, P < 0.05), Pg_Ppa (8.9 mmHg, P < 0.001), but Pg_LAP did not change. Thus, downstream pressures change by small amounts, and pressure gradients to RAP and Ppa sites do not change during moderately severe exercise in normal sheep. The fall in Qbr in INT is due to neural factors, but in BL is due to a fall in Pg. The relative rise in Pg_LAP in both INT and BL favours redistribution within total Qbr to the pulmonary capillary/vein/left atrium site. 2012-12-11T01:40:04.478Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1396 A distinction may be drawn between studies that define potential mechanisms of control, those that define components of control systems, and those that determine the priority of controls in the integrated system. It is the priority controls that determine survival in the environment. These different kinds of studies are necessary and complementary. In the case of the bronchial circulation, we continue with an era of defining potential mechanisms and component systems. These have been excellently reviewed by Godden (1990) and by Coleridge & Coleridge (1994). However, we have a long way to go before we establish priority neural controls in the integrated system. Cogent examples in the bronchial circulation might be the interaction at rest between neural controls and tonic NO released from vascular endothelium in determining basal autonomic tone. Another might be the autonomic controllers of bronchial resistance vessels reflexly evoked at the onset of exercise, and how these controls are modified by central temperature regulation as exercise continues. These kinds of data are necessary to understand evolutionary mechanisms that protect the organism from untoward environmental influence, and that point to support therapies for systems breakdown. 2012-12-11T01:40:02.462Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:12103 In any problem-solving task, it is crucial to construct the initial problem in a meaningful way, because it influences the discourse and the solutions that follow. We argue that labour underutilisation is the central problem facing Australia not only due to the lost GDP but also because it punishes individuals via income insecurity and other associated costs (such as ill-health, family breakdown). We construct this problem as a system failure due to ill-conceived and executed macroeconomic policy imposing on vulnerable individuals who are powerless to improve their outcomes. We define full employment in terms of providing sufficient spatially distributed jobs and hours of work to match the labour force preferences at current money wages. This is in sharp contrast to orthodoxy which depicts unemployment as individual failure, yet at the same time argues that the full employment unemployment rate needs to be high to control inflation. While the neo-liberal approach fails to deal with the systemic nature of the problem, progressives are divided on both the problem and its solution. For example, the Basic Income (BI) model advocates the introduction of a universal basic income payable to all citizens. Most BI proponents construct the income insecurity problem as a lack of income rather than a lack of jobs and so they cannot outline a viable path to full employment. By contrast, we propose a Job Guarantee (JG) as a direct response to unemployment. The JG thus addresses the principle cause of income insecurity by restoring the role of State as an employer of last resort. The JG has been criticised by other progressive economists who prefer a Keynesian expansion mediated by incomes policy and controlled investment. In this paper we argue that if one constructs unemployment as systemic failure within a fiat currency economy (a flexible exchange rate) and desires to achieve sustainable full employment, as defined above, with price stability and environmental sustainability, then a JG is essential, but this does not preclude a complementary Keynesian expansion. An (indiscriminate) Keynesian expansion in isolation is unlikely to lead to the employment of the most disadvantaged members of society and does not incorporate an explicit counter-inflation mechanism. 2012-11-22T04:55:55.799Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3917 In this paper we seek to extend the work of Mitchell and Carlson (2003) to develop a better understanding of the disparities in employment growth across regions which appear to account for the observed persistence in the disparities with respect to unemployment outcomes. There is very little research on this issue in Australia. The paper also seeks to determine whether the metropolitan areas have benefited from favourable industry locations relative to the "de-industrialised" regional areas. Using dynamic shift-share analysis (Arcelus, 1984; Barff and Knight, 1988) we decompose regional employment growth into a national growth component, an industry mix component and a regional growth component and examine industry level data by full-time and part-time employment to relate these shares to the observed employment growth differentials between the metropolitan and regional labour markets. We also examine the regional impact of the increasing significance of part-time work in overall employment creation in Australia by decomposing the employment dynamics into part-time and full-time components to explore the spatial disparities more closely. The research will assist in tracing the types of influences that public policy can have to reduce the negative consequences of the changing spatial employment structure. 2012-11-22T00:10:03.813Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11942 It is explained how the classical concept of well-poised hypergeometric series and integrals becomes crucial in studying arithmetic properties of the values of Riemann’s zeta function. By these well-poised means we obtain: (1) a permutation group for linear forms in 1 and ζ(4)=π 4 /90 yielding a conditional upper bound for the irrationality measure of ζ(4); (2) a second-order Apéry-like recursion for ζ(4) and some low-order recursions for linear forms in odd zeta values; (3) a rich permutation group for a family of certain Euler-type multiple integrals that generalize so-called Beukers’ integrals for ζ(2) and ζ(3). 2012-11-06T04:41:22.859Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6477 It is a classical fact that the elliptic modular function λ=(ϑ₁₀/ϑ₀₀)⁴ satisfies an algebraic differential equation of order 3 (this goes back to Jacobi’s Fundamenta nova), and none of lower order (cf. [Ra], [M]). In this paper, we show how these properties generalize to Siegel modular functions of arbitrary degree. 2012-11-06T01:40:04.472Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11935 In this paper we give analogues of the Ramanujan functions and nonlinear differential equations for them. Investigating a modular structure of solutions for nonlinear differential systems, we deduce new identities between the Ramanujan and hypergeometric functions. Another result of this paper is a solution of transcendence problems concerning nonlinear systems. 2012-11-05T22:48:44.063Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11934 Applying Zeilberger’s algorithm of creative telescoping to a family of certain very-well-poised hypergeometric series involving linear forms in Catalan’s constant with rational coefficients, we obtain a second-order difference equation for these forms and their coefficients. As a consequence we derive a new way of fast calculation of Catalan’s constant as well as a new continued-fraction expansion for it. Similar arguments are put forward to deduce a second-order difference equation and a new continued fraction for ζ(4) = π⁴/90. 2012-11-05T22:45:56.454Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11933 The survey is devoted to the multidimensional generalization of the Riemann zeta function as a function of positive integral argument. 2012-11-05T22:43:25.587Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11875 Neutral-position casting of the foot is used for the manufacture of functional foot orthoses, and an accurate cast is widely assumed to be a prerequisite for a good orthotic device. The primary aim of this study was to determine the variability of casting between inexperienced and experienced clinicians and the variability of one experienced clinician taking multiple casts. Ten inexperienced and ten experienced clinicians took a cast of the right foot of a single subject, and a single experienced clinician took ten casts of the same foot. The frontal plane forefoot-to-rearfoot relationship of each cast was determined, and no difference was found in the mean and variances among the three groups. The range of the forefoot-to-rearfoot relationship across all groups was from 10.0° everted to 6.5° inverted, indicating that there is a wide range in neutralposition casting of the foot. As outcome studies have reported the successful outcomes of functional foot orthoses, this wide variability may not necessarily be a problem. 2012-11-01T01:43:20.052Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11790 A fundamental challenge of implementing construction innovations is the planning and control of work. Most innovative projects do not fulfil their time and/or cost. Evaluation of innovation performance is not often simulated within existing innovation process models. Such an evaluation enables managers to accept new processes/products or iterate the implementation process to achieve satisfactory performance. This paper introduces a conceptual model that deals with the effectiveness of the innovation implementation phase. This model adopts the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) tool to simulate the iterated implementation of an innovation. The model uses influence information, and managerial and technological performance to control and simulate the implementation of innovations by their nature of experimentation, iteration and refinement. The paper presents a fuzzy logic approach to identify the required classification of interdependencies among iterated tasks within the DSM. Analysis of the model resulted in the implementation of innovations being programmed more effectively. 2012-10-22T06:47:31.071Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1843 It has been known for some time that real nonminimum phase zeros imply undershoot in the step response of linear systems. Bounds on such undershoot depend on the settling time demanded and the zero locations. In this note, we review such constraints for linear time invariant systems and provide new stronger bounds that consider simultaneously the effect of two real nonminimum phase zeros. Using the concept of zero dynamics, we extend these results to a class of nonlinear systems. 2012-10-08T00:00:07.608Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1842 The theory of fundamental design limitations is well understood for the case that the performance variable is measured for feedback. In the present paper, we extend the theory to systems for which the performance variable is not measured. We consider only the special case for which the performance and measured outputs and the control and exogenous inputs are all scalar signals. The results of the paper depend on the control architecture, specifically, on the location of the sensor relative to the performance output, and the actuator relative to the exogenous input. We show that there may exist a tradeoff between disturbance attenuation and stability robustness that is in addition to the tradeoffs that exist when the performance output is measured. We also develop a set of interpolation constraints that must be satisfied by the disturbance response at certain closed right half plane poles and zeros, and translate these constraints into generalizations of the Bode and Poisson sensitivity integrals. In the absence of problematic interpolation constraints we show that there exists a stabilizing control law that achieves arbitrarily small disturbance response. Depending on the system architecture, this control law will either be high gain feedback or a finite gain controller that depends explicitly on the plant model. We illustrate the results of this paper with the problem of active noise control in an acoustic duct. 2012-10-08T00:00:05.845Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:774 The purpose of the paper is to study the asymptotic properties (i.e., strong convergence and asymptotic convergence rate) of the subband identification method in every subband and in the overall method. The study of strong convergence aims to answer the question whether the "best possible" model is retrieved, on the limit, with probability one. The study of the asymptotic convergence rate aims to give an expression that quantifies how fast the model approaches the "best possible" value as the number of samples goes to infinity. To do this, we need to generalize existing results for fullband identification. In the process of doing so, we come up with a new notion of ergodicity, which we call strong ergodicity. Strongly ergodic signals not only satisfy the assumptions required for our analysis but also enjoy an interesting property, which is that strong ergodicity is invariant under a number of transformations. In particular, the subband components of a strongly ergodic signal are guaranteed to be strongly ergodic, therefore, ergodic, which is not true for an ergodic signal in general. 2012-10-08T00:00:05.827Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1844 In this note, we present a method to characterize the degradation in performance that arises in linear systems due to constraints imposed on the magnitude of the control signal to avoid saturation effects. We do this in the context of cheap control for tracking step signals. 2012-10-07T23:00:08.400Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1498 In this paper, we build on earlier work (Watts and Rich, 1991, 1992a) and examine the conceptual and measurement issues associated with documenting trends in occupational segregation in Australia over the period 1986-2002. Some specific issues will be addressed, including: Is the rate of gender integration still pro-cyclical? Has gender stereotyping diminished in the atypical occupations? Have women crowded into occupations that were previously male dominated, so that re-segregation has occurred? What has been the impact on gender segregation of the continued growth of part-time employment? What role can legislation play in promoting occupational gender integration? 2012-10-05T04:30:04.513Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:696 The research described in this thesis reviewed previous uses of Interactive Voice Response (IVR), developed appropriate software, and employed IVR to obtain self-report of sensitive issues in surveys and conduct brief public health interventions. Chapter 1 introduces IVR and describes a systematic critical review of the use of IVR. IVR is a telephone interviewing technique where the human speaker is replaced by a high quality recorded interactive script to which the respondent provides answers by pressing the keys of a touch-telephone (touchphone). IVR has numerous advantages, including: economy, autonomy, confidentiality, access to certain population groups, improved data quality, standardised interviewing, multi-lingual interfaces, and detailed longitudinal assessments. Despite this, there have been few survey applications of IVR compared to alternative methods such as Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI). There has not been any evaluation of the use of IVR for asking sensitive questions in surveys or as a tool for health promotion at the community level. A literature review, described in Chapter 2, was conducted to identify other methods of asking sensitive questions. The literature review identified 19 different methods. Those methods that were most successful were those that provided the greatest degree of anonymity to the respondent. It was suggested that IVR may be a suitable method for community surveys. As described in Chapter 3, a custom software called Generalized Electronic Interviewing System (GEIS) was developed. This provided both CATI and IVR interviewing modes. As described in Chapter 4, it was found that the response rate obtained using IVR was unacceptably low, and an alternative interviewing method, the Hybrid method was developed. In the Hybrid method the interview was initiated by the interviewer but completed using IVR with GEIS. As described in Chapter 5, the IVR, CATI and Hybrid methods were used to investigate self-reported rates of alcohol and drug consumption within a telephone household survey of 2880 households. The self-report rates were compared to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS). Response rates did not differ significantly between the CATI and Hybrid methods, however the response rate for IVR was significantly less than the other methods. The Hybrid and IVR methods obtained significantly higher self-report consumption rates for alcohol and marijuana, and significantly higher hazardous drinking scores using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). In Chapter 6 a pilot of an IVR cervical screening brief advice interface is described. A total of 5000 households were contacted by the IVR system. The system randomly selected an eligible woman aged 18-69 per household and determined her cervical screening status. A total of 661 women listened to the IVR message. The IVR call was shown to be acceptable and inexpensive compared to a mail pamphlet intervention. In Chapter 7 a randomized controlled trial of an IVR cervical screening brief advice involving 17,008 households is described. Cervical screening rate data were obtained from the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) for a period spanning six months before and following the intervention. The cervical screening rate was increased in the intervention postcodes by 0.43% compared to the control postcodes, and the increase was greater for older women at 1.34%. This was a desirable outcome since this group is considered to be an at-risk group. The overall conclusion was that IVR technology could be feasibly used to contact women to deliver brief interventions aimed at increasing cervical screening rates, but the cost per screen was likely to be high. It is suggested that an IVR system could be linked to cervical screening registers to more directly and economically contact women, and provide an efficacious complementary approach to the existing letter reminder system. 2012-09-14T04:10:10.093Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10973 We introduce a theory of patterns in order to study geodesics in a certain class of group presentations. Using patterns we show that there does not exist a geodesic automatic structure for certain group presentations, and that certain group presentations are almost convex. 2012-06-25T23:27:47.807Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10971 We introduce the loop shortening property and the basepoint loop shortening property for finitely generated groups, and examine their relation to quadratic isoperimetric functions and almost convexity. 2012-06-25T23:23:53.117Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10939 This paper reports the development and testing of an organisational configuration to support the management and delivery of innovative patient care practices in multidisciplinary palliative care teams in Australia. This is part of an ongoing research project seeking to understand how palliative care organisations, a complex and dynamic environment, manage multidisciplinary patient care teams to enable produce innovative responses to changing patient requirements. Results reported here describe the development of a theoretical configuration for these organisations, based in a range of literature, that is tested at interview in three palliative care organisations. Previous results of the research are then presented in discussion to demonstrate their relationship to configuration. It is suggested that understanding configuration is a first step in understanding these innovative organisations. 2012-06-20T00:51:56.883Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10891 Research in Australia and the United States offers evidence of sophisticated, implicit, knowledge assets in two diverse healthcare environments, care and cure. Two case studies are presented, a palliative care organization in Australia and a spinal care unit in the United States, both based around multidisciplinary service delivery, to demonstrate the existence of implicit knowledge assets. Yet the full potential of these knowledge assets is not being realized. A knowledge management infrastructure model is proffered as a way of making explicit the elements of these knowledge assets in both case studies. In addition, this model provides a systematic and robust approach to structuring the conceptualization of knowledge assets across a range of healthcare environments. 2012-06-13T00:20:23.864Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10889 Much has been written on the practice of managing operations in the manufacturing sector and, increasingly, in the service sector. The focus of much of this work is still however on those organizations motivated by the need to compete and generate a profit. The existing literature on the strategic management of operations may well have failed to influence many managers in the field. This paper attempts to look at the role of managing operations in what may be an even more difficult field, the area of palliative care in not-for-profit organizations. It is possible to think of the organization as a productive function, and this may ground one approach to strategizing within the operations function. An alternative perspective conceptualises the organisation as a governance structure, and in this form, the process of strategizing within the operations function is problematic. This paper reviews the role of managing operations, based heavily on the resource based view of the organisation, and uses material based on the experiences in palliative care organisations to illustrate aspects of strategizing within the operations function. 2012-06-13T00:16:53.218Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10868 In increasingly complex, dynamic, and financially constrained environments such as hospitals, there is a need to develop innovative solutions to problems related particularly to the cost and quality of care, and to do this on an ongoing or continuous basis. Palliative care is an innovative environment containing useful lessons that can be understood and communicated to a wider audience. 2012-06-04T04:20:04.125Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2671 This paper addresses the issue of quantifying the frequency domain accuracy of ARMA spectral estimates as dictated by the Cramer--Rao Lower Bound (CRLB). Classical work in this area has led to expressions that are asymptotically exact as both data length and model order tend to infinity, although they are commonly used in finite model order and finite data length settings as approximations. More recent work has established quantifications which, for AR models, are exact for finite model order. By employing new analysis methods based on rational orthonormal parameterisations, together with the ideas of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, this paper develops quantifications that extend this previous work by being exact for finite model order in all of the AR, MA and ARMA system cases. These quantifications, via their explicit dependence on poles and zeros of the underlying spectral factor, reveal certain fundamental aspects of the accuracy achievable by spectral estimates of ARMA processes. 2012-05-28T22:46:28.495Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2020 Quantile maximum likelihood (QML) is an estimation technique, proposed by Heathcote, Brown, and Mewhort (2002), that provides robust and efficient estimates of distribution parameters, typically for response time data, in sample sizes as small as 40 observations. In view of the computational difficulty inherent in implementing QML, we provide open-source Fortran 90 code that calculates QML estimates for parameters of the ex-Gaussian distribution, as well as standard maximum likelihood estimates. We show that parameter estimates from QML are asymptotically unbiased and normally distributed. Our software provides asymptotically correct standard error and parameter intercorrelation estimates, as well as producing the outputs required for constructing quantile–quantile plots. The code is parallelizable and can easily be modified to estimate parameters from other distributions. Compiled binaries, as well as the source code, example analysis files, and a detailed manual, are available for free on the Internet. 2012-05-28T04:34:26.781Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1478 Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of study time, study repetition, semantic and orthographic similarity, and category length on item recognition memory receiver operating characteristics (ROCs). Analyses of ROC shape rejected A. P. Yonelinas's (1994) dual-process model. The normal unequal variance signal-detection model provided a better account of the data, except for a small but consistent excess of high-confidence errors. It was found that z-transformed ROC slope was increased by similarity, category length, and study item repetition, rejecting R. Ratcliff, G. McKoon, and M. Tindall's (1994) "constancy-of-slopes" generalization for these variables, but slope was relatively unaffected by massed study time. 2012-05-28T04:32:05.360Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2023 Myung, Kim and Pitt (2000) demonstrated that simple power functions almost always provide a better fit than simple exponential functions to purely random data. This result has important implications because it suggests that high noise levels, which are common in psychological, may cause a bias favouring power functions. We replicate their result, and extend it by showing strong bias for realistic sample sizes. We also show that biases occur for data that contain both random and systematic components, as may be expected in real data. We then demonstrate that these biases disappear for two- or three- parameter functions that include linear parameters (in at least parameterisation). 2012-05-28T04:30:35.529Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1999 We examine recent concerns that averaged learning curves can present a distorted picture of individual learning. Analyses of practice curve data from a range of paradigms demonstrate that such concerns are well founded for fits of power and exponential functions when the arithmetic average is computed over participants. We also demonstrate that geometric averaging over participants does not, in general, avoid distortion. By contrast, we show that block averages of individual curves and similar smoothing techniques cause little or no distortion of functional form, while still providing the noise reduction benefits that motivate the use of averages. Our analyses are concerned mainly with the effects of averaging on the fit of exponential and power functions, but we also define general conditions that must be met by any set of functions to avoid distortion from averaging. 2012-05-28T04:27:10.516Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10793 This paper is the second in a series that will examine the management of innovation by cross-functional, multidisciplinary patient care teams in palliative care. Two further outcomes of this research are reported here. The first is that within palliative care a number of distinct individual behaviours are identified that act as foundations for the successful development and application of innovative practices by multidisciplinary teams. The second is that interviews with multidisciplinary palliative care teams in case studies in Australia confirm the existence and use of these behaviours. Individual behaviours within these teams are found to fall into two groups: those used by palliative care professionals when working with patients and patient-based carers; and those used by professionals when dealing with each other away from patients. The purpose of both groups is to generate useful valid information, knowledge and learning that can be transferred across boundaries regardless of boundary type or location. 2012-05-25T06:42:22.027Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10792 Palliative care is a complex environment in which teams of healthcare professionals are constantly challenged to match the configuration of care delivery to suit the dynamics of the patient's bio-medical, social and spiritual situations as they change during the end-of-life process. In such an environment these teams need to engage in ongoing interaction between different professional disciplines, incremental improvement in care delivery, learning and radical innovation. This is aimed at combining operational effectiveness, strategic flexibility, exploitation and exploration, in a way that ensures the best possible care for the patient. This paper examines previous research on the management competences and the organisational capabilities necessary for continuous innovation, and analyses evidence emerging from a study of palliative care. Work on the relationships between innovation capacities, organisational capabilities and team-based competence is drawn together. Evidence is presented from research into the management of innovation in palliative care. 2012-05-25T06:40:19.282Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10791 Palliative care is a complex environment in which teams of health care professionals are constantly challenged to match the configuration of care delivery to suit the dynamics of the whole of a patient’s bio-medical, social and spiritual situations as they change during the end of life process. In such an environment these teams need to engage in ongoing interaction between different professional disciplines, incremental improvement in care delivery, learning and radical innovation. This is aimed at combining operational effectiveness and strategic flexibility, exploitation and exploration in a way that ensures the best possible end of life experience for the patient. This paper examines previous research on the management competences and the organisational capabilities necessary for continuous innovation, and analyses evidence emerging from a study of palliative care. Work on the relationships between innovation capacities, organisational capabilities and team-based competence is drawn together. Evidence is presented from research into the management of innovation in palliative care. 2012-05-25T06:38:22.180Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10847 In this paper we propose two equalization methods for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation. These methods are intended to be alternatives to the known cyclic prefix equalization (CPE) method, and are derived using ideas from subband identification. The first proposed method is called subband equalization (SBE) and the second one is called enhanced cyclic prefix equalization (ECPE). The performance of different methods is compared in terms of bit error rate (BER) after equalization, convergence rate and computational cost in the presence of noise and fast fading. Both SBE and ECPE outperform the CPE in terms of BER and convergence rate. The SBE does not require the use of CP, and therefore saves channel capacity, but needs more computation than CPE, ECPE requires the use of CP, but its cost is compatible to that of CPE. 2012-05-24T05:00:08.428Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10725 The recent Oxford Companion to Australian History argued that in the quest for distinctive images of an emerging post-colonial nation, 'the dramatic representation of its history has .. , been a relatively minor matter'. Playwrights, it's asserted, mostly look to contemporary subjects, indeed 'genuine reassessment has been scarcely a theatrical subject at all'. Andrew Bovell's 2001 play Holy Day, an examination of the South Australian frontier of the mid-nineteenth century, is the exception that proves the rule. 'A play set in the past is only useful as far as it illuminates the present', Bovell writes in the foreword on the program. 'While Holy Day takes us into the world of our past, it does so only to invite a consideration of its legacy'. The following article takes this powerful and resonant historical drama as its focus, in exploring the continuity of an Australian cultural depiction of womanhood in the representation of white women's role in colonialism. Set as a mystery, encompassing today's two great contested aspects of Aboriginal history - frontier massacres and the stolen generations - the play is quite explicitly concerned with apportioning blame. 2012-05-03T02:05:06.139Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10720 In 1939 an Aboriginal father approached the secretary of a Sydney‐based organization agitating for Aboriginal citizenship rights, to seek her assistance in locating his daughter who had been taken from his care by the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board. He was not alone, but one of a number of concerned parents who sought the return of their daughters through the Committee for Aboriginal Citizenship. The fact that Aboriginal fathers were involved in this campaign challenges the stereotype of the ‘fatherless’ mixed‐race child that underpinned the state's presumption of a patriarchal authority over Aboriginal girls and unmarried women—a stereotype that endures. The following article exposes the maladministration of the NSW Aborigines Protection Board and highlights the assumptions about race and gender that are embedded in the history of the Stolen Generations. 2012-05-03T00:51:05.791Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1849 Recent research has highlighted the persistence of multi-decadal epochs of enhanced/reduced flood risk across New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Recent climatological studies have also revealed multi-decadal variability in the modulation of the magnitude of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) impacts. In this paper, the variability of flood risk across NSW is analysed with respect to the observed modulation of ENSO event magnitude. This is achieved through the use of a simple index of regional flood risk. The results indicate that cold ENSO events (La Niña) are the dominant drivers of elevated flood risk. An analysis of multi-decadal modulation of flood risk is achieved using the inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) index. The analysis reveals that IPO modulation of ENSO events leads to multi-decadal epochs of elevated flood risk, however this modulation appears to affect not only the magnitude of individual ENSO events, but also the frequency of their occurrence. This dual modulation of ENSO processes has the effect of reducing and elevating flood risk on multi-decadal timescales. These results have marked implications for achieving robust flood frequency analysis as well as providing a strong example of the role of natural climate variability. 2012-03-12T07:27:05.390Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1874 Two independent ground-based experiments and two satellite-borne experiments are used to interpret the changes in plasmaspheric composition at the same point in space during moderate geomagnetic activity on 22 January and 14 February 2001. Mass density at L = 2.5 was determined from an array of magnetometers on the Antarctic Peninsula, while the electron number density along the same flux tube was determined from analysis of the group delay of man-made VLF transmissions from north-east America. The IMAGE satellite RPI experiment provided in situ measurements of the electron number density in passing the equatorial region of the same field line, while the EUV Imager experiment was able to resolve the He⁺ abundance by looking back toward the same place a few hours later. On 22 January 2001 all measurements were consistent with a moderately disturbed plasmasphere. On 14 February 2001 there appeared to be a significant response of the plasmasphere to the moderate (K{subscript p} = 5) activity levels. Both the electron number density and the mass density determined from the ground-based experiments were markedly higher than on 22 January 2001. Also, the IMAGE RPI gave a markedly lower electron number density than did the ground-based data; this is explained by differences in the longitude at which the measurements were made and the presence of localized plasmaspheric structures. At Antarctic Peninsula longitudes a He+ column abundance value of 6 × 10¹⁰ cm⁻² is found to be equivalent to plasmaspheric electron density levels of 3000 cm⁻³ at L = 2.5. For these conditions the He+ mass abundance was about 12–16% compared with H⁺. Both decreases and increases in the He⁺ column abundance measured by the EUV Imager appear to be linearly correlated to changes in the percentage occurrence of He+ as determined from a combination of ground-based VLF and ULF observations. 2012-03-12T07:26:55.176Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2823 As all-IP based mobile communications networks become a reality, it is important to understand how characteristics of these networks such as delay jitter can affect the overall performance of the system. We find that backbone network delay jitter can significantly influence the multiple access performance of an all-IP mobile communications system. To compensate for this, we introduce an adaptive jitter compensation technique that is linked to the system slot allocation and multiple access mechanisms. By linking these mechanisms, we are able to compensate for delay jitter, whilst also introducing novel resource allocation techniques for use with multimedia traffic. We detail the various techniques introduced, and show the performance enhancements possible when using such a scheme. 2012-03-12T07:16:00.727Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3107 The Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia (CASA) is in the process of regulating Human Factors training in the Australian aviation industry. Crew Resource Management (CRM) is a well-established application of Human Factors knowledge and as an error management and risk avoidance tool has given the industry opportunity to examine operational behaviours and the relationship of less favourable behaviours to accident causality. The identified behaviours can provide a guide for further training and development of standard operating procedures. The industry requires valid and reliable methodology to measure behaviours that evaluate behaviour using behavioural marking scales known as Behavioural Markers. The data collation possible with these measures can provide auditable data for safety measurement and training needs. This paper reports the results of a survey, conducted in 2002, of a sample of CRM practitioners in the Australian Airline industry. The survey sought their personal opinions on the proposed regulatory changes; their knowledge, skills and attitude to both CRM and Behavioural measures; and comment on the regulators’ role and suggestions for implementation. The results provide a snap shot of practitioner perceived skills and knowledge in evaluating CRM training and perceived organisational characteristics that resist change. Results indicate that measurement of CRM behaviours as a guide to safety is a well accepted concept and that although practitioners feel comfortable with their knowledge of Behavioural Markers they do not have the same confidence in the depth of knowledge in their respective organisations. The practitioners feel that organisational knowledge; culture and training cultures will hinder implementation. The practitioners also indicate less confidence in their skills for behavioural measures and assessor qualifications. CASA’s role is viewed as supportive and allowing autonomy of operators in the implementation and transition phases. 2012-03-08T23:00:02.268Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1826 Competitive intelligence gathering and benchmarking are necessary marketing activities. With the use of the web by sports organizations as a communications medium, there is a need to be able to examine competitor websites. This review describes an easy-to-use technique for examining the information content of competitor home pages as part of an organization's competitive intelligence and benchmarking activities. To illustrate the technique, Australian professional basketball team (NBL) sport websites were examined in order to determine the content of the sites and determine how the content related to the elements of the marketing mix. 2012-01-30T04:50:24.635Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1871 The aim of this study was to determine the effects of vitamin E (α-tocopherol) on the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, a cell surface protein which plays an important role in controlling blood cholesterol. Human HepG2 hepatoma cells were incubated for 24 hours with increasing amounts of α, δ, or γ-tocopherol. The LDL receptor binding activity, protein and mRNA, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase mRNA, cell cholesterol and cell lathosterol were measured. The effect of α-tocopherol was biphasic. Up to a concentration of 50 μM, α-tocopherol progressively increased LDL receptor binding activity, protein and mRNA to maximum levels 2, 4 and 6-fold higher than control, respectively. The HMG-CoA reductase mRNA and the cell lathosterol concentration, indices of cholesterol synthesis, were also increased by 40% over control by treatment with 50 μM α-tocopherol. The cell cholesterol concentration was decreased by 20% compared to control at 50 μM α-tocopherol. However, at α-tocopherol concentrations higher than 50 μM, the LDL receptor binding activity, protein and mRNA, the HMG-CoA reductase mRNA and the cell lathosterol and cholesterol concentrations all returned to control levels. The biphasic effect on the LDL receptor was specific for α-tocopherol in that δ and γ-tocopherol suppressed LDL receptor binding activity, protein and mRNA at all concentrations tested despite the cells incorporating similar amounts of the three homologues. In conclusion, α-tocopherol, exhibits a specific, concentration-dependent and biphasic "up then down" effect on the LDL receptor of HepG2 cells which appears to be at the level of gene transcription. Cholesterol synthesis appears to be similarly affected and the cell cholesterol concentration may mediate these effects. 2012-01-30T04:49:56.604Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1690 This article provides an account of an important source for late medieval English medicine and astrology, namely the folded almanac, also termed, less correctly, a physician's folded (or folding) calendar, vade mecum, or girdle book. On the basis of a discussion of twenty-nine surviving examples of the folded almanac, a number of questions are raised about the way these manuscripts were used in astro-medical practice. This article reviews what this group of manuscripts should be called, what kind of manuscript they are, and assesses the way in which they were worn on the body. It establishes that the folded almanac was an English innovation and that many include a new, updated version of the calendar and lunar data of John Somer. A subsequent article will describe the working components of the folded almanac, and the way in which they were used in the practice of astrological medicine. 2012-01-30T04:40:28.625Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1732 In recent years it has been shown that first order recurrent neural networks trained by gradient-descent can learn not only regular but also simple context-free and context-sensitive languages. However, the success rate was generally low and severe instability issues were encountered. The present study examines the hypothesis that a combination of evolutionary hill climbing with incremental learning and a well-balanced training set enables first order recurrent networks to reliably learn context-free and mildly context-sensitive languages. In particular, we trained the networks to predict symbols in string sequences of the context-sensitive language {aⁿbⁿcⁿ; n≥1}. Comparative experiments with and without incremental learning indicated that incremental learning can accelerate and facilitate training. Furthermore, incrementally trained networks generally resulted in monotonic trajectories in hidden unit activation space, while the trajectories of non-incrementally trained networks were oscillating. The non-incrementally trained networks were more likely to generalise. 2012-01-30T04:40:18.632Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2975 This article addresses the issues of colour classification and collision detection as they occur in the legged league robot soccer environment of RoboCup. We show how the method of one-class classification with support vector machines (SVMs) can be applied to solve these tasks satisfactorily using the limited hardware capacity of the prescribed Sony AIBO quadruped robots. The experimental evaluation shows an improvement over our previous methods of ellipse fitting for colour classification and the statistical approach used for collision detection. 2012-01-30T04:38:36.609Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3944 The architecture of Alvar Aalto exemplifies developed relationships with nature, the site and the greater landscape. Aalto's interest in these matters is repeatedly mentioned in critical commentary on his built work, notably the Muuratsalo 'Experimental House' of 1953. Geographer Jay Appleton originally put forward his 'prospect-refuge theory' to help explain, in his words, 'what it is that we like about landscape and why'. The theory makes an extended argument for biologically, rather than culturally derived human landscape preferences. Prospect-refuge theory has been used by Grant Hildebrand to discuss Wright's houses, and has been mentioned by other commentators in an architectural context. Appleton's prospect-refuge theory of human landscape preference is discussed, using the theory's terminology to identify and comment on architectural elements which offer an observer satisfaction and pleasure in that they symbolize landscape elements which once had survival benefit for archaic Homo sapiens. Numerous prospect-refuge elements are discernible in Aalto's Muuratsalo house; they are described and discussed as part of 'what it is that we like about Aalto's siterelated architecture', and to help explain why Aalto and the Muuratsalo house continue to be held in high critical and popular regard. 2012-01-30T04:15:11.352Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:5876 Typically, inspiration is preferred when xraying the lungs. The x-ray technologist will ask a patient to be still and to take a deep breath and to hold it. This not only reduces the possibility of a blurred image but also enhances the quality of the image since air-filled lungs are easier to see on x-ray film. However, inspiration causes low density in the inner part of lung field. That means that ribs in the inner part of lung field have lower density than the other parts nearer to the border of the lung field. That is why edge detection algorithms often fail to detect ribs. Therefore to make rib edges clear we try to produce an expiration lung field using a 'hemi-elliptical cavity.' Based on the expiration lung field, we extract the rib edges using canny edge detector and a new connectivity method, called '4 way with 10-neighbors connectivity' to detect clavicle and rib edge candidates. Once the edge candidates are formed, our system selects the best candidates using knowledge-based constraints such as a gradient, length and location. The edges can be paired and labeled as superior rib edge and inferior rib edge. Then the system uses the clavicle, which is obtained in a same method for the rib edge detection, as a landmark to label all detected ribs. 2012-01-30T04:06:40.991Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:720 In the thesis, the reliability analysis of structural components and structural details subject to random loading and random resistance degradation is addressed. The study concerns evaluation of the probability of failure due to an overload of a component or structural detail, in consideration of random (environmental) loads and their combination, uncertain resistance parameters, statistical and phenomenological uncertainty and random resistance degradation mechanisms. Special attention is devoted to resistance degradation, as it introduces an additional level of difficulty in the solution of time variant reliability problems. The importance of this study arrives from the ageing of existing infrastructure in a world wide scale and from the lack of standards and codes for the ongoing safety management of general structures past their original design lives. In this context, probabilistic-based risk assessment and reliability analysis provide a framework for the safety management of ageing structures in consideration of inherent load and resistance uncertainty, current state of the structure, further resistance degradation, periodic inspections, in the absence of past experience and on an individual basis. In particular, the critical problem of resistance degradation due to fatigue is addressed. The formal solution of time variant reliability problems involves integration of local crossing rates over a conditional failure domain boundary, over time and over random resistance variables. This solution becomes very difficult in the presence of resistance degradation, as crossing rates become time dependent, and the innermost integration over the failure domain boundary has to be repeated over time. Significant simplification is achieved when the order of integrations is changed, and crossing rates are first integrated over the random failure domain boundary and then over time. In the so-called ensemble crossing rate or Ensemble Up-crossing Rate (EUR) approximation, the arrival rate of the first crossing over a random barrier is approximated by the ensemble average of crossings. This approximation conflicts with the Poisson assumption of independence implied in the first passage failure model, making results unreliable and highly conservative. Despite significant simplification of the solution, little was known to date about the quality of the EUR approximation. In this thesis, a simulation procedure to obtain Poissonian estimates of the arrival rate of the first up-crossing over a random barrier is introduced. The procedure is used to predict the error of the EUR approximation. An error parameter is identified and error functions are constructed. Error estimates are used to correct original EUR failure probability results and to compare the EUR with other common simplifications of time variant reliability problems. It is found that EUR errors can be quite large even when failure probabilities are small, a result that goes against previous ideas. A barrier failure dominance concept is introduced, to characterize those problems where an up-crossing or overload failure is more likely to be caused by a small outcome of the resistance than by a large outcome of the load process. It is shown that large EUR errors are associated with barrier failure dominance, and that solutions which simplify the load part of the problem are more likely to be appropriate in this case. It is suggested that the notion of barrier failure dominance be used to identify the proper (simplified) solution method for a given problem. In this context, the EUR approximation is compared with Turkstra’s load combination rule and with the point-crossing formula. It is noted that in many practical structural engineering applications involving environmental loads like wind, waves or earthquakes, load process uncertainty is larger than resistance uncertainty. In these applications, barrier failure dominance in unlikely and EUR errors can be expected to be small. The reliability problem of fatigue and fracture under random loading is addressed in the thesis. A solution to the problem, based on the EUR approximation, is constructed. The problem is formulated by combining stochastic models of crack propagation with the first passage failure model. The solution involves evaluation of the evolution in time of crack size and resistance distributions, and provides a fresh random process-based approach to the problem. It also simplifies the optimization and planning of non-destructive periodic inspection strategies, which play a major role in the ongoing safety management of fatigue affected structures. It is shown how sensitivity coefficients of a simplified preliminary First Order Reliability solution can be used to characterize barrier failure dominance. In the fatigue and fracture reliability problem, barrier failure dominance can be caused by large variances of resistance or crack growth parameters. Barrier failure dominance caused by resistance parameters leads to problems where overload failure is an issue and where the simplified preliminary solution is likely to be accurate enough. Barrier failure dominance caused by crack growth parameters leads to highly non-linear problems, where critical crack growth dominates failure probabilities. Finally, in the absence of barrier failure dominance, overload failure is again the issue and the EUR approximation becomes not just appropriate but also accurate. The random process-based EUR solution of time-variant reliability problems developed and the concept of barrier failure dominance introduced in the thesis have broad applications in problems involving general forms of resistance degradation as well as in problems of random vibration of uncertain structures. 2011-12-20T23:00:23.636Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:713 This thesis represents the work that has been done by the author in the area of vibration analysis and control of smart structures during his PhD candidature. The research was concentrated on flexible structures, using piezoelectric materials as actuators and sensors. The thesis consists of four major parts. The first part (Chapter 2) is the modelling of piezoelectric laminate structures using modal analysis and finite element methods. The second part (Chapter 4) involves the model correction of pointwise and spatial models of resonant systems. The model correction solution compensates for the errors associated with the truncation of high frequency modes. The third part (Chapter 5) is the optimal placement methodology for general actuators and sensors. In particular, optimal placement of piezoelectric actuators and sensors over a thin plate are considered and implemented in the laboratory. The last part (Chapters 6 to 8) deals with vibration control of smart structures. Several different approaches for vibration control are considered. Vibration control using resonant, spatial H-2 and H-infinity control is proposed and implemented on real systems experimentally. It is possible, for certain modes, to obtain the very satisfactory result of up to 30 dB vibration reduction. 2011-12-20T23:00:18.756Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:693 The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the rapid growth of musical culture in Russia. This resulted in a large repertoire of piano music — ranging from miniatures to virtuosic etudes and sonatas. Growing out of the nineteenth century romantic tradition, and highly influenced by the social conditions of the time, Russian composers developed a distinctive style which closely reflected their culture, personalities and ideologies. There are several approaches to studying performance practice. One is to study the interpretations of other pianists. While this does have many advantages, it has not been adopted in this paper as it has one flaw: it still fails to capture the distinctive language of these composers. Rather, the paper will study the social and musical influences on the composers, and, more importantly, their philosophies about pianism and the purpose of music. This will be related to interpretative issues in the works. The repertoire has been divided into four areas. The paper commences with a study of the miniature, which is valuable in finding the ‘essence’ of a composer’s musical language expressed on a small scale. Here, the ‘elementary’ considerations in performance practice will be studied. The second chapter discusses etudes. This is useful in gaining an insight into composers’ conception of technique, and how this relates to performance practice. The third chapter deals with music that has extra-musical themes. This provides opportunity for a more detailed cultural and biographical study of the composers. To represent the large-scale repertoire of Russian composers, the sonata will be studied. Here, a detailed analysis of the composers’ musical language and its relationship to expression will be discussed. 2011-12-20T23:00:13.108Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:685 Realistic optimisation of the operation and planning of urban water supply headworks systems requires that the issues of complexity and stochastic forcing be addressed. The only reliable way of accomplishing this is to use simulation models in conjunction with the Monte Carlo method which generates multiple hydro-climate replicates. However, such models do not easily interface with traditional optimisation methods. Probabilistic search methods such as the genetic algorithm (GA) and the shuffled complex evolution method (SCE) can be coupled to a generalised simulation model and thus accommodate complexity as well as stochastic inputs. However, optimisation of complex urban water supply systems is computationally intractable if Monte Carlo methods have to be used. This study first compared the GA and the SCE method using a simple case study. Both methods were found to cope well with the piecewise flat objective function surface typical of the headworks optimisation problem. This is because they have the inherent capability of vigorously exploring beyond the domain of a flat region. The SCE method is recommended especially when fast location of a good solution is desired. Nonetheless, the GA was preferred due to its inherent parallelism. Two methods were then explored to improve computational efficiency and turnaround time: parallel computing and replicate compression. The Sydney headworks system was used as a case study to investigate the key aspects of a full-scale headworks optimisation. It was concluded that the speedup was nearly proportional to the number of processors employed. Replicate compression can very significantly reduce the computational turnaround time for Monte Carlo simulation; unfortunately, this conclusion must be tempered by the limitation that the objective function depends on penalties arising from restrictions only. Critical analysis of the GA results suggested the optimised results were sound. The case study demonstrated the feasibility of parallel GA to identify near-optimal solutions for a complex system subject to stochastic forcing. 2011-12-20T23:00:04.214Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:710 Born in London in 1791, George Augustus Middleton attended Cambridge University but failed to graduate. Ordained priest for the Colonies in 1819, he arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, in January 1820 and shortly after commenced work as Assistant Chaplain at Parramatta in the role of locum tenens for the Reverend Samuel Marsden. In 1821 he was appointed to the convict settlement of Newcastle, where, over the ensuing five and a half years he found himself in constant conflict with both the military and ecclesiastical authorities because of his perceived absenteesim and his agricultural dealings. His conflict with the Commandant of Newcastle, Major James Morisset, originated from his perceived interference in, and condemnation of, Morisset’s disregard for the Sabbath and Christian morality. Relations between the two men broke down completely and Middleton found himself criticised from the Governor down and very much isolated. In 1825, Archdeacon Thomas Hobbes Scott, a former secretary to Sir Thomas Bigge during Bigge’s enquiry into the state of New South Wales, arrived in Sydney and commenced the first structural organisation of the antipodean Anglican Church. Almost immediately relations between Scott and Middleton deteriorated to the point where, in 1827, Middleton resigned and moved to his land grant at Paterson, about 70 kilometres from Newcastle. Scholars since then have incorrectly seen the main cause of their conflict as Middleton’s perceived absenteeism, unaware that far greater differences existed. To Scott, Middleton was an incompetent administrator, a lax pastor and unfit for ministry. After resigning, Middleton acted as a pastor, farmer, Justice of the Peace and community member until 1832, when, forced by drought, he moved to Sydney where he established a school by which to support himself and his family. In 1836, William Grant Broughton, formerly the Archdeacon of Australia, and later the first and only Bishop of Australia, returned from England, and in 1837, licensed Middleton to the parish of Butterwick and Seaham. There Middleton served as pastor until his early death in 1848. 2011-12-20T22:50:13.467Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:715 This study developed a model of youth work practice based on a philosophy of nonviolence. Youth work in Australia is in the process of creating a clear self-consciousness and idea of its role, and a philosophy of nonviolence provides a strong foundation for further development. The study was based on the first three phases of intervention research (problem analysis and project planning, information gathering and synthesis, and design) within a heuristic paradigm. It involved a literature review, a telephone survey of 60 youth workers, in-depth interviews with 20 young people and 15 youth workers, and focus groups with 16 youth workers. Literature on youth work in Australia and Britain, and youth care in Canada and South Africa helped identify key features of youth work. Ten principles of nonviolence were developed based on principled nonviolence literature. The telephone survey provided a broad overview of current practice in New South Wales, and identified issues for further exploration in the interviews. The in-depth interviews with youth workers and young people explored their perceptions of violence and discrimination within their services; ways in which youth workers prevent and respond to disruptive, violent and unsafe behaviour; and ways in which youth work practice can be consistent with a philosophy of nonviolence. Based on the research, a model of nonviolent practice was developed, and then refined following focus groups with youth workers. The model encourages youth workers to be committed to nonviolence in all they do; to develop a reflective work practice; to build professional, caring relationships; to focus on power-with; to be committed to social change; to apply principles of social justice; to ensure there are adequate, appropriate staff and resources; to negotiate clear expectations and boundaries; to create a positive environment; to respond to behaviour nonviolently; and to facilitate informal education. 2011-12-20T22:50:12.147Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:714 This dissertation begins with a discussion of the rediscovery and rehabilitation of masks as tools of performance and pedagogy in Western theatre over the past century, considering the work of various theorists, directors, teachers and performers in whose work the mask occupies a significant position. Discussion then focuses on the development of the neutral mask as an object and as a paradigm of pedagogy for the actor over the past eighty years and undertakes a comparative investigation of the concept of neutrality as a performant state. The discussion takes in the teaching of Jacques Copeau, Etienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq, and extends to the theories of Eugenio Barba, considering the possible parallels between Barba's 'pre-expressive' state and the state of neutrality which the mask assists to develop in the actor. The dissertation further proposes that the term 'performative liminality' is an appropriate term to adopt for this performant state, and makes this proposal with reference to the theories of anthropologist Victor Turner regarding the liminal state. The practice-as-research component of the project sought to investigate and document the various uses of the neutral mask and its application to the creative processes of the actor, and aimed to provide qualitative analysis and evaluation of the neutral mask when used in a developmental workshop environment. The dissertation contains a full account of the practice component of the project and details the processes used to investigate the neutral mask, offering analysis drawn from the inside experiences of the actors and the outside observations of the researcher. Within that analysis is a consideration of the neutral mask as a tool for developing the scenic presence of the actor. 2011-12-20T22:50:08.928Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:677 In 1960 Louis Kahn’s theoretical concerns began to focus on a concept which he called “form”, not meaning a building’s three dimensional shape, but the essence of its underlying type. The current study considers Kahn’s post-1960 concept of “form”, as espoused in his 1961 article, “Form and Design”, in relation to Plato’s theory of Forms, as that theory is presented in The Republic. A deeper appreciation of Kahn’s text is achieved through an examination of the hypothesis that the word “form”, as it is defined in Kahn’s article, is congruous with Plato’s famous concept, whereby Forms are said to be independent of humans and particulars. This leads to a related hypothesis, that Kahn’s shift in emphasis towards transcendent types is reflected in his development of what could be called Platonising architectural strategies, because they reflect parallel aims between Plato and Kahn. While Kahn and Plato are quite different figures, separated by time, profession and intentions, consideration of Plato’s treatment of the Forms in The Republic illuminates a new interpretation of “Form and Design” and the building which is most closely associated with that text, Kahn’s First Unitarian Church and School in Rochester. The thesis identifies ideas within Kahn’s text which resonate with Plato’s philosophy, suggesting that Kahn’s theory can be interpreted through notions stemming from the early moments of the Western philosophical tradition. It also identifies inconsistencies between Kahn’s text and Plato’s and between various statements made by Kahn, highlighting the fact that Kahn’s philosophical musings are not those of a trained philosopher. 2011-12-20T22:50:05.213Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:678 This thesis presents a qualitative study investigating the understandings of social workers from non-statutory settings (health, hospital and mental health) of their assessment practices with children and families where child protection concerns have been identified. The study aims were to describe the considerations social workers identified as significant when undertaking such an assessment, as well as gain insight about how these considerations interact and relate. The study was developed under a constructivist paradigm influenced by post-modern and post-structuralist thinking. Data collection involved a semi-structured in-depth interview based on concepts drawn from reflective practice and the critical incident technique. The participants were asked about their agency, their role and a recent case in which they had undertaken an assessment. Data collection and analysis were consistent with constructivist grounded theory methods. Review of the literature suggests that social workers in statutory child protection practice and other settings consider factors relating to the case, themselves and their context in their assessment practice. Similar conclusions have been reached through this study. This study is unique in being the only qualitative study of social work assessment practices with child protection cases in non-statutory settings in NSW, to date. The study found that social workers identified a range of considerations as important in their assessment practice. These considerations have been grouped thematically as context, relationship, intervention, content and self, in the presentation of findings in this thesis. These themes interact and relate in ways that are unique to the individual assessment circumstances rather than in a regular or consistent manner. The findings of the study are relevant to social work practitioners, educators and researchers. The study furthers the understanding of social work assessment practice, and develops a clearer understanding and articulation of what is recognised and termed as ‘tacit knowledge’ or ‘practice wisdom’ in this particular area of social work practice. 2011-12-20T22:50:03.275Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2852 Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2011-12-19T22:50:02.459Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4931 Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2011-12-19T22:50:02.194Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:9616 The paper draws together a number of findings from the PhD Examination Project conducted by the authors as part of the SORTI (Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact) program conducted at The University of Newcastle. Its particular focus is on an analysis of the roles of examiner and supervisor, and the interface between these, as seen through the lens provided by Habermas’s ‘Ways of Knowing’ thesis. Early scripts appraised of examiner comment directed to the candidate seemed to reveal a preponderance of text that conformed with Habermas’s ‘empirical-analytic’ way of knowing, displaying a fairly technical approach to the task and positioning the examiner in the role of ‘expert’. At the same time, there was little evidence of ‘self-reflective’ knowing that might betray a more sophisticated task being undertaken and a role of some asymmetry between the examiner and candidate. Since the latter way of knowing would seem to fit better with a regime dealing with original thought and new contributions to knowledge, it has been postulated that the dominant text in PhD examination may work to constrain the generation of new knowledge rather than encourage it. A recent paper explored this postulation with special reference to those aspects of examination script that made explicit mention of the role of the supervisor, finding essentially the same phenomenon, but with a slightly different balance in favour of ‘self-reflective’ text. This paper will draw strands out of SORTI’s more comprehensive work that might inform this particular analysis, expand on the analysis itself and indicate ways in which the analysis could inform the practicalities of research training and especially the role of the supervisor. 2011-12-06T23:10:04.673Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:9570 The paper will explore the potential for those engaged in multi-faith dialogue to come to enriched understanding not only about other religious traditions but about their own tradition and, indeed, their own selves. Employing notions of knowing that stretch back to Aristotle and have been reinvigorated by modems such as Habermas, the paper will explore the potential for Judaeo-Christians to come to this enriched understanding through dialogue with Hinduism and its associated derivative spiritualities. The author will employ some of his own empirical investigations in making the case that multi-faith enrichment implies far more than enhancing one's head knowledge. 2011-12-02T04:50:05.174Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1290 This selective review was undertaken in order to highlight the need for alcohol and other drug treatment services to provide intervention for tobacco smoking to their clients. The reasons for the failure of treatment services to date to deal with nicotine addiction within their programmes are discussed and positive suggestions for change are proferred. In addition to the transformation of institutional culture which will be required, managers and staff of alcohol and other drug agencies need to know how best to implement smoking intervention within the treatment setting. The paper concludes with some practical suggestions for the management of intervention for tobacco smoking within treatment settings. These suggestions include: making decisions and formulating policies and procedures with regard to how tobacco smoking will be addressed; considering the particular physical, psychological and social/environmental factors that apply to substance abuse clients; building intervention around a simple structure such as the '5 A's'; encouraging and facilitating the use of nicotine replacement therapies; and allowing flexibility to tailor intervention to the individual. A great deal of further research is required to inform us as to how to intervene most effectively for tobacco smoking among this population group. 2011-12-01T23:20:02.281Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1749 Reviews two fiction books. 'Charades,' by Janette Turner Hospital; and 'The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'by A.S. Byatt. 2011-11-28T04:50:01.919Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:9480 Chapter 5 of DETYA’s volume The Impact of Educational Research begins with an examination of the peculiarity of decision making in the VET sector, followed by an examination of the idiosyncratic consequences for the function of research in the sector. Having established the distinctiveness of VET in relation to these two key factors (decision making and research), the chapter then proceeds to explore the linkages between them. The study on which the chapter is founded identified a complex research culture, in which overt forms of impact are difficult to detect, yet where, it is concluded, research nonetheless plays its part. The research which is likely to impact most heavily is that which is conducted around the practical issues with which VET must deal, preferably with a heavy on-site component, and which is carried out by researchers who are prepared to engage most fruitfully with the VET culture, ideally with a long lead time and maximum follow-up to the actual research phase. Chapter 5 contributes to the overall Impact volume in a variety of ways. First, it offers an insight into the enigmatic nature of educational research in general, and especially as it relates to the VET sector. Second, it makes it clear that educational sectors like VET are likely to be affected by research only when its application to their practical needs is clear and it is carried out by people who are committed to working with their realities. Third, there are broader lessons to be taken from the chapter, especially for university researchers who are imputed by the chapter to be among the least likely to effect research that impacts on practical policy and decision making. While unrelated to the main body of The Impact of Educational Research project, Chapter 5 contributes to the overall work through exposing the real world of research impact in what is very likely the least understood of the educational sectors. 2011-11-28T02:10:02.282Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2539 As part of its involvement in the international study, 'Educational Governance and Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion' (EGSIE), EGSIE-Australia conducted a survey of Youth from March to May of 2000. This survey targeted students in the final two years of compulsory education. Data were collected in eight different school sites, from three States in Australia. Schools were selected to include students in rural and urban settings, from public and private schools, and to cover a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. All the schools were co-educational. 2011-11-10T04:30:01.832Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6798 This is a double issue and we hope you will feel that it was worth the wait. It carries reports of ground-breaking research by Chilla Bulbeck on international attitudes to feminism among young women in Australia and Asia as well as a range of fascinating articles including Suzanne Fraser on breast implants, Amanda Keddie on little boys and the gendered rhetoric of football, Christine Mason on the experience of women fighters in Eritrea, and Matthew Rofe and Hilary P. M. Winchester on motorcycling. Volume 8, which will also be a double issue, will be guest edited by Susan Jacobs of Manchester Metropolitan University on the theme of Feminist Organisations and Networks. 2011-11-04T03:40:05.099Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3934 The architecture of Mies van der Rohe, from its early crystalline forms to its later more orthogonal compositions, has been the site of a range of conflicting interpretations. At the center of several of these debates has been the question of whether Mies's use of geometry represents an enlightened or progressive approach to society, or whether it is simply a sign of cultural regression and the failure of Rationalist thought, Curiously, in many of these debates, Mies's architecture has become secondary to the way in which geometry can be deployed for political purposes. This paper looks at one such proposition about Mies and geometry from the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, and the political purpose of this argument which is the suggestion that Euclidean geometry is unnatural and regressive. The focus of this paper is mathematical interpretations of architecture and geometry. Specifically, this paper examines the structure and basis for Mandelbrot's argument drawing conclusions about the way in which geometry may be deployed for political purposes and is also particularly open to such operations. In this way the paper supports Robin Evan's assertions about appropriated geometry and the naïve assumption that it is theoretically inert. 2011-10-20T01:20:02.615Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3933 As the leitmotiv of corrections in England in the period between 1810 and 1870, the treadwheel effectively replaced its French counterpart, the guillotine, as the visible machinery with which punishment would be dealt to transgressors. This marked the shift from a system of punitive justice, to a system of reform of the prisoner for re-entry to society. For Foucault, this architectural nexus is summarised by the divergence between what he terms the "punitive city" and "coercive institution". This essay explores the rapid inversion of the architectural machinery of corrections, which, over a period of a few decades began extracting labour from the prisoner, rather than pain. This was linked to the belief, reinforced by many of the religions of the period, that there was a strong correlation between idleness (vagrancy) and crime. As the European prison became a more wholly functional system, closely geared to the march of industrial progress across Europe, an economy of labour emerged within it whose only objective was to undermine production and establish a new and pervasive architectural morality. The forces of progress and productivity, determined to infect the idle, secretly and ironically propagated this new technology of toil. 2011-10-20T01:10:05.620Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1860 The recent report of the NSW Ministerial Review of Teacher Education, Quality Matters (2000) highlighted the importance of supporting the induction of teachers into the workplace and the need for partnerships between initial teacher education programs and employers to ensure a smooth transition into the profession of teaching. The aim of this pilot study was to identify factors which cause concern, assist in retention of graduates or lead to separation of beginning teachers. A Sample group of graduates from a double degree Bachelor of Teaching/Bachelor of Health & Physical Education initial teacher education program completed a comprehensive questionnaire and participated in structured interviews to investigate their induction and professional growth during their first five years of employment. The results indicated a failure by many school leaders to provide basic support in the form of formal induction. Lack of informative feedback from mentors or superiors also caused concern and difficulty for these teachers in making the transition into schools. The study recommends the need for induction to recognise the importance of context and reduce the isolation experienced by beginning teachers in schools through developing district support networks. Appointing adequately trained mentors who go beyond formal assessment and supervision to provide critical colleagueship could enhance professional growth and reduce attrition rates of beginning teachers. 2011-10-17T23:30:02.155Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1856 This paper presents the results of a survery of Australian and Bangladeshi corporate managers' response patterns in the food and textile sectors to increasing demands for improved corporate social performances. Based on an analysis of six internal and external decision areas using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), significant differences were found in corporate action between countries and within selected industries. Australian managers were more likely to act on the internal marketing decision ares (product, price, distribution and communication), Bangladeshi managers tended to act on external environmental decision areas. The strategic implications of these findings are that macro- and micro- anvironmental variables and government and business capabilities in diverse settings significantly influence managerial actions on social responsibility pressures. 2011-10-14T04:50:01.766Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3333 The extremely short de Broglie wavelengths of thermal helium atomic beams make them ideally suited as sensitive probes of surface structures. Recent developments in the methods used to analyze helium atom scattering data make it possible to measure interlayer spacings on metal surfaces with high precision. We present results of the application of this technique to the growth of a heavily reconstructed system. Helium atom scattering has been used to study the variation of interlayer spacing during the growth of ultrathin iron films on copper(100). Using the parameter-independent analysis technique, the interlayer spacings of iron films up to five-monolayers thick have been directly measured. The results show that it is possible to identify three distinct regions from 0 to 5 ML of Fe coverage. In the regime from 0 to 2 ML of Fe there is a large initial expansion of the out-of-plane lattice parameter of the iron film. In the regime from 2 to 4 ML of Fe, the interlayer spacing contracts to a value that is slightly expanded relative to the bulk spacing expected for fcc Fe. Above 4 ML of Fe the interlayer spacing approaches that expected for bulk fcc Fe. The results are discussed in the context of the latest models for the growth of Fe/Cu(100). 2011-10-05T22:50:01.597Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1588 Lead zinc niobate–lead titanate (PZN–PT) single crystals show very large piezoelectric strains for electric fields applied along the unit cell edges e.g. [001]R. It has been widely reported that this effect is caused by an electric field induced phase transition from rhombohedral (R3m) to monoclinic (Cm or Pm) symmetry in an essentially continuous manner. Group theoretical analysis using the computer program ISOTROPY indicates phase transitions between R3m and Cm (or Pm) must be discontinuous under Landau theory. An analysis of the symmetry of a strained unit cell in R3m and a simple expansion of the piezoelectric strain equation indicate that the piezoelectric distortion due to an electric field along a cell edge in rhombohedral perovskite-based ferroelectrics is intrinsically monoclinic (Cm), even for infinitesimal electric fields. PZN–PT crystals have up to nine times the elastic compliance of other piezoelectric perovskites and it might be expected that the piezoelectric strains are also very large. A field induced phase transition is therefore indistinguishable from the piezoelectric distortion and is neither sufficient nor necessary to understand the large piezoelectric response of PZN–PT. 2011-09-13T00:00:06.841Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6553 Two-photon excitation makes it possible to excite molecules in volumes of much less than 1 fl. In two-photon flash photolysis (TPFP) this property is used to release effector molecules from caged precursors with high three-dimensional resolution. We describe and examine the benefits of using TPFP in model solutions and in a number of cell systems to study their spatial and temporal properties. Using TPFP of caged fluorescein, we determined the free diffusion coefficient of fluorescein (D = 4x0⁻⁶ cm²/s at 20°C, which is in close agreement with published values). TPFP of caged fluorescein in lens tissue in situ revealed spatial nonuniformities in intercellular fiber cell coupling by gap junctions. At the lens periphery, intercellular transport was predominantly directed along rows of cells, but was nearly isotropic further from the periphery. To test an algorithm aiming to reconstruct the Ca²⁺ release flux underlying physiological Ca²⁺ signals in heart muscle cells, TPFP of DM- nitrophen was utilized to generate artificial microscopic Ca²⁺ signals with known underlying Ca²⁺ release flux. In an experiment with mouse oocytes, the recently developed Ca² cage dimethoxynitrophenyl-ethyleneglycol-bis-(β-aminoethylether)-N,N,N′,N′ tetraacetic acid-4 (DMNPE-4) was released in the oocyte cytosol and inside a nucleolus. Analysis of the resulting fluorescence changes suggested that the effective diffusion coefficient within the nucleolus was half of that in the cytosol. These experiments demonstrate the utility of TPFP as a novel tool for the optical study of biomedical systems. 2011-08-30T06:00:04.860Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6550 In ascidians, as in mammals, sperm trigger repetitive Ca²⁺-waves that originate from cortical pacemakers situated in the vegetal hemisphere of the zygotes. In ascidians, a vegetal protrusion termed the contraction pole (CP) acts as the Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker, but the mechanism that underlies the generation of a Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker is not known. Here, we tested four hypotheses to determine which factors at the CP are involved in setting the pace of the ascidian Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker: (1) localized Ca²⁺ influx; (2) accumulation of phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P₂]; (3)accumulation of cortical endoplasmic reticulum (cER); and (4) enrichment of the sperm activating factor. We developed a method of dynamically monitoring the location of the CP during fertilization using a plekstrin homology (PH) domain from phospholipase Cδ1 coupled to green fluorescent protein (GFP) that binds PtdIns(4,5)P₂. We found that eggs in Ca²⁺-free sea water displayed Ca²⁺ waves that originated from the CP, showing that enhanced CP Ca²⁺ influx does not determine the origin of the pacemaker. Also, disruption of the H::GFP-labelled CP once it had formed did not dislodge the Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker from that site. Next, when we prevented the accumulation of cER at the CP, all of the Ca²⁺ waves came from the site of sperm-egg fusion and the frequency of Ca²⁺ oscillations was unaltered. These data show that local Ca²⁺ influx, the accumulation of PtdIns(4,5)P₂ and cER at the CP are not required for Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker function and instead suggest that a factor associated with the sperm determines the site of the Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker. Finally, when we injected ascidian sperm extract into the centre of unfertilized ascidian eggs that had been treated with microfilament- and microtubuledisrupting drugs, all the Ca²⁺ waves still originated from near the plasma membrane, showing that the sperm factor does not require an intact cortex if it is enriched near the plasma membrane (PM). We suggest that the Ca²⁺- releasing sperm factor might be tethered near or on the PM and that following the cortical contraction, it is translocated to the vegetal CP, thus making that site act as a Ca²⁺-wave pacemaker. 2011-08-30T05:50:05.192Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4245 2011-08-25T03:50:01.770Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3069 The Italian Serenata is a genre tied more than most to locality and occasion. One of the most attractive serenatas of Alessandro Scarlatti, Venere, Adone, and Amore was composed for a festive evening in Naples in July 1696, with libretto by the Neapolitan Francesco Maria Paglia. Ten years later, while working in Rome, Scarlatti produced an updated version of the same work, in which all references to Naples are replaced by Roman references. But the changes to score go far beyond this. Scarlatti rescored the work for the concerto grosso resources to which he now had regular access at the court of Cardinal Ottoboni, and recomposed a number of arias and vocal ensembles. The existence of both versions of the work gives a unique insight into Scarlatti as a composer adapting time and place. The paper is based on my work resulting in an edition and recording of Venere, Adone, and Amore, in which the 1696 score for Naples was used as the primary version. We also recorded some of the most outstanding new numbers of the 1706 Rome version, thus entering the new stylistic world of stylistic world of Scarlatti in the 18th century. 2011-07-11T00:50:02.045Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:7859 The restricted setting and uniformly prescribed hardware of the Sony Legged League of RoboCup provide an environment for testing algorithms on autonomous robots with a view towards possible applications in real world situations. In this study we show how two techniques - Support Vector Machines and Hill Climbing - can be applied to problems faced by the robots in this league. We use Support Vector Machines to perform collision detection and also to assist the process of color classification, while a Hill Climbing algorithm is employed to improve straight line walking speed through walk parameter optimisation. 2011-06-07T04:40:06.574Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1791 The neutron probe has proven to be an effective means for monitoring long term in situ soil moisture variations. However, it is difficult to experimentally correlate neutron probe data (i.e., neutron counts) with accurate estimates of absolute soil moisture content, particularly for unsaturated clay soils. In this paper, a numerical model based on multigroup neutron diffusion theory is employed to predict the distribution of neutron flux in a neutron probe system. The model discretizes the neutron energy spectrum into seven intervals, with energy-dependent diffusion coefficients and parameters for each energy interval. The finite element method is employed to solve the coupled seven-group neutron diffusion equations. It is demonstrated that the numerical results compare very well with both laboratory experimental results and field measurements. The theoretical approach to neutron probe calibration described herein offers significant time and cost savings over traditional calibration methods, and potentially opens up new applications for neutron probe monitoring. 2011-05-03T00:20:05.275Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3455 In both mice and humans alternate splicing results in isoforms of c-Kit characterized by the presence or the absence of a tetrapeptide sequence, GNNK, in the juxtamembrane region of the extracellular domain. Dramatic differences in the kinetics and magnitude of activation of the intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity of c-Kit between the GNNK- and GNNK+ isoforms has previously been shown. Here we report the analysis of downstream targets of receptor signaling, which revealed that the signaling was differentially regulated in the two splice forms. The kinetics of phosphorylation of Shc, previously demonstrated to be phosphorylated by Src downstream of c-Kit, was stronger and more rapid in the GNNK- form, whereas it showed slower kinetics in the GNNK+ form. Inhibition of Src family kinases with the specific Src family kinase inhibitor SU6656 altered the kinetics of activation of the GNNK- form of c-Kit so that it resembled that of the GNNK+ form. In cells expressing the GNNK- form, SCF was rapidly degraded, whereas in cells expressing the GNNK+ form only showed a very slow rate of degradation of SCF. In the GNNK+ form the Src inhibitor SU6656 only had a weak effect on degradation, whereas in the GNNK- form it dramatically inhibited degradation. In summary, the two splice forms show, despite only a four-amino acid sequence difference, remarkable differences in their signaling capabilities. 2011-05-03T00:10:03.531Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:7566 Circumscribed retinal lesions in adult cats result in a reorganization of circuitry in area 17 such that neurons in the lesion projection zone (LPZ) can now be activated, not from their original receptive fields (RFs) but from regions of normal retina adjacent to the lesion ('ectopic' RFs). We have studied this phenomenon further by making circumscribed monocular retinal lesions in 8-week-old kittens and recording responses to visual stimuli of neurons in the LPZ of area 17 when these cats reached adulthood. These responses have been compared with those in adult-lesioned cats either of relatively short postlesion survival (2–24 weeks) or long postlesion survival (3.5–4.5 years). In both kitten-lesioned and adult-lesioned animals most LPZ neurons recorded from the supragranular layers (II and III) not only exhibited new ectopic RFs when stimuli were presented via the lesioned eye but the RF properties (e.g. the sizes of excitatory RFs, orientation and direction selectivities, velocity preferences and upper cut-off velocities) were often indistinguishable from those seen when stimuli were presented via the nonlesioned eye. Similarly, in both kitten-lesioned and adult-lesioned animals, most LPZ neurons recorded from the granular and infragranular layers (IV, V, VI), like those recorded from the supragranular layers, were binocular. However, in adult-lesioned but not in kitten-lesioned animals, the responses and the upper cut-off velocities of LPZ cells recorded from the granular and infragranular layers to stimuli presented via ectopic RFs tended to be, respectively, substantially weaker and lower than those for stimuli presented via the nonlesioned eye. The age-related laminar differences in reorganizational plasticity of cat striate cortex correlate with the lamino-temporal pattern of distribution of N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptors in striate cortex. 2011-04-12T06:00:01.960Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:7301 Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of study time, study repetition, semantic and orthographic similarity, and category length on item recognition memory receiver operating characteristics (ROCs). The collection contains 5 square tab-delimited text files in .txt format, containing individual participant response frequencies for Experiments 1, 2 and 3 and a readme text file. Note: Datasets are available for Experiments 1, 2 and 3. 2011-02-24T03:40:03.213Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1788 Objectives: To examine whether the use of current prescribing software systems might raise rates of repeat prescribing, with a consequent increase in use of antibiotics in the community. Design and setting: A prospective audit of consecutive prescriptions for amoxycillin, cefaclor, roxithromycin and amoxycillin/clavulanate presented to community pharmacies in the Hunter region of New South Wales and a follow-up survey of people who received a repeat prescription, October to November 2000. Main outcome measures: The frequency of repeat prescription ordering on computer-generated and handwritten prescriptions; the proportion of people who filled their repeat prescription. Results: Data were collected for 1667 prescriptions presented to 35 pharmacies; 126 people who received repeat prescriptions completed the survey. The rate of repeat prescription ordering on computer-generated prescriptions was 69%, compared with 40% for handwritten prescriptions (odds ratio, 3.3; 95% CI, 2.6–4.2). Computer-generated repeat prescriptions were as likely to be filled as hand-written prescriptions (61% and 69%, respectively). Conclusions: The default settings on computerised prescribing packages result in a significant increase in the use of antibiotics. We estimate these settings result in about 500 000 additional prescriptions being filled annually in Australia for the four antibiotics in the study. 2011-02-08T22:50:04.750Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3769 2010-10-12T01:00:01.871Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4957 English translation: "Scientifically founded practice and decision analysis". 2010-09-27T05:50:01.209Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4333 An individual-based model which produces nonlinear predator-prey dynamics is described. The importance of individual variation to the stability of the population dynamics predicted by the model and the advantages of the individual-based approach to modelling ecological systems is discussed. The individual-based model is compared with the traditional approach of population ecology - the modelling of populations with state variable equations. The individual-based model built here produces similar patterns of mutual dependence of the populations to those produced by the state variable model but has additional utility. It greatly simplifes the adjustment of individual environmental parameters which may be built into the model and it makes it possible to follow individuals or individual parameter values through the simulation. The cost of the utility of the individual-based approach is in the complexity of the model itself, which is more difficult to build than many state variable models. A common finding in the literature of individual-based modelling in ecology is the importance of individual variation. The individual-based model described here is built with a minimum of biological complexity, but still we nd that individual variation in the model has profound effects on the stability of the population levels over long time periods. 2010-09-27T02:30:01.649Z ]]>