Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Desiccation Tolerance Of Three Moss Species From Continental Antarctica, Sharon A. Robinson, J. Wasley, M. Popp, C. E. Lovelock

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Tolerance of desiccation was examined in three species of moss, Grimmia antarctici Card., Ceratodon purpureus (Hedw.) Brid. and Bryum pseudotriquetrum (Hedw.) Gaertn., Meyer et Scherb. collected from two sites of contrasting water availability in the Windmill Islands, continental Antarctica. Physiological tolerance to desiccation was measured using chlorophyll fluorescence in plugs of moss during natural drying in the laboratory. Differences in relative water contents, rates of drying and the response of photosynthesis to desiccation were observed among the three species and between sites. Of the three species studied, G. antarctici showed the lowest capacity to sustain photosynthetic processes during desiccation, B. …

Tracing Beach Sand Provenance And Transport Using Foraminifera: Preliminary Examples From Northwest Europe And Southeast Australia, S. K. Haslett, Edward A. Bryant, R. H. Curr

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Foraminifera are marine Sarcodine Protozoa that possess tests (shells) that are preservable in the fossil record. These tests may either be constructed using organically cemented detritus (agglutinating or arenaceous forms), or secreted using calcium carbonate (calcareous forms). Their ecology embraces planktonic and benthonic modes, although planktonic forms generally inhabit the open ocean and seldom live in coastal waters in any abundance, while benthonic foraminifera exist on substrates from abyssal plains to high intertidal areas. There are many species of foraminifera that are niche-specific, making them ideal for palaeoenvironmental analysis (Boersma, 1978; Brasier, 1980; Murray, 1991; Culver, 1993).

A Geometric Approach For Three-Phase Load Balancing In Distribution Networks, Kashem M. Muttaqi, Velappa Ganapathy, G B. Jasmon

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

No abstract provided.

A Novel Method For Loss Minimization In Distribution Networks, Kashem M. Muttaqi, Velappa Ganapathy, G B. Jasmon, M Buhari

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Network reconfiguration for loss minimization is the determination of switching-options that minimizes the power losses for a particular set of loads on a distribution system. In this paper, a novel method is proposed by formulating an algorithm to reconfigure distribution networks for loss minimization. An efficient technique is used to determine the switching combinations, select the status of the switches, and find the best combination of switches for minimum loss. In the first stage of the proposed algorithm, a limited number of switching combinations is generated and the best switching combination is determined. In the second stage, an extensive search …

Diet Composition And Insulin Action In Animal Models, Leonard H. Storlien, J Higgins, T C. Thomas, Marc A. Brown, Hong-Qin Wang, Xu-Feng Huang, Paul Else

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Global-Perspective Jitter Improves Vection In Central Vision, Stephen A. Palmisano, Barbara Gillam, Shane Blackburn

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Previous vection research has tended to minimise visual - vestibular conflict by using optic-flow patterns which simulate self-motions of constant velocity. Here, experiments are reported on the effect of adding 'global-perspective jitter' to these displays -- simulating forward motion of the observer on a platform oscillating in horizontal and/or vertical dimensions. Unlike non-jittering displays, jittering displays produced a situation of sustained visual - vestibular conflict. Contrary to the prevailing notion that visual - vestibular conflict impairs vection, jittering optic flow was found to produce shorter vection onsets and longer vection durations than non-jittering optic flow for all of jitter magnitudes …

Aureliae: 800 Works From The Otago Polytechnic School Of Art, Su Ballard

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Mapping a collection

A collection is never fixed, and any identifiable collection is greater than the sum of its parts. As Susan Stewart comments: "while we can 'see' the entire collection, we cannot possibly 'see' each of its elements." (On Longing: Narratives of the Miniat ure, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 1984, p.152). The Otago Polytechnic School of Art collection database lists 836 items, but this is not a complete record. There are other works that have perhaps fallen t hrough crilcks, while some works listed in the database may even dispute …

Slope Instability, Hazard And Risk Associated With A Rainstorm Event - A Case Study, Phillip N. Flentje, Robin N. Chowdhury

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Over the last few decades there has been an increasing awareness of landslide hazard and risk in many coastal regions of Australia. Urban communities in hilly areas are, from time to time, adversely affected by rainfall-induced landsliding. However, acute awareness of hazard may be absent during periods between significant rainstorm events. In general, the serious consequences of landslides to property and life have been underestimated in Australia. It is now known that at least 80 deaths can be attributed to a number of landslides (Leiba, 1998). Some of these events have focussed the attention of the public, the most important …

Toward A Heuristic Optimum Design Of Rolling Schedules For Tandem Cold Rolling Mills, Dadong Wang, A Kiet Tieu, Friso Deboer, B Ma, W. Y. Daniel Yuen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Scheduling for tandem cold mills refers to the determination of inter-stand gauges, tensions and speeds of a specified product. Optimal schedules should result in maximized throughput and minimized operating cost. This paper presents a genetic algorithm based optimization procedure for the scheduling of tandem cold rolling mills. The optimization procedure initiates searching from a logical staring point - an empirical rolling schedule - and ends with an optimum cost. Cost functions are constructed to heuristically direct the genetic algorithm's searching, based on the consideration of power distribution, tension, strip flatness and rolling constraints. Numerical experiments have shown that the proposed …

The Kth-Order Nonhomomorphicity Of S-Boxes, Yuliang Zheng, Xian-Mo Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Nonhomomorphicity is a new nonlinearity criterion of a mapping or S-box used in a private key encryption algorithm. An important advantage of nonhomomorphicity over other nonlinearity criteria is that the value of nonhomomorphicity is easy to estimate by the use of a fast statistical method. Due to the Law of Large Numbers, such a statistical method is highly reliable. Major contributions of this paper are (1) to explicitly express the nonhomomorphicity by other nonlinear characteristics, (2) to identify tight upper and lower bounds on nonhomomorphicity, and (3) to find the mean of nonhomomorphicity over all the S-boxes with the same …

Influence Of In-Plane Displacement And Double-Aperture Orientation On Slope Fringe Formation In Double-Shearing-Aperture Speckle Interferometry, K F. Wang, A Kiet Tieu, Enbang Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The influence of the in-plane displacement and double-aperture orientation on the slope fringe formation in double-shearing-aperture speckle interferometry is discussed in detail. The research results show that the two in-plane displacement components, one parallel to and the other perpendicular to the shearing direction, have an influence on the slope fringe formation and that the double-aperture orientation also has an important influence on the slope fringe formation. A theoretical analysis and experimental results are presented. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis.

Fuelling Quasars With Hot Gas, Paul E J Nulsen, A C. Fabian

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We consider a model for quasar formation in which massive black holes are formed and fuelled largely by the accretion of hot gas during the process of galaxy formation. In standard hierarchical collapse models, objects about the size of normal galaxies and larger form a dense hot atmosphere when they collapse. We show that if such an atmosphere forms a nearly ‘maximal’ cooling flow, then a central black hole can accrete at close to its Eddington limit. This leads to exponential growth of a seed black hole, resulting in a quasar in some cases. In this model, the first quasars …

A Physical Model For The Hard X-Ray Background, R J. Wilman, A C. Fabian, Paul E J Nulsen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We combine a semi-analytic galaxy formation model with a prescription for the obscured growth of massive black holes, to reproduce the hard X-ray background (XRB), the local 2–10 keV active galactic nuclei (AGN) luminosity function and the source counts, including recent Chandra results. The model also complies with constraints on the AGN contribution to the far-infrared and submillimetre backgrounds.

The comoving density of luminous AGN [L(2-10keV) > 10⁴⁴ erg s^-1, in the unabsorbed rest-frame] in the model declines sharply since z=2, mimicking the observed evolution of the quasar population. The abundance of lower luminosity AGN simultaneously increases, and …

Convergence Of Eigenvalues In State-Discretization Of Linear Stochastic Systems, Jose A. De Dona, Graham C. Goodwin, Richard H. Middleton, Iain Raeburn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The transition operator that describes the time evolution of the state probability distribution for continuous-state linear systems is given by an integral operator. A state-discretization approach is proposed, which consists of a finite rank approximation of this integral operator. As a result of the state-discretization procedure, a Markov chain is obtained, in which case the transition operator is represented by a transition matrix. Spectral properties of the integral operator for the continuous-state case are presented. The relationships between the integral operator and the finite rank approximation are explored. In particular, the limiting properties of the eigenvalues of the transition matrices …

The Berry-Esseen Bound For Studentized Statistics, Qiying Wang, Bing-Yi Jing, Lincheng Zhao

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We derive Berry-Esseen bounds for a class of Studentized statistics. The results are applied to Studentized U-statistics, Studentized L-statistics and Studentized functions of the sample mean to give the Berry-Esseen bounds under conditions weaker than those obtained by alternative methods.

Expedited Broda-Damas Bracket Abstraction, Martin W. Bunder

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A bracket abstraction algorithm is a means of translating λ-terms into combinators. Broda and Damas, in [1], introduce a new, rather natural set of combinators and a new form of bracket abstraction which introduces at most one combinator for each λ-abstraction. This leads to particularly compact combinatory terms. A disadvantage of their abstraction process is that it includes the whole Schonfinkel [4] algorithm plus two mappings which convert the Schonfinkel abstract into the new abstract. This paper shows how the new abstraction can be done more directly, in fact, using only 2n - 1 algorithm steps if there are n …

Specific Yield For A Two-Dimensional Flow, Peter Tritscher, W Wayne Read, Philip Broadbridge

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We investigate the systematic secular spatial variation of specific yield. As a vehicle for this analysis we consider a canonical unconfined aquifer consisting of a porous zone whose cross section is a simple long rectangle. The hydraulic conductivity in the unsaturated zone is modeled by the quasi-linear approximation. We find that locally the specific yield may be strongly influenced by the water table depth and mildly dependent on the recharge rate if that rate is high. For the simple geometry considered, a lateral component of flow has been found to have an insignificant effect on the local specific yield and …

Options For The Assessment And Reporting Of Primary Students In The Key Learning Area Of Science To Be Used For The Reporting Of Nationally Comparable Outcomes Of Schooling Within The Context Of The National Goals For Schooling In The Twenty-First Century, Samuel Ball, Ian D. Rae, Jim S. Tognolini

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The National Education Performance Monitoring Taskforce (NEPMT) was established in April 1999 by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). The taskforce was called upon inter alia to develop performance measures as the basis for national reporting. One such area was science.

Over Het Meten Van De Sensitiviteit Bij Professionele Verzorg(St)Ers, Frits Goossens, Edward Melhuish

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Much research indicates the importance of interactional experience for young children in developing their competence. In particular sensitivity in interaction has been associated with beneficial developmental outcomes and is often regarded as a central component of good quality child care. This study considers some alternative ways of measuring the sensitivity of caregivers. Thirty professional caregiver-infant dyads were observed in three different situations: in the laboratury during free-play (1), during a task (2) and at the nursery itself while caring for 10 infants with a colleague (3). Results indicated that their sensitivity was highest in situation 1; this score was significantly …

Diet Composition And Insulin Action In Animals Models, Leonard Storlien, J A. Higgins, T C. Thomas, John Brown, Hongqin Wang, Xu-Feng Huang, Paul Else

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Critical insights into the etiology of insulin resistance have been gained by the use of animal models where insulin action has been modulated by strictly controlled dietary interventions not possible in human studies. Overall, the literature has moved from a focus on macronutrient proportions to understanding the unique effects of individual subtypes of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Substantial evidence has now accumulated for a major role of dietary fat subtypes in insulin action. Intake of saturated fats is strongly linked to development of obesity and insulin resistance, while that of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) is not. This is consistent with observations …

Odyssey Renewed: Towards A New Aesthetics Of Video Gaming, Jason Wilson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The first home video-gaming console, the Magnavox Odyssey, was released in 1972. Its limited graphical capacities led Magnavox to ship it with a number of plastic overlays for the user's television that would admit a little variety into the then relatively crude gaming experience, limited to a built-in, Pong-like game. Computer and video games have come a long way since then, but it often seems as if critical approaches to gaming have continued shuffling through these plastic films, taking transformations of the screen, or on-screen events, for the whole of the gaming experience. It seems to me that reflection has …

Learning To Assess School Mathematics: Context, Multimedia And Transfer, Janice Herrington, Anthony Herrington, Len Sparrow

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The study set out to explore the use of a multimedia program on assessment strategies within a preservice teacher mathematics method unit, and to investigate the extent of transfer to classroom practice. A multimedia program was designed to incorporate characteristics of 'situated' learning environments. Preservice teachers used the program in their mathematics method classes, and they and their supervising teachers were interviewed regarding their use of assessment strategies while on professional practice. Results show that all students used a variety of assessment strategies, and according to the beliefs of the students themselves, were influenced in their use of strategies by …

Researching Case Management: Making It A 'Fact'?, Peter J. Camilleri

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Case management has become a very important part of the human and health services and has also been cemented in legislation in the US, the UK and Australia and implemented in various practice settings and programs. A review on case management is presented considering its historic origins, concepts and the various researches done on it.

Sharing The Spirit? Sociospatial Polarization And Expressed Enthusiasm For The Olympic Games, Gordon R. Waitt, Philippe Furrer

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

This article seeks to contribute to the literature that assesses the local outcomes of hosting hallmark events by examining the expressed levels of enthusiasm for the year 2000 Olympic Games within Sydney. We report on the results of a telephone survey of 658 Sydney residents conducted in February 1998 designed to measure enthusiasm for the 2000 Olympic Games. As of February 1998, it appeared that enthusiasm for the 2000 Olympics remained strong in Sydney, thereby providing support to the views of those who regard hallmark events as a psychological mechanism to assist residents to feel a sense of pride in …

Financial Intermediaries And The Design Of Loan Contracts In The Australasian Pastoral Sector Before World War Two, Simon Ville, G. Fleming

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the pooling and separating contracts designed by Australasian financial intermediaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We show that after an initial screening process these agents altered interest rates and collateral requirements to separate out risk types to reveal additional information on borrowers. In multi-period contracts agents opted for flexible contract structures which permitted changes in individual or community-wide circumstances.

The Nature And Structure Of Trade-Financial Networks: Evidence From The New Zealand Pastoral Sector, 1860-1939, Simon Ville, G. Fleming

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study applies modern network theory to trade and finance networks in the New Zealand pastoral sector before World War Two It particularly examines the manner in which networks can include trading and financial business transactions simultaneously. In addition, it provides evidence of the role of leadership in such networks, in this case played by the stock and station agents as intermediaries bringing farmers into contact with a wide range of service providers.

Denying Accountability? Australia’S International Mining Shame , Jane Andrew

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Australian mining companies are under considerable international scrutiny due to a number of high profile environmental disasters. This paper is concerned with analysising our ability to hold these companies accountable for their actions.

The Effect Of Geographic Mobility On Male Labour-Force Particpants In The United States, Joan R. Rodgers, John L. Rodgers

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

We use both fixed-effects and random-effects regression models to measure the effect of geographic mobility on earnings of labor-force participants in the United States. The results support the human-capital hypothesis: six years after moving, real earnings of male labor-force participants are about 20 percent higher than they would have been had the move not occurred. Men younger than 40, and men with family-unit incomes no more than five times the poverty line, experience even larger benefits from moving. The geographic mobility that is characteristic of the United States’ flexible labor market, in general, is beneficial to the movers.

Poverty Intensity In Australia, Joan R. Rodgers, John L. Rodgers

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Even though poverty indices with axiomatically sound properties have been advocated for several decades, most empirical studies of poverty in Australia and elsewhere continue to use the crude, but easily understood, head-count ratio. The difficulty of interpreting the axiomatically more desirable indices is a major reason why their use has been resisted in applied poverty measurement. This paper demonstrates how the more sophisticated poverty indices can be converted into a form that is readily interpreted as a measure of poverty intensity of a group, relative to the population to which the group belongs. The resulting poverty-intensity index is easy to …

Behavioral Market Segmentation Of Binary Guest Survey Data With Bagged Clustering, Sara Dolnicar, Friedrich Leisch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Binary survey data from the Austrian National Guest Survey conducted in the summer season of 1997 were used to identify behavioural market segments on the basis of vacation activity information. Bagged clustering overcomes a number of diffculties typically encountered when partitioning large binary data sets: The partitions have greater structural stability over repetitions of the algorithm and the question of the "correct" number of clusters is less important because of the hierarchical step of the cluster analysis. Finally, the bootstrap part of the algorithm provides means for assessing and visualizing segment stability for each input variable.