Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian literature – Western Australia'
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1
Henningsgaard, Per Hansa. "Outside traditional book publishing centres : the production of a regional literature in Western Australia." University of Western Australia. English and Cultural Studies Discipline Group, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0255.
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This thesis provides a study of book publishing as it contributes to the production of a regional literature, using Western Australian publishing and literature as illustrative examples of this dynamic. 'Regional literature' is defined in this thesis as writing possessing cultural value that is specific to a region, although the writing may also have national and international value. An awareness of geographically and culturally diverse regions within the framework of the nation is shown to be derived from representations of these regions and their associated regional characteristics in the movies, television and books. In Australia, literature has been the primary site for expressions of regional difference. Therefore, this thesis analyses the impact of regionalism on the processes of book production and publication in Western Australias three major publishing houses a trade publishing house (Fremantle Press), an Indigenous publishing house (Magabala Books), and an academic publishing house (University of Western Australia Press). Book history, print culture studies and publishing studies, along with literary studies and cultural studies, roughly approximate a disciplinary map of the types of research that constitute this thesis. By examining regional literature in the context of its 'field of cultural production', this thesis maintains that regionalism and regional literature can avail themselves of a fresh perspective that shows them to be anything but marginal or exclusive. Regionalism has been a topic of peripheral interest, at least as far as scholarly research and academia are concerned, because those who are most likely to be affected by and thus interested in the topic, are also those who are most disempowered as a result of its attendant dynamics. However, as this thesis clearly demonstrates, access (or a lack thereof) to the field of cultural production (which in the case of print culture includes writers, literary agents, editors, publishers, government arts organisations, the media, schools, book clubs, and book retailers, just to name a few) plays a significant role in establishing and shaping an identity for marginalised 3 constituencies. The implications for this research are far-ranging, since both Western Australia and Australia can be understood as peripheries dominated in their different spheres (the 'national' and the 'international', respectively) by literary cultures residing elsewhere. Furthermore, there are parallels between this dynamic and the dynamic responsible for producing postcolonial literatures. The three publishing houses detailed in this thesis are disadvantaged by many of the factors associated with their distance from the traditional centres of book publishing, while at the same time producing a regional literature that serves as a platform from which the state broadcasts its distinctive contributions to the cultural landscape and to a wider understanding of concepts such as space, place and belonging. These publishing houses changed the way in which Australians and others have come to know and think about 'Australia', re-routing public consciousness and the national imagination.
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Thistleton-Martin, Judith. "Black face white story : the construction of Aboriginal childhood by non-Aboriginal writers in Australian children's fiction 1841-1998 /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031024.100333/index.html.
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Temperton, Barbara. "The Lighthouse keeper's wife, and other stories (novel) ; and Ceremony for ground : narrative, landscape, myth (dissertation)." University of Western Australia. English, Communication and Cultural Studies Discipline Group, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0005.
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The focus of this project is on poetry, narrative, landscape and myth, and the palimpsest and/or hybridisation created when these four areas overlay each other. Our local communities' engagement with myth-making activity provides a golden opportunity for contemporary poets to continue the practice long established by our forebears of utilising folklore and legendary material as sources for poetry. Keeping in mind the words of M. H. Abrams who said
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Temperton, Barbara Temperton Barbara. "The Lighthouse keeper's wife, and other stories (novel) : and Ceremony for ground : narrative, landscape, myth (dissertation) /." Connect to this title, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0005.
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Kindler, Michael. "Human literacy : liberal neglect in A Statement on English for Australian Schools /." View thesis, 1996. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030902.170901/index.html.
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Jewell, Melinda R. "The representation of dance in Australian novels the darkness beyond the stage-lit dream /." View thesis, 2008. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/39463.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2008.A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.
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Holliday, Brian. "The conundrum of the West : reading the novels of Nicholas Hasluck." Curtin University of Technology, School of Communication and Cultural Studies, 1998. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=10562.
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The purpose of this thesis is to explore the ways in which Nicholas Hasluck's novels have been read in the past, and to develop an alternative interpretation which takes into account all Hasluck's narratives, reading them through the framework of current trends in literary and cultural theory. Hasluck is a Western Australian writer whose work takes seriously, while at the same time parodies, the institutions of both Western Australia and Western society.The initial section comprises three chapters, in which Hasluck's novels are read through the commonly used frameworks of the mystery-thriller genre and satire. The second part of the thesis, which covers four chapters, is a reading of Hasluck's narratives through the shift from modernism to postmodernism, drawing particularly on the work of theorists such as Linda Hutcheon, Michel Foucault and Brian McHale. This interpretation reveals how Hasluck's work increasingly uses the marginal, regional narratives of Western Australia to contest the mega-narratives of the West.The significance of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, this is currently the most in-depth examination of the work of a neglected Western Australian writer, and, secondly, the combining of Hasluck's literary themes and this thesis's critical framework provides a productive format for exploring issues of Western Australian history and literature.
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Spear, Peta. "Libertine : a novel & A writer's reflection : the Libertine dynamic : existential erotic and apocalyptic Gothic /." View thesis, 1998. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030909.143230/index.html.
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Kucharova, Sue. "The torch collector /." View thesis, 1999. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030905.143557/index.html.
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Hawryluk, Lynda J. "Call waiting /." View thesis View thesis, 2001. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030422.094611/index.html.
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Chakhachiro, Raymond. "The translation of irony in Australian political commentary texts from English into Arabic /." View thesis, 1997. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030715.161818/index.html.
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Barlow, Gillian. "Jigsaw : looking at identity, post-colonialism and driving /." View thesis View thesis, 2001. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030428.102002/index.html.
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De, Iacovo Joe. "Easy : a novella /." View thesis, 1999. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030910.142345/index.html.
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Macris, Anthony. "Capital, volume one, part two : a novel ; The generative Mise en abyme : an accompanying theoretical essay /." View thesis View thesis, 2001. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030505.145103/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 2001.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, March, 2001. Bibliography : leaves [278]-282.
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Edwards, Danielle L. "Biogeography and speciation of southwestern Australian frogs." University of Western Australia. School of Animal Biology, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0058.
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[Truncated abstract] Southwestern Australia is a global biodiversity hotspot. The region contains a high number of endemic species, ranging from Gondwanan relicts to more recently evolved plant and animal species. Biogeographic models developed primarily for plants suggest a prominent role of Quaternary climatic fluctuations in the rampant speciation of endemic plants. Those models were not based on explicit spatial analysis of genetic structure, did not estimate divergence dates and may be a poor predictor of patterns in endemic vertebrates. Myobatrachid frogs have featured heavily in the limited investigations of the biogeography of the regions fauna. Myobatrachid frogs are diverse in southwestern Australia, and while we know they have speciated in situ, we know little about the temporal and spatial patterning of speciation events. In order to gain insight into the biogeographic history and potential speciation patterns of Myobatrachid frogs in the southwest I conducted a comparative phylogeography of four frog species spanning three life history strategies. I aimed to: 1) assess the biogeographic history of individual species, 2) determine where patterns of regional diversity exist using a comparative framework, 3) determine whether congruent patterns across species enable the development of explicit biogeographic hypotheses for frogs, and 4) compare patterns of diversity in plants with the models I developed for frogs. I conducted fine-scale intraspecific phylogeographies on four species. ... Geocrinia leai: deep divergences, coincident with late Miocene arid onset, divide this species into western and southeast coastal lineages, with a third only found within the Shannon-Gardner River catchments. Phylogeographic history within each lineage has been shaped by climatic fluctuations from the Pliocene through to the present. Arenophryne shows the first evidence of geological activity in speciation of a Shark Bay endemic. Divergence patterns between the High Rainfall and Southeast Coastal Provinces within C. georgiana are consistent with patterns between Litoria moorei and L. cyclorhynchus and plant biogeographic regions. Subdivision between drainage systems along the southern coast (in M. nichollsi, G. leai and the G. rosea species complex) reflect the relative importance of distinct catchments as refuges during arid maxima, similarly the northern Darling Escarpment is identified as a potential refugium (C. georgiana and G. leai). Divergences in Myobatrachid frogs are far older than those inferred for plants with the late Miocene apparently an important time for speciation of southwestern frogs. Speciation of Myobatrachids broadly relates to the onset of aridity in Australia in the late Miocene, with the exception of earlier/contemporaneous geological activity in Arenophryne. The origins of subsequent intraspecific phylogeographic structure are coincident with subsequent climatic fluctuations and correlated landscape evolution. Divergence within frogs in the forest system may be far older than the Pleistocene models developed for plants because of the heavy reliance on wet systems by relictual frog species persisting in the southwestern corner of Australia.
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Craig, Robert S. "Western Australian Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic brachiopoda." Curtin University of Technology, School of Applied Geology, 1999. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=12043.
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The research reported in this thesis focuses on Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic fossil brachiopods of Western Australia. Although the work is primarily taxonomic, it also includes biodiversity, distribution and some aspects of ecology of the brachiopods described.The most recent information on the anatomy, physiology and ecology of brachiopods is summarised at the beginning of the thesis.Identification of brachiopods is determined primarily on internal morphological features as brachiopods tend to be homomorphic, many species looking externally the same. The morphological features used in the identification of the brachiopods described within the thesis are defined.The fossil material studied has come from four sedimentary basins in Western Australia. The Carnarvon Basin contains Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic fossil material. The Perth Basin also has Late Cretaceous and late Cenozoic brachiopods The Bremer and Eucla Basin have Cenozoic deposits. The stratigraphy of the deposits containing the brachiopods is described.Until this study commenced, eight species had been described from Western Australia. This thesis describes fifty eight species including thirty new species, one new family and two new genera.In preparing descriptions of the new species it become evident that many of the species from the Southern Hemisphere were quite different to those found in the Northern Hemisphere. Their closest affiliation was with genera and species described from the Antarctic Peninsula. Four genera and one species from the Late Cretaceous deposits of Western Australia are common to the Late Cretaceous deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula. In the examination of the Tertiary material from the Carnarvon Basin, it also became clear that there was a strong correlation with Tertiary material from the Antarctic Peninsula. At least four genera are common to both deposits. Six brachiopod ++genera from the Middle Miocene deposits of the South Shetland Islands Antarctica are common to New Zealand. Nine genera, identified from the La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, are also common to New Zealand. These genera are also found in Australia. This evidence has led to the proposal that in the Late Cretaceous there was a common shelf environment from the Antarctic Peninsula to the north-west coast of Western Australia. In this area, which formed the high latitude southern circum-Indo-Atlantic faunal province, brachiopods evolved different genera and species than those in the northern hemisphere. Many then dispersed into northern areas of the Indian, Atlantic and finally Pacific Oceans.When the material from the Middle to Late Eocene of the Bremer and Eucla Basin was examined, five genera were found to be common to the Early Tertiary of the Carnarvon Basin. When comparing the species from the south-western basins and those from the south- east it was evident that similar species occur in the Middle to Late Eocene of the Bremer, Eucla, St Vincent and Murray Basins. There are some fifteen species in common. Many of these species then occur in the Late Oligocene south-eastern basins near Victoria and Tasmania as the gap between the Australia mainland and Tasmania began to open. One species that occurs in the Late Eocene of Western Australia is also described from the Late Oligocene of New Zealand.In considering the distribution of the Cenozoic brachiopods, genera first appear in the north-west of Western Australia and they then appear in chronological order in the south-western basins and south-eastern basins of South Australia, then the south-eastern basins of Victoria and Tasmania and then New Zealand. By the Late Eocene, there was a shallow marine connection between the Bight and the Tasman Sea. By the Late Oligocene this had widened and ++
Australia was finally totally separated from Antarctica.The Proto-Leeuwin Current was responsible for the distribution of the brachiopods from the north-west of Western Australia to the southern coast. Possible mechanisms for the distribution of genera to New Zealand include rafting and an extended larval stage.It has been suggested that brachiopods in Australia are distributed according to the substrate on which they settle rather than any other factor. Using the information on the distribution of brachiopods in Western Australia throughout the Cenozoic this hypothesis is examined. It is suggested that avoidance of light in the photic zone and food availability with competition with bivalves are more important factors than substrate conditions.
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Buzzacott, Peter Lee. "Diving injuries amongst Western Australian scuba course graduates." University of Western Australia. School of Population Health, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0096.
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[Truncated abstract] Introduction, Little is known about the prevalence of post-course diving injuries amongst Western Australian recreational divers, nor is it known which risk factors affect the Western Australian diver’s likelihood of sustaining a diving injury. Objective, The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of diving-related injuries amongst Western Australians with varying experience since certification as entry-level divers within Western Australia (WA). Specifically, the study compared divers’ experience, behaviour and equipment with their diving injury history. It was hypothesised that diving experience has an effect upon the likelihood of a certified diver suffering any of the diving injuries most commonly reported amongst international diving populations. In addition, the strength of association between diving injuries and other potential risk factors was measured amongst certified Western Australian divers. Methods, A cross sectional survey of Western Australians, whom had completed a recognized entry-level recreational scuba diving course within WA, formed the basis of the study. Diver training facilities within WA posted a four-page questionnaire to divers they had trained to entry-level within the previous six years. The self-administered questionnaire collected data describing the divers’ post-course participation in scuba diving, injury prevalence during the last year, demographic characteristics and prevalence of known or hypothesized diving injury risk factors ... Conclusion, In this study diving experience, measured by the number of dives made during the previous year and the total number of dives made since certification, has not been found associated with the likelihood of reporting having suffered at least one diving injury of any type whilst diving during the previous year. Whilst the limited response rate and self-reporting methodology threaten the validity of the findings of this study, the findings improve our understanding of the type of diving injuries commonly suffered by divers, and of which risk factors are associated with a diver’s likelihood of suffering a diving related injury within WA. These findings may assist the design of further diving injury research, ultimately leading to the design of diving safety interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of diving injuries amongst Western Australian recreational divers.
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Nuruzzaman, Mohammad. "Phosphorus benefits of white lupin, field pea and faba bean to wheat production in Western Australian soils." University of Western Australia. School of Plant Biology, 2005. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0094.
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[Truncated abstract] Soils of Western Australian cropping regions are very low in phosphorous. White lupin, chickpea, and faba bean are being increasingly used in rotations with wheat on these soils. Yield of wheat after a legume crop is frequently higher than its yield after wheat. It has been reported that in addition to nitrogen, legumes can also contribute to improve the availability of phosphorous for the subsequent crops. This PhD research project aimed at optimising the economic returns of wheat-legume rotations through more efficient use of P fertiliser in the legume phase as well as enhanced availability of soil P in the subsequent wheat phase
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Cavanagh, Robert F. "The culture and improvement of Western Australian senior secondary schools." Curtin University of Technology, Faculty of Education, 1997. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=11830.
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The operation and development of Western Australian senior secondary schools is based upon traditional theories of organisational management and school administration. The study sought to explore alternative conceptions of the nature of schools and the processes by which they can be improved.Examination of research on school effectiveness revealed that student learning outcomes were consequential on the values and norms of the staff of schools. These values and norms constitute the culture of a school and govern the professional activity of teachers. School culture can be contrasted with the formal school organisation in which the work of teachers is prescribed by explicit rules and regulations. Viewing schools from a cultural rather than organisational perspective requires conceptualising the school as a learning community. A learning community is bonded together by common expectations about the roles of teachers and the learning of students. The predominant consideration is the educative mission of the school and not the requirements of the formal organisation. Organisational development is viewed as cultural transformation. The improvement of the school is facilitated by the growth of a school culture which is supportive of the professional needs of teachers and the educative needs of students.The study utilised a developmental mixed-method research approach to investigate the nature, temporal stability and improvement of the culture of local senior secondary schools.A quantitative instrument was developed to measure aspects of school culture identified in the school effectiveness literature. The School Cultural Elements Questionnaire (SCEQ) provided a measure of the level of teacher efficacy, emphasis on learning, collegiality, collaboration, shared planning and transformational leadership in local schools. The SCEQ data were supplemented by data from a ++stratified sample interview programme in two schools. Empirical findings indicated school culture was internally dynamic, in interaction with its external environment and capable of changing. Interview data provided examples of internal and external influences on the maintenance, growth and decline of school culture.The results of the empirical phases of the study were applied in the development of a model of school culture, the School Improvement Model of School Culture. The model contained six cultural constructs which are characteristic of school culture and the processes by which it can be transformed. The model was then applied in a detailed examination of practical and theoretical aspects of Western Australian systemic school improvement initiatives. The effectiveness of these initiatives was explained as a consequence of implementation strategies and their interaction with the prevailing school culture.The study is important for school level personnel, school improvement programme designers and educational researchers. In particular, the School Improvement Model of School Culture provides a significant alternative conception of the nature of schools and the processes by which they improve.
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Klapproth, Danièle. "Holding the world in place : narrative as social practice in Anglo-Western and in a Central Australian Aboriginal culture /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2002. http://www.ub.unibe.ch/content/bibliotheken_sammlungen/sondersammlungen/dissen_bestellformular/index_ger.html.
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Taylor, John J. "Joseph John Talbot Hobbs (1864-1938) : and his Australian-English architecture." University of Western Australia. Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, 2010. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0100.
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Architect and soldier Sir J.J. Talbot Hobbs was born on 24 August 1864 in London. After migrating from England to Western Australia in the late 1880s, Hobbs designed many buildings that were constructed in Perth, Fremantle, and regional areas of the State. Although Talbot Hobbs has previously been recognised as a significant and influential contributor to architecture in Australia, his development as an architect has not been documented, nor has his design output undergone critical analysis. A number of problems confront attempts to interpret Hobbs' contribution to architecture. One is that a number of his most prominent building designs have been demolished. Another is that national recognition for his achievements as a First World War Army General have overshadowed his extraordinarily productive pre and post-war career as an architect. Military service was intrinsic to his character, and thus is woven in to this architectural biography. The thesis examines Hobbs' life and work, filling the gap in documented evidence of his contributions, and fitting it within the context of Australian architectural and social history. The main proposition to be tested is whether Hobbs' Australian architecture, of English derivation, combined with vast community service, warrants his recognition as an architect and citizen of national significance. Completely new important issues, information, discussion and facts that have resulted from the research for this thesis are: 1. Biographical knowledge about Hobbs' life including his upbringing, education and training in England, and his fifty years of comprehensive work and community service in and for Australia; 2. The elucidation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century architectural issues that were relevant to Hobbs and other architects in Western Australia; 3. Examination of the important works of Hobbs' architect predecessors and contemporaries in Perth, and the setting of his own work within this context; 4. Revelation of his primary and pivotal role in war memorial design and organisational work for the far-flung theatres of Australian Army conflicts and selected personal design works within Australia itself during 1919-38; and 5. A chronology and summary of Hobbs' life, with thorough documentation of his output as a sole practitioner in the period 1887-1904 by development of a detailed web-based database - an extremely valuable tool for future researchers.
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Davis, Robert A. "Metapopulation structure of the Western Spotted Frog (Heleioporus albopunctatus) in the fragmented landscape of the Western Australian wheatbelt." University of Western Australia. School of Animal Biology, 2004. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0026.
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[Truncated abstract] Amidst concern over the global phenomenon of declining amphibians, there is an increasing appreciation of the importance of understanding population dynamics at both local and regional scales. Data on the viability and persistence of species in landscapes altered by humans are scarce but an understanding of these dynamics is essential for enabling long-term species conservation in a modified world. Habitat loss, fragmentation and ensuing salinisation are of particular concern for species in Australia’s temperate agricultural regions where the rapid conversion of continuously vegetated landscapes to small fragments has occurred in less than 200 years. This thesis investigated the local and metapopulation structure of Heleioporus albopunctatus to determine the current population structure and likely future of this species in a highly degraded landscape: the wheat and sheep growing areas of southwestern Australia ... The life-history attributes of H. albopunctatus, including high fecundity, high adult longevity and low to moderate dispersal contribute to a robust regional metapopulation, responsive to changes, but with a strong chance of persistence over the long-term. H. albopunctatus appears to have adjusted to a radically modified landscape but its long-term persistence may be dependent on the existence of a small number of source populations that recruit in most years.
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Howe, Margaret L. "The bio-sociological relationship between Western Australian Aboriginals and their dogs." Murdoch University, 1993. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20060815.151043.
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The hypothesis central to this study is that distinctly Aboriginal patterns of relationship between humans and dogs are still evident in contemporary Aboriginal groups. The relationship's sociological characteristics in traditional and contemporary settings and its implications for canine and human health are also investigated.
Field research employing survey, quantitative observation and specimen analysis techniques was conducted in 9 Western Australian Aboriginal groups of various
backgrounds and settings. Results were compared to historic-traditional accounts and dog ownership studies in non-Aboriginal groups.
Traditionally dogs served Aboriginals most importantly for supernatural protection and to assist the collection of small game by women. In non-isolated groups, traditional
utilitarian motives were superseded by the Western concept of dogs as companions.
Demographically, the Aboriginal dog populations surveyed were relatively large, and most dogs were classified as medium sized non-descript cross-breds.
Dogs were more commonly owned by adult and aged individuals, rather than by family units as is the Western cultural norm. Most dogs remained with their original owner
and retained their original name for life.
Traditional values of respect towards dogs were compromised to the discriminatory care of higher status animals only, effecting selection pressure against undesirable dogs, particularly females. Similarly, while many aged people were opposed to culling, most respondents regarded community pup production as excessive and accepted culling as necessary. Nevertheless prevention was the preferred option, with strong support for the previously unfamiliar concept of ovariohysterectomy.
Pups were raised in some respects like children in the traditional manner, indulgence giving way in adulthood to expectations of self-reliance rather than obedience.
Most dogs were in good physical and psychological condition, though more likely to be afflicted by sarcoptic mange than other Australian dogs. Other parasites occurred
at or below expected frequencies.
Close physical contact with dogs coupled with favourable microclimates allowed ample opportunity for transmission of canine zoonoses, but the actual risk to human health
remains poorly documented.
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Hansen, Janice. "The Western Australian register of multiple births : a twin-family study of asthma." University of Western Australia. School of Population Health, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0204.
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[Truncated abstract] Background: Genetic epidemiology draws on the mechanisms of heredity and the reproductive characteristics of populations to formulate methods to investigate the role of genetic factors and their interaction with the environment in disease aetiology. Asthma and atopy are complex genetic disorders and are among the most common diseases to affect the developed world. Twin studies provide an elegant means of disentangling genetic and environmental contributions to the aetiology of conditions that have a significant impact on the health of the general population in ways that cannot be achieved by any other study design, by comparing disease frequency in monozygotic (MZ) or identical twins, who share 100% of their genes with that in dizygotic (DZ) or non-identical twins who share, on average, 50% of their genes. Twin-family studies allow the complete partitioning of phenotypic variation into components representing additive genetic, dominance, shared environment and non-shared environment. ... For twin family data, the best fitting model was the one which included additive genetic effects and either genetic dominance or shared sibling environment, and that shared family environment was not important. With respect to asthma in WA twin families, there are no reasons to conclude that the EEA is not valid. Conclusions: The WA Twin Register is the first population-based register of childhood multiples to be established in Australia, and the WATCH study is one of only a few population-based twin-family studies in the world. Families who participated in the WATCH study were no different from non-participants with respect to social class and there was no difference in the prevalence of DDA in WATCH study twins and either their singleton siblings or the general population of WA children. Results from the GEE models replicate those found in numerous studies from many different countries. The BUGS models developed have been shown to produce consistent results with both simulated and real data sets and offer alternative methods of analyzing twin and twin-family data. By including an extra term in the partitioning of the variance to account for the environment effect of being a MZ twin, a numerical value is calculated for the difference in MZ and DZ correlation with respect to the phenotype examined, which allows the validity of the EEA to be directly assessed.
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Turner, Shane. "Cryopreservation of somatic germplasm of selected Australian monocotyledonous taxa (Haemodoraceae)." Curtin University of Technology, Department of Environmental Biology, 2001. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=12678.
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The South West Botanical Province of Western Australia is one of the most floristically rich areas of the world with over, 8,000 species present, the majority of which (70%), are endemic to this region. Coupled with this high level of endemism, many taxa are threatened which makes them vulnerable to habitat alterations, modifications and destruction. Significant habitat alteration in many areas has resulted in 27 species becoming extinct in the South West Botanical Province, while an additional 327 species are classified as rare and endangered. In the context of stemming this loss of biodiversity, research in cryopreservation was undertaken to provide offsite protection and conservation of somatic germplasm.Cryostorage techniques were evaluated in this study to determine the key factors which may affect the ability of somatic tissues of Haemodoraceae species to survive, recover and grow following liquid nitrogen (LN) immersion and storage. Using Anigozanthos viridis as a comparator in most experiments, the base vitrification protocol was established, which involved: (1) preculturing shoot apices on 0.4 M sorbitol for 48 h; (2) incubation in a vitrification cryoprotective solution (PVS2) for 25 min at 0 degrees celsius; (3) LN immersion; (4) recovery to active growth through warming (immersion in a 40 degrees celsius water bath). Using this procedure the highest post-LN survival of shoot apices for A. viridis was 41.4 plus or minus 6.1% Four additional taxa were successfully cryopreserved with this base protocol (Anigozanthos manglesii, A. rufus, Conostylis wonganensis and A. rufus x A. pulcherrimus); a fifth taxon, Macropidia fuliginosa, however, proved unresponsive.To improve on post-LN survival, further research established that four of the six study taxa responded to the following amendments to the basic protocol: (1) longer preculture duration; (2) preculture on ++0.8 M glycerol rather than sorbitol, (3) utilisation of PVS2 solutions with reduced DMSO content; and (4) incorporation of an additional loading phase (2 M glycerol plus 0.4 M sucrose for 20 mins at 0 degrees celsius).Macropidia fuliginosa, a species with poor recovery after LN exposure, was successfully cryostored using somatic embryos. Treatments which resulted in the highest survival (67.3% 5.7 plus or minus %) included preculture with 0.4 M sorbitol, and incubation in PVS2 for 30 min. Further experimentation indicated that preculture for two days on 0.8 M glycerol (replacing 0.4 M sorbitol) was more beneficial for achieving high post-LN survival.Post-LN survival was significantly correlated to the use of polyalcohols when the total number of hydroxyl (-OH) groups (regardless of molarity) present was the same as that found in 0.4 M sorbitol. It was hypothesised that hydroxyl number is more important than molarity in membrane stabilisation, during dehydration and cooling. Post-LN survival was also found to be significantly influenced by stereochemical arrangement of the -OH groups of polyalcohol molecules used in the preculture media. Finally, post-LN survival was also found to be significantly influenced by the size of the molecule, with smaller polyalcohols with more -OH groups on one flank of the carbon chain being superior as cryoprotective agents.The influence of plant growth regulators on post-LN survival and recovery growth was also investigated. The survival of shoot apices was not correlated to cytokinin or auxin treatments administered in culture media prior to cryostorage. However, in the recovery medium, a combination of cytokinin and 0.5 mu M GA(subscript)3 in the medium was found to be the most efficacious for obtaining healthy plantlets.Genetic fidelity was then examined using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP). Plantlets of one done kept ++
or maintained under the following conditions: (1) standard tissue culture conditions; (2) cold storage and (3) cryostorage, over a 12 month duration, showed no detectable genetic changes.Further, shoot apex viability evaluated at regular intervals (after 0, 3, 6 and 12 months of LN storage) suggested that medium term storage of samples cryopreservation did not reduce shoot apex viability over this time span.This study has provided a better understanding of the factors influencing post-LN survival and recovery and, as a result, the cryopreservation protocols have been refined. Consequently, the prospects for conserving threatened Haemodoraceae species from Western Australia through cryostorage is now significantly improved.
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Burkett, Danny, and danny burkett@deakin edu au. "Nutrient contribution to hyper-eutrophic wetlands in Perth, Western Australia." Deakin University. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, 2005. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20071115.082506.
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This thesis investigates nutrient contribution to six hyper-eutrophic lakes located within close proximity of each other on the Swan Coastal Plain and 20 kilometres south of the Perth Central Business District, Western Australia. The lakes are located within a mixed land use setting and are under the management of a number of state and local government departments and organisations. These are a number of other lakes on the Swan Coastal Plain for which the majority are less than 3 metres in depth and considered as an expression of the groundwater as their base is below the regional groundwater table throughout most of the year. The limited amount of water quality data available for these six lakes and the surface water and groundwater flowing into them has restricted a thorough understanding of the processes influencing the water quality of the lakes. Various private and public companies and organisations have undertaken studies on some of the individual wetlands and there is a wide difference in scientific opinion as to the major source of the nutrients to those wetlands. These previous studies failed to consider regional surface water and groundwater effects on the nutrient fluxes and they predominantly only investigated single wetland systems. This study attempts for the first time to investigate the regional contribution of nutrients to this system of wetlands existing on the Swan Coastal plain. As such, it also includes new research on the nutrient contribution to some of the remaining wetlands. The research findings indicate that the lake sediments represent a considerable store of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus). These sediments in turn control the nutrient status of the lake's water column. Surface water is found to contribute on an event-basis load of nutrients to the lakes whilst the groundwater surprisingly appears to contribute a comparatively low input of nutrients but governs the water depth. Analysis of the regional groundwater shows efficient denitrifying abilities as a result of denitrifying bacteria and the transport is localised. Management recommendations for the remediation of the social and environmental value of the lakes include treatment of the lakes sediments via chemical bonding or atmospheric oxidation; utilising the regional groundwaters denitrifying abilities to treat the surface water via infiltration basins; and investigating the merits of managed or artificial aquifer recharge (MAR).
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Tindall, Alexis. "Creating Australia : cultural representations and national identity in contemporary Australian literature /." Title page, contents and conclusion only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09art588.pdf.
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O'Brien, Eleanor K. "Local adaptation and genetic variation in south-western Australian forest trees : implications for restoration." University of Western Australia. School of Animal Biology, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0132.
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[Truncated abstract] Spatial structuring of genetic variation is commonly observed in plant species due to limited dispersal and local adaptation. Intraspecific genetic variation has significant implications for ecological restoration because the source of seed or plants influences patterns of gene flow, and may affect performance if there is adaptive divergence among source populations. This study assessed quantitative trait variation, local adaptation and molecular variation within three common, widespread, long-lived forest tree species from south-western Australia to understand the distribution of intraspecific genetic variation and predict the consequences of seed transfer for restoration. The geographic distribution of quantitative trait variation of jarrah Eucalyptus marginata was assessed through measurement of 15-year-old trees grown in a provenance trial. Survival of trees from the northern jarrah forest was significantly higher than that of trees from southern jarrah forest provenances, where mean annual rainfall is much higher, but stem diameter at breast height (d.b.h.) of southern jarrah forest trees was greater, implying faster growth. D.b.h. of trees from within the northern jarrah forest also exhibited a positive relationship with mean annual rainfall, with maximum d.b.h. observed in trees from provenances in the high rainfall zone. These patterns may reflect selection for faster growth under high rainfall conditions or environmentally-induced parental effects. The percentage of trees bearing buds and flowers varied among latitudinal divisions. ... Neither genetic variation within nor among populations of any species could explain variation of emergence and establishment in reciprocal transplant trials. Collectively, the findings of this study suggest structuring of genetic variation in these species at a broad, rather than a very local, scale. This is expected for widespread, long-lived species, where extensive gene flow and temporal variation are likely to favour high within, relative to among, population genetic variation. However, there is evidence that the source of seed may have a significant influence on the success of restoration of these species, whether as a result of genetic variation among populations or due to other factors affecting seed quality. These results highlight the importance of integrating studies of molecular and adaptive trait variation when seeking to understand the causes and consequences of genetic variation within plant species and contribute to the development of seed sourcing practices for improved restoration success.
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Storer, Timothy. "Ethology and production of freshwater crayfish in aquatic polysystems in Western Australia." Curtin University of Technology, Department of Applied Biosciences, 2005. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=16749.
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Aquatic polyculture has been recognised as a potential way of increasing the costeffectiveness of farming marron (Cherax tenuimanus), as it can lower average costs of production, increase system yields, and reduce economic risks associated with monoculture operations. Polyculture also increases ecological stability and assists recycling processes, which can result in synergistic benefits to participating species. In aquaculture, this synergism can result in increased profitability through advanced growth rates and/or reduced feed input. However, many of the inherent advantages of aquatic polyculture rely on cohabitants occupying distinct ecological niches within the system. In Western Australia, opportunities to multi-crop aquatic species are limited by species choice due to low natural diversity and strict translocation policies. This creates a situation where available aquaculture species exhibit overlaps in occupied niches. Effects of this overlap can include direct predation, increased intraspecific conflict, and competition for resources such as shelter and food. Prior to this study, silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) were identified as a prime candidate for duoculture with marron, based on favourable schooling and feeding characteristics, and preliminary trials demonstrated commercial benefits, including synergistic growth advantages to marron. However, investigations also showed that silver perch will predate on both small and moulting crayfish under certain conditions, and that growth of silver perch was inhibited when held in cages to prevent predation. The work reported in this thesis was undertaken to address the niche overlap existing between marron and silver perch, and therefore assist the marron industry in Western Australia in implementing appropriate management strategies for diversification.Research focussed on investigating the ecological issues underlying interspecific interactions in marron polysystems, with the eventual aim of presenting information that could assist system managers in determining optimal conditions required to reduce antagonistic relationships and maximise synergism, ultimately leading to higher yields. Seven trials were conducted in three culture systems (54L aquaria, 250L aquaria and 720m2 experimental ponds) examining the ability of marron to detect, recognise and respond to a range of information cues (chemical, visual, tactile) from two potential predators (silver perch and Murray cod), with and without competition from conspecific and heterospecific crayfish (Cherax albidus). The ability of marron to interpret and respond appropriately to these variables was tested under a range of system-specific conditions, including stocking density, stocking size, shelter/habitat complexity, food availability, light intensity and life stage. Cage culture conditions were also examined to determine if the addition of shelter would mediate growth inhibition previously recorded, and to determine the desired stocking regime to return market sized fish in one growth season (8 months). Results from laboratory research and field-based trials did not support the free-range culture of marron and silver perch, even where turbidity and habitat complexity is high. Although both male and female marron (various sizes) demonstrated an ability to detect and differentiate between chemical and visual cues from potential predators, avoidance responses were only displayed upon attack from predators, or following predation of conspecifics; and avoidance strategies employed by marron were relatively ineffective.
Although marron showed some capacity to recognise an impending predatory threat, high initial mortalities and growth inhibition due to reduced foraging, would greatly reduce system yields. In addition, intraspecific competition between marron is likely to increase as avoidance responses would lead to high relative densities within shelters. The lack of avoidance behaviour displayed by marron when only visual and chemical cues from predators are present strongly supports cage culture of silver perch in marron ponds. As marron did not appear to alter their general behaviour (e.g. foraging) based on cues associated with silver perch held in cages they stand to benefit from cohabitation. Field-trials examining the pond culture of marron and caged silver perch demonstrated synergistic growth advantages to marron, compared to monoculture, and also identified several system variables that appear to improve polyculture production. The addition of bank shelters (within 1m of waters edge) was suggested to give marron a competitive advantage when moulting, expressed through growth and survival. Survival of marron was also increased in caged polyculture ponds, compared to monoculture, most likely due to increased health status (due to improved recycling) and/ or increased habitat complexity owing to the presence of fish cages. Growth inhibition previously reported when silver perch are held in cages was mediated to some degree by cage shelters, which appeared to increase feeding behaviour, reduce general anxiety and resulted in increased growth. The introduction of advanced silver perch fingerlings in order to produce market-sized fish in one growth season was also supported. However, it is recommended that cage culture dynamics require further elucidation if silver perch are to be commercially successful as a stand-alone crop using this growout strategy.
Significantly, the synergistic growth advantages experienced by marron when grown with fish demonstrate value from polyculture even if fish are not depended on as a secondary income. In this case, other species may also provide similar advantages, and a native candidate such as freshwater cobbler (Tandanus bostocki) would also redress problems associated with translocation laws restricting the use of silver perch in some areas of Western Australia. As no density effects were recorded in any of the trials conducted for either species, further investigation into increased system loads is required. In addition, as nutrient loads, and thus phytoplankton density, usually increases proportionately with pond biomass it is recommended that an additional herbivorous species, for example white eye mullet (Mugil cephalus), be examined in conjunction with increased density trials. Field research reported in this thesis was carried out in earthen ponds utilising remediated water from a acidified mine lake. Over a three-year period water quality parameters were maintained within optimal ranges for marron and silver perch, and survival and growth of both species was comparable to industry levels. These results validate the effectiveness of mine-water treatment technology; and accordingly, results support commercial viability of crayfish polyculture utilising remediated acid mine water. The large water resources offered by the numerous artificial lakes created from open cut mining has the potential to sustain a large successful aquaculture industry for Collie (Western Australia), and in other areas with extension of water treatment technology.
The incorporation of caged silver perch into marron ponds not only takes advantage of the inherent economic and risk-spreading benefits from a diversified management strategy, but also incorporates a number of within-system benefits due to synergism between species. The ecological approach to aquatic polyculture research reported in this thesis has elucidated key communication factors underlying interactions within crayfish polysystems, which is critical to a knowledge-based approach to system management.
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Borger, Catherine. "The biology and ecology of Salsola australis R.Br. (Chenopodiaceae) in southwest Australian cropping systems." University of Western Australia. School of Plant Biology, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0062.
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Salsola australis is an introduced weed of crop and pasture systems in the Western Australian broad acre cropping and pasture region (wheat-belt). This thesis investigated the classification, biology and ecology of the genus Salsola in southwest Australia, as well as modelling the effectiveness of possible weed control practices. Prior to this research, S. tragus was the only recognised species of the Salsola genus within Australia. However, genetic analysis revealed that four genetically distinct putative taxa of the genus Salsola were found in southwest Australia, none of which were S. tragus. The taxa that is the most prevalent agricultural weed was classified as S. australis, but the other three putative taxa could not be matched to recognised species. All four taxa were diploid (2n = 18), as opposed to tetraploid (2n = 36) S. tragus. Within the agricultural system of southwest Australia, S. australis plants established throughout the year, although the majority of seed production occurred in late summer and autumn. Total seed production (138-7734 seeds per plant) and seed viability (7.6-62.8%) of S. australis were lower than that reported for other agricultural weed species of the Salsola genus. Seed dispersal occurred when the senesced plants broke free of their root system to become mobile. Wind driven plants travelled and shed seed over distances of 1.6 to 1247.2 m. Movement of approximately half the plants was restricted to less than 100 m by entanglement with other S. australis plants within the stand. Some seed was retained on the senesced plants, but the germinability of this seed fell to less than 2% in the two month period following plant senescence (i.e. a decline of 79%). Once seed shed into the soil seed bank, anywhere from 32.3 to 80.7% of the viable seeds germinated in the year following seed production, with the rest remaining dormant or degrading. A model of the life cycle of S. australis based on the population ecology data indicated that the dormant seed bank had very little effect on annual seedling recruitment, but seed dispersal from neighbouring populations had a large impact on population growth rate. Therefore, the most successful weed control measures were those that restricted seed dispersal from neighbouring populations, or those that were applied to all populations in the region rather than to a single population. Weed control techniques applied to a single population, without reducing seed dispersal, could not reduce population size.
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Thomas, Claudia. "The epidemiology and control of Clostridium difficile infection in a Western Australian hospital." University of Western Australia. School of Population Health, 2003. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2004.0011.
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[Truncated abstract] The prinicipal aim of this thesis was to explore the relationship between 3rd generation cephalosporin antibiotics and hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea (CDAD). This antibiotic class has been implicated in the aetiology of CDAD; therefore restriction of these antibiotics via antibiotic policies represents a potential strategy for prevention and control of CDAD. Successful control of CDAD in hospitals translates to improved quality of care for patients, and a reduction of pressure on hospital resources. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine whether 3rd generation cephalosporins were related to CDAD, to evaluate the effect of changes to antibiotic policy on the incidence of CDAD, and to determine the impact of CDAD on patient length of stay and hospital costs. The study was conducted in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH), a public teaching hospital located in Perth, the capital city of the state of Western Australia. Evidence for an association between 3rd generation cephalosporins and CDAD was obtained from studies of ecologic- and individual-level data. A time series analysis of the relationship between monthly consumption of 3rd generation cephalosporins and the incidence of CDAD in SCGH was undertaken covering the period 1994 to 2000. The results demonstrated a positive relationship between the use of 3rd generation cephalosporins and CDAD. A matched case-control study that involved 193 adult inpatients diagnosed with CDAD and 386 adult inpatients without CDAD, selected from the period 1996 to 2000, was conducted. Information was collected on exposure to 3rd generation cephalosporin antibiotics during hospitalisation, as well as exposure to other antibiotics and medications, procedures, and comorbidities. Results from conditional logistic regression analyses found CDAD cases were six times more likely to be exposed to 3rd generation cephalosporins during their admission, prior to the onset of diarrhoea, than controls (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 6.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.56-24.37). Approximately one third of CDAD in the study population could be attributed to 3rd generation cephalosporins. CDAD cases were also four times more likely to have been exposed to either amoxicillin-clavulanate or ticarcillin-clavulanate (adjusted OR=4.23, 95% CI=1.81-9.93). In October 1998, an antibiotic policy was introduced at SCGH that restricted the use of ceftriaxone, the 3rd generation cephalosporin most commonly used by the hospital. During 1999 and 2000, the incidence of CDAD halved as ceftriaxone consumption fell in response to this policy. The effect of this policy was demonstrated in the time series model; during the post-policy period the relationship between ceftriaxone and CDAD that was evident prior to the policy was cancelled out. From the individual-level data, obtained from the case-control study, a reduction in the prevalence of exposure to 3rd generation cephalosporins from 11% to 1% accounted for a 30% reduction in the incidence of CDAD. Data from the case-control study was also used to analyse the independent contribution of CDAD to length of stay and admission costs using multiple linear regression
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au, lasko2nd@yahoo com, and Tomaz Lasic. "Experiences of schooling of students with former Yugoslav ethnic background in a Western Australian secondary school." Murdoch University, 2007. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20080812.150558.
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Ethnicity is an important social construct mobilised in the discourses of multicultural education. At present, little research exists on the way ethnicity impacts on the schooling experiences of students with former Yugoslav background (SFYB) in Australia.
This qualitative study looks at the daily realities of twelve SFYB at a Western Australian government secondary school. Particular attention is paid to the management of their ethnic identities to achieve their educational, social and other goals.
Data gathered from the twelve in-depth, guided interviews with SFYB is analysed through the lens of critical multiculturalism, posited as one of several notions of multiculturalism and one with a specific social justice agenda. Theories of hybridity developed by Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall are translated into the critical multiculturalist framework and provide a further development of the analysis of the data in which hybridity is seen as both experiences and enactments.
The study findings suggest that these SFYB embody the principles of critical multiculturalism as skilful managers of contingencies of ethnic identities, aspirations and challenges they encounter at the school. The study also proposes that the notion of critical, power conscious hybridity could be useful as a conceptual tool in the future work of critical multiculturalists.
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Hansen, Janice. "The Western Australian register of multiple births : a twin-family study of asthma /." Connect to this title, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0204.
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Dunne, Catherine Margaret. "An ado/aptive reading and writing of Australia and its contemporary literature." Connect to full text, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2320.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2008.Title from title screen (viewed 29 Apr. 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of English, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2008; thesis submitted 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.
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au, marnev@cygnus uwa edu, and Neville James Green. "Access, equality and opportunity? : the education of Aboriginal children in Western Australia 1840-1978." Murdoch University, 2004. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20071218.141027.
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This thesis is a history of schooling for Indigenous children in Western Australia between
the commencement of the first Aboriginal school in Perth in 1840 and 1978. The thesis
represents the view that, for most of this period, and regardless of policy, education for
Indigenous children was directed towards changing their beliefs and behaviours from
being distinctly Aboriginal to recognizably European. Four major policies for Aborigines
provide the framework for the thesis, these being amalgamation (1840-1852),
protection (1886-1951), assimilation (1951-1972) and self-determination (1973- ).
The amalgamation of the Indigenous popuIation with the small colonial society in
Western Australia was a short-lived policy adopted by the British Colonial Office.
Protection, a policy formalised by Western Australian legislation in 1886, 1905 and
1936, dominated Aboriginal affairs for the first half of the 2ofh century. Under this policy
the Indigenous population was regarded as two distinct groups - a diminishing traditional
population to be segregated and protected and an increasing part-Aboriginal population
that was to be trained and made 'useful'. In 1951 Western Australia accepted a policy of
assimilation, coordinated by the Commonwealth government, which anticipated that all
people of Aboriginal descent would eventually be assimilated into the mainstream
Australian society. This policy was replaced in 1973 by one of Aboriginal community
self-determination, an initiative of the Commonwealth government and adopted
throughout Australia.
The attempts at directed cultural change were evident in the 'Native' schools that opened
in Perth, Fremantle and Guildford in the 1840s where it was assumed that the separation
of children from their families and a Christian education would achieve the transition
from a 'savage to civilized' state. For another century the education of Indigenous
children on missions and in government settlements was founded upon similar
assumptions. The thesis acknowledges that the principal change agents, such as the Chief
Protectors of Aborigines, mission administrators and the teachers in direct contact with
the children, seriously underestimated both the enduring nature of Indigenous culture and
the prejudice in Australian society.
Between 1912 and 1941 a few government schools in the southern districts of Western
Australia refused to admit Aboriginal children. The exclusion of these children is
examined against a background of impoverished living conditions, restrictive legislation
and mounting public pressure on the State and Commonwealth governments for a change
in policy. The change did not begin to occur until 1951 when the Commonwealth and
States agreed to a policy of assimilation. In Western Australia this policy extended
education to all Aboriginal children. The thesis explores the provision of government
teachers to Aboriginal schools in remote areas of Western Australia between 1951 and
1978. The final chapter examines Indigenous perceptions of independent community
schools within the fust five years of the policy of self-determination and contrasts the
objectives and management of two schools, Strelley in the Pilbara and Oombulguni in
the Kimberley.
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Phillips, Robyn L. "A fine resolution model of the Leeuwin Current System off western and southern Australia." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2002. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion-image/02sep%5FPhillips.pdf.
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Thesis (M.S. in Physical Oceanography)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2002.Thesis advisor(s): Mary L. Batteen, Curtis A. Collins. Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-88). Also available online.
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Jewell, Trevor. "Martu tjitji pakani : Martu child rearing and its implications for the child welfare system." University of Western Australia. Social Work and Social Policy Discipline Group, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0147.
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In this research, I explore my belief that one the reasons for the continuing poor outcomes for Indigenous people was that State-wide and national programs ignored unique local Indigenous culture and did not actively involve local Indigenous people in the development of programs for their area. I chose to examine this perception through investigation of the tension between Indigenous culture and worldview and the dominant White values of the child welfare system (broadly defined), through description of Martu child rearing practices and beliefs in the remote Western Australian town of Wiluna. The Martu live in a remote environment of material poverty, high levels of unemployment, low levels of educational achievement and poor health outcomes. The research sponsored by the Ngangganawili Aboriginal Health Service and located in its Early Childhood Centre, uses an Indigenous research approach based on Brayboy's (2005) TribalCrit to explore Martu child rearing practices, beliefs and values. It uses the stories told by the Martu in Wiluna about the way they and their families were brought up and observations of Martu families to answer research questions around Martu definitions of children and families, their concerns for their children, ways of ensuring the well being of their children, and whether there is a Martu child welfare approach. The research then considers the implications of these Martu practices for the broadly defined child welfare system. The stories told by the Martu show that they have a unique way of bringing up their children that is different to those in the dominant White culture. This uniqueness is derived from a combination of the recent colonisation of the Martu, their culture and their post colonisation experiences. The implications of Martu child rearing for the child welfare system are based on the assumption that Martu are wholly dependent on poorly designed and targeted government provided or funded services, and the current ways of delivering these services is failing the Martu. The research concludes that the key to improving outcomes for Martu children and their families is for the agencies delivering these services to form close working relationships with the Martu; operate within, understand, appreciate, and respect Martu Law and culture; understand their (personal and agency) and Martu post colonisation histories; and allow for Martu control, definition of priorities and development of strategies to address the problems.
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Beasley, Brian Glen. "'Death charged missives': Australian literary responses to the Spanish Civil War." University of Southern Queensland, Faculty of Arts, 2006. http://eprints.usq.edu.au/archive/00003199/.
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[Abstract]: ‘Spanish Civil War’ is an important, absent signifier in Australian history, letters, writing and cultural politics of the 1930s. I argue that despite the glossing over of the importance of Spain’s war in the period, events in Spain had a pervasive influence on Australian society, and writers in particular – on their political re-alignments, on their nationalist and internationalist cultural outlooks, and on their common acceptance that they lived in an essentially tragic age. Consequently, the critical neglect of Spain and its impact on Australian cultural affairs in the 30s is unwarranted.My thesis research has covered a very wide range of texts: the ephemeral pamphlet, the small circulation journal, poetry, agitprop, the mainstream novel, the ‘mass declamation’ and the associated ‘new media’ of the 30s – photography and film. It has also looked at different groups or cultural networks in the period, all of which (despite their disparate politics) saw Spain as a central cause: the Catholic Church, the Communist Party, anti-fascist and peace movements amongst others.The theoretical dimension of my work is driven by Raymond Williams’ concept of ‘structure of feeling’, first formulated in his study The Long Revolution then developed in a series of subsequent works. The generous range of texts I study conforms to Williams’ theory of ‘structure of feeling’, arguing that to understand the ‘field’ of a period, one should survey the interconnectivity of all its texts. Also drawing on Williams’ theory, I read the structured feeling of the 30s as essentially tragic: revealing exactly how Spain focalised fears and apparently symbolised the impasse of ‘modernity’ itself – Spain was a spectacle that graphically demonstrated how the inner destructiveness of technological modernity had tragically cancelled the possibility of progress and the arrival of variously imagined utopias.
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Ingarfield, Sharyn Lee. "The epidemiology of respiratory infections diagnosed in Western Australian hospital emergency departments 2000 to 2003." University of Western Australia. School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0014.
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[Truncated abstract] Background Emergency department (ED) presentations of respiratory infections are not well described. Baseline ED data are needed to monitor trends, and to help evaluate the impact of health interventions, and assess changes in clinical practice for these conditions. Aims: To describe the epidemiology of respiratory infections diagnosed in Western Australian hospital EDs from 2000 to 2003; to determine the extent and usefulness of bacterial cultures ordered in hospital, and to describe and evaluate the antibiotic prescribing pattern in the ED setting. Methods: The cohort consisted of patients diagnosed with a respiratory infection at the ED of Perth's major metropolitan teaching hospitals from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2003. The analysis was based on a linked data set containing patient data from the Emergency Department Information System, the Hospital Morbidity Data Set, the death registry, and the Ultra Laboratory Information System. Further, a sample of patient medical records from 1 adult hospital was examined to assess antibiotic prescribing practice. Results: Overall, there were 37,455 presentations (28,885 patients) given an ED diagnosis of a respiratory infection. Of these, 14,884 (39.7%, 95% CI: 39.2 to 40.2) were admitted and 715 (1.9%, 95% CI: 1.8 to 2.0) died in hospital. The infections included; 48.1% acute upper respiratory infections (URI), 18.5% pneumonia, 23.5% other acute lower respiratory infections (LRI), 7.4% chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with lower respiratory infection (COPD+), 1.3% influenza or viral pneumonia and 1.2% other URI. Children accounted for 80.7% of acute URI diagnoses, COPD+ mainly affected the elderly, just over 40% of pneumonia diagnoses were in patients 65 years or older and 30.7% in patients younger than 15 years. ... The most common pathogen isolated from blood was Streptococcus pneumoniae and 10.4% (95% CI: 4.8 to 16.0) had reduced susceptibility to penicillin. For those diagnosed with pneumonia, Strep. pneumoniae accounted for over 90% of pathogens isolated from the blood of young children and isolation of Enterobacteriaceae from blood increased with age. Around 30% of patients had positive sputum cultures and from these Haemophilus influenzae, Strep. pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the most common organisms grown. Of those diagnosed with pneumonia, acute LRI or COPD+, 34.7% (95% CI: 26.1 to 43.3) of S. aureus isolated from sputum and 16.4% (95% CI: 7.1 to 25.7) from blood were methicillin resistant. Of 366 adult patient medical records reviewed, 56.8% (95% CI: 51.7 to 61.9) noted that an antibiotic was prescribed in the ED and amoxycillin was the most frequently prescribed. For those with pneumonia, concordance between prescribing guidelines and practice was low. Conclusions The administrative data sets used in the present study are useful for monitoring outcomes for respiratory infections diagnosed in the ED. Pneumonia continues to place a burden on the hospital system. Routine blood and sputum cultures have limited value. However, an appropriately designed surveillance program is needed to monitor potential Abstract v respiratory pathogens and assist in monitoring the appropriateness of current empiric antimicrobial therapy.
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Woo, Lai Mun. "Summer circulation and water masses along the West Australian coast." University of Western Australia. Centre for Water Research, 2005. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0122.
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The Gascoyne continental shelf is located along the north-central coastline of Western Australia between latitudes 21° and 28°S. This study presents CTD and ADCP data together with concurrent wind and satellite imagery, to provide a description of the summer surface circulation pattern along the continental margin, and the hydrography present in the upper 1km of ocean, between latitudes 21° and 35°S. It also discusses the outcome of a numerical modelling study that examined the physical factors contributing to a bifurcation event persistently observed in satellite imagery at Point Cloates. The region comprises a complex system of four surface water types and current systems. The Leeuwin Current dominated the surface flow, transporting lower salinity, warmer water poleward along the shelf-break, and causing downwelling. Its signature ‘aged’ from a warm (24.7°C), lower salinity (34.6) water in the north to a cooler (21.9°C), more saline (35.2) water in the south, as a result of 2-4Sv geostrophic inflow of offshore waters. The structure and strength of the current altered with changing bottom topographies. The Ningaloo Current flowed along the northernmost inner coast of the Gascoyne shelf, carrying upwelled water and re-circulated Leeuwin Current water from the south. Bifurcation of the Ningaloo Current was seen south of the coastal promontory at Point Cloates. Numerical modelling demonstrated a combination of southerly winds and coastal and bottom topography off Point Cloates to be responsible for the recirculation, and indicated that the strength of southerly winds affect recirculation. Hypersaline Shark Bay outflow influenced shelf waters at the Bay’s mouth and to the south of the Bay. The Capes Current, a wind-driven current from south of the study region was identified as a cooler, more saline water mass flowing northward. Results of the hydrography study show five different water masses present in the upper-ocean. Their orientations were affected by the geopotential gradient driven Leeuwin Current/Undercurrent system at the continental margin. The Leeuwin Undercurrent was found at the shelf-slope, carrying (>252 μM/L) Subantarctic Mode Water at a depth of 400m
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Sedgwick, Enid. "Kulturelle Beziehungen : German-Australian literary links in Catherine Martin's An Australian girl and Henry Handel Richardson's Maurice Guest." University of Western Australia. European Languages and Studies Discipline Group. German Studies, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0140.
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This thesis demonstrates the close links between Australian literature and German thought and culture in Catherine Martin's An Australian Girl (1890) and Henry Handel Richardson's Maurice Guest (1908), and thereby provides a fuller understanding of the sophisticated literary and intellectual purposes of these two works. In examining the German elements in each novel, and the contexts from which much of that material is drawn, this study seeks to supplement the scholarly explanations provided in the two Academy Editions of these works. While Maurice Guest has received serious scholarly attention, An Australian Girl has been accorded relatively little. Despite generally favourable reviews on publication, both appear to have been undervalued over time. The study begins with a brief historical survey of German migration to Australia and the contribution German migrants made to the intellectual life and culture of the evolving nation. The examination of Catherine Martin's work includes: biographical details, particularly concerning her contact with German culture; an analysis of the form of the novel and a comparison of An Australian Girl with Goethe's Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister with regard to form, theme and characterisation; an analysis of German philosophical elements in the novel; and Martin's presentation of social conditions in Germany in 1888-90, and their role in the novel as a whole. The examination of Henry Handel Richardson's work encompasses: biographical details; the genesis of Maurice Guest; differences between the reception of the novel in England and Germany; the genre to which the novel belongs and parallels with Künstlerromane; an analysis of Richardson's description of the physical, historical and intellectual milieu of Leipzig, and its role in the novel; and finally her integration of German social customs and the German language into the text. Use has been made of five primary sources which have not been used before in any detail with regard to these aspects of either author: additional material from the Mount Gambier Border Watch; The Hatbox Letters, the family history of the Martin and Clarke families; the German translation of Maurice Guest; German reviews of Maurice Guest; and the correspondence between Richardson and her French translator Paul Solanges. The key argument of this thesis is that the German influence on both form and content, in the case of An Australian Girl, and on style and content, in the case of Maurice Guest, is deep and various, and that these German elements have proved to be an impediment to a full understanding and appreciation of these novels for many Anglo-Saxon readers and reviewers. In the two novels Martin and Richardson provide pointers to Australia's earlier interaction with the wider world and display a level of sophistication which makes these works worthy of greater recognition than they currently enjoy.
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Brereton, John. "An evaluation of introducing advanced airway skills in the Western Australian Ambulance Service." University of Western Australia. Emergency Medicine Discipline Group, 2004. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0065.
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[Truncated abstract] Objective: To investigate the demographics, success rate of application, nature and frequency of complication and the survival outcome of patients receiving advanced airway management in the pre-hospital setting. Design: Prospective observational cohort study. Participants: Patients who were attended to by St. John Ambulance Paramedics in the Perth Metropolitan area and selected regional areas within Western Australia. The patients were unconscious, unresponsive with no gag reflex and where application of an advanced airway would improve ventilation. Methods: Ambulance Paramedics received mannequin training within the classroom environment on the techniques for the application of the Endo-Tracheal Tube and the Laryngeal Mask Airway. The indication for the application of an advanced airway was any patient whose ventilation may be improved by intubation. These patients would be either deeply unconscious and areflexic, long term transport, severely injured (especially head injured) or cardiac arrest patients. Results: ... Paramedic assessment demonstrated that 14 (7.4%) 3 patients had an improvement in outcome. Of the 14 patients, 5 (2.7%) cardiac arrest patients survived to discharge from hospital compared to a 2.1 % survival rate for all cardiac arrest cases attended by the WAAS in 2002. Conclusion: Ambulance Paramedics can successfully apply an advanced airway apparatus in the pre-hospital environment. There was no statistical significance to demonstrate whether the introduction of advanced airway skills was beneficial or detrimental to patient survival outcome.
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Smith, Antony Jonathan. "Development and Aboriginal enterprise in the Kimberley region of Western Australia /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031024.091849/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) (Economics and Finance)-- University of Western Sydney, 2002.A thesis submitted for the award of Ph.D. (Economics and Finance), September 2002, University of Western Sydney. Bibliography : leaves 325-342.
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au, Casella2@westnet com, and Antonio Casella. "An Olive Branch for Sante (A novel) ; and The Italian Diaspora in Australia and Representations of Italy and Italians in Australian Narrative." Murdoch University, 2006. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20070427.120048.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD presentation comprises two pieces of work:
I
The Italian Diaspora in Australia and Representations of Italy and Italians in Australian Narrative ( Research thesis)
II
An Olive Branch for Sante (A novel)
.
In the Introduction of my research titled: Diaspora: A Theoretical Review, I look at the evolution of diasporic Studies and how the great movements of people that have occurred in the past one hundred and fifty years have altered our perception of what is undoubtedly a global phenomenon.
In Chapter One, which I have titled: In Search of an Italian Diaspora in Australia, I consider the kinds of socio-cultural nuclei that have evolved among the Italian population of Australia, out of the mass migration which occurred largely in the post war years. I discuss Italian migration as a whole, the historical and political conditions which brought about mass migration and the subsequent dispersion of Italian nationals, their regrouping into various clusters and how these fit into the patchwork that is the contemporary Australian society. Finally I review the conditions in the host country which facilitated or hindered particular socio-cultural formations and how these may differ from those occurring in other countries
Chapter Two deals with, The Narrative of Non-Italian Writers. The chapter looks at the images and myths of Italy perpetrated in the literature written by English-speaking authors over the centuries. I begin with the legacy left by British writers such as E.M. Forster, then move on to Australian writers of non-Italian background, such as Judah Waten, Nino Culotta (John O' Grady) and Helen Garner. In Chapter Three: Italo-Australian Writers, I focus on two writers: Venero Armanno and Melina Marchetta, both born in Australia of Italian parents. This section ties in with the earlier discourse on the continuity of the Italian Diaspora in Australia, into the second and subsequent generations.
In Chapter Four, titled: Literature of Nostalgia: The Long Journey, I will reflect upon my own journey as a writer, beginning with my earlier work, including the short stories and the plays, and concluding with a close look at the present novel, which is a companion piece to the research.
The novel complements the research in that it deals with the eternal issues of migration: displacement, change and identity. The protagonists are two young people: Ira-Jane and Sante. The first is not a migrant, but she is touched by migration, insofar as an old Italian couple play grandparents to her, in the early years of her life. When they return to Sicily the child is left with her neglectful and unstable mother. At age twenty-four Ira-Jane goes to Sicily on an assignment, and there she tries to get in touch with her 'grandparents'. She meets up with eighteen-year-old Sante who turns out to be her half brother. The novel's structure juxtaposes two countries, two cultures, two way of looking at the world. It sets up a series of contrasts: the old society and the new, past and present, tradition and innovation, stability and change, repression and freedom. The end of the novel proposes a symbolic bridging between two countries, which are similar in some ways, very different in others. It offers not a solution but a different approach to the eternal dilemma of people living in a diaspora, inhabiting an indefinite space between two countries and for whom home will always be somewhere else.
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Heuschele, Margaret, and n/a. "The Construction of Youth in Australian Young Adult Literature 1980-2000." University of Canberra. Creative Communication, 2007. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20081029.171132.
Full textAbstract:
Adolescence is an incredibly complex period of life. During this time young people are searching for and wanting to create their own unique identity, however being confronted with a plethora of roles and directions is challenging and confusing. These challenges are reflected in the vast array of young adult literature being presented to young people today. As a result young adult literature has the potential to function as scaffolding to assist teenagers in the struggles of adolescence by serving as an important source of information about the world and the people in it. Teenage novels also give young people the opportunity to try on different identities and vicariously experience consequences of actions while developing their own distinctive personality and character.
As this study reveals, the Australian young adult novel has undergone considerable developments, with 1989 serving as a milestone year in which writers and publishers turned in new directions. In general, Australian young adult novels have changed from books set predominately in rural areas, incorporating major themes of child abuse, death, friendship and survival with introverted characters aged between twelve and sixteen in the early 1980s to novels with urban settings, a large increase in books about crime, dating, drugs and mental health and sexually active, extroverted characters aged between fourteen and eighteen in the late 1990s.
To chart the progression of these changes and gain an understanding of the messages young adults receive from adolescent novels an evaluative framework was developed. The framework consists of two main sections. The first part applies to the work as a whole,
obtaining data about the novel such as plot, style, setting, temporal context, use of humour,
issues within the text and ending, while the second part collects information about character demographics including gender, age, occupational status, family type, sexual orientation, relationships with family and authority figures, personality traits and outlook for character. To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the construction of youth in Australian young adult literature a random selection of 20 per cent of Australian young adult books published in each year from 1980 to 2000 were analysed using the evaluative framework, with 186 novels being studied altogether.
During the 1990s in particular, Australian young adult literature was heavily criticised for being too bleak, too dark, presenting a picture of life that was all gloom and doom. This research resoundingly dismisses this argument by showing that rather than being a negative influence on the lives of young people, Australian books for young people present a comprehensive portrayal of youth. They probe the entire gamut of teenage experiences, both the good and the bad, providing a wide range of scenarios, roles, relationships and characters for young people to explore. Therefore Australian young adult literature provides an important source of information and support for the psycho-social development of young people during the formative years of adolescence.
This research is significant because it gives hard evidence to support the promotion of a representative selection of Australian young adult novels both in the classroom and in home, school and public libraries. By establishing the available range of contemporary Australian young adult literature through this study, young adult readers, teachers and librarians can be confident in the knowledge that appropriate titles are accessible which meet the needs and interests of young people. Consequently, the substantial amount of data gathered from this
study will considerably add to the knowledge and understanding ofAustralian young adult novels to date and provide an excellent starting point for further research in the future.
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Barker, Elaine M. "Civilization in the wilderness : the homestead in the Australian colonial novel, 1830-1860 /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1989. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09armb255.pdf.
Full text
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Leith, Andrew Roydon. "Competitiveness of Australian small to medium enterprises in Indonesia /." View thesis View thesis, 2000. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030429.163902/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2000.A thesis submitted as part of the candidature requirement for the award of a Doctorate of Philosophy, November 2000, University of Western Sydney. Bibliography : leaves 204-215.
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Jackson, Elizabeth Louise. "Behavioural determinants of the adoption of forward contracts by Western Australian wool producers." Curtin University of Technology, Curtin Business School, Graduate School of Business, 2008. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21531.
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Australian wool traders and researchers have little knowledge of the incomplete adoption of the price risk management strategies that are available to stabilise wool producers’ incomes. Auction is by far the most popular method of selling wool in Australia with an adoption rate of about 85%. However this system exposes users (wool producers and buyers alike) to highly volatile prices and non-specific knowledge of supply and demand. Furthermore, it places differentiated wool types in the same commodity market as mass produced, homogeneous wool types. In order to address these issues, a mixed-method research design was used to develop and test a behavioural model of wool producers’ intentions to adopt the use of forward contracts; a selling method alternative to auction. In the simplest terms, a forward contract is a binding agreement between a buyer and a seller that stipulates price, quality, quantity and delivery date of a product. The behavioural model developed for this research was based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behaviour and Diffusion of Innovations as well as some farm-level constructs that were raised in focus groups with Western Australian wool producers. The focus groups were pivotal in adding a unique, farm-level decision-making dimension to the behavioural model by the inclusion of various factors external and internal to the farm business. Based on the behavioural model, 28 hypotheses were developed and tested. Data was collected via a telephone survey of 305 Western Australian wool producers and analysis was conducted using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).A key finding of this analysis, contrary to the initial indications of focus group discussions, is that the current selling and marketing structure of the Australian wool industry, including the dominance of the auction system, is an important but not a limiting factor associated with the adoption of forward contracts for the sale of raw wool. Similarly, some other factors internal to the farm business, such as past experiences with selling wool, level of dependence on wool to earn a living and commitment to producing wool, were also found not to limit the adoption of forward contracts. The main factor limiting the adoption of forward contracts was identified as the wool producers’ perceptions of risk and uncertainty. Farmers’ perceptions of risk and uncertainty and their perceptions and attitudes in general are known to be important influences on farmers’ adoption decisions. While the majority of the hypotheses tested within the model were explained by the data, further data were collected to solve the issues associated with why farmers perceive forward contracting as being subject to risk and uncertainty. Additional research was conducted in the form of four case studies with Western Australian wool producers who had varying commitments to using forward contacts. Results showed that profit-raising, the whole farm system as a basis for decision making, the mass media and social pressures are important behavioural factors that are limiting the adoption of forward contracts by Western Australian wool producers. Overall, the results of the study indicate that the current structure of the Australian wool industry and various factors internal to the farm business account for farmers’ attitudes towards the use of forward contracts to sell their wool.
More importantly, from an agribusiness point of view, it is the perceived risk associated with price that principally accounts for the incomplete adoption of forward contracts in the wool industry. The conclusions of this study resulted in the development of new research questions that focus on the study’s theoretical framework, the impact of supply chain dynamics on the adoption of forward contracts and the empirical testing of additional behavioural determinants such as trust, habit and social cohesion. Based on the results of this study, several contributions have been made to the literature and agribusiness. The study showed that variables from the Diffusion of Innovations model played a significant part in this research. However, the more substantial finding was that the Theory of Reasoned Action is likely to be a superior theoretical framework for modelling wool producers’ adoption behaviours related to forward contracts than the Theory of Planned Behaviour. This claim is based on the finding that perceived behavioural controls are not a significant factor in the intention of wool producers to adopt the use of forward contracts. In terms of the contributions to agribusiness, information and extension initiatives that explain and demonstrate the benefits of forward contracts may be necessary if farmers’ perceptions of the riskiness and uncertainty surrounding these contracts are to be altered.
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Clifford, Susan Amanda. "The effects of fly-in/fly-out commute arrangements and extended working hours on the stress, lifestyle, relationships and health characteristics of Western Australian mining employees and their partners." University of Western Australia. School of Anatomy and Human Biology, 2010. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0018.
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The Western Australian (WA) mining industry directly employs approximately 56,000 people. Almost half work Fly-in/Fly-out commute arrangements (FIFO, e.g. employees living in a city are flown to a remote worksite where they live and work during their work roster) and approximately half work more than 50 hours per week, on average. There are many anecdotal claims that FIFO has negative impacts on WA mining employees, leading to an elevated risk of high stress levels, depression, binge drinking, recreational drug use and relationship break-ups. Previous studies found FIFO can be stressful, and have negative impacts on WA employees 'and partners' lifestyles and relationships. This project investigated the long-term (Study One) and short-term (Study Two) impacts of FIFO and extended working hours on a representative sample of WA FIFO mining employees and partners. In Study One, a total of 222 FIFO and Daily Commute (DC) mining employees and partners completed an anonymous questionnaire investigating long-term impacts on work satisfaction, lifestyle, relationships and health. A subgroup of 32 Study One FIFO employees and partners also participated in Study Two; a detailed study of the short-term impacts of FIFO and extended working hours and how these impacts fluctuate in intensity during the mining roster. Study Two participants completed a diary and provided saliva samples each day throughout a complete mining roster. The main findings of the study were that FIFO and extended working hours had negative impacts on employees work satisfaction and FIFO was frequently reported to be disruptive to employees 'and partners' lifestyle, in the long-term. However, FIFO and extended working hours did not lead to poor quality relationships, high stress levels or poor health, on average in the long-term; there were generally no significant differences in these characteristics between FIFO and DC employees, or between the FIFO sample and the wider community. There were minor differences between FIFO and DC employees in long-term health characteristics, and Study One employees had similar, or in some cases poorer health outcomes than other community samples.
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George, Suman Jacob. "Effects of land-use change on phosphorus forms in South-West Australian soils." University of Western Australia. School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, 2004. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2004.0078.
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[Truncated abstract] Eleven sites, each with the trio of land uses: Eucalyptus globulus plantation, pasture and natural vegetation, representing from the Mediterranean climate, high rainfall region (<550 mm annually) of south-western Australia were investigated to assess medium-term changes in the P-supplying capacity of soils in eucalypt plantations growing on agricultural land. The natural vegetation soils were a benchmark for comparing soil P change since land clearing and development for agriculture. The experimental framework provided an ideal basis for studying changes in P forms since land clearing and fertilization for agriculture and the ensuing conversion to plantations (on an average 9 years ago). Conventional soil P indices measure plant available P that is more relevant to short duration annual crops and pastures. To predict medium-term P availability, P forms were determined using Hedley et al.’s (1982) fractionation scheme and fractions were grouped using the Guo and Youst (1998) criteria into readily, moderately and sparingly available P. The P species were also determined by 31P NMR spectroscopy of 0.5M NaOH-0.1M EDTA extracts. Hedley et al.’s (1982) inorganic P extracted by anion exchange resin and by NaHCO3 are widely considered to be approximations to the actual plant available P. The availability to plants of other P fractions is less certain and this is examined in an experiment to compare the plant availability of various P fractions in soils from fertilized and unfertilized land uses following exhaustive cropping in the glasshouse. The soil texture for the sites studied included coarse sand, loamy sand, clayey sand, and sandy loam. Surface soils (0-10 cm) have pH(CaCl2) in the acidic range (mean 4.4) and there is no significant difference due to differences in land use (P<0.05). The soils are of low EC (1:5 H2O) - 6 mS m-1. There is an almost 5-fold variation in organic C among sites (from 1.4% to 8%) but organic C values did not show any significant effect (P<0.05) of changes in land use. To evaluate the degree of similarity of soils within each triplet set at a site principal component analysis was carried out on those soil chemical⁄mineralogical characteristics that were least likely to be affected by changes in land use practices. This analysis showed good matching of the triplet of sub-sites on the whole, especially for the duo of pasture and plantation land uses. This degree of matching of the trio of land uses was considered while interpreting the effects of land use on the forms and behaviour of soil P, and variations due to various extents of mismatch were mostly addressed using statistical techniques including regression analysis to interpret sub-site difference