Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Clouds Australia'

The geometrical structure of a tree can consist of thousands, even millions, of branches, twigs and leaves in complex arrangements. The structure contains a lot of useful information and can be used for example to assess a tree's health or calculate parameters such as total wood volume or branch size distribution. Because of the complexity, capturing the structure of an entire tree used to be nearly impossible, but the increased availability and quality of particularly digital cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) instruments is making it increasingly possible. A set of digital images of a tree, or a point cloud of a tree from a LIDAR scan, contains a lot of data, but the information about the tree structure has to be extracted from this data through analysis. This work presents a method of reconstructing 3D models of trees from point clouds. The model is constructed from cylindrical segments which are added one by one. Bayesian inference is used to determine how to optimize the parameters of model segment candidates and whether or not to accept them as part of the model. A Hough transform for finding cylinders in point clouds is presented, and used as a heuristic to guide the proposals of model segment candidates. Previous related works have mainly focused on high density point clouds of sparse trees, whereas the objective of this work was to analyze low resolution point clouds of dense almond trees. The method is evaluated on artificial and real datasets and works rather well on high quality data, but performs poorly on low resolution data with gaps and occlusions.

This thesis is an exploratory study on the risk management of using cloud accounting in Australia. Using the interview method, this research identifies the specific risks for the use of cloud accounting in organisations and proposes possible measures to mitigate those risks from the end-user perspective. This research provides an understanding on the special characteristics of cloud accounting information systems. The findings of this research will assist businesses with their decision-making in relation to the use of cloud accounting.

The agricultural industry is integral to efforts of governments to feed an increasing world population. Its importance for the production of animals, plants, fibre, biofuel, has increased as climate change and other economic factors impact on food security. Innovations in technologies and portable devices have made positive impacts in agriculture. Farm management software, precision agriculture, automatic power systems, GPS sensors, RFID and crop sensors are now widely used in agricultural production systems throughout the world. Portable devices are pervasive in all parts of society including the agricultural industry. Cloud computing has brought new opportunities in the agricultural industry to increase productivity by providing new approaches to process and store agricultural data acquired from the field to large datacentres. The adoption of this technology is dependent on agricultural industry stakeholders understanding of how this innovative technology could be best used in their agricultural and business practices. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors determining the adoption of cloud computing (CC) in the agricultural industry in Australia. The research assessed the current understanding and usages of cloud computing in agricultural industry and examined the drivers and barriers in the adoption of the technology. A framework for the cloud computing adoption was also developed for an Australian agriculture context. The research was carried out as a case study based approach using mixed methods methodology. It consists of a literature review, questionnaires, interviews and quantitative data collection. This study carried out a situational analysis for different agricultural companies to understand their current situation regarding their IT infrastructure. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted for data collection and analysis of the current situation. Both private and government agricultural companies were investigated for the study. A total of 250 Australian agricultural companies, farm associations, farm federations and small farms were invited to participate in this research. System integrators and cloud solution providers, ICT solutions providers as well as organisations which are involved in agriculture research were contacted to take part in the questionnaire and interview study. This research gathered and analysed data related to agencies infrastructure, service providers (both internal and external), computer systems, database, applications, existing or future cloud services. Various hypotheses were examined to understand the influence of cloud computing adoption factors in the Australian agricultural industry. The hypotheses were designed based on Technological, Organisational and Environmental (TOE) framework, Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which assist in determining positive or negative influence of the factor to adopt or reject new technology, particularly cloud computing in agriculture. Based on findings of this research a framework was developed for the cloud computing adoption in Australian agricultural industry for both private and government sectors. Questionnaire and interview analysis revealed four major elements which influence the adoption of cloud computing in Australian agriculture. These included Organisational, People, Technological and Environmental elements. Each element included a list of crucial factors of cloud computing adoption. Considerations and suggestions regarding adoption were developed in the proposed framework. The research provides further insight into the cloud computing adoption in the Australian agricultural industry context and provides strategies to private and government agricultural industries which will assist agricultural stakeholders to determine the best approaches its integration into current agricultural and business processes.

This project was an investigation of atmospheric aerosols emitted from the Great Barrier Reef and north Australian fires. The chemical and physical properties of these aerosols were examined to determine their role in cloud formation. Interactions between aerosols and clouds are associated with the largest uncertainty in global climate models. The work of this thesis will contribute towards reducing this uncertainty by providing data for these poorly characterised regions in Australia.

A remote sensing study of global and Australian cloud cover was undertaken using a combination of High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) and MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data for a 31-year period (1985 to 2015). Regional characterisations of potential rain clouds were investigated in the Southwest and Kimberley regions of Western Australia using satellite-derived cloud physical and micro-physical properties (cloud top pressure, cloud effective emissivity, cloud top temperature, cloud optical thickness and cloud effective radius).

This thesis evaluates Australian rugby league participant violence between 1970 and 1995 through the use of figurational sociology, a body of thought pioneered by Norbert Elias. While figurational theory is the dominant paradigm used, an interdisciplinary focus is adopted in order to negotiate the recognised weaknesses of 'Eliasian' theory, and to complement its strengths. Communication studies, cultural studies and gender theory are interweaved with figurational sociology to analyse rugby league violence. Furthermore, through these theoretical paradigms, important wider social and cultural issues are taken into account including the commodification of Australian rugby league, the media framing of State of Origin rugby league as a 'sports mediated product', and the role violence plays both within the construction of masculine identities in rugby league and in the wider 'gender order' . These social and cultural issues are evaluated to gain an adequate understanding of the structural and interpersonal interrelationships constituting the social phenomenon of rugby league violence. The central finding of this thesis is that there is a processual shift from more to less illegitimate violence in Australian rugby league between 1970 and 1995.

This thesis explores the relationships between people, water, and places in the everyday life of the Yolngu people of Yilpara in northeast Arnhem Land. In the Yolngu world, a sophisticated understanding of the fluid and dynamic relationships between fresh and saltwater is given a greater priority than the division of the coast into land and sea. These waters are continually moving and mixing, both underground and on the surface, across an area that stretches from several kilometers inland to the deep sea, and they combine with clouds, rain, tides, and seasonal patterns in a coastal water cycle. Yolngu people use their understanding of water flows as one basis for generating systems of coastal ownership, whilst water also provides a source of rich and complex metaphors in wider social life. Describing this coastal water cycle provides the basis for a critique of the way European topographic maps represent coastal space, and also for a critique of common formulations of customary marine tenure (CMT). However as a methodological tool, I use maps to provide a detailed analysis of people's connections to place and as part of a wider examination of how places are generated and sustained. In this way the thesis contributes to anthropology, marine studies, and indigenous studies as well as touching on some issues of coastal geography. The approach I adopt has a phenomenological emphasis, since it enables me to show how Yolngu concepts arise out of and articulate with their experience of living in their environment and of using knowledge in context. This perspective contributes fresh ethnographic insights to some ongoing contemporary debates about people and place. The paired tropes of flow and movement are used as a gloss throughout the work, as each chapter takes a different domain of human life at Yilpara and explores how water, place, and human movement are manifested in it. Such domains include subsistence hunting and fishing, group and gender distinctions in presence on the country, food sharing, memories of residence and travel, personal names, spirits and Dreaming figures, patterns of coastal ownership, and interactions with professional fishermen. Together, they provide an account of the different ways that people relate to water, place and country in contemporary everyday life. ‘Where the Clouds Stand’ is predominantly an ethnographically driven work from one locality, but within that approach, it also explores broader considerations of phenomenology, anthropological inquiry, and human life more generally.

"September 2001"
Bibliography: leaves 144-159.
xix, 159 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
The two main aims of this study were: 1) to determine if the presence of Calcium carbonate in soil was the reason behind soils from Yorke Peninsula having relatively high OC (organic carbon) contents, given local farming practices, and 2) to determine the effect that the composition of the soils' OC has on the mineralisation rates.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Agronomy and Farming Systems, 2002

Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
With the advancement of internet, telecommunication and mobile technologies, new digitally-driven business models have emerged which are disrupting traditional business models and are having a profound impact on entire industries around the world. Enterprises today are facing unprecedented challenges and are required to change their approach to provisioning and consuming technology services. Cloud computing is a key enabler for this change. Being acclaimed as a disruptive innovation, cloud computing has contributed to the success of start-ups and industry disrupters, since it allows them to provide technology services at speed and scale without the commitment and investment of costly technology infrastructure. However, despite general acceptance by organizations worldwide, cloud computing adoption by large enterprises, particularly those from highly regulated industries such as financial services, has been slow and its utilization has so far been in very limited areas. It is important to understand the factors which impact these large organizations’ decision for adopting and utilizing cloud computing, so that actions can be taken to facilitate the adoption and utilization processes. The objective of this study is to gain deep understanding of drivers and challenges associated with cloud computing adoption and utilization by large financial institutions in Australia. Through multiple case study grounded on the TOE framework, involving a major bank and a large insurance company in Australia, this study reveals a common set of drivers and challenges, which will be useful for guiding cloud adoption and utilization for companies in similar situations. It also recommends actions for overcoming challenges identified through this study.

This thesis explores the relationships between people, water, and places in the everyday life of the Yolngu people of Yilpara in northeast Arnhem Land. In the Yolngu world, a sophisticated understanding of the fluid and dynamic relationships between fresh and saltwater is given a greater priority than the division of the coast into land and sea. These waters are continually moving and mixing, both underground and on the surface, across an area that stretches from several kilometres inland to the deep sea, and they combine with clouds, rain, tides, and seasonal patterns in a coastal water cycle. Yolngu people use their understanding of water flows as one basis for generating systems of coastal ownership, whilst water also provides a source of rich and complex metaphors in wider social life. Describing this coastal water cycle provides the basis for a critique of the way European topographic maps represent coastal space, and also for a critique of common formulations of customary marine tenure (CMT). However as a methodological tool, I use maps to provide a detailed analysis of people's connections to place and as part of a wider examination of how places are generated and sustained. In this way the thesis contributes to anthropology, marine studies, and indigenous studies as well as touching on some issues of coastal geography. The approach I adopt has a phenomenological emphasis, since it enables me to show how Yolngu concepts arise out of and articulate with their experience of living in their environment and of using knowledge in context. This perspective contributes fresh ethnographic insights to some ongoing contemporary debates about people and place. The paired tropes of flow and movement are used as a gloss throughout the work, as each chapter takes a different domain of human life at Yilpara and explores how water, place, and human movement are manifested in it. Such domains include subsistence hunting and fishing, group and gender distinctions in presence on the country, food sharing, memories of residence and travel, personal names, spirits and Dreaming figures, patterns of coastal ownership, and interactions with professional fishermen. Together, they provide an account of the different ways that people relate to water, place and country in contemporary everyday life. ‘Where the Clouds Stand’ is predominantly an ethnographically driven work from one locality, but within that approach, it also explores broader considerations of phenomenology, anthropological inquiry, and human life more generally.

The Impact of Digital Innovation on the Social Structure of Professional Public Accounting Practice in Australia Abstract: This thesis investigates the impact of digital innovation, associated with Standard Business Reporting (SBR) and cloud accounting, on the social structure of professional public accounting practice in Australia. Social structure in public accounting practice refers to the social arrangement of internally diverse groups of professionals and is hierarchical due to disparity in intra-professional status. At issue here is the commodification of traditional accounting work in serving small-medium enterprises (SMEs), the primary work of small-medium practitioners (SMPs). The innovation poses both jurisdictional threats and opportunities for SMPs but has ramifications for public accounting practice as a whole, due to the nature of the innovation impacting professional work. The impact on professional work, creates a ripple effect, altering the boundaries between different sub-groups within the social structure of professional public accounting practice, namely location of work, firm size, firm structure, client base and in the end professional values. The impact of the digital innovation on the social structure of public accounting practice is examined through the lens of the emergence of an organisation field centring on the commodification of traditional accounting work in servicing SMEs (i.e., an issue-based approach). From the perspective of organisational and institutional theory, the innovation represents a form of exogenous shock to the institutional environment of professional public accounting practice in Australia, which disrupts the existing institutional arrangement and leads to intra-professional competition (i.e., institutional war). A mixed methods research approach is carried out in examining the issues involved. The study finds that the boundaries associated with professional work, location of work, firm structure, client base and professional values have become less distinct. This is attributable to SMPs increasingly becoming multidisciplinary practices and having a tendency towards a commercial logic; and larger sub-groups such as the Big 4 and Next Big 8 expanding their share of the market for servicing small businesses, including reclaiming bookkeeping as part of their portfolio of services. Overall, the results indicate that the professional identities of public accountants in Australia are less fragmented as professional values converge towards commercialism. Firm size and the combinations of capitals that each sub-group possesses are, on the other hand, becoming more relevant in differentiating between them.

This research investigated the potential benefits, risks and challenges, innovation properties and viability of cloud computing for records management on an Australian organisation within the mining software development sector. This research involved the use of a case study results analysis as well as a literature analysis. The literature analysis identified the ten potential benefits of cloud computing, as well as the ten risks and challenges associated with cloud computing. It further identified aspects, which needed to be addressed when adopting cloud computing in order to promote innovation within an organisation. The case study analysis was compared against a literature review of ten potential benefits of cloud computing, as well as the ten risks and challenges associated with cloud computing. This was done in order to determine cloud computing’s viability for records management for Company X (The company in the case study). Cloud computing was found to be viable for Company X. However, there were certain aspects, which need to be discussed and clarified with the cloud service provider beforehand in order to mitigate possible risks and compliance issues. It is also recommended that a cloud service provider who complies with international standards, such as ISO 15489, be selected. The viability of cloud computing for organisations similar to Company X (mining software development) followed a related path. These organisations need to ensure that the service provider is compliant with laws in their local jurisdiction, such as Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Australia, 2011:14-15), as well as laws where their data (in the cloud) may be hosted. The benefits, risks and challenges of records management and cloud computing are applicable to these similar organisations. However, mitigation of these risks needs to be discussed with a cloud service provider beforehand. From an innovation perspective, cloud computing is able to promote innovation within an organisation, if certain antecedents are dealt with. Furthermore, if cloud computing is successfully adopted then it should promote innovation within organisations.
Information Science
M. Inf.

A better health care service must ensure patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. In enabling better health care, the impact of technology is immense. Technological breakthroughs are revolutionising the way health care is being delivered. To deliver better health care, sharing health information amongst health care providers who are involved with the care is critical. An Electronic Health Record (EHR) platform is used to share the health information among those health care providers faster, as a result of technological advancement including the Internet and the Cloud. However, when integrating such technologies to support the provision of health care, they lead to major concerns over privacy and security of health sensitive information. The privacy and security concerns include a wide range of ethical and legal issues associated with the system. These concerns need to be considered and addressed for the implementation of EHR systems. In a shared environment like EHRs, these concerns become more significant. In this thesis, the author explores and discusses the situations where these concerns do arise in a health care environment. This thesis also covers different attacks that have targeted health care information in the past, with potential solutions for every attack identified. From these findings, the proposed system is designed and developed to provide considerable security assurance for a health care organisation when using the EHR systems. Furthermore, the My Health Record (MyHR) system is introduced in Australia to allow an individual’s doctors and other health care providers to access the individual’s health information. Privacy and security in using MyHR is a major challenge that impacts its usage. Taking all these concerns into account, the author will also focus on discussing and analysing major existing access control methods, various threats for data privacy and security concerns over EHR use and the importance of data integrity while using MyHR or any other EHR systems. To preserve data privacy and security and prevent unauthorised access to the system, the author proposes a three-tier security model. In this three-tier security model, the first tier covers an access control mechanism, an Intermediate State of Databases (ISD) is included in the second tier and the third layer involves cryptography/data encryption and decryption. These three tiers, collectively, cover different forms of attacks from different sources including unauthorised access from inside a health care organisation. In every tier, a specific technique has been utilised. In tier one, an Improved Access Control Mechanism (IACM) known as log-in pair, pseudonymisation technique is proposed in tier two and a special new encryption and decryption algorithm has been developed and used for tier three in the proposed system. In addition, the design, development, and implementation of the proposed model have been described to enable and evaluate the operational protocol. Problem 1. Non-clinical staff including reception, admin staff access sensitive health clinical information (insiders). Solution 1. An improved access control mechanism named log-in pair is introduced and occupied in tier one. Problem 2. Researchers and research institutes access health data sets for research activities (outsiders). Solution 2. Pseudonymisation technique, in tier two, provides de-identified required data with relationships, not the sensitive data. Problem 3. The massive amount of sensitive health data stored with the EHR system in the Cloud becomes more vulnerable to data attacks. Solution 3. A new encryption and decryption algorithm is achieved and used in tier three to provide high security while storing the data in the Cloud.