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1
Banfield, Stephen Banking & Finance Australian School of Business UNSW. "The VCLP concessions as a tool of capital market design." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Banking and Finance, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/32236.
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Since the early stages of the Hawke government, Australia???s taxation system has been modified with a view to attracting additional capital into the domestic venture capital market. In December 2002, the Howard government enacted the Taxation Laws Amendment (Venture Capital) Act 2002 (Cth) and the Venture Capital Act 2002 (Cth). This legislative package created a prospective concession primarily aimed at qualifying limited partnerships who participate in the Australian venture capital market. Subject to a rather stringent qualification criteria, such partnerships are treated as fiscally transparent for the purposes of Australian taxation law. In addition, the gains made upon the disposal of portfolio investments by these partnerships may not be subject to Australian capital gains tax ("CGT") or otherwise assessable as ordinary income. The central concept of these measures is the venture capital limited partnership ("VCLP"), and other fund of fund organisational forms which are founded on the limited partnership. For this reason, the provisions of the Taxation Laws Amendment (Venture Capital) Act 2002 (Cth) and the Venture Capital Act 2002 (Cth) are collectively identified as the "VCLP Concessions". This thesis has been prepared as a rigorous assessment of the VCLP Concessions. It draws upon an analysis of the nature and structure of venture capital investing to determine whether the particular features of the VCLP Concessions appropriately cater for the needs of prospective foreign investors. The efficacy and appropriateness of the VCLP Concessions from a policy perspective is also examined. Recommendations are provided which, if enacted, would address regions of structural inconsistency and improve the functioning of this concessional regime.
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Daly, Barbara Public Health & Community Medicine Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "???A CROWDED HOUSE??? Using an action research approach to address the problem of access block at Tertiary Referral Hospital. January to July 2003." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, 1995. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/22928.
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Issue Addressed: Access block (the prolonged wait for an inpatient hospital bed after emergency department (ED) treatment) is regarded as one of the major issues currently facing emergency medicine both in Australia and internationally. At this tertiary referral hospital review of existing data has indicated that access block has continued to increase in recent years, with a sharp rise in emergency access problems since July 1999 and is now identified as a system wide problem. Objective: This research thesis sought to explore four main areas of inquiry concerning access issues within this hospital. The first objective was to determine the current bed capacity of this hospital and identify the percentage of access block within this system. The second objective was to seek an understanding of hospital clinicians??? experiences of access block and to identify the factors they perceive directly influence patient access to acute in-patient care. The third objective was to identify change strategies to improve patient access. The final objective was to determine whether collaborative participation and involvement of clinicians would lead to a change in hospital culture and foster a collective ownership of access block as a hospital wide problem. Method: In a participatory action research inquiry, hospital clinicians within this hospital were invited to be co-researchers. The process of concurrent investigation and action followed a five- part sequence of entry, issue identification, planning, action and reflection. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used including in-depth semi structured interviews, focus groups, process mapping, control charts and statistical analysis. Results: The research findings revealed a consistently high level of access block experienced by this hospital with bed occupancy rates in excess of 90%. During the study, hospital clinicians??? became actively involved in identifying major access issues. Six main delay categories evolved: Access delays due to limited imaging and diagnostic services, patient transport delays, barriers within the patient discharges process, insufficient access and availability to transitional, hostel, rehabilitation and nursing home beds and delays due to poor internal processes within the wards. Multi-disciplinary working parties were formed to implement six intervention strategies identified by the hospital clinicians. These included: the development of a patient access database and hospital wide alert system for code red status, the design of a pharmacy discharge prescription tracking system, the establishment of a patient discharge lounge, a quality study of the aged care assessment team within the ED and the formation of a transport working group to evaluate an electronic transport booking system within the hospital. Conclusion: In recording the qualitative process involved in gaining hospital clinicians??? perceptions of the problem of access block some indicators of engagement and empowerment were documented. The success of this participatory action approach is based on the simple principal that those that are doing the job are in the best position to change or improve it.
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Wang, Yi Accounting Australian School of Business UNSW. "Market reaction to audit opinions of companies listed on the Shanghai stock exchange." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Accounting, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23021.
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This study extends research on the information content of qualified audit opinions in more developed markets to the emerging capital market in China. It investigates the market reaction to audit opinions of listed Chinese companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. A sample of 3128 company/year observations was included, with 386 modified audit opinions and 2742 unqualified audit opinions during the investigation period 1999 to 2003. The variable of interest is audit opinions. Control variables include those used in studies of developed countries, such as earnings surprise, concurrent bad news disclosure, audit report delay, leverage, the presence of loss and firm size. Also included are variables controlling for specific Chinese institutional characteristics, such as ???special treatment???, as well as bull and bear market indicators. When all modified audit opinions are combined, this study does not find evidence that the modified audit opinions have significant information value to Chinese investors. However, when modified audit opinions are classified by type, the market is found to significantly react to qualified audit opinions with explanatory notes and disclaimer audit opinions, which are the severest audit opinions investigated in this study. When the entire sample is partitioned by year, a significant stock price revision to modified audit opinions is documented in 2003. This study also examined in the Chinese context the Melumad and Ziv (1997) model of stock price response to avoidable and unavoidable modified audit opinions. Consistent with Melumad and Ziv (1997) predictions, the market reaction to avoidable audit reports is unclear, while investors view unavoidable audit reports as necessarily negative information. In conclusion, this study finds mixed evidence in support of the notion that the Chinese stock market views audit opinions as valuable information.
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Babirye, Juliet Ndimwibo Public Health & Community Medicine Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "Infant feeding practice and adherence to Ugandan infant feeding guidelines among HIV positive and HIV negative mothers." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23448.
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Introduction: In previous decades, the basis of child health and survival strategy in the developing countries has been the promotion of breastfeeding. However, transmission of HIV through breast milk to infants in the postnatal period has caused uncertainty over the best feeding technique. Previous policies in Uganda promoted breastfeeding even among HIV positive mothers without offering an informed choice of feeding mode. Consequently, the Ugandan Ministry of Health developed and adopted policy guidelines on feeding of infants and young children in the context of HIV/AIDS in 2001. However, little is known about their impact on infant feeding behaviour in Bushenyi district. Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted in Bushenyi district, Uganda, compared 94 HIV positive and 100 HIV negative mothers with infants aged less than 12 months on infant feeding practice, on the predictors of the different modes of infant feeding practice, and adherence to Ugandan infant feeding guidelines. Results: All HIV negative and 55% of HIV positive mothers were breastfeeding their infants aged less than 12 months. Among breastfeeding mothers, 85% of the HIV negative were breastfeeding non-exclusively. Of concern to the possibility of HIV transmission, 61% of the HIV positive mothers who were breastfeeding were doing so non-exclusively. Adherence to Ugandan infant feeding guidelines was higher in HIV positive mothers (67%) than in HIV negative mothers (41%). HIV negative mothers were more likely to be adherent if the mothers??? youngest infant was not a first-born (OR= 0.30, 95% CI = 0.10 ??? 0.88) and if they were aware of HIV transmission during pregnancy (OR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.02 ??? 6.66). The single most predictive factor of adherence among HIV positive mothers was attendance at an infant feeding counselling session (OR= 5.63, 95% CI = 2.15???14.73). Conclusions: Counselling support is necessary for mothers to make infant feeding choices that are viable and sustainable. The self-reported method of assessing adherence in our study could have been sub-optimal and may therefore overestimate the adherent proportions reported here. Addressing development of better assessment methods and methods for improving adherence to guidelines is crucial for preventive strategies. Recommendations: Increase coverage of infant feeding counselling by introducing peer counsellors in the community.
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Carman, Marina School of Politics & International Relations UNSW. "Responsibility and accountability in theory and practice: the truth and reconciliation commission???s investigation of human rights abuse in South Africa." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Politics and International Relations, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23475.
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The main aims of the investigation conducted here are to draw out important debates in theory and in the South African social context over the concepts of responsibility and accountability for human rights abuse, and to look at how these were present within, and impacted on, discussions within and around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC did not specifically discuss or define theoretical concepts of responsibility or accountability. However, I argue that it is possible to draw out some important features of its implicit approach ??? particularly in terms of its emphasis on collective responsibility and social context (in addition to individual responsibility), and its emphasis on moral arguments for individuals and collectives to accept responsibility and hold themselves accountable by contributing to future change. This ambitious and complex approach raised some important theoretical issues, which have been discussed and debated in the theoretical literature. These include: the relationship between individual responsibility, collective responsibility and the influence of ???the system???; the nature of collective responsibility; the nature of morality; the distinction between moral and political responsibility; and how individuals and collectives can or should be held accountable. In South Africa, these theoretical debates inter-mingled with a range of other factors, including individual and collective interests, motives and political perspectives. From an analysis of the existing literature on the TRC and original interviews conducted with key informants, I draw out three main opposing views which I argue arose in the South African social context about responsibility and accountability, and what the TRC could and should have done to address these. In a detailed analysis of the TRC???s hearings and Final Report, I draw out how theoretical debates, and these three opposing views, were present within and impacted on the TRC???s work. I argue that it was impossible for the TRC to satisfy everyone and resolve these debates, and that its approach led to unrealistic expectations of its work and its role more generally. This has impacted negatively on how the TRC was and is perceived.
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Sugano, Motoko School of English UNSW. "Inheritance and expectations: the ambivalence of the colonial orphan figure in post-colonial re-writings of Charles Dickens???s Great Expectations." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of English, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23927.
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This thesis considers the colonial literary relationship between the ???centre??? and the ???margin??? in the field of post-colonial counter-discourse. As such, this thesis investigates the possibility of disrupting the dominance of Empire, which is often rhetorically constructed through the certainty of the parent and child binary relationship. By analysing the orphan???s affiliational associations, which exist beyond the traditional binary of parent and child in the colonial relationship, I argue that the orphan, as both figure and trope, becomes a site of resistance to the dominant colonial discourse. Re-reading Charles Dickens???s Great Expectations with two Australian re-writings of his text in mind ??? Peter Carey???s Jack Maggs and Gail Jones???s Sixty Lights ??? this thesis investigates the particular case of post-colonial counter-discursive practice, and explores the way in which the orphan figure in each re-writing inscribes their expectations and thereby refigures the power hierarchy between the canonical European text and the post-colonial re-writing. In order to do so, I have organised this thesis into four main chapters, each of which develops a specific interrogation of the orphan figure in light of post-colonial theory and criticism. So, chapter one considers the colonial figure and the trope of parent and child, investigating the influence that this trope wields in casting the racialised colonial Other as ???savage??? and ???primitive???, but, ultimately, ???child-like???. Chapter two furthers this observation by highlighting the disruptive affect of such naturalised perspectives of the colonial Other???evidenced in post-colonial theory through the motion of the key concepts of ambivalence and abjection. And, it is in this context that chapters three and four stand as direct examinations of the disruptive affect of the orphan figure. Discussing Peter Carey???s Jack Maggs and Gail Jones???s Sixty Lights (respectively), these last two chapters formalise the subversive agency assumed by the orphan, and locate it in the very practice of ???writing back to the centre???.
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Li, Wenmin School of Arts UNSW. "Journey." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Arts, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23936.
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???Journey??? as a term in the dictionary, indicates a distance covered in travelling, usually by land, from one place to another. In my paper, ???journey??? becomes equal to life experience, consisting of time, space or place, and thoughts. I see my life as a linear journey, made up of many points, in different time and space, facing diverse scenes, causing various emotions, and creating distinct relationships with the world. My project deals with time, space and thoughts in my life???s journey. I have turned to the space of everyday life in order to explore its shifting physical, social and psychological dimensions. This is where I would locate my work in relation to Contemporary Art, where the relationship between the inner and outer world, between private and public, between art and everyday, are also the key issues. These are my truly personal experience of my stay in Australia, where I have been provided an opportunity to experience the differences in various ways. Since all experiences take place in time and space, the two categories provide a comprehensive framework, in which my thoughts have a place to occur and develop. In my real life experience, what I have been through is not only to confront the conflicts and the uneasiness, but also to understand the differences, and then to accept and get used to these until I have harmony in my heart.
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Zhang, Lei Centre for Vascular Research Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "Understanding viral-immune dynamics in HIV infection." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. Centre for Vascular Research, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23372.
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The HIV epidemic has caused a health crisis globally. Using mathematical and statistical tools, we have analysed and modelled data from animal models of HIV, HSV and influenza virus, in order to understand the role of neutralising antibodies (nAbs), CD4+ T cells, CTLs and APCs in HIV infection and the implications of this for HIV vaccine design. Our analysis suggests that antibody and CTL responses confer protection at different stages of HIV infection. Passive antibodies confer protection against SHIV89.6PD infection by either neutralising the initial viral inoculum or reducing the acute viral level and growth. Consequently, CD4+ T cell preservation allows the immune system to control long-term disease progression. Therefore, vaccines that elicit high nAb levels during early infection may induce sterilising immunity or delay disease progression. By contrast, we observed that vaccine-elicited CTLs did not proliferate until day 10 following SHIV89.6P infection. More potent CTL-inducing vaccines did not reduce this delay, but further increased it and reduced CTL growth. However, more potent vaccines result in better memory CTL formation, better CD4 preservation and improved disease outcome. HIV vaccine design should aim to reduce the delay in CTL activation. To further understand the pathogenesis of HIV, we investigated the relationship between viral load and CD4+ T cell levels using simple ODE models. Our results demonstrate a positive correlation between peak viral level and the acute CD4+ T cell depletion in SHIV89.6P infection, which demonstrates how reduction of peak viral level significantly preserves CD4+ T cells. Surprisingly, this relationship between virus and CD4+ T cells was reversed in SIVmac239 infection and other CCR5 tropic infections. Future work should focus on understanding this difference between X4 and R5 infections. Regardless of viral infections, antigen presentation is essential for stimulating effective immune responses. Our study on influenza and HSV-1 infections suggests that antigen loading rate of APCs determines the magnitude of antigen presentation and the APC decay is mainly due to the degradation of pMHC, not CTL killing. The slow kinetics of HIV viral growth may be one factor that limits the level of antigen presentation and subsequent CTL response.
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Chan, Amiria Ai-Mee School of English UNSW. "Mother knows best: mothers as moral educators in the fiction of Anne Bront?? and Elizabeth Gaskell." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of English, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23469.
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This thesis concentrates on identifying and examining ambivalence and contradictions in the discourse of moral education within mid-nineteenth-century British literature. Through an analysis of contemporary women???s advice literature and the fiction of two authors I locate the discourse within the larger ideologies of femininity (which defined women as different from men based on their gender) and domesticity (which assigned women to the domestic sphere because of gender) and analyse its fundamental features. The mother was a representation of the ideal woman and thus the measure for standards of behaviour within the discourse of moral education, and, indeed, within the ideologies of femininity and domesticity for all women. I focus on the inconsistencies that the discourse of moral education attempts to mask in its representations of women. Part I (Chapters One, Two and Three) examines the social standards of behaviour for mothers established in women???s advice literature and the literature???s simultaneous resistance to these standards. Chapters Four and Five are dedicated to Anne Bront?????s two novels, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; in particular, Chapter Five examines how Helen Huntingdon???s attempts to be the perfect moral mother are constantly open to conflicting ideological interpretation exposing ambivalence within the discourse of moral education and in the novel???s approach to the discourse. Chapters Six, Seven and Eight focus on many of Gaskell???s short stories as well as her novel Ruth. The inherent conflict within the discourse of moral education results in three separate images of motherhood for Gaskell???s fiction: traditional mothers who gain their moral influence through an association with death, the ideologically contradictory moral mother, and women who use maternal traits to live in communities of women without men. I conclude that none of the texts are categorically resistant to or complicit with the ideals within the discourse of moral education but are internally contradictory. In particular, the fiction simultaneously promotes conventional ideals of womanhood and moral mothers as self-sacrificing and nurturing and offers a vision of women either in unhappy compliance with or otherwise defying these ideals, for example, by living in unconventional relationships without men.
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Fu, Jian Law Faculty of Law UNSW. "Corporate disclosure by listed companies in the People???s Republic of China and Australia: seeking an appropriate pathway for the regulation of the Chinese securities market." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Law, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23478.
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With the rapid growth in the development of economic reform in the People???s Republic of China since the late 1970s, China???s legal system has also been undergoing major reform and development. This has seen the emergence of a major effort to draw upon the law reform experiences of other countries, especially in the area of economic law reform. As the securities industry is a key component of an increasingly corporatised market economy, it has been necessary to adopt an effective body of securities laws. Disclosure is the fundamental issue of securities laws as it exists in market transactions and the conduct of market participants. As such, the development of an appropriate body of disclosure law and practice is vital to the integrity of securities law and ultimately to the market economy. It is for this reason that this dissertation looks at the development of China???s securities market and corporate disclosure laws, and identifies the forces that have led to its current form and content. This dissertation argues that China???s legal system must be seen as a product of China???s distinctive history and local circumstances. It analyses the current nature of China???s corporate disclosure laws and notes that China???s law reformers have relied heavily upon the US model which may not necessarily suit China. Based upon a number of theoretical understandings of the transplantation and development of law, this dissertation argues that China???s approach to law reform in this area has not always produced a body of law that is appropriate to China???s particular circumstances. It suggests that valuable insights can be gained from a comparison of the methods of corporate disclosure law reform that were followed in Australia. The Australian experience is relevant to China as Australian lawyers and regulators have played an important role in fashioning securities regulation in Hong Kong and as Hong Kong has sometimes been seen as providing useful models for China itself.
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Chan, Yu Man Norman Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "The effects of mood and judgmental heuristics on decision making under uncertainty." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Psychology, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23933.
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Five experiments investigated the effects of mood and judgmental heuristics on decision making under uncertainty. According to the mood-and-general-knowledge model (Bless, 2000), the assimilation-accommodation model (Fiedler, 2000) and the numeric-priming account of anchoring (Jacowitz & Kahneman, 1995; Wong & Kwong, 2000), happy individuals should rely more on the anchoring heuristic in decision making under uncertainty. However, the semantic-priming account of anchoring (Strack & Mussweiler, 1997) and the processing account of mood (Bless, 2000; Fiedler, 2000) predict that it is sad individuals who should be more susceptible to the anchoring bias. Experiment 1 used a new methodological paradigm, which captures the key methodologies of past mood and anchoring studies to test these two competing hypotheses. The overall results of Experiment 1 found that neither positive nor negative mood influenced the reliance on the anchoring heuristic, but a post-hoc analysis suggests that happy participants relied more on the anchoring heuristic in making decisions for low personal relevance, low familiarity scenarios whereas sad participants were more susceptible to the anchoring heuristic in making high personal relevance, high familiarity decisions. Experiment 2 tested this suggestion and confirmed that personal relevance significantly moderated the effects of mood on the use of the anchoring heuristic. Experiment 3 replicated this result and showed that sad participants processed longer in the high personal relevance condition whereas happy participants were comparably fast in making high and low personal relevance decisions. These findings support the suggestion that it was changes in processing styles that were responsible for the effects of mood and personal relevance on the reliance of the anchoring heuristic. In addition, Experiment 3 found no evidence that familiarity moderated the effects of mood on anchoring. Experiment 4 extended these results to the domain of general knowledge questions but failed to show that an individual difference variable, the Need for Cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) moderated these effects. The fifth and final experiment extended these findings to a different kind of heuristic, the representativeness heuristic. It was predicted and found that, contrary to the previous results, happy participants relied more on the representativeness heuristic in the high personal relevance condition. These findings have important implications for the theories of mood, judgmental heuristics and decision making under uncertainty.
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Grankvist, Mats Banking & Finance Australian School of Business UNSW. "Insider trading regulation ??? the impact on world equity market performance and information based trading." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Banking & Finance, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23466.
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This thesis investigates the impact of insider trading regulation and its enforcement on bid-ask spreads, information asymmetry proxies, volatility, trade frequency and trade sizes. It employs an exclusive intra-day market-microstructure data-set for 29 countries and 32 exchanges and utilizes structural simultaneous equations models with distributed geometric lags estimated with GMM, controlling for market architecture, trading demand, minimum tick size and Fama-French factors. This thesis finds that enforcement of insider trading regulation in a country, rather than the strictness of written insider trading law, reduces information asymmetry and bid-ask spreads, increases volatility, and has an overall positive impact on traded value. The positive impact is mostly concentrated in the smallest stocks in the sample. The regulation of disclosure requirements has similar, but not identical, beneficial externalities in the market. The results support the prediction by Bhattacharya and Daouk (2002) that the fall in the cost of equity that results from insider trading prosecution in a country is due to a reduction in adverse selection. This thesis also find some support of the free inside information scenario of Medrano and Vives (2004), where volatility increases when insiders are forced to disclose the inside information before legally trading on it, if insider trading is not permitted and the regulation is enforced.
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Hidas, M??rton Gergely Physics Faculty of Science UNSW. "A search for transiting extrasolar planets with the automated patrol telescope." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Physics, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/22803.
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In the past decade some 150 planets have been detected outside our Solar System, mostly via precise radial-velocity measurements of their host stars. Using an alternative method, transit searches have recently added 6 planets to the tally, and are expected to make more significant contributions in the future. The transit method is based on the detection of the tiny, periodic dip in the apparent brightness of a star when an orbiting planet passes in front of it. It requires intensive photometric monitoring of ??? 104 stars, with a precision better than ??? 1%. The 0.5 m Automated Patrol Telescope (APT) at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, with its wide field of view and large aperture, is ideal for this task. This combination is also somewhat unique among telescopes used in transit searches. Since 2001, the APT has been semi-dedicated to a search for extrasolar planets. In this thesis work, observing, data reduction and analysis procedures were developed for the project. A significant fraction of the initial effort was focused on reaching the required photometric precision. This was achieved by implementing a new observing technique, and robust data reduction software. In the first two years of regular observations (starting in August 2002), 8 crowded Galactic fields were monitored, with photometric precision reaching 0.2% for the brightest stars. We searched the lightcurves of the brightest stars (V <13) and selected 5 planet candidates. Follow-up photometry and spectroscopy revealed all of these to be eclipsing binary stars. To date, no planets have been detected by this project. A detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the observations, using the currently known frequency and properties of extrasolar planets, resulted in a low calculated detection rate, consistent with the lack of detections. Using this simulation, we have investigated the observational and target star/planet parameters that determine the sensitivity of transit searches. The results highlighted the factors limiting our detection rate, and allowed us to significantly improve our observing strategy. According to the simulations, we should now detect ??? 2 planets per year. This will increase by a factor of a few when a new camera, currently under construction, is installed on the APT in early 2006.
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Hamblin, William John School of Sociology UNSW. "Evaluating the effectiveness of Australian aid to Samoa." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Sociology, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/22896.
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On a global basis over A$450 billion is invested each year in foreign direct investment and aid with a view to supporting development. Developing countries themselves allocate significant sums out of their own budgets in order to stimulate development. Development is concomitantly a major goal and enterprise of the global economy. Developed countries through aid (Official Development Assistance) spend large sums purportedly to improve the development status of developing countries. Recently voices from within the developed world???s establishment have derided the performance of aid and by default the performance of state organisations charged with managing aid delivery. Australia has not been immune from this criticism. Its aid program while modest by global standards still consumes A$1.5 billion in taxpayers money each year. Australian aid is delivered primarily by the Australian International Aid Agency (AusAID) with smaller contributions through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Defence and Australian Federal Police. AusAID has recently faced severe criticism over failure of the aid investment in the South Pacific to engender development. Most South Pacific countries (excluding Fiji and Samoa) have failed to show desired development. A number have faced bankruptcy (Naru, Solomon Islands), while others have increasing lawlessness (Papua New Guinea). It is important in the above milieu to examine the delivery mechanisms of Australian aid through its chosen vehicle (AusAID) and determine whether aid has really been effective or not. This thesis reviews the development effectiveness of Australian aid in one Pacific island nation ??? Samoa. In this context, the effectiveness of Australian development assistance is reviewed in terms of the results of four case studies of project aid to Samoa. The four case studies cover a range of project activity in differing sectors and offer specific insights into aid policy and delivery and the effects other variables such as culture, history and development status have on development outcomes. The thesis tests the hypothesis that Australian aid to Samoa has resulted in only limited development success and then in ways that are not generally sustainable. In confirming the hypothesis, this thesis identifies that while variables such as the procedural and policy underpinnings of the Australian aid program, aid design/delivery and management, and the history, culture and development status of Samoa impact on the development outcomes, they do not prohibit development. This thesis concludes that development outcomes will be maximised when there are good macro policies present, sound sector policies and real commitments of the government and people to development. Moreover, this thesis finds that while development theories inform the debate over aid none successfully encapsulates the actual development process.
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Storey, Joella E. Public Health & Community Medicine Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "The development, pilot and validation of a multicultural cognitive assessment scale." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/22821.
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Australia is a multicultural society with an ageing population. Diseases such as dementia, which affect older age groups, are therefore becoming increasingly important health issues. Brief cognitive assessment instruments are used to screen older patients for dementia. Many of these instruments have been developed for use in English speaking populations and are not culture-fair or easily translated for use with non-English speakers. To ensure that people from all cultural backgrounds receive optimal health care, primary health care workers need a quick, reliable, and non-threatening dementia screening tool that is valid across cultures and easy to administer in a wide range of settings. This thesis explores the philosophical, scientific, and social antecedents of current approaches to measuring cognition. It argues that these have led to the treatment of culture as an intrinsic human attribute rather than one which describes variations in human experience. The consequences for approaches to the assessment of cognition in people from diverse cultural backgrounds are discussed and a model is presented to provide theoretical support for the development of a multicultural cognitive screening test for dementia. Following a literature review of brief cognitive screening instruments, clock drawing tests, and cross-cultural cognitive tests, two studies are presented. The first study tests the hypothesis that clock drawing is a useful multicultural screening instrument. There were no significant differences between six clock scoring methods for predicting dementia in a sample of 93 patients from non-English speaking backgrounds. While the Wolf-Klein clock scoring method produced the best trade-off between sensitivity (78%) and specificity (58%), this was insufficient to recommend clock drawing as a useful screening test for dementia in a multicultural population. The second study provides support for the hypothesis that a cognitive screening test with good predictive accuracy can be developed and used to screen for dementia in a multicultural population. This study reports the development, pilot, and validation stages of a multicultural cognitive test with excellent diagnostic accuracy (Area under the ROC curve = 0.95) and 89% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting dementia. This research has important implications for current clinical practice and the potential to improve public health for many Australians.
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Sinaga, Ferdinan Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications Faculty of Engineering UNSW. "Scalable wavelet packet based perceptual audio coding scheme." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/26130.
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Conventional perceptual coding algorithms do not normally exploit the temporal masking property of the human auditory system. These algorithms rely only on simultaneous masking models to calculate the masking threshold. This work proposes the use of a temporal masking model, combined with a simultaneous masking model, in wavelet packet-based audio coding. The result is a reduction in bit rate of approximately 25 kbps while preserving the transparent perceptual quality of audio signals, at a sampling rate of 16 kHz. This is achieved by a more accurate calculation of the combined auditory masking threshold. Another proposed approach of calculating the masking threshold accurately is by oversampling in the discrete wavelet transform. Most of the current wavelet based perceptual coders use the critically sampled discrete wavelet transform. The problem with this transform is aliasing, resulting from the down sampling process after each decomposition. This aliasing is cancelled in the decoding process, however the masking threshold calculation is done using aliased wavelet coefficients. Oversampling in the discrete wavelet transform is proposed in this work to avoid aliasing. The results show that by oversampling in the discrete wavelet transform, a reduction in a bit rate of up to 16 kbps can be achieved for audio signal, at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. The two approaches are then used in scalable audio coding in developing a fixed bit rate audio coder. The bit rate saving from the two approaches is used in scalable audio coding to include additional frequency content at the target bit rate.
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Oakley, Stephen Philip St George Clinical School UNSW. "Arthroscopic assessment of articular cartilage in an animal model of osteoarthritis." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. St. George Clinical School, 2004. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/20500.
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Advances in our understanding of osteoarthritis (OA) have made development of sensitive measurement tools a priority. The literature review in this thesis found that one of the measurement tools, arthroscopy, had not been fully evaluated. This body of work evaluated the performance of arthroscopic assessments of articular cartilage (AC) in early OA with specific reference to the OMERACT filter. Preliminary studies in plastic knee arthroscopy simulation models found that estimates of AC lesion area had poor accuracy and reliability. Measurements of lesion diameter were greatly improved by the use of specially designed measurement probes but these did not prove feasible in vivo. Ovine studies evaluated discriminant and criterion validity. Biomechanical assessments served as the gold standard for AC stiffness while macroscopic, thickness and histologic assessments were used for gross structural damage. An hybrid gold standard assessment was devised to validate arthroscopic estimates of Severity and Extent of chondropathy. Arthroscopic global assessments discriminated between normal and very early OA but discrimination between different states of OA was less impressive. Assessments of the Severity of chondropathy had acceptable accuracy and moderate reliability. While arthroscopy could not examine the entire articular surface and estimates of Extent of chondropathy were subject to very large error they broadly resembled those of the hybrid gold standard assessment and they enhanced composite score performance. Composite score validity was further improved by inclusion of estimates of chondro-osteophyte. An empirical approach to composite algorithm weighting to optimise discriminant validity was developed. This approach compared favourably with previously described methods. Composite scores proved best at discriminating between normal and very early OA but were also capable of detecting small changes in OA. Arthroscopic asessments of AC damage meet the OMERACT filter criteria of Truth and Discrimination. Assessments using current arthroscopic technology should include estimates of the Extent of all grades of chondropathy. The optimal scoring algorithm should be determined empirically. Arthroscopic assessments using existing technology may be used to validate noninvasive assessments of the Severity chondropathy but not of Extent. Future efforts to improve arthroscopic assessments of AC should focus on reducing random error associated with estimates of extent.
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Lee, Sung Oh School of Chemical Engineering & Industrial Chemistry UNSW. "Dissolution of iron oxides by oxalic acid." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Chemical Engineering & Industrial Chemistry, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23924.
Full textAbstract:
The iron content of industrial minerals can be reduced by physical and chemical processing. Chemical processing is very efficient to achieve a high degree of iron removal at minimum operating cost. Both inorganic acids and organic acids have been used for clay refining. However, due to environmental pollution and contamination of products with the SO42- and Cl-, inorganic acids should be avoided as much as possible. This research investigated the use of oxalic acid to dissolve iron oxides and the dissolution characteristics of natural iron oxides. The dissolution of iron oxides in oxalic acid was found to be very slow at temperatures ranging from 25??? to 60???, but increased rapidly at a temperature above 90oC with increasing oxalic acid concentration, whereas the pH caused the reaction rate to decrease at pH>2.5 and improved the rate from pH 1 to pH 2.5. The iron oxides such as goethite (??-FeOOH), lepidocrocite (??-FeOOH) and iron hydroxide (Fe(OH)3) can be dissolved faster at the presence of magnetite which exhibits an induction period at the initial stage and showed the bell-shaped curves for the dissolution. In titration tests, however, the increase of temperature causes an increase in solubility of the oxalate complexes, resulting in an increased stability of ionized species in solution. During the addition of NaOH, NaHC2O4???H2O was precipitated without forming Na2C2O4???H2O, but it was re-dissolved at pH>4.0. On the other hand with NH4OH, NH4HC2O4???H2O and (NH4) 2C2O4???H2O co-precipitated at pH 0.93, but also re-dissolved at over pH 2.03. The reaction temperature was found not to affect the removal of iron from the ferric oxalate complex solution using lime. Iron is removed as iron hydroxide and calcium oxalate is then precipitated during the iron removal step. The formation of Fe(OH)3 in the solution was affected by the dissociation of Ca(OH)2. The thermodynamics of sodium, ammonium and iron oxalate complexes were investigated and the standard free energy, ??Go was calculated using thermodynamic data and solubility products. The dissolution of pure hematite by oxalate was found to follow a shrinking core model of which the kinetic step of the reaction is the controlled mechanism.
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Burgess, Jasen Lewis School of History UNSW. "The origins of the banlieue rouge: politics, local government and communal identity in Arcueil and Cachan, 1919-1958." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of History, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23345.
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By elucidating the origins of the banlieue rouge, a belt of communist-dominated suburbs surrounding Paris that arose during the interwar years and reached its apogee under the Fourth Republic, this thesis addresses the problem of why twentieth-century France was home to a pro-Soviet communist party with mass support. Specifically, a local study of the PCF in Arcueil and Cachan, two neighbouring communes south of Paris with divergent political evolutions since World War I, is used to discern how and why the Parti communiste fran??ais (PCF) came to exert hegemony in the working-class suburbs of Paris. After surveying the historiography of communism in France and beyond, this thesis concludes that the communist banlieue rouge was born of working-class alienation from bourgeois society that was nourished by a communist counter-society that was contingent upon the PCF???s capacity to adapt and respond to local circumstances. Using archival sources and statistical analysis, it demonstrates that in Arcueil and Cachan rapid suburbanisation and an attendant proletarianisation created the pre-conditions for the rise of the PCF. This study finds that during the interwar period the PCF rapidly emerged as an electoral force in both suburbs as it set about laying the foundations of a communist counter-society, especially in Arcueil where it won control of local government in 1935. In Arcueil, the PCF spearheaded the local Resistance movement during World War II and then under the Fourth Republic went on to consolidate a nascent communist communal identity, while in Cachan its influence fell victim to Cold War politics. The pre-conditions for the rise of communism were apparent earlier and to a greater degree in Arcueil, an industrialised, working-class suburb with long-standing radical traditions, than in the traditionally conservative Cachan. In Arcueil, the PCF was more successful than its counterpart in Cachan at exploiting an alienation that was not only part of the deep-seated historical traditions of the French working class but was also part of everyday life f or workers forced to live in miserable conditions. In suburbs such as Arcueil, suburban working-class pride at being a social outcast was conflated with communism to create a durable communist communal identity.
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Tuszynska, Sandra School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Science UNSW. "Zinc and nickel disrupt tubular vacuole and mitochondrial networks, but only nickel disrupts microtubules in hyphal tip cells of two Paxillus involutus strains." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/32728.
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Ectomycorrhizal fungi are able to ameliorate heavy metal stress to host trees in polluted soils. Their sensitivity or tolerance to heavy metals is usually examined based on growth and proliferation on heavy metal amended media. However, there are no data on cellular effects of heavy metals and detoxification in live cells of these fungi. Organelle morphology has recently been recognized as an indication of cellular health and its changes can be used to assess cytotoxicity. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate short term effects of common heavy metal pollutants, Zn2+ and Ni2+ on the morphology of vacuoles, mitochondria and microtubules in hyphal tip cells of two Paxillus involutus strains. Vacuoles, mitochondria and microtubules were labeled with Oregon Green?? 488 carboxylic acid diacetate, 3,3'-dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide ((DiOC6(3)) and anti-??- tubulin antibodies, respectively. They were treated with 0-1 mmol L-1 NiSO4 or 0-100 mmol L-1 ZnSO4 or K2SO4 (SO4 2- control) and examined by fluorescence microscopy. Vacuoles and mitochondria in untreated hyphal tip cells of strain P2 which originated from a heavy metal-rich soil were motile and tubular forming networks. Exposure to the metals caused tubular vacuole thickening and vesiculation as well as fragmentation of tubular mitochondria in living hyphal tip cells. The highest K2SO4 concentration also had severe effects on mitochondria. These effects were metal, concentration and exposure time dependent. NiSO4 caused these effects at a hundred fold lower concentration than ZnSO4 and induced severe microtubule disruption. Vacuole tubularity recovered after removal of the metal solutions depending on the metal, concentration and exposure time. Mitochondrial tubularity recovered to pretreatment morphology in a shorter time and even during exposure to the highest metal concentration. Vacuoles of strain P46 which originated from a non-polluted soil were pleomorphic, but mainly spherical with occasional tubular interconnections. The vacuoles were too sensitive to UV light exposure required for fluorescence microscopy to investigate their response to heavy metals. The mitochondrial network and microtubules resembled those of strain P2. The highest ZnSO4 and NiSO4 concentrations caused similar trends in response of mitochondria and microtubules of the two strains. However, mitochondria of strain P46 were less sensitive at lower metal concentrations. The highest K2SO4 concentration had more severe effects on mitochondria of strain P46 than in strain P2 from which tubularity was not recovered. This investigation is the first to reveal that heavy metals affect organelle morphology in two strains of an ectomycorrhizal fungus. Nickel effects on the organelles are likely to result from microtubule disruption. Metal induced mitochondrial fragmentation is possibly an apoptotic response and the recovery of tubular organelle networks suggests cellular detoxification.
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Fedorow, Heidi School of Medical Science UNSW. "Neuromelanin in human dopamine neurons." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Medical Science, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/32717.
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Neuromelanin (NM) is a dark polymer pigment present in specific populations of catecholaminergic neurons in the brain. Interest in this pigment has rekindled in recent years because of a hypothesised link between NM and the especial vulnerability of NM-containing neurons to cell death in Parkinson???s disease (PD). Many aspects of the biology of NM are yet to be characterised. It is not known if NM like the similar melanin of the skin is synthesised via an enzymatic pathway or solely through autoxidation as has traditionally been thought. Examination of the ultrastructure of NM granules showed that in contrast to peripheral melanosomes, an electron-lucent lipid component was present that represented 30% of pigment volume. The identity of the lipid component of NM has remained unclear since it was first suggested that NM contained lipid in the 1960???s. NM lipid was biochemically isolated from the substantia nigra of 32 human brains. Using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography, atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation mass spectrometry and 1H- and 13C NMR techniques, it was shown for the first time that the NM lipid is the polyisoprenoid dolichol. The age-related development and regulation of NM has not previously been described. Optical density and area measurements of unstained NM in ventral substantia nigra neurons spanning the ages of 24 weeks to 95 years old demonstrated three developmental phases. NM was not present at birth and initiation of pigmentation began at approximately 3 years of age, followed by a period of increasing pigment granule number and colouration until age 20. In PD brain, the ultrastructure of NM demonstrated that the amount of lipid did not change. However, filipin staining showed a reduction of cholesterol in PD NM containing neurons. In addition, immunogold staining of ??-synuclein demonstrated that this protein redistributed to the NM lipid in PD brain. The finding of phases in the development of NM, and the identification of lipid species in NM suggest that NM biology is regulated. This thesis has also demonstrated changes in the lipid and associated proteins in PD, suggesting NM???s chemical composition alters which may have functional consequences that contribute to PD.
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Bonello, Michelle Rita Medical Sciences Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "Transcriptional regulation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-?? in vascular smooth muscle cells." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Medical Sciences, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23333.
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Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of vascular occlusive disorders such as atherosclerosis and restenosis, in part due to its regulation of smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotype. The molecular mechanisms regulating the expression of PDGF-receptor-?? (PDGF-R-??), which binds all known dimeric forms of PDGF except PDGF-DD, are poorly understood. Here it is demonstrated that PDGF-R-?? protein and transcriptional regulation in SMCs is under the positive regulatory influence of the zinc finger nuclear protein, Sp1. An atypical G-rich Sp1-binding element from -61 to -52 bp (-61G10 - 52) upstream of the transcriptional start site, was identified in the PDGF-R-?? promoter via electrophoretic mobility shift, competition and supershift analysis. Mutation of this sequence ablated endogenous Sp1 binding and activation of the PDGF-R-?? promoter. In addition to Sp1 regulation of PDGF-R-??, it was shown that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) represses PDGF-R-?? transcription, mRNA and protein expression in SMCs. The FGF-2-induced inhibition of PDGF-R-?? was rescued by block of extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) signaling. Interestingly, mutation of the aforementioned novel Sp1-response-element blocked FGF-2-induced repression of PDGF-R-?? transcription. FGF-2 was also shown to stimulate Sp1 phosphorylation in an ERK1/2-dependent manner, enhancing its interaction with the PDGF-R-?? promoter. Further analysis revealed that mutations of residues Thr453 and Thr739 in Sp1 resulted in loss of FGF-2-mediated repression of PDGF-R-?? transcription. These findings demonstrate that FGF-2 stimulates ERK1/2- dependent Sp1 phosphorylation, thereby repressing PDGF-R-?? transcription via Sp1 binding the -61/-52 element in the PDGF-R-?? promoter. Thus, phosphorylation triggered by FGF-2, switches Sp1 from an activator to a repressor of PDGF-R-?? transcription, a finding previously unreported in any Sp1-dependent gene. It is also shown in this thesis that the proto-oncogene Ets-1 controls PDGF-R-?? transcription and mRNA expression in SMCs. Mutational, electrophoretic mobility shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed the existence of a reverse Ets binding motif (-45TTCC-42) in the proximal region of the PDGFR- ?? promoter which bound both recombinant and endogenous Ets-1. Ets-1- inducible PDGF-R-?? expression was dependent upon the integrity of both the - 45TTCC-42 motif and the previously identified -61G10 -52 element, which resides upstream of -45TTCC-42 and mediates Sp1 induction. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) at nanomolar concentrations, stimulated levels of Ets-1 and increased PDGF-R- ?? transcription and mRNA expression without affecting Sp1 expression. Disruption of the -45TTCC-42 motif or -61G10 -52 element blocked H2O2 activation of the PDGF-R-?? promoter. These studies identify a functional Ets motif in the PDGF-R-?? promoter which plays a pivotal role in agonist-inducible PDGF-R-?? transcription. The interplay between transcription factors such as Sp1 and Ets- 1 in the promoter of genes can exert profound influences on gene regulation. Modulating gene expression affects biological processes such as SMC proliferation and phenotype changes, which contributes to changes in vessel integrity, a hallmark of atherosclerosis. This study provides a greater insight in the functional consequences of Sp1 and Ets-1 interplay in PDGF-R-?? gene regulation and in general, provides a greater understanding of the functional regulation of cooperating transcription factors.
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Lee, Kenneth Chung-Keong School of Chemical Engineering & Industrial Chemistry UNSW. "Cyanide regeneration from Thiocyanate with the use of Anion exchange resins." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23018.
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It is known in many gold operations that less than 2% of the cyanide consumed accounts for the gold and silver dissolution. The majority of the cyanide is consumed by minerals contained in the gold ore to produce many different cyanide soluble complexes or used in converting cyanide to other related species such as thiocyanate and cyanate. The high costs associated with cyanide and thiocyanate detoxification and excessive cyanide utilisation encountered when treating ores with high cyanide consumption constitutes a significant proportion of the overall processing costs. This study examines the possibility of recovering free cyanide from thiocyanate using a process based on the Acidification-Volatilisation-Regeneration (AVR) circuit in conjunction with a pre-concentration stage using commercially available ionexchange resin. From thermodynamic modelling based on the STABCAL program it was found that it was thermodynamically possible to recover cyanide from thiocyanate if the oxidation of cyanide to cyanate can be stopped. Addition of copper to the system found that the majority of the thiocyanate exists as copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) solid. Using ion-exchange resins can be an effective way to concentrate thiocyanate from tailing solutions or slurries. Four different models were successfully used to model the equilibria between thiocyanate and chloride on commercial ion-exchange resins. By normalising the equilibria data when applying the Mass action law the equilibria becomes independent of ionic strength within the range of concentration considered. An advantage of this is that only one unique equilibrium constant is used to describe the ion-exchange process. The electrochemical and kinetic studies showed that the reaction between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide is catalysed by hydrogen ions. Secondly under acidic conditions the rate of cyanide recovery by the AVR circuit was faster than at higher pH conditions. The overall reaction of thiocyanate with respect to the concentration of thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide is an overall third order reaction. The derived third order rate expression is first order with respect to thiocyanate concentration and second order with respect to hydrogen peroxide concentration. Previous studies showed that the production of cyanide inhibits the reactions between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide, but by removing cyanide from the reaction by air stripping, this was not observed. Addition of copper to the system did not show a catalytic effect on the reaction but it was found that copper (II) ions suppresses competing reactions that occurred without affecting the reaction between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide.
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Ko, Sungbae School of Modern Language Studies UNSW. "Multiple-response sequences in adult Korean TESOL classrooms." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Modern Language Studies, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23375.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis, multiple-response sequences (MRSs) are examined. These are a language classroom practice in which two or more students respond to a teacher???s question or other elicitation. The study uses tools of Conversation Analysis to investigate over 38 hours of classroom talk- in-interaction in TESOL classes comprising monolingual adult Korean learners. Classes were recorded on audio and video in Seoul, South Korea and Sydney, Australia. About 1050 cases of MRSs were found and analysed. In the study, four distinct major types of multiple responses (MRs) are identified. These are: the identical MR, in which two or more students provide the same response; the complementary MR, in which two or more students??? responses provide essent ially the same meaning, but in different forms; the collaborative MR, in which two or more students collectively provide various parts of the response in the construction of a single response; and the competitive MR, in which two or more students provide responses that diverge from one another. The study also examines complex MRs, which are combinations of the basic four types, and expanded sequences, in which MRs occur in preparatory stage or post-expansion sequences. It was found that the teacher and students can produce highly complex, co-ordinated and orderly talk in the course of MRSs. The study also considers MRSs as a potential locus for second language learning. The relevance of this study to some major theories of second language acquisition is discussed, in particular in relation to social interaction in the classroom.Finally, some suggestions for future research in the area are presented.