Description:
This chapter discusses what it means to be an awake student and how you can be an engaged student to take the maximum advantage of the learning environment. It will explore the interrelationship of being an awake student and an awake nurse. Nursing requires constantly observing the situation, being aware of the context of practice, the situation or event in which you are taking part, and the patient in your care in order to make professional nursing decisions. To be successful in learning and practice, you will need to develop the graduate attributes of a nurse. These including being a professional and ethical decision-maker, politically astute situational leader and citizen, socially and culturally aware agent of change, critically reflective thinker adept in clinical reasoning, creative problem-solver, skilled therapeutic communicator, capable interdisciplinary healthcare team member and competent, caring, safe and professional nurse (Federation University Australia 2015). This chapter also provides ideas for how to overcome difficulties and engage in your learning together with ways that will help you to spend effective time in your learning endearvour. It discusses how you can transition to university learning in a way that makes you an equal partner in the learning process towards becoming an independent learner.
Description:
The word Banshee is derived from the Gaelic 'bean si' or 'sidhe' meaning woman of the faeries. According to legend they appointed from the faery world to forewarn the members of the families who claim direct descent from the mythical Milesians, the fifth and last of the population waves to sweep Ireland during pre-historical times. Although originally the pre-serve of the clans of O'Neill, O'Brien, O'Grady, O'Connor and Kavanagh, with intermarraige down through the centuries they have become attached to many other Irish families including several with distinctly Norman heritage.
Description:
This article considers the barriers to higher education currently faced by rural students in Australia. Three barriers to participation in higher education for rural students that appear consistently in the literature are financial pressures, family and community attributes, and physical location. Results of recent studies in this area suggest that these factors often coexist to create one, complex and intertwined barrier which needs to be approach by all involved in a collaborative and cooperative way in order to provide rural people with equitable access to higher education.
Becoming "Brave and Gallant" : Decolonising the myths of Burke and Wills; Cross-cultural exchanges and the co-production of knowledge during the Victorian Exploring Expedition and the subsequent Relief Expeditions
Description:
The history of the Victorian Exploring Expedition (VEE), also known as ‘Burke and Wills’, has commonly been told as a story of ‘brave and gallant men’ who ventured into an unfamiliar landscape and became victims of the ‘ghastly blank’ interior of Australia. Visual artists and historians have memorialised these men as solo-hero explorers who sacrificed their youth and life potential for the sake of Australian nation. The myth of Burke and Wills is a constructed narrative and symbol of glory and achievement that denies the involvement of significant others in exploration and geographical knowledge creation. The path the VEE created through the centre of Australia opened up the broader continent for rapid colonisation and imperial expansion. The tragic legacy of the deaths of Burke and Wills is part of the Australian identity, however, some major aspects of the VEE successes and failures have been sidelined, silenced and even completely ignored in many historical accounts. The historical and visual art accounts that contributed to the memorialisation of Burke and Wills often denied the involvement of other exploration team members, the relief expeditions who went in search of the missing explorers, various intermediaries, guides, go-betweens and significantly Aboriginal peoples’ close involvement and or resistance to interior exploration. Yandruwandha people have been remembered as a friendly and accommodating community who assisted the explorers in their last days and who cared for John King. Within the archives and social memories are examples of agency, power, resistance, and varied perspectives of Burke and Wills. This ethnographic history asks why relations between the explorers, Aboriginal peoples and landscape have been told the way they have and provides examples of encounter and exchange, mutual adaptation and the co-production of knowledge as a way to decolonise the myths of Burke and Wills.
Description:
The history of the Victorian Exploring Expedition (VEE), also known as ‘Burke and Wills’, has commonly been told as a story of ‘brave and gallant men’ who ventured into an unfamiliar landscape and became victims of the ‘ghastly blank’ interior of Australia. Visual artists and historians have memorialised these men as solo-hero explorers who sacrificed their youth and life potential for the sake of Australian nation. The myth of Burke and Wills is a constructed narrative and symbol of glory and achievement that denies the involvement of significant others in exploration and geographical knowledge creation. The path the VEE created through the centre of Australia opened up the broader continent for rapid colonisation and imperial expansion. The tragic legacy of the deaths of Burke and Wills is part of the Australian identity, however, some major aspects of the VEE successes and failures have been sidelined, silenced and even completely ignored in many historical accounts. The historical and visual art accounts that contributed to the memorialisation of Burke and Wills often denied the involvement of other exploration team members, the relief expeditions who went in search of the missing explorers, various intermediaries, guides, go-betweens and significantly Aboriginal peoples’ close involvement and or resistance to interior exploration. Yandruwandha people have been remembered as a friendly and accommodating community who assisted the explorers in their last days and who cared for John King. Within the archives and social memories are examples of agency, power, resistance, and varied perspectives of Burke and Wills. This ethnographic history asks why relations between the explorers, Aboriginal peoples and landscape have been told the way they have and provides examples of encounter and exchange, mutual adaptation and the co-production of knowledge as a way to decolonise the myths of Burke and Wills.
Description:
Reports on a qualitative, case-based study of the practices that contribute to the growth of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The research engaged with growing SMEs located in regional areas of Australia, and with the entrepreneurs and owner-managers who lead them.
Description:
A new species of Isotomidae (Collembola) was collected from submerged stones on the edge of nine lakes on Tasmania's Central Highland Plateau. Because it did not comply fully with the characters of any existing genus, a new genus, Chionobora gen. n. is erected for it here. An Antarctic species, Desoria klovstadi (Carpenter), has characters which conform with the new genus so is formally transferred to the new genus here. The Antarctic Continent and Tasmania were last in proximity 60 million years b.p. so it is suggested both species are relicts persisting in probable ice-free refugia during glacial cycles. Gut contents of specimens of the new species exclusively contained diatoms in various stages of digestion and the species appears to graze on aquatic macrophytes, a feeding habit not recorded before for Collembola. We note the high numbers of endemic invertebrate taxa of restricted distributions in cold habitats of southern regions compared to warmer regions and stress their conservation values and threats to their populations.
Description:
A program of planting Australian shrubs and trees has been conducted in degraded farmland at the Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary (central-western Victoria) since the 1960s, to address the issue of declining native birds, as perceived by the late landowner Gordon Clarke. The shrubs and trees were selected to attract birds, and included many species that were not native to the region. This form of management is often practised by private landholders (at various scales), but its effects are rarely documented. Bird surveys were conducted for this study between 1999 and 2001 at 27 sites: 11 in native eucalypt forest on ridges and slopes, 13 in planted areas on ridges and slopes, and three in planted areas on river-flats and a small gully (with three supplementary sites in a pine plantation). Total bird abundance and species per count were highest in the planted sites on river-flats and gully, and higher in the planted sites on ridges and slopes than in native forest on similar topography. Honeyeaters (Meliphagidae), Superb Fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus, open-country birds, seed-eating birds and five insectivorous guilds reached their maximum abundance in planted sites. Barkforaging insectivores, canopy-foraging insectivores, frugivores and a generalist insectivore were marginally more common in native forest than in planted sites. Introduced birds were uncommon. Generalised linear modelling showed that total bird abundance was positively related to the cover of planted native vegetation, native low shrubs and young wattles Acacia spp. and to the presence of indigenous Cherry Ballart Exocarpos cupressiformis. Various guilds showed positive relationships with the cover of planted native vegetation, native low shrubs, young wattles, original old wattles, original old eucalypts and trees with small or large hollows. The planting program has provided new habitat for many native forest birds. A greater challenge is to address the needs of some uncommon species that have declined locally, such as the Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus and Speckled Warbler Chthonicola sagittata.
Description:
A program of planting Australian shrubs and trees has been conducted in degraded farmland at the Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary (central-western Victoria) since the 1960s, to address the issue of declining native birds, as perceived by the late landowner Gordon Clarke. The shrubs and trees were selected to attract birds, and included many species that were not native to the region. This form of management is often practised by private landholders (at various scales), but its effects are rarely documented. Bird surveys were conducted for this study between 1999 and 2001 at 27 sites: 11 in native eucalypt forest on ridges and slopes, 13 in planted areas on ridges and slopes, and three in planted areas on river-flats and a small gully (with three supplementary sites in a pine plantation). Total bird abundance and species per count were highest in the planted sites on river-flats and gully, and higher in the planted sites on ridges and slopes than in native forest on similar topography. Honeyeaters (Meliphagidae), Superb Fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus, open-country birds, seed-eating birds and five insectivorous guilds reached their maximum abundance in planted sites. Barkforaging insectivores, canopy-foraging insectivores, frugivores and a generalist insectivore were marginally more common in native forest than in planted sites. Introduced birds were uncommon. Generalised linear modelling showed that total bird abundance was positively related to the cover of planted native vegetation, native low shrubs and young wattles Acacia spp. and to the presence of indigenous Cherry Ballart Exocarpos cupressiformis. Various guilds showed positive relationships with the cover of planted native vegetation, native low shrubs, young wattles, original old wattles, original old eucalypts and trees with small or large hollows. The planting program has provided new habitat for many native forest birds. A greater challenge is to address the needs of some uncommon species that have declined locally, such as the Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus and Speckled Warbler Chthonicola sagittata.
Description:
Australia's folklore has developed over two and a half centries of cultural diversity. It is influenced by stories, songs, traditions, rituals, and ideologies from every corner of the globe. Despite the attempted genocide of Australian Indigenous peoples and their languages and cultures, certain aspects of their mythology and folklore have been powerful enough, interesting enough, or pertinent enough to have survived and been translated, adapted or appropriated holus-bolus into the wider mainstream Australian mythology.
Description:
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Australian women (and Melbournian women in particular) were chastised for extravagance in dress. Excessive expenditure on fashionable clothing was considered a threat to personal solvency and domestic tranquillity. Female profligacy was also deemed self indulgent and unpatriotic in periods of economic and military crisis. Drawing on Zelizer's [Zelizer VA. The social meaning of money. New York: Basic Books; 1994] study of The social meaning of money the paper examines how the state attempted to contain female extravagance in dress by re-orientating spending priorities in household budgets. The earmarking ideology of patriotic thrift was conveyed by apparatuses such as cultural and communications media, the political system and voluntary associations. The earmarking ideology represented an onslaught on fashionable dress, a means of asserting feminine identity in a patriarchal society. The study reveals budgetary earmarking as a social process, which is reflective and constitutive of gendered asymmetries of power in the home.
Description:
Over the past decade, increased policy attention on the consequences of demographic ageing in Australia has led to a more focused research agenda on ageing, greater funding opportunities and raised awareness and recognition of gerontology as an important field of study. Research capacity building efforts in ageing have been considerable and have improved collaboration between the policy, research and service sectors, raising expectations of research funding streams and translation of research into policy and practice. The discourse on ageing has also shifted gradually from a deficit model to focus more on healthy, active or productive ageing, indicating a broader multidisciplinary approach and more positive perceptions of ageing. This shift in focus has enabled social gerontology to flourish in Australia, with a number of ageing research centres having social gerontology streams. While much has been achieved over this period, there are ongoing challenges in sustaining the progress made to date and in building research capacity that has longer-term strategic prospects. This paper outlines Australia’s efforts to build research capacity in gerontology over the past decade, examining key successes and future challenges, with consideration of how this experience may be relevant to Asia.
Description:
Over the past decade, increased policy attention on the consequences of demographic ageing in Australia has led to a more focused research agenda on ageing, greater funding opportunities and raised awareness and recognition of gerontology as an important field of study. Research capacity building efforts in ageing have been considerable and have improved collaboration between the policy, research and service sectors, raising expectations of research funding streams and translation of research into policy and practice. The discourse on ageing has also shifted gradually from a deficit model to focus more on healthy, active or productive ageing, indicating a broader multidisciplinary approach and more positive perceptions of ageing. This shift in focus has enabled social gerontology to flourish in Australia, with a number of ageing research centres having social gerontology streams. While much has been achieved over this period, there are ongoing challenges in sustaining the progress made to date and in building research capacity that has longer-term strategic prospects. This paper outlines Australia’s efforts to build research capacity in gerontology over the past decade, examining key successes and future challenges, with consideration of how this experience may be relevant to Asia.
Description:
Soil and mine waste around historical gold mining sites may have elevated arsenic concentrations. Recent evidence suggests some systemic arsenic absorption by residents in the goldfields region of Victoria, Australia. Victorian Cancer Registry and geochemical data were accessed for an ecological geographical correlation study, 1984-2003. Spatial empirical Bayes smoothing was applied when estimating standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) for cancers in 61 statistical local areas. The derived soil arsenic exposure metric ranged from 1.4 to 1857 mg/kg. Spatial autoregressive modelling detected increases in smoothed SIRs for all cancers of 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.02-0.08) and 0.04 (0.01-0.07) per 2.7-fold increase in the natural log-transformed exposure metric for males and females, respectively, in more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas; for melanoma in males (0.05 (0.01-0.08) adjusted for disadvantage) and females (0.05 (0.02-0.09) in disadvantaged areas). Excess risks were estimated for all cancers (relative risk 1.21 (95% CI, 1.15-1.27) and 1.08 (1.03-1.14)), and melanoma (1.52 (1.25-1.85) and 1.29 (1.08-1.55)), for males and females, respectively, in disadvantaged areas in the highest quintile of the exposure metric relative to the lowest. Our findings suggest small but significant increases in past cancer risk associated with increasing soil arsenic in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and demonstrate the robustness of this geospatial approach. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology advance online publication, 21 March 2012.
Description:
Soil and mine waste around historical gold mining sites may have elevated arsenic concentrations. Recent evidence suggests some systemic arsenic absorption by residents in the goldfields region of Victoria, Australia. Victorian Cancer Registry and geochemical data were accessed for an ecological geographical correlation study, 1984-2003. Spatial empirical Bayes smoothing was applied when estimating standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) for cancers in 61 statistical local areas. The derived soil arsenic exposure metric ranged from 1.4 to 1857 mg/kg. Spatial autoregressive modelling detected increases in smoothed SIRs for all cancers of 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.02-0.08) and 0.04 (0.01-0.07) per 2.7-fold increase in the natural log-transformed exposure metric for males and females, respectively, in more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas; for melanoma in males (0.05 (0.01-0.08) adjusted for disadvantage) and females (0.05 (0.02-0.09) in disadvantaged areas). Excess risks were estimated for all cancers (relative risk 1.21 (95% CI, 1.15-1.27) and 1.08 (1.03-1.14)), and melanoma (1.52 (1.25-1.85) and 1.29 (1.08-1.55)), for males and females, respectively, in disadvantaged areas in the highest quintile of the exposure metric relative to the lowest. Our findings suggest small but significant increases in past cancer risk associated with increasing soil arsenic in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and demonstrate the robustness of this geospatial approach. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology advance online publication, 21 March 2012.
Description:
This thesis disentangles two elements from the complex interdependent suite of key drivers of firm sophistication in capital-budgeting. Specifically, the relative sophistication of a firm (i.e. its nature) and the development level of the nation in which a firm is embedded (i.e. the nurture experienced by the firm). This research should enhance the development focus and process of nations (e.g., to what degree should national development be about raising the ability of individual firms or will raising national development act as a rising tide [that] raises all boats). The comparative data used in this study comes from 150 Australian (ASX200-index-listed) firms and 150 Sri Lankan (Colombo-stock-exchange-listed firms). The research questions are answered via a quantitative research design that uses primary and secondary data. The response rate to the questionnaire survey of firms was, 45 and 73 completed questionnaires from, respectively, Australia and Sri Lanka (an effective response rate of, respectively, 31.5 and 48.7 percent). Secondary data for 2003-12 are obtained from the ASX, CSE’s and SIRCA databases and are used to calculate return on assets, return on equity, Tobin Q, and earnings per share for the sampled firms. It was found that Australian firms tend to rely heavily on sophisticated capital-budgeting practices, but Sri Lankan relatively small firms prefer simple analysis methods and the larger firms tend to be as adept at sophisticated capital budgeting as their Australian counterparts. The choice of whether to use more sophisticated practices or simpler alternatives varies with a firm’s attributes as well as the level of economic and financial market development in its environment. Also, Australian firms tend to use capital-budget models with good-to-strong predictive power (except for ROE) and Sri Lankan firms tend to use capital-budget models with fair-to-poor predictive power. Further, the analysis of Australian firms tends to yield stronger and more statistically-significant results, than those generated by Sri Lankan firms.
Description:
This thesis disentangles two elements from the complex interdependent suite of key drivers of firm sophistication in capital-budgeting. Specifically, the relative sophistication of a firm (i.e. its nature) and the development level of the nation in which a firm is embedded (i.e. the nurture experienced by the firm). This research should enhance the development focus and process of nations (e.g., to what degree should national development be about raising the ability of individual firms or will raising national development act as a rising tide [that] raises all boats). The comparative data used in this study comes from 150 Australian (ASX200-index-listed) firms and 150 Sri Lankan (Colombo-stock-exchange-listed firms). The research questions are answered via a quantitative research design that uses primary and secondary data. The response rate to the questionnaire survey of firms was, 45 and 73 completed questionnaires from, respectively, Australia and Sri Lanka (an effective response rate of, respectively, 31.5 and 48.7 percent). Secondary data for 2003-12 are obtained from the ASX, CSE’s and SIRCA databases and are used to calculate return on assets, return on equity, Tobin Q, and earnings per share for the sampled firms. It was found that Australian firms tend to rely heavily on sophisticated capital-budgeting practices, but Sri Lankan relatively small firms prefer simple analysis methods and the larger firms tend to be as adept at sophisticated capital budgeting as their Australian counterparts. The choice of whether to use more sophisticated practices or simpler alternatives varies with a firm’s attributes as well as the level of economic and financial market development in its environment. Also, Australian firms tend to use capital-budget models with good-to-strong predictive power (except for ROE) and Sri Lankan firms tend to use capital-budget models with fair-to-poor predictive power. Further, the analysis of Australian firms tends to yield stronger and more statistically-significant results, than those generated by Sri Lankan firms.
Description:
BACKGROUND: Health/fitness facilities are popular venues for physical activity, where increasingly more individuals at risk of cardiovascular events exercise to achieve positive health outcomes. The aim of our study was to analyze cardiac emergency preparedness in health/fitness facilities in Queensland, Australia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of health/fitness facilities in Queensland. METHODS: A risk management questionnaire was administered over 7 months, July 2009 to January 2010, using an online or paper-based version. The data are presented as the proportion of survey respondents giving specific responses to questionnaire items related to cardiac emergency preparedness, especially the provision of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). RESULTS: Fifty-two health/fitness facility managers responded to the survey. Most of the surveyed facilities conducted pre-activity screening (92%). Of those with a written emergency plan (79%), only 37% physically rehearsed their emergency response systems at regular intervals. Ninety-five percent of the facilities had fitness employees with a current first aid/cardiopulmonary resuscitation certificate and training. Of the 10 (19%) facilities with an on-site AED, only 6 had staff qualified to use the AED in an emergency, and only 6 had the AED as part of a public access defibrillator program. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to report that cardiac emergency preparedness is not optimal in the health/fitness facilities in Australia. Development of policies and procedures for training health/fitness professionals in emergency procedures is needed to minimize the risk when exercise-induced cardiac events occur at health/fitness facilities.
Challenges faced by early-career researchers in the sciences in Australia and the consequent effect of those challenges on their careers : a mixed methods project
Description:
The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges faced by early-career researchers (ECRs) in the sciences in Australia and the consequent effect of those challenges on their careers. Using a realist/postpositivist paradigm, an evaluative approach, and a framework of job satisfaction, this project has explored and compared the views of ECRs to evaluate the factors which shape the ECR experience and contribute to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction and intention to leave, and to define the features which are necessary to keep an ECR in research. Data collection for this mixed methods study entailed a national survey of researchers working in universities and research institutes (n=658), a focus group discussion and semistructured in-depth interviews with eight women from a variety of scientific disciplines who had recently left academic research workplaces. I focussed particularly on the difficulties consequent to job insecurity: the constant need to attracting funding and a permanent position, lack of work-life balance and associated stress; and evidence of workplace difficulties such as bullying, harassment or inequity and support – or lack of it – offered by the research institutions. I examined the factors which contribute to and barriers which prevent job satisfaction of this population, and the consequent intention (if any) for ECRs to leave research or change their career path. I found an interesting situation whereby the satisfaction derived from a “love of science” was counterbalanced by stress and poor working conditions which are a consequence of lack of job security, typified by poor supervision, bullying or harassment, inequitable hiring practices, a concerning rate of impact from “questionable research practices” (impacting 34%-41% of respondents) and evidence of very high (80%) intention of ECRs to leave their position. The most significant predictor of intention to leave is time as a postdoctoral scientist: eventually the job insecurity and its associated stresses become too much and the ECRs leave their chosen career for work elsewhere. This decision, too, provides interesting findings as many of the ECRs have difficulty planning what to do next. They feel ill-prepared for an alternate career and suffer from a sense of failure as a result of having to leave academia. While addressing the shortage of funding is outside the scope of this study, in addition to offering my findings I put forward a range of recommendations which could lead to ar change of culture and benefit the wellbeing of ECRs in STEMM without incurring significant cost. The Australian Government, higher education institutions and the research community need to improve job security and workplace conditions and take better care of our people in STEMM disciplines or we will not have the scientists we need to deliver the “innovative Australia” planned for 2030 (Department of Industry Innovation and Science, 2018)
Description:
The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges faced by early-career researchers (ECRs) in the sciences in Australia and the consequent effect of those challenges on their careers. Using a realist/postpositivist paradigm, an evaluative approach, and a framework of job satisfaction, this project has explored and compared the views of ECRs to evaluate the factors which shape the ECR experience and contribute to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction and intention to leave, and to define the features which are necessary to keep an ECR in research. Data collection for this mixed methods study entailed a national survey of researchers working in universities and research institutes (n=658), a focus group discussion and semistructured in-depth interviews with eight women from a variety of scientific disciplines who had recently left academic research workplaces. I focussed particularly on the difficulties consequent to job insecurity: the constant need to attracting funding and a permanent position, lack of work-life balance and associated stress; and evidence of workplace difficulties such as bullying, harassment or inequity and support – or lack of it – offered by the research institutions. I examined the factors which contribute to and barriers which prevent job satisfaction of this population, and the consequent intention (if any) for ECRs to leave research or change their career path. I found an interesting situation whereby the satisfaction derived from a “love of science” was counterbalanced by stress and poor working conditions which are a consequence of lack of job security, typified by poor supervision, bullying or harassment, inequitable hiring practices, a concerning rate of impact from “questionable research practices” (impacting 34%-41% of respondents) and evidence of very high (80%) intention of ECRs to leave their position. The most significant predictor of intention to leave is time as a postdoctoral scientist: eventually the job insecurity and its associated stresses become too much and the ECRs leave their chosen career for work elsewhere. This decision, too, provides interesting findings as many of the ECRs have difficulty planning what to do next. They feel ill-prepared for an alternate career and suffer from a sense of failure as a result of having to leave academia. While addressing the shortage of funding is outside the scope of this study, in addition to offering my findings I put forward a range of recommendations which could lead to ar change of culture and benefit the wellbeing of ECRs in STEMM without incurring significant cost. The Australian Government, higher education institutions and the research community need to improve job security and workplace conditions and take better care of our people in STEMM disciplines or we will not have the scientists we need to deliver the “innovative Australia” planned for 2030 (Department of Industry Innovation and Science, 2018)
Description:
The River Murray basin, Australia's largest, has been significantly impacted by changed flow regimes and increased fluxes of salts and sediments since settlement in the 1840s. The river's flood plain hosts an array of cut-off meanders, levee lakes and basin depression lakes that archive historical changes. Pre-European sedimentation rates are typically approx. 0.1-1 mm year-1, while those in the period after European arrival are typically 10 to 30 fold greater. This increased sedimentation corresponds to a shift in wetland trophic state from submerged macrophytes in clear waters to phytoplankton-dominated, turbid systems. There is evidence for a decline in sedimentation in some natural wetlands after river regulation from the 1920s, but with the maintenance of the phytoplankton state. Fossil diatom assemblages reveal that, while some wetlands had saline episodes before settlement, others became saline after, and as early as the 1880s. The oxidation of sulphurous salts deposited after regulation has induced hyperacidity in a number of wetlands in recent years. While these wetlands are rightly perceived as being heavily impacted, other, once open water systems, that have infilled and now support rich macrophyte beds, are used as interpretive sites. The rate of filling, however, suggests that the lifespan of these wetlands is short. The rate of wetland loss through such increased infilling is unlikely to be matched by future scouring as regulation has eliminated middle order floods from the lower catchment.
Description:
The River Murray basin, Australia's largest, has been significantly impacted by changed flow regimes and increased fluxes of salts and sediments since settlement in the 1840s. The river's flood plain hosts an array of cut-off meanders, levee lakes and basin depression lakes that archive historical changes. Pre-European sedimentation rates are typically approx. 0.1-1 mm year-1, while those in the period after European arrival are typically 10 to 30 fold greater. This increased sedimentation corresponds to a shift in wetland trophic state from submerged macrophytes in clear waters to phytoplankton-dominated, turbid systems. There is evidence for a decline in sedimentation in some natural wetlands after river regulation from the 1920s, but with the maintenance of the phytoplankton state. Fossil diatom assemblages reveal that, while some wetlands had saline episodes before settlement, others became saline after, and as early as the 1880s. The oxidation of sulphurous salts deposited after regulation has induced hyperacidity in a number of wetlands in recent years. While these wetlands are rightly perceived as being heavily impacted, other, once open water systems, that have infilled and now support rich macrophyte beds, are used as interpretive sites. The rate of filling, however, suggests that the lifespan of these wetlands is short. The rate of wetland loss through such increased infilling is unlikely to be matched by future scouring as regulation has eliminated middle order floods from the lower catchment.
Description:
Purpose – Ethnographic studies of cyber attacks typically aim to explain a particular profile of attackers in qualitative terms. The purpose of this paper is to formalise some of the approaches to build a Cyber Attacker Model Profile (CAMP) that can be used to characterise and predict cyber attacks. Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds a model using social and economic independent or predictive variables from several eastern European countries and benchmarks indicators of cybercrime within the Australian financial services system. Findings – The paper found a very strong link between perceived corruption and GDP in two distinct groups of countries – corruption in Russia was closely linked to the GDP of Belarus, Moldova and Russia, while corruption in Lithuania was linked to GDP in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. At the same time corruption in Russia and Ukraine were also closely linked. These results support previous research that indicates a strong link between been legitimate economy and the black economy in many countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. The results of the regression analysis suggest that a highly skilled workforce which is mobile and working in an environment of high perceived corruption in the target countries is related to increases in cybercrime even within Australia. It is important to note that the data used for the dependent and independent variables were gathered over a seven year time period, which included large economic shocks such as the global financial crisis. Originality/value – This is the first paper to use a modelling approach to directly show the relationship between various social, economic and demographic factors in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, and the level of card skimming and card not present fraud in Australia. Acknowledgements: Paul A. Watters and Robert Layton are funded by IBM, Westpac, the State Government of Victoria and the Australian Federal Police.