Description:
Epipelic diatom assemblages collected from three wetlands connected to the Murray River displayed considerable variation in response to flooding and drying phases. Murray River water input usually generated diatom assemblages dominated by Aulacoseira species. After isolation, the diatom flora of two wetlands shifted to assemblages of small Fragilariaceae forms. Elevated nutrient levels corresponded with the appearance of eutraphentic taxa such as Cyclotella meneghiniana, Eolimna subminuscula, Luticola mutica and Nitzschia palea. Further evapoconcentration induced shifts to taxa tolerant of elevated salinity levels including Amphora coffeaeformis, Navicula incertata, Staurophora salina and Tryblionella hungarica. Ordination analyses reveal a strong chemical control on the diatom taxa present in the wetlands, in accordance with known ecological preferences for salinity and nutrients. The influence of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in controlling diatom assemblages was subordinate to salinity once conductivity values exceeded 1400 μS cm–1. The results of such biomonitoring provide a means of interpreting wetland history from fossil assemblages contained in sediment sequences.
Description:
Epipelic diatom assemblages collected from three wetlands connected to the Murray River displayed considerable variation in response to flooding and drying phases. Murray River water input usually generated diatom assemblages dominated by Aulacoseira species. After isolation, the diatom flora of two wetlands shifted to assemblages of small Fragilariaceae forms. Elevated nutrient levels corresponded with the appearance of eutraphentic taxa such as Cyclotella meneghiniana, Eolimna subminuscula, Luticola mutica and Nitzschia palea. Further evapoconcentration induced shifts to taxa tolerant of elevated salinity levels including Amphora coffeaeformis, Navicula incertata, Staurophora salina and Tryblionella hungarica. Ordination analyses reveal a strong chemical control on the diatom taxa present in the wetlands, in accordance with known ecological preferences for salinity and nutrients. The influence of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in controlling diatom assemblages was subordinate to salinity once conductivity values exceeded 1400 μS cm–1. The results of such biomonitoring provide a means of interpreting wetland history from fossil assemblages contained in sediment sequences.
Description:
Theodolites represent a well-established three-dimensional-point-measuring technology. However, when used for robot applications they have to be properly calibrated to fulfil the necessary accuracy requirements. The theodolite calibration methods reported in the literature involve the use of costly sophisticated equipment not easily available to most users. Therefore, a new simplified calibration technique is presented based on the use of a graduated precision bar suspended freely to align with the vertical direction. To develop efficient mathematical models, the theodolites will be regarded as 2R open-ended mechanisms with the end-effector axis directed along the line of sight. The proposed models are then coded in a computer program designed to verify the validity of the technique presented. The simulation results will be presented at the end of the paper.
Description:
Theodolites represent a well-established three-dimensional-point-measuring technology. However, when used for robot applications they have to be properly calibrated to fulfil the necessary accuracy requirements. The theodolite calibration methods reported in the literature involve the use of costly sophisticated equipment not easily available to most users. Therefore, a new simplified calibration technique is presented based on the use of a graduated precision bar suspended freely to align with the vertical direction. To develop efficient mathematical models, the theodolites will be regarded as 2R open-ended mechanisms with the end-effector axis directed along the line of sight. The proposed models are then coded in a computer program designed to verify the validity of the technique presented. The simulation results will be presented at the end of the paper.
Description:
In 2001 the School of Education introduced a new P-10 Education course, and a major aspect in this was the introduction of practicum for First Year students within three weeks of starting their course. Evaluations of this have suggested that this is a move that has been enthusiastically embraced by students and in 2002 we have worked on what has been established to extend and develop the experience for First Years by means of systematic construction of a community of practice to support their development as emergent professionals. To build the sort of community of practice that we envisaged, we turned to Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP), action research models, and reflective practice to inform our work to make the practicum as meaningful as possible to First Years as emergent professionals.
Description:
In 2001 the School of Education introduced a new P-10 Education course, and a major aspect in this was the introduction of practicum for First Year students within three weeks of starting their course. Evaluations of this have suggested that this is a move that has been enthusiastically embraced by students and in 2002 we have worked on what has been established to extend and develop the experience for First Years by means of systematic construction of a community of practice to support their development as emergent professionals. To build the sort of community of practice that we envisaged, we turned to Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP), action research models, and reflective practice to inform our work to make the practicum as meaningful as possible to First Years as emergent professionals.
Description:
"The aims of this research were to investigate the association between air pollution and respiratory health effects using a spatial approach, and to derive a composite indicator of ambient air pollution."
Description:
Master of Information Technology by Research
Description:
"The aims of this research were to investigate the association between air pollution and respiratory health effects using a spatial approach, and to derive a composite indicator of ambient air pollution."
Description:
Master of Information Technology by Research
Description:
"This thesis examines the paths by which four Celtic ethnic identities, Cornish, Welsh, Scottish and Irish, responded to the specific society and culture of the Victorian goldfields between 1850-1901. The individual Celtic groups intersected, harmonised and contested with each other in a process through which they retained their identities and yet managed to move towards becoming part of a larger, more-encompassing unity."
Description:
"This thesis examines the paths by which four Celtic ethnic identities, Cornish, Welsh, Scottish and Irish, responded to the specific society and culture of the Victorian goldfields between 1850-1901. The individual Celtic groups intersected, harmonised and contested with each other in a process through which they retained their identities and yet managed to move towards becoming part of a larger, more-encompassing unity."
Description:
Present health funding models can place onerous pressures on rural health services. Staff may lack the time, resources, access to data, and the expertise needed to complete complex and lengthy funding submissions. This present study describes an innovative capacity-building approach to working with Victorian rural communities seeking to access health care funding through the Regional Health Services Program. This approach used several strategies: engaging stakeholders in targeted rural communities, developing an information kit and running a workshop on preparing submissions to the Regional Health Services Program, facilitating community consultations, and providing ongoing support with submissions. Six rural communities were supported in this way. Four have been funded to date, with a combined annual recurrent budget for new primary health care services of over $2.5 million. Each community has developed a service delivery model that meets the particular needs of their local area. This capacity-building approach is both effective and replicable to other health funding opportunities. The definitive version of this article is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com
Description:
Present health funding models can place onerous pressures on rural health services. Staff may lack the time, resources, access to data, and the expertise needed to complete complex and lengthy funding submissions. This present study describes an innovative capacity-building approach to working with Victorian rural communities seeking to access health care funding through the Regional Health Services Program. This approach used several strategies: engaging stakeholders in targeted rural communities, developing an information kit and running a workshop on preparing submissions to the Regional Health Services Program, facilitating community consultations, and providing ongoing support with submissions. Six rural communities were supported in this way. Four have been funded to date, with a combined annual recurrent budget for new primary health care services of over $2.5 million. Each community has developed a service delivery model that meets the particular needs of their local area. This capacity-building approach is both effective and replicable to other health funding opportunities. The definitive version of this article is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com
Description:
"This study investigated the perceptions and expectations of students in a Year 7 science class in an attempt to elicit and make sense of what constitutes a learning environment conducive to engagement with science learning, and what role the teacher's pedagogy might play in the development."
Description:
"This study investigated the perceptions and expectations of students in a Year 7 science class in an attempt to elicit and make sense of what constitutes a learning environment conducive to engagement with science learning, and what role the teacher's pedagogy might play in the development."
Description:
Integrating a powerful instrument such as CAS into teaching and learning mathematics requires changes to many aspects of the classroom, which teachers will make from the base of their prior teaching styles and their beliefs about mathematics and how it should be taught. The paper describes the different ways in which two pioneering Australian teachers adapted their teaching to use CAS. One teacher used CAS with the primary goal of increasing understanding but restricted students’ use. The other teacher adopted CAS as an extra technique for solving standard problems, emphasising timesaving routines by hand and with CAS. Through these case studies we comment on the following issues related to teaching with CAS: different ways of organising the classroom, variety in approaches to teaching the use of CAS, the increased range of methods for solving problems and for teaching, the contrast between using of graphics calculators and CAS, the challenge of finding the place of by-hand skills and CAS use, and the curriculum and assessment changes required in schools.
Description:
Integrating a powerful instrument such as CAS into teaching and learning mathematics requires changes to many aspects of the classroom, which teachers will make from the base of their prior teaching styles and their beliefs about mathematics and how it should be taught. The paper describes the different ways in which two pioneering Australian teachers adapted their teaching to use CAS. One teacher used CAS with the primary goal of increasing understanding but restricted students’ use. The other teacher adopted CAS as an extra technique for solving standard problems, emphasising timesaving routines by hand and with CAS. Through these case studies we comment on the following issues related to teaching with CAS: different ways of organising the classroom, variety in approaches to teaching the use of CAS, the increased range of methods for solving problems and for teaching, the contrast between using of graphics calculators and CAS, the challenge of finding the place of by-hand skills and CAS use, and the curriculum and assessment changes required in schools.
Description:
This project is concerned with exploring a particular cluster of ideas and stories concerning Homecoming, most notably the presence of the Woman Who Waits for the traveller to return. Underlying the storied aspects of the visual work are the deeper intentions of soulfulness, personal therapy and social interaction. Although profoundly autobiographical, the metaphoric images I have produced are not only a means to touch others but are inclusive of a broader experience than simply my own. Throughout the following exegesis I draw on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, mythology and history, to explore the metaphoric presences of the deities Hestia and Hermes and their relationship to ideas of Home and Not - Home. Particular qualities associated with Home may, for the traveller, become symbolically embodied within the figure of The Woman Who Waits. This simple perception of The Woman Who Waits, and the process of waiting for the traveller to return was explored and expanded through autobiographic art practice combined with visual and theoretical research. Throughout the project the expression of emotive autobiographic issues through the running use of metaphor has been combined with increasing technical control and subtlety along with sustained explorations of spatial and compositional dynamics.
Description:
This project is concerned with exploring a particular cluster of ideas and stories concerning Homecoming, most notably the presence of the Woman Who Waits for the traveller to return. Underlying the storied aspects of the visual work are the deeper intentions of soulfulness, personal therapy and social interaction. Although profoundly autobiographical, the metaphoric images I have produced are not only a means to touch others but are inclusive of a broader experience than simply my own. Throughout the following exegesis I draw on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, mythology and history, to explore the metaphoric presences of the deities Hestia and Hermes and their relationship to ideas of Home and Not - Home. Particular qualities associated with Home may, for the traveller, become symbolically embodied within the figure of The Woman Who Waits. This simple perception of The Woman Who Waits, and the process of waiting for the traveller to return was explored and expanded through autobiographic art practice combined with visual and theoretical research. Throughout the project the expression of emotive autobiographic issues through the running use of metaphor has been combined with increasing technical control and subtlety along with sustained explorations of spatial and compositional dynamics.
Description:
The Lal Lal Falls, situated within the traditional country of the Wathawurrung people, is one of Victoria's most significant Indigenous cultural sites, as it is one of several recorded living sites of Bundjil--the Kulin peoples' creator spirit. Lal Lal Falls, near Ballarat in Western Victoria, became a tourism attraction for non-Indigenous Australians for its natural and cultural values.
Description:
"This study investigated the effect of unilateral cerebellar lesions on the performance of finger movement sequences in reaction time tasks."
Description:
"This study investigated the effect of unilateral cerebellar lesions on the performance of finger movement sequences in reaction time tasks."
Description:
The fear and pain of medical procedures are a source of great distress to children. Techniques such as distraction, relaxation and guided imagery help children to cope, and in some cases, have a marked influence on the experience of fear and pain during painful medical procedures. However, the effects, embedded in the relationships between consciousness, imagery, fear and pain, are unclear, particularly with regard to the clinical (as opposed to the laboratory) reality of procedural pain. The aim of this thesis was to empirically account for the therapeutic effects of distraction, relaxation, and imagery on procedural fear and pain in children and to offer a model based on a constructive view of experience allied to recent advances in neurophysiology that could account for the effects. Two studies were undertaken to address this aim. The first study investigated the effects of cartoon distraction on fear and pain in children undergoing venepuncture. The second study investigated the independent and combined effects of relaxation and imagery on fear and pain in children also undergoing venepuncture. The studies indicated that relaxation, distraction and imagery reduced procedural fear. Procedural pain was not affected by relaxation but distraction showed positive effects as did imagery, particularly if procedural pain was defined in terms of its sensory and emotional components. These effects are explained using a model based on a top-down constructivist view of the psychology and neurophysiology of fear, pain, imagery and consciousness. The neurophysiological components of the model comprised the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex and association areas within a working memory view of consciousness. The constructivist perspective held that during relaxation the child’s cognitive, emotional and sensorial quality were largely based on the ‘reality’ of the procedure room, but that during imagery and perhaps distraction, the qualia were located elsewhere. The thesis concludes with the relevance of the model for clinical practice and implications for further psychological and neurophysiological research.
Description:
The fear and pain of medical procedures are a source of great distress to children. Techniques such as distraction, relaxation and guided imagery help children to cope, and in some cases, have a marked influence on the experience of fear and pain during painful medical procedures. However, the effects, embedded in the relationships between consciousness, imagery, fear and pain, are unclear, particularly with regard to the clinical (as opposed to the laboratory) reality of procedural pain. The aim of this thesis was to empirically account for the therapeutic effects of distraction, relaxation, and imagery on procedural fear and pain in children and to offer a model based on a constructive view of experience allied to recent advances in neurophysiology that could account for the effects. Two studies were undertaken to address this aim. The first study investigated the effects of cartoon distraction on fear and pain in children undergoing venepuncture. The second study investigated the independent and combined effects of relaxation and imagery on fear and pain in children also undergoing venepuncture. The studies indicated that relaxation, distraction and imagery reduced procedural fear. Procedural pain was not affected by relaxation but distraction showed positive effects as did imagery, particularly if procedural pain was defined in terms of its sensory and emotional components. These effects are explained using a model based on a top-down constructivist view of the psychology and neurophysiology of fear, pain, imagery and consciousness. The neurophysiological components of the model comprised the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex and association areas within a working memory view of consciousness. The constructivist perspective held that during relaxation the child’s cognitive, emotional and sensorial quality were largely based on the ‘reality’ of the procedure room, but that during imagery and perhaps distraction, the qualia were located elsewhere. The thesis concludes with the relevance of the model for clinical practice and implications for further psychological and neurophysiological research.
Description:
Studies of small mammals at Parker River Inlet from 1985-95 have demonstrated the presence of ten species of small mammals. Trapping, spotlighting and incidental sightings have shown that a further 18 species of mammals occur within an area of 200 ha. Pseudomys fumeus and Antechinus minimus, recorded in this survey, are rare and restricted in Victoria. The species richness of the area is related to the heterogeneity of the vegetation, with twelve vegetation types being identified in the study area. The occurrence of the more abundant small mammals, Rattus fuscipes, Rattus lutreolus, Mus musculus and Antechinus swainsonii, is correlated with vegetation structure and floristics. Causes of fluctuations of the populations of the exotic species M. musculus and Rattus rattus are considered. Management recommendations, which reflect the high significance of faunal habitat in the area, are made with the aim of minimising human impact.
Description:
Studies of small mammals at Parker River Inlet from 1985-95 have demonstrated the presence of ten species of small mammals. Trapping, spotlighting and incidental sightings have shown that a further 18 species of mammals occur within an area of 200 ha. Pseudomys fumeus and Antechinus minimus, recorded in this survey, are rare and restricted in Victoria. The species richness of the area is related to the heterogeneity of the vegetation, with twelve vegetation types being identified in the study area. The occurrence of the more abundant small mammals, Rattus fuscipes, Rattus lutreolus, Mus musculus and Antechinus swainsonii, is correlated with vegetation structure and floristics. Causes of fluctuations of the populations of the exotic species M. musculus and Rattus rattus are considered. Management recommendations, which reflect the high significance of faunal habitat in the area, are made with the aim of minimising human impact.
Description:
The publication of two illustrated books with verbal text by the Australian writer Gary Crew provides an opportunity to compare the presentation of war memories in picture story book and graphic novel format. Gary Crew and Shaun Tan's Memorial (1999) is a thought-provoking picture story book while Crew and Steven Woolman's Tagged (1997) is an idiosyncratic graphic novel. The picture story book illustrations depict the commemorative tree as more real, more present than the books' human beings. The verbal text asserts that memory will live on through generations of the war veterans' family, as in the tree, but the illustrations of the cutting down of the tree and the verbal text revealing a veteran's self-censorship reveal these claims to be at best tenuous, at worst, false. Nevertheless, despite the current town council's disrespect for the commemorative tree, the Anzac Day ceremony remains a socially sanctioned rite of remembering war. The illustrations to Tagged represent a war veteran's confused mind and his compulsive reliving of his past as confusing visual images with a lack of clear cues for the reader's eye to follow, as the boy observer moves more deeply into the labyrinthine building where the man hides. While Memorial's war memorials are complete, public, in good condition and easily accessible, the bewildering passages and openings of Tagged's building suggest the man's stuck memories, the boy's problems with interpreting war images and also a society's not altogether successful attempt to repress collective acknowledgement of its war past. In contrast with Memorial, Tagged is a memorial to the unknown soldier, offering a different kind of historical truth to any officials, public, empty tomb.
Description:
A sample of 311 primary school teachers completed the Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index alongside the abbreviated revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and measures of religiosity. The data demonstrate that higher levels of spiritual health are found among older teachers who record low scores on the psychoticism scale and who practice religious faith through church attendance and personal prayer.
Description:
A sample of 311 primary school teachers completed the Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index alongside the abbreviated revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and measures of religiosity. The data demonstrate that higher levels of spiritual health are found among older teachers who record low scores on the psychoticism scale and who practice religious faith through church attendance and personal prayer.
Description:
While Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is being superseded by an integrated approach to language learning and technology, it still has great potential to assist indigenous peoples in becoming print-literate in their own languages. This can also help to combat the disempowerment experienced by indigenous people as their world is penetrated by others with radically different backgrounds. This paper reports on research on an application of CALL implemented among the Kunib dji, a remote, indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the use of talking books in Ndj bbana, a language with only 200 speakers; the books were displayed on touch-screens at various locations in the community. Investigations into the roles of the computer to support language learning and cultural understanding are also reported. The computer was found to be a useful tool in promoting Kunib dji collaboration and cultural transformation.
Description:
While Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is being superseded by an integrated approach to language learning and technology, it still has great potential to assist indigenous peoples in becoming print-literate in their own languages. This can also help to combat the disempowerment experienced by indigenous people as their world is penetrated by others with radically different backgrounds. This paper reports on research on an application of CALL implemented among the Kunib dji, a remote, indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the use of talking books in Ndj bbana, a language with only 200 speakers; the books were displayed on touch-screens at various locations in the community. Investigations into the roles of the computer to support language learning and cultural understanding are also reported. The computer was found to be a useful tool in promoting Kunib dji collaboration and cultural transformation.