13 days and counting : A mutual support model for young, homeless women in crisis
- Authors: Green, Rosemary , Mason, Robyn , Ollerenshaw, Alison
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Youth Studies Australia Vol. 23, no. 2 (2004), p. 46-50
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- Description: An innovative program in rural Victoria matches young homeless women with older homeless women and provides them with a range of support services.The result is more stability in the accommodation setting, mutual benefit and satisfaction for clients, and impressive rates of permanent housing outcomes.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000964
A neural network approach for predicting the direction of the Australian stock market index
- Authors: Tilakaratne, Chandima
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: This research investigated the feasibility and capability of neural network-based approaches for predicting the direction of the Australian Stock market index (the target market). It includes several aspects: univariate feature selection from the historical time series of the target market, inter-market analysis for finding the most relevant influential markets, investigations of the effect of time cycles on the target market and the discovery of the optimal neural network architectures. Previous research on US stock markets and other international markets have shown that the neural network approach is one of most powerful techniques for predicting stock market behaviour. Neural networks are capable of capturing the non-linear stochastic and chaotic patterns in the stock market time series data. This study discovered that the relative return series of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market, show 6-day cycles during the studied period of about 14 years. Multi-layer feedforward neural networks trained with a backpropagation algorithm were used for the experiments. Two major testing methods: testing with randomly selected test data and forward testing, were examined and compared. The best neural network developed in this study has achieved 87%, 81% 83% and 81% accuracy respectively in predicting the next-day direction of the relative return of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market. The architecture of this network consists of 33 input features, one hidden layer with 3 neurons and 4 output neurons. The best input features set includes the relative returns from 1 to 6 days in the past of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market, the day of the week, and the previous day’s relative return of the Close prices of the US S&P 500 Index, US Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, US Gold/Silver Index, and the US Oil Index.
- Description: Master of Information Technology by Research
Accounting's chaotic margins : Financial reporting of the library collections of Australia's public universities
- Authors: West, Brian , Carnegie, Garry
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the Fourth Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting Conference, Singapore : 4th - 6th July, 2004
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- Description: This paper explores the circumstances and implications of an episode of accounting change arising from the extended use of accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. The matter under scrutiny is the financial reporting of the library collections of Australia's public universities. Accounting standards applying within the Australian public sector imply that such collections should generally be accounted for as assets in the statements of financial position of the entities that manage them. A survey reveals considerable diversity and subjectivity in the accounting practices adopted in seeking to satisfy this requirement. This raises questions about the reliability and usefulness of the information reported, and renders problematic the technical propriety of attempting to express and account for non-financial resources in financial terms. The financial reporting of library collections is posited as a 'chaotic margin' of accounting and consideration is given to possible explanations for the disorderly state of practice observed.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000769
Adult learning through fire and emergency service organisations in small and remote Australian towns
- Authors: Hayes, Christine , Golding, Barry , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: A1
- Description: 2003000775
Creating and sustaining online communities : Web-based services meeting the diverse needs of regional and rural Australia
- Authors: Thompson, Helen
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions Chapter 18 p. 132-146
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- Description: B1
- Description: 2003000796
Rural and remote social welfare practice: Differences and similarities in the Australian context
- Authors: Green, Rosemary , Gregory, Raeleene
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Rural Society Vol. 14, no. 3 (2004), p. 245-255
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- Description: Welfare practice in rural and remote areas has some particular challenges for professionals. There is a developing body of knowledge about the differences between urban and rural welfare practice, and some evidence that remote practice is experienced differently from rural practice. This article provides an introductory discussion of the differences and similarities of rural and remote welfare practice (in terms of organizational, professional and personal aspects) in Australia using material gathered from two exploratory studies of social work and welfare professionals in Victoria and the Northern Territory. While there were many similarities about satisfaction with lifestyle and the work role, major differences were related to the emphasis on ethical dilemmas in the rural area, strong dissatisfaction with organizations and employment conditions expressed by the remote practitioners, and a lack of professional support and networking which was particularly noted in the remote area.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000951
Start up and beyond : Evolving training needs for rural women in small business
- Authors: Newton, Janice , Gottschalk, Lorene , Wood, Glenice
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of New Business Ideas and Trends Vol. 2, no. 1 (2004), p. 29-42
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- Description: The rural decline in Australian industry restructuring and the withdrawal of infrastructural services (ABS, 1998), gives rise to the hope of a turnaround in regional and rural Australia arising from the growth of new business ventures. There has been a trend towards an increase in both small business and the involvement of women in recent years (ABS 1301.0, 1997). This combination is important for a sustainable rural future, and therefore, a greater understanding is needed of how women stand in relation to sound business preparation, and attitudes to professional training.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000792
The applicability of networks in Australian adult and vocational learning research
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Learns and Practitioners: The Heart of the Matter, Canberra : 17th March, 2004
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- Description: Networks have increasingly been recognised by educators as important in adult and vocational learning contexts, in that they have the capacity to help potential learners engage and become better connected with a wide range of learning organisations through their families, jobs and communities and also with opportunities for future learning and work. The importance of ‘being connected’, including through networks to and between learning organisations, has come into higher relief with a recent increase in theorising about aspects of social capital including learning networks, the growth of lifelong learning and an identification of the particular penalties associated with several forms of disengagement from learning for people of all ages. This paper begins with a scan of research literature on networks in adult and vocational learning. The paper identifies some new techniques involving networks, found by experience to assist in the process of adult and vocational learning research: particularly for identifying potential research interviewees within learning organisations and communities, strengthening relationships between learning organisations and identifying opportunities for future collaboration. It also provides some insights from new data on organisational networks derived from a number of recent research studies about learning networks in TAFE, adult and community education and public safety organisations in small and remote towns. The paper finally provides a number of tentative, general findings about the broader applicability of network theory to research and theories about learning in such contexts.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000774
The intellectual life of Catherine Helen Spence
- Authors: McFarland, Michele
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: This thesis will argue that Catherine Helen Spence, a writer, preacher and reformer who migrated from Scotland to Australia in 1839, performed the role of a public intellectual in Australia similar to that played by a number of women of letters in Victorian England. While her ideas were strongly influenced by important British and European nineteenth-century intellectual figures and movements, as well as by Enlightenment thought, her work also reflects the different socio-political, historical and cultural environment of Australia. These connections and influences can be seen in her engagement with what were some of the "big ideas" of the nineteenth century, including feminism, socialism, religious scepticism, utopianism and the value of progress. In arguing that Spence was a public intellectual, I will consider the ways in which she used the literary genres of fiction and journalism, as well as her sermons, to try to help her fellow citizens make sense of the world, attempting to organise and articulate some of the significant ideas affecting the political, social and cultural climates in which they lived. Through the exploration of Spence's intellectual work, I will show how she can be regarded as making a significant contribution to nineteenth-century Australian intellectual life, one that has been under-recognised and under-valued.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
To registrate and/or deregistrate : Getting onto and off the postgraduate supervisor register
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Barron, Deirdre
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 721-726
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- Description: This paper focuses on the registration of supervisors as a crucial element in constructs and practices of postgraduate studies in Australian universities. It examines two processes in a number of Australian universities postgraduate divisions' practices in compilation of postgraduate supervisor registers-how people get onto the register, and how people get off it. It takes issue with the reliance on custom and tradition as a dominant practice of registration and/or deregistration for supervision of postgraduate research studies. It suggests a model of supervisor registration and deregistration as intentional and systematic intervention, based on literature deriving from research in postgraduate supervision which acknowledges the problematic natures of relationships between teaching, learning and knowledge production. In doing so, it examines issues of discursive practice and the problematic nature of power differentials in supervisor/supervisee relationships and the possibilities presented by both registration and deregistration for such relationships.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000803
Two versions of colonial nationalism : The Australasian Review of Reviews v. the Sydney Bulletin
- Authors: Tasker, Meg
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Victorian Periodicals Review Vol. 37, no. 4 (2004), p. 111-122
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- Description: The independent weekly Sydney Bulletin and W.T. Stead's monthly Review of Reviews for Australia, both published for the Australian market in the early 1890s, took quite different lines on questions of national identity and imperial loyalty. Their frequently antipathetic positions were affected by many factors, not least of all being the strong personalities and political principles in the context of the late nineteenth-century Australian print culture and argues for a broader understanding of what might constitute an "Australian" voice at that period.
- Description: 2003001295
Using digital image analysis for assessing the quality of wheat and barley
- Authors: Armstrong, Bruce
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis explores the issues involved in developing a relatively low-cost digital imaging analysis (DIA) system fot the quality assessment of wheat and barley using commonly available equipment. It also explores the capability of such a system to provide rapid and accurate assessments.
- Description: Master of Applied Science by research
Australian women's stories of work and play
- Authors: Newton, Janice
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Oral history Vol. 30, no. 1 (2002), p. 54-62
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- Description: In the 1920s and 1930s working-class people from the inner suburbs of Melbourne, Australia took to the foothills of the nearby Dandenong ranges on weekends and public holidays to enjoy a bush picnic or holiday. It was a time in both Britain and Australia when working people were able to take family holidays in greater numbers. Unstructured interviews with former female visitors began with the purpose of gaining an insight into the leisure of the time. Information obtained along the way about working lives reinforced the importance of thinking about work and leisure in association with each other. The incidents that some women remembered from their working lives presented a strong and autonomous view of themselves. While such power could be seen as a realistic view of their holidays in the bush, it appears that the context of the interview relationship contributed to the highlighting of an assertive and lively work identity.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000092
Networking tourism SMEs : E-commerce and e-marketing issues in regional Australia
- Authors: Braun, Patrice
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Information Technology and Tourism Vol. 5, no. 1 (2002), p. 13-23
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- Description: Networks, knowledge, and relationships have become crucial assets to business survival in the new economy. Research indicates that network building is a major new source of competitive advantage and an essential regional and indeed global management requirement. Because regional policies encourage interfirm alliances and the development of regional economic communities, the fostering of a culture of connectivity, networking, learning, and trust between regional Australian small and medium- size tourism enterprises (SMTEs) may offer a potential solution to the possible loss of competitive advantage for Australian tourism enterprises. It is suggested that SMTEs would benefit from increased information flow through regional networking and cooperative e-marketing campaigns to enhance market visibility, global positioning, and strategic leverage in the new economy.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000256
Rock art sites in Victoria, Australia : A management history framework
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Tourism Management Vol. 23, no. 5 (2002), p. 455-464
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- Description: A recent examination of the management histories of a select number of rock art sites in the Grampians-Gariwerd National Park in southwest Victoria, Australia, has found that management decisions, research, and site interventions were often taking place in ignorance of what had gone before. Heritage site management is often conducted in an ad hoc manner with limited understanding of past planning and management. A framework for understanding the management history of indigenous rock art sites is presented. With some modification the framework could be applied to other indigenous cultural sites. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Description: 2003000229
Seasonal and interannual variations in diatom assemblages in Murray River connected wetlands in north-west Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Gell, Peter , Sluiter, Ian , Fluin, J.
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Marine and Freshwater Research Vol. 53, no. 6 (2002), p. 981-992
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- 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.
Strangers in a strange land : Converging and accommodating Celtic identities in Ballarat 1851-1901
- Authors: Croggon, Janice
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- 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: Doctor of Philosophy
The ebb and flow of tourism at Lal Lal Falls, Victoria : A tourism history of a sacred Aboriginal site
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Aboriginal Studies Vol. 2002, no. 2 (2002), p. 45-53
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- Reviewed:
- 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: C1
- Description: 2003000228
Web based regional newspapers : The role of content : A thesis
- Authors: Knox, Ian
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The phenomenon and acceptance of electronic publishing has proliferated in the last five years due to the expansion in the use of the World Wide Web in the general community. The initial fears that newspapers would be decimated by the introduction of this technology have been proven groundless, but despite a high web presence by newspapers world wide, profitable models of cyber papers are elusive. In an online environment traditional relationships between newspaper advertising and editorial may not stand. Despite the considerable body of published literature concerning the movement of print newspapers to an online environment, little was found concerning online content. A need to re-evaluate what content and functions are considered to be desirable by print readers, in an online environment was identified as the main objective of this research. Evaluation the of user attitudes to web based newspapers provides a foundation for future research into areas such as developing effective models for profitable online newspapers. To achieve this objective, the research tools used were a content analysis, an online newspaper user survey and newspaper management personal interviews. The study looked at Victorian regional daily newspapers that also had online versions. By focussing on the regional newspapers, meaningful comparisons could be made between content, staff attitudes and readership interests. The content analysis measured the quantum and nature of the content of the print and online versions of the regional dailies during a one week period. This provided a measure of the type and source of the articles included both in print and online. Newspaper editorial staff interviews contributed a personalised view of content priorities, which was then contrasted with a web based questionnaire which measured user requirements in relation to content and interactivity. It was found from the survey that content alone would not provide a sufficient basis to build a profitable online regional newspaper site. The findings were analysed in relation to the literature, newspaper site content and editorial staff interviews. Despite regularly accessing online newspaper sites, it was found that users are unwilling to pay for the experience. Users indicated a desire for a higher level of interactivity, in addition to the content, which is currently provided, by online regional newspapers. Evaluation of user attitudes to web based newspapers provides a foundation for future research into the development of effective for profitable online newspapers.
- Description: Master of Business
Multivariate statistical analysis of songs of the male Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) : An example from western Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Kentish, Barry , Harvey, Jack , Roberts, Lyn , Ross, Jason
- Date: 2001
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: EMU Vol. 101, no. 4 (2001), p. 335-340
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- Description: Variation in the song of the male Common Blackbird was investigated within and between two locations in western Victoria. Each of 400 phrases (100 phrases per male) was characterised by 61 measurements relating to 13 aspects of each phrase. Principal component and stepwise discriminant analyses were undertaken on these measurements. Classification of blackbird song for location and individuality was based on timing within the phrase of the loudest elements. Evidence was found for within-phrase variability, with the greatest variation in the middle of the phrase. Within- and between-site comparison found that blackbird song exhibited both individual and site-specific characteristics consistent with earlier suggestions of phrase sharing within local populations. The study demonstrated that an objective statistical approach to song analysis was able to disciminate between individual birds from different locations.