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Matlab software for the paper "First predictions for images of Earth's foreshock radiation sources" by Cairns and Oppel
No full textExamples of the Matlab software for the Cairns and Oppel paper on images for Earth's foreshock radiation sources. The file init.m gives the input parameters. The code hybrid_3DNov calculates the emissions for multiple planes from given input parameters. The code line_of_sight_new.m produces the view of the foreshock emissions from 9 locations.Matlab software
"Before The Curtain Call" Secondary Music Teachers’ Perspectives On School Musicals
No full textSchool musicals are commonly facilitated by music teachers in secondary schools in NSW. They are an opportunity for students to develop their musicality, form friendships and bonds with their peers and teachers, and improve academically and developmentally. Music teachers assume music responsibilities in these productions and may be expected to oversee a range of other roles. However, there is a paucity of literature on the expectations and experiences of music teachers. This qualitative study sought to explore the perspectives of secondary music teachers in NSW regarding the factors that influenced their experience and facilitation of their school musicals. Seven teachers were interviewed, and data was analysed using thematic analysis. A Communities of Practice framework was applied to the interpretation of data. Six themes were identified. Music teachers took on multiple roles and responsibilities dependent on the support models of their school, levels of funding and resources. Their knowledge and skills in musical theatre were mostly acquired during the production. Teachers commonly collaborated within communities of practice to fulfil their responsibilities during their school musical. Student success kept teachers motivated despite the challenges of meeting multiple demands and the personal and professional sacrifices they made. The study revealed the importance of offering support and developing teacher capacity in school musical production through a Communities of Practice approach
Topics in investment insurance for account-based pension
No full textIn this thesis, we propose and investigate novel investment insurance products for account-based pensions, especially Australian superannuation, which is called the equity protection swap (EPS).
An equity protection swap is a financial derivative, which is reminiscent of a total return swap but also shares some features with the annuity insurance product, RILA. The buyer of an equity protection swap obtains a partial protection against potential losses on a reference portfolio and, in exchange, agrees to share the portfolio’s gains with the provider if the realised return on the reference portfolio is above a predetermined positive level. Formally, the structure of a generic EPS consists of the protection and fee legs with different participation rates with all parameters negotiated by the provider and buyer.
We derive a general model-free pricing formula for a generic equity protection swap by identifying the static hedging strategy based on traded European call and put options. We argue that to make the contract appealing to a holder, the provider should select an appropriate participation rate for the fee leg in relation to the protection level required by the holder so that a fair premium for the contract at its inception date is null.
We further consider the situation that the realised settlement date is later than the nominal maturity of an equity protection swap in order to account for a potential market recovery. To make our results more practical, the cross-currency reference portfolio, time lag between pricing and hedging, market crisis, counterparty default risk, dividends, and inflation are added into the consideration of an equity protection swap. We provide suitable static hedging strategies or super-hedging strategies for each of the considered pricing and hedging problems. We present numerical examples based on market data to demonstrate the benefits of an equity protection swap as an efficient portfolio insurance tool
A tree of sticks: dispersal and speciation of Australian Phasmatodea
No full textThis thesis investigates the diversity, taxonomy, and evolutionary history of Australian phasmids using an integrative taxonomic approach, combining morphological, molecular, and biogeographical analyses. Chapter 1 provides a background on Phasmatodea and establishes a foundation for understanding the thesis. Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive revision of the genus Austrocarausius revealing nine new species, increasing the number in the genus to eleven. My results suggest that the diversification of Austrocarausius occurred over the past ~25-70 Ma and was linked to rainforest fragmentation in northern Queensland. The examination of the genus Anchiale in Chapter 3 results in the description of two new species, the reinstatement of one species, and the updating of known species boundaries. Chapter 4 offers a broader study of the Australian Lonchodini tribe, including Austrocarausius, Denhama, and Hyrtacus. The results reveal significant cryptic diversity in the group and supports the reinstatement of Marcenia and two previously synonymised species. Five new Marcenia species are also described. Phylogenetic analyses using mitochondrial and nuclear genes provide insights into Lonchodini diversification, particularly in response to increasing aridification over the past ~5-15 Ma. With integrative taxonomy and evolutionary timescale estimates, this thesis refines the taxonomy of Australian phasmids and provides new insights into their diversification, dispersal, and ecological adaptation
3D Reconstruction and Understanding
No full textThis thesis explores 3D reconstruction and understanding, essential for intelligent systems to perceive and reason about the world. By emphasizing their complementarity, it overcomes precision, scalability, and generalization limits in real-world 3D pipelines, aiming to recover accurate geometry enriched with semantic meaning for robotics, autonomous navigation, and augmented reality.
Reconstruction methods must handle occlusions, reflections, and sparse data, while understanding requires capturing both fine-grained details and high-level context across diverse objects and motions. We tackle these linked challenges by jointly optimizing geometric and semantic processes through shared representations, revealing how each can inform and strengthen the other.
Four contributions structure this work: a geometry-driven method for high-fidelity monocular reconstruction of hand-held objects without learned priors; Ponder, a point-cloud pretraining paradigm that uses differentiable rendering of RGB-D data to enhance detection, segmentation, and reconstruction; MotionGPT, a multimodal model uniting language and geometry encoders to generate realistic human motion under varied control signals; and Agent3D-Zero, a zero-shot 3D understanding system that iteratively selects viewpoints and synthesizes knowledge from meshes via visual prompts in large language models, eliminating the need for extensive 3D training data.
Extensive experiments demonstrate state-of-the-art performance in object reconstruction, semantic segmentation, motion synthesis, and scene understanding. By integrating geometric and semantic reasoning, pretraining strategies, and multimodal cues, this work establishes a unified framework for 3D scene interpretation that advances theoretical boundaries and delivers practical benefits—from digital content creation to human–robot interaction—paving the way for next-generation intelligent systems
Oropharyngeal Dysphagia and Laryngeal Dysfunction in Heart and Lung Transplantation
No full textHeart and lung transplantation is the optimal treatment modality for end-stage heart and lung failure. Despite its benefits, it carries risks such as primary graft failure, rejection, infection, and multiorgan dysfunction. Lesser-known complications like oropharyngeal dysphagia (OPD) and laryngeal dysfunction can significantly affect patient outcomes and quality of life. However, these issues remain under-researched.
This thesis addresses the gap with four peer-reviewed studies. A systematic review (Chapter 2) found limited data, but high rates of OPD (>70%) were reported. Chapter 3 offers the first comprehensive overview of the mechanisms, diagnosis, and management of swallowing and laryngeal dysfunction after transplant.
The reviews confirm that swallowing and laryngeal complications following transplantation are common and impactful, yet clinical guidance is lacking. To address this, a retrospective study (Chapter 4) investigated indicators for speech-language pathology referral and a prospective study (Chapter 5) followed patients through the transplant journey, trialling a novel assessment protocol. Our preliminary data revealed elevated self-reports of swallowing and voice difficulties pre-operatively, however baseline aspiration was not evident.
Chapter 6 introduces an online education series to guide clinicians in managing swallowing and laryngeal complications in this population, while chapter 7 discusses clinical implications and future directions.
In summary, this thesis identifies the frequency, risk factors, and profile of OPD and laryngeal dysfunction in cardiopulmonary transplant patients. The findings lay the groundwork for future research and development of clinical guidelines to improve outcomes while minimizing patient burden
Mind the Gap in antibiotic prescribing by dentists in the U.S
No full textDentists prescribe 1 out of every 10 antibiotic prescriptions in the U.S., exceeding prescribing rates by dentists in other countries. In the U.S. 80% of antibiotics prescribed by dentists are inconsistent with clinical treatment guidelines. New guidelines changes, data associating adverse events with dental antibiotics, and increasing community-associated resistant infections have led to an increased interest to improve antibiotic prescribing by dentists
Evaluation of Novel LHRH-receptor Directed Therapeutic Candidates in Preclinical 2D and 3D Models of Triple Negative Breast Cancer
No full textTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has the worst prognosis among the breast cancer subtypes, partly due to its lack of traditional treatment targets estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors or amplification of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. Chemotherapy is the primary mode of treatment but causes various damaging side effects. In many TNBC cases, the disease often recurs after an initial successful response, leading to intractable metastatic disease. There are limited targeted therapeutics for TNBC, reflecting the scarcity of uniquely targetable components.
Furthermore, those available treatments provide a significant, but modest improvement in overall survival compared to non-selective chemotherapy. Hence, it is imperative to identify novel targets in TNBC and more effective treatments for this underserved disease. Models that better capture the characteristics of the whole TNBC tissue rather than focusing exclusively on the epithelial component are likely to yield more novel durable treatments. Recent research highlights the critical role of breast cancer-associated fibroblasts (BCAFs) in tumour progression, drug resistance, and metastasis. Therefore, incorporating BCAFs into preclinical TNBC models is essential for drug discovery, emphasising the need for effective, selective treatments that target the entire TNBC tissue environment.
This thesis explored luteinising hormone-releasing hormone receptor (LHRH-R) as a newly identified target for TNBC therapy. Additionally, building on previous work by the Varamini team, who had already designed a novel LHRH-R-targeting peptide-drug conjugate (MLD5-PDC), this study further demonstrated the potential of the MLD5-PDC as a promising treatment for TNBC employing both 2D and 3D models. Furthermore, the comparison and optimisation of 3D model development in this thesis provided a foundational dataset for future therapeutic advancements
Gradual Institutional Transition of Governance and Planning in Guangzhou-Foshan Urban Integration
No full textThis thesis combines the theory of gradual institutional change with relevant theories on metropolitan governance development, aiming to establish a theoretical framework for analyzing institutional changes in metropolitan areas. This framework integrates the endogenous characteristics of institutions, the understanding and behavior of actors, and the external environment of institutions, providing a new perspective for analyzing the governance process in metropolitan areas. Through a combination of qualitative interviews, policy document analysis, and secondary data, the study finds that the institutional reforms in the Guangzhou-Foshan integration are influenced not only by external environmental factors but also by the intrinsic ambiguity of institutions and the behavior of actors. The significant contribution of this research lies in redefining the role of institutional ambiguity in governance, revealing that it is not merely an obstacle to governance but also a key driver of institutional change. This study presents the following significant findings and original theoretical contributions: (1) Institutional ambiguity in the governance process brings both challenges and opportunities for reform. (2) The cognition and operational modes of actors not only determine the specific implementation of institutions but also contribute to the gradual evolution of institutions through continuous feedback and adjustment. This conclusion not only deepens the understanding of the institutional change process but also provides valuable references for policymakers and practitioners in their strategic choices within complex governance environments. This research indicates that the design of institutions and the execution by actors jointly play crucial roles in promoting gradual change, illustrating the multidimensionality and complexity of institutional change
The Neural Networks Underlying Treatment-Resistant Depression
No full textTreatment-resistant depression (TRD) presents significant clinical challenges, characterized by persistent symptoms despite multiple antidepressant treatments. Understanding the TRD’s neurobiological mechanisms is essential for improving treatments. This thesis investigates functional connectivity (FC) alterations in key brain regions associated with TRD, focusing on the “default mode” network (DMN) of self-referential processing, the reward system, and the affective network. The aim of this project was to explore how FC differences between TRD and treatment sensitive depression (TSD) could inform the mechanisms underlying treatment-resistance. Using task-based and resting-state fMRI, we examined the connectivity of the habenula, rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), and subgenual ACC (sgACC) with other brain regions from the networks above in patients with TRD, TSD, and healthy controls (HC). Results revealed that TRD patients, compared to TSD, exhibited hyperconnectivity of the habenula, part of the reward system, with the DMN, which may contribute to anhedonia, a core symptom of TRD. Altered DMN connectivity distinguished TRD from TSD and HC, reflecting self-referential and emotion regulation processes during rest. Additionally, TRD
patients showed abnormal rACC connectivity during emotional processing, particularly hypoconnectivity with the hippocampus during supraliminal processing of positive emotions. These findings advance our understanding of TRD by highlighting distinct patterns of FC, particularly within the default-mode, reward and affective networks, that differentiate TRD from TSD. These connectivity patterns suggest disruptions in self-referential processing, emotion regulation, and reward sensitivity, which may contribute to the persistence of symptoms in TRD. This research underscores the importance of a network-based approach to both diagnosis and treatment and offers insights into the neurobiological mechanisms of treatment resistance