Research UNE (University of New England)
Not a member yet
39143 research outputs found
Sort by
Supporting the teaching profession to enable a culturally responsive curriculum
No full textOne of the issues facing the Australian teaching profession is that the majority of teachers are white, bringing little experience or knowledge of diverse cultures to their practice, particularly relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. One of the reasons for this issue is that historically, schooling in the Australian context has been a process of imposing ways of thinking and learning on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with little to no input by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This lack of recognition silences Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ voices, continuing an omission that lies at the center of this nation’s history and impedes real progress toward reconciliation.The need for privileging and honoring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experiences, knowledges, and perspectives and ensuring they are at the center of the embodied enactment of schooling in every community is key to moving this nation toward reconciliation. Teacher education is critical to changing this dire situation and in continuing to better address the preparation of teachers to be culturally responsive and ensure culturally safe places of learning. This chapter provides critical background to an overview of various Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education policies, government funded initiatives, and the recommendations for teacher education providers. The chapter also provides a critical review into the extent to which these nationally funded initiatives have not yet been taken up fully by the education sector, the reasons behind this phenomenon and most importantly, what changes can be made
Monovalent Copper Oxide in Broiler Nutrition: Effects on Performance, Intestinal Lesions, and Oocyst Shedding During Mild Eimeria Challenge
No full textCoccidiosis is a major economic threat in poultry, and with anticoccidials being phased out, cost-effective alternatives like copper (Cu) supplementation are of interest. This study investigated whether in-feed monovalent Cu (100 ppm) could mitigate the effects of a mild Eimeria challenge in broilers. A total of 216 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to three treatments (six replicates, 12 birds/replicate): unchallenged control (NC), challenged control (PC), and challenged + Cu-supplemented. Birds were fed starter (days 1–10), grower (days 10–21), and finisher (days 21–35) diets. On day 14, all birds except the NC group were orally challenged with 5000 oocysts each of Eimeria acervulina and E. maxima. Feces were collected (days 17–28) for oocyst count, and growth performance, lesion scores (day 21), carcass traits and bone morphology (day 35), gut morphology (days 21 and 35), gizzard weight (days 21 and 35), and cecal bacterial load (days 21 and 35) were evaluated. The mild challenge was confirmed by the observed differences in lesion scores on day 21 (p p p > 0.05) between challenged and unchallenged groups. Copper supplementation tended to improve FCR during the grower phase (1.403 vs. 1.469; 0.05) between challenged and unchallenged groups. Copper supplementation tended to improve FCR during the grower phase (1.403 vs. 1.469; p = 0.057) and significantly reduced oocyst excretion on days 23–25 (
Alcohol, Work and Play in Convict Australia
No full textThis article critiques previous attempts to contextualise the culture of drinking in convict Australia, arguing that such practices were embedded within a moral economy of work. It explains the importance of alcohol in British society and the manner in which its relationship to labour changed with industrialisation. Analysing quantitative and qualitive evidence drawn from court and convict records, it demonstrates how alcohol was used to motivate labour in both rural and urban settings. Looking more closely at the timing of drinking charges, it identifies distinct patterns for urban and rural convict workers documenting an increasing management tendency to distinguish sober work from drunken leisure. It concludes with a discussion of popular drinking as a form of agentive resistance and its policing as a means of labour management
Light Transition Metal Functionalized ψ‐Graphene as Promising Hydrogen Storage Architecture
No full textDeveloping effective methods and materials for hydrogen (H2) storage in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is essential to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in the transportation sector. Carbon-based materials have been proposed as promising candidates for H2 storage. In this article, van der Waals-corrected density functional theory calculations are employed to explore the potential of ψ-graphene monolayers doped with transition metals (Sc, Ti, and V) as promising H2 storage materials. Metal dopants strongly bind with ψ-graphene with binding energies of 4.38, 4.11, and 2.44 eV for Sc, Ti, and V, respectively. Additionally, the diffusion energy barriers of (0.5, 0.51, and 0.24 eV) for Sc, Ti, and V, respectively, on the ψ-graphene surface significantly reduce the calculated metal agglomeration probability when Sc, Ti, and V are displaced from the Hp site to the Ha site. Metal decorated ψ-graphene can bind up to six H2 molecules, with average adsorption energies of 0.31, 0.37, and 0.41 eV per H2 molecule for Sc, Ti, and V, respectively. The calculated H2 storage capacities are 5.97%, 5.89%, and 5.80% for decorated ψ-graphene systems with Sc, Ti, and V, respectively. These calculated properties align well with the U.S. Department of Energy's criteria for reversible H2 storage in fuel cell vehicles. Thermodynamic analysis indicates that Sc@ψ-graphene and Ti@ψ-graphene offer the most favorable hydrogen storage performance under realistic operating conditions (30 atm and 25 °C for adsorption; 3 atm and 100 °C for desorption). AIMD simulations conducted at 400 K demonstrate the excellent thermal stability of X@ψ-graphene (X = Sc, Ti, V) complexes, even at elevated doping concentrations. Throughout the 5 ps simulation, regulated by a Nosé–Hoover thermostat, the systems preserved their structural integrity, highlighting their resilience to thermal fluctuations and suitability for high-temperature applications. Consequently, ψ-graphene doped with Sc, Ti, or V emerges as an exceptional material for reversible H2 storage
The Reported Use of Tongue-Ties and Nosebands in Thoroughbred and Standardbred Horse Racing—A Pilot Study
No full text,p>This article reports on the results of a survey of racehorse trainers (This article reports on the results of a survey of racehorse trainers (n = 112) outlining the reasons for tongue-tie (TT) and noseband (NB) use by Thoroughbred trainers (TBTs) (n = 72) and Standardbred trainers (SBTs) (n = 40). The study also investigated the reported effectiveness of TTs and possible complications arising from their use. Tongue-tie use was reported by 62.5% (n = 70) of racehorse trainers. The reasons for TT use varied between TBTs and SBTs. For TBTs, the most common reason for TT use was to prevent or reduce airway obstruction (72.3%, n = 34), followed closely by to prevent or reduce airway noise (55.3%, n = 16). Standardbred trainers assigned equal importance for TT use [to prevent or reduce airway obstruction (69.6%, n = 16) and to prevent the horse from moving its tongue over the bit (69.6%, n = 16)]. Tongue-ties were considered significantly less effective at improving performance than at reducing airway obstruction and preventing the tongue from moving over the bit (t = −2.700, p = 0.0007). For respondents who used both TTs and NBs, there was a mild to moderate positive association between the reasons for using TTs and NBs. Of the 70 TT-using respondents, 51.4% (n = 36) recorded having encountered either a physical or behavioural complication due to TT use, with redness/bruising of the tongue (20.0%, n = 14) being the most common physical complication reported. Duration of use influenced the risk of observing complications. The likelihood of a respondent reporting a behavioural complication due to TT use increased with every minute of reported application and a nine-minute increment in application period doubled the odds of a respondent reporting a complication. Tightness was a risk factor for physical complications: Checking TT tightness by noting the tongue as not moving was associated with increased reporting of physical complications (OR = 6.59; CI 1.1–67.5). This pilot study provides some insight into how and why TTs are applied by some racehorse trainers, and the potential risks associated with their use. A further study of a larger cohort is recommended because these results are valid for only the 112 trainers who responded and cannot be generalized to the equine industry
Trends in genetic diversity and the effect of inbreeding in American Angus cattle under genomic selection
No full textBackground: While the adoption of genomic evaluations in livestock has increased genetic gain rates, its effects on genetic diversity and accumulation of inbreeding have raised concerns in cattle populations. Increased inbreeding may affect fitness and decrease the mean performance for economically important traits, such as fertility and growth in beef cattle, with the age of inbreeding having a possible effect on the magnitude of inbreeding depression. The purpose of this study was to determine changes in genetic diversity as a result of the implementation of genomic selection in Angus cattle and quantify potential inbreeding depression effects of total pedigree and genomic inbreeding, and also to investigate the impact of recent and ancient inbreeding. Results: We found that the yearly rate of inbreeding accumulation remained similar in sires and decreased significantly in dams since the implementation of genomic selection. Other measures such as effective population size and the effective number of chromosome segments show little evidence of a detrimental effect of using genomic selec tion strategies on the genetic diversity of beef cattle. We also quantified pedigree and genomic inbreeding depression for fertility and growth. While inbreeding did not affect fertility, an increase in pedigree or genomic inbreeding was associated with decreased birth weight, weaning weight, and post-weaning gain in both sexes. We also measured the impact of the age of inbreeding and found that recent inbreeding had a larger depressive effect on growth than ancient inbreeding. Conclusions: In this study, we sought to quantify and understand the possible consequences of genomic selection on the genetic diversity of American Angus cattle. In both sires and dams, we found that, generally, genomic selection resulted in decreased rates of pedigree and genomic inbreeding accumulation and increased or sustained effective population sizes and number of independently segregating chromosome segments. We also found significant depressive effects of inbreeding accumulation on economically important growth traits, particularly with genomic and recent inbreeding
A critical review of the Australian approach to tackling online copyright infringement
No full textThis article critically evaluates the current approach adopted in Australia in dealing with online content that either infringes, or facilitates the infringement of, copyright. It first considers the recent decision of the Australian Federal Court in 'Roadshow Films v Telstra', which resulted in an injunction being issued against some of the major Australian ISPs requiring them to block access to a number of online locations that infringed copyright. The discussion focuses on the issue of circumvention and compares the approach favoured by the High Court of England and Wales in tacking this problem. The article next considers the practice of notice and takedown (N and T). A consideration of this extrajudicial means of copyright enforcement is inevitable because the blocking injunction (the basis for which is derived from s.115A of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)) is limited to infringing online locations outside Australia. As such, the practice of N and T is crucial when the source of infringement is within the jurisdiction. The discussion on N and T suggests that an important safeguard protecting the interests of authors of legitimate online content-i.e. the counter-notice and restore mechanism-does not apply unless the content was hosted by a service provider that was also a "carriage service provider". Yet, most content online are hosted by service providers that are not carriage service providers
Mutating a Better Man: Robbie Williams, Simian Semiotics, Spectacle, and the Posthuman Celebrity
No full textMichael Gracey's Better Man (2024) presents an innovative biographical representation of British pop star Robbie Williams through a radical visual strategy—depicting its subject as a CGI primate rather than through a human actor. Filmed in Australia and partially funded by the Australian Government, the film follows a relatively standard biopic narrative tracing Williams’s trajectory from his Stoke-on-Trent childhood through his tumultuous Take That tenure to solo stardom, mapping his struggles with addiction, familial relationships, and mental health crises. What distinguishes Better Man from conventional biopics is its deliberate disruption of mimetic representation, employing technological transformation not merely as stylistic choice but as conceptual foundation.This article argues that Williams's digital animalisation reconfigures the relationship between celebrity subjectivity and media representation by constructing him as an inherently Posthuman entity—simultaneously human memory and technological artefact. By rejecting the conventional biopic approach that prioritises mimetic resemblance through casting and makeup, Better Man positions itself as a meta-commentary on the constructed nature of celebrity representation, raising significant questions about identity, mediation, and the increasingly blurred boundaries between human agency and technological simulation.The film's primate depiction operates across multiple registers: as technological intervention demonstrating how digital effects transform biographical representation beyond approaches seen in recent films like Elvis (2022) and Rocketman (2019); as metaphorical framework extending Williams's self-description as a "performing monkey" into a comprehensive visual system; and as epistemological strategy potentially creating a “virtual cuckoo”, where hyperreal representations systematically displace authentic understandings of real-world subjects (Nolan et al. 189).Drawing on Posthumanist theory (Haraway; Hayles; Braidotti) and contemporary approaches to celebrity construction (Turner Approaching; Marshall Power), our analysis examines three distinct yet interconnected transformations: technological mutation through digital spectacle, where Williams becomes a hybrid human-technological construct at the production level; metaphorical mutation through animalisation, where his representation is filtered through animal semiotics; and perceptual mutation through synthetic representation, where these artificial constructions cognitively reshape how audiences understand and remember Williams. Through this analytical framework, we demonstrate how Better Man serves as a critical text illuminating the increasingly unstable nature of celebrity identity in our hypermediated era, where boundaries between human and non-human, authentic and artificial, become progressively permeable
Using a Memetic Algorithm to Discover Secure S-Boxes
No full textA Substitution-Box (S-Box) is a cryptographic primitive used in cyber security engineering. In this paper, we describe a Memetic Algorithm to search for so-called "Golden S-Boxes", which have optimal cryptographic features. We replicate existing results on 4 × 4 S-Boxes to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, then describe further desirable S-Box properties to allow the algorithm to discover S-Boxes that are both secure and fast enough for lightweight cryptographic applications
Efficient detection of specific volatile organic compounds using functionalized titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) MXenes
No full textEarly diagnosis of cancer is crucially important for prescribing a therapy plan to possibly save human lives. Towards this end, one amongst the pathologies is to consider the efficient detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) related, for instance, to the pancreatic cancer existing in exhaled breath, bile, or urine of patients. The scope of the present investigation is to search for suitable materials used for detecting the specific VOCs with high sensitivity and selectivity. The density functional theory (DFT) is employed to study the adsorption of three representative pancreatic cancer biomarkers; namely, (i) 2-pentanone (2p-none), (ii) 4-ethyl-1–2-dimethylbenzene (4E1-2DMB), and (iii) N-nonanal (N-nonal) on the pristine titanium carbides MXenes (Ti3C2Tx, Tx = O, S, F) as well as doped with selected transition metals “TMs” (e.g., Co, Cu, Fe, Ni). At the level of pristine MXenes, a clear selective adsorption towards the three VOCs is obtained as compared to the interfering air molecules (N2, O2, CO2, H2O) with suitable adsorption energies ranging from − 0.60 eV to − 1.10 eV. Furthermore, the strongest adsorption of VOCs is always found to correspond to Ti3C2O2 MXenes. Four different scenarios of TM-doping were considered and among which two cases are found to be effective to enhance the adsorptions of VOCs with effects on Fermi states. These latter two cases correspond to TM-doping O site and TM ad-atom. Adsorptions of VOCs on Cu-doped MXenes is found to have mimic effect on Fermi states and thus Cu should be excluded from the candidature. We concluded that TM-doping Ti3C2O2 MXenes (with TM = Co, Fe, Ni) should be a good candidate material for fabrication of platform of disposable biosensor with high selectivity towards the detection of pancreatic cancer biomarkers