7440 research outputs found
Sort by
Terroir-based economies as economic and cultural assets : value, valuation and sustainability
No full text9 page(s
Use of benzodiazepines in obsessive-compulsive disorder
No full textThis study aimed to determine the frequency of benzodiazepine (BDZ) use in a large sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and ascertain the type of BDZ used and the correlates and predictors of BDZ use in OCD. The sample consisted of 955 patients with OCD from a comprehensive, cross-sectional, multicentre study conducted by the Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders between 2003 and 2009. The rate of BDZ use over time in this OCD sample was 38.4%. Of individuals taking BDZs, 96.7% used them in combination with other medications, usually serotonin reuptake inhibitors. The most commonly used BDZ was clonazepam. Current age, current level of anxiety and number of additional medications for OCD taken over time significantly predicted BDZ use. This is the first study to comprehensively examine BDZ use in OCD patients, demonstrating that it is relatively common, despite recommendations from treatment guidelines. Use of BDZs in combination with several other medications over time and in patients with marked anxiety suggests that OCD patients taking BDZs may be more complex and more difficult to manage. This calls for further research and clarification of the role of BDZs in the treatment of OCD.7 page(s
Improved quality-based channel state feedback scheme in multicast systems with greedy scheduling
No full textThis paper proposes an Improved Quality-Based Channel State Feedback (IQCF) scheme in multicast systems with greedy scheduling for multiple multicast groups. The proposed scheme outperforms the Quality-Based Channel State Feedback (QCF) scheme in the literature by selecting a scheduling outage group for data transmission when scheduling outage happens. We also analyze its performance in terms of average capacity and outage probability, and present a closed-form system average capacity expression over Rayleigh fading channels. The numerically evaluated analytical results are verified by simulations.4 page(s
Alkalic marine tephra layers at ODP site 1241 - major explosive eruptions from an oceanic volcano in a pre-shield stage?
No full textWe report a series of fourteen marine tephra layers that are the products of large explosive eruptions of Subplinian to Plinian intensities and magnitudes (VEI > 4) from Cocos Island, Costa Rica. Cocos Island is a volcanic island in the eastern Central Pacific Ocean ~ 500 km offshore Costa Rica, and is situated on the northwestern flank of the aseismic Cocos Ridge. Geochemical fingerprinting of Pleistocene (~ 2.4–1.4 Ma) marine tephra layers from Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) Leg 202 Site 1241 using major and trace element compositions of volcanic glass shards demonstrates unequivocally their origin from Cocos Island rather than the Galápagos Archipelago or the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA). Cocos Island and the adjacent seamounts of the Cocos Island Province have alkalic compositions and formed on young (≤ 3 Ma) oceanic crust from an extinct spreading ridge bounded by a transform fault against the older and thicker crust of the aseismic Cocos Ridge. Cocos Island has six times the average volume of the adjacent seamounts although all appear to have formed during the 3–1.4 Ma time period. Cocos Island lies closest to the transform fault and we explain its excessive growth by melts rising from garnet-bearing mantle being deflected from the thick Cocos Ridge lithosphere toward the thinner lithosphere on the other side of the transform, thus enlarging the melt catchment area for Cocos Island compared to the seamounts farther away from the transform. This special setting favored growth above sea level and subaerial explosive eruptions even though the absence of appropriate compositions suggests that the entirely alkalic Cocos Island (and seamounts) never evolved through the productive tholeiitic shield stage typical of other Pacific Ocean islands, possibly because melt production rates remained too small. Conditions of magma generation and ascent resembled Hawaiian pre-shield volcanoes but persisted for much longer (< 1 m.y.) and formed evolved, trachytic magmas. Therefore Cocos Island may be a unique example for a volcanic ocean island that did not pass through the typical growth stages.9 page(s
Morals, medicine and Mussolini: Dr. Herbert Moran’s public narratives in inter-war Australia
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 77-81.Introduction -- Chapter 1. Troubles with the Australian Church -- Chapter 2. Writing a medical life -- Chapter 3. Italian passion -- Chapter 4. Reflection -- Bibliography.This thesis explores the narrative influence of Herbert Michael Moran, also known as ‘Paddy’ Moran, on Australian history and shows how he responded to the inter-war events of his time in Australia. Moran captained the first Wallabies football team to tour overseas in 1908 and as a cancer surgeon, pioneered the introduction of radium needles as a cancer therapy treatment. He was of Irish Catholic background and three areas dominated his life in Australia - the Catholic Church, his medical career, and his passion for Italy. He published numerous medical articles, commentary pieces and three memoir-inspired books in which he represents and justifies his life experiences and actions. Narrative identity is the theoretical approach used to investigate and illustrate how Moran presented himself biographically, and how he represented his experiences and his actions in his publications. His values and beliefs, as well as his thoughts about himself, and other aspects of his life are examined in a way that enhances our knowledge of inter-war history. Moran’s works shine a light on Australia’s past in a time of flux and the social change resulting from World War 1. They show the impact of these social changes on the life of Moran, and the people around him.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (iv, 81 pages
Regulation of TrkB activity by PTPN11 is mediated through transmembrane protein Caveolin in the inner retina
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 69-89.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Methods -- Chapter 3. Results -- Chapter 4. Discussion -- Conclusion -- References.Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its high affinity receptor tropomyosin-related kinase receptor B (TrkB) play a protective role in the survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in healthy and disease states. SH2 domain tyrosine phosphatase PTPN11 (Shp2) is a ubiquitously expressed tyrosine phosphatase that regulates TrkB receptor and its activation is mediated through its interactions with the adapter protein Caveolin (Cav-1). This study determines the involvement of Cav-1 in facilitating Shp2 mediated inner retinal effects by genetically upregulating Shp2 expression in Cav-1 knockout mice.Shp2 was over-expressed in mice retina (n=38) through intravitreal injection of recombinant adeno-associated virus vector (AAV2). Wildtype and Cav-1 transgenic mice were used and for each animal one eye was transduced with PTPN11 transgene whereas GFP expression in the contralateral eye was used as control. Retinal functional changes were assessed by electroretinogram (ERG) and scotopic threshold response (STR) recordings. In vivo imaging using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and histological analysis were used to evaluate structural changes in the retinal laminar structure.Shp2 upregulation resulted in significantly reduced STR amplitude in both WT and Cav-1+/- mice (p<0.001 and p<0.01 respectively). Cav-1-/- group on the other hand demonstrated only a slight loss of STR amplitudes upon Shp2 upregulation that was statistically insignificant. Cellular density in the ganglion cell layer (GCL) was also significantly reduced in WT and Het groups (p<0.001 and p<0.01 respectively). Shp2 upregulation did not result in a significant decrease in the GCL density in Cav-1-/- mice.Together, these results suggest a novel role of Cav-1 in mediating Shp2 actions in retina particularly RGCs. Loss of Cav-1 exerts a protective effect particularly on the inner retinal function and structure. Future studies will help establish the pathophysiological cross talk between these two proteins.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (ix, 89 pages) colour illustration
Multisensory temporal processing in own-body contexts: do bodily-self cues affect visual-tactile temporal perception?
No full textEmpirical thesis.At foot of title: Perception in Action Research Centre, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, & ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University.Bibliography: pages 61-68.1. Introduction -- 2. Experiment 1 - Visual bodily-self cues and visual-tactile asynchrony detection -- 3. Experiment 2 - Multisensory bodily-self cues and visual-tactile asynchrony detection -- 4. General discussion -- References -- Appendices.In this thesis, I investigated interactions between own-body contexts and visual tactile temporal processing. Previous findings show that bodily-self cues, indicating that seen body parts are plausibly part of one’s own body, alter the perception of visual-proprioceptive synchrony perception. An interpretation of these findings predicts that other common multisensory combinations associated with own-body contexts, such as visual-tactile events, would be similarly affected by bodily-self cues.In two experiments, I measured the difference in detection of visual-tactile asynchrony between plausible and implausible bodily-self cues. I found no difference in precision of visual-tactile asynchrony detection between plausible and implausible bodily-self contexts in either experiment.In contrast, Bayesian analyses of the current findings provide compelling evidence that bodily-self cues do not increase the precision of visual-tactile asynchrony detection. Rather, these findings suggest that visual-proprioceptive synchrony perception in own-body contexts is a special case of dynamic multisensory processing.The current findings have implications for the direction of future research into own-body perception, and a better understanding of the cognitive processes that underlie multisensory perception in own-body contexts.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (x, 77 pages) colour illustration
Iranian-Australian women in diaspora: gendered and racialised discrimination and the implications for work and organisation
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 75-81.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Literature review -- Chapter 3. Research methodology -- Chapter 4. Data analysis -- Chapter 5. Discussion and conclusion -- References -- Appendices.After the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 many Iranian women departed Iran and became culturally displaced. This thesis investigates this diaspora of Iranian-Australian women who have migrated to Australia to explore the ways in which they manage and negotiate their differences as they attempt to assimilate, adapt and belong to a new country. Despite extensive multi-disciplinary studies of diasporic populations, this thesis is the first in the field of gender, work and organization to utilize a transnational feminist approach to analyse how gender, ethnicity, religion and nationality shape assimilation and belonging when living and working in Australia. Adopting a narrative based methodology and semi-structured interviews, the life stories of ten first and second generation Iranian-Australian women are collected and reveal many complexities surrounding diaspora. The research demonstrates that both first and second generation women reconstruct their identities to assimilate and belong, whilst dealing with gendered and racialized discrimination, particularly at work. Despite many shared experiences, first generation women face different challenges compared to second generation women due to their age, language and cultural and religious beliefs. This research lays a foundation for further research of Middle Eastern women in Australia, a context beset by increasing Islamophobia and the condemnation of multiculturalism and minority inclusion within a multicultural, Anglo-Celtic society. This thesis begins to decolonize essentialist knowledge production of marginalized Iranian-Australian women and starts a conversation around their constant struggle in addressing gendered and racialized discrimination at work and ongoing challenges for their careers.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (83 pages) graphs, table
An empirical study of volatility and market quality
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 32-34.1. Introduction -- 2. Factors of volatility and market efficiency -- 3. Hypotheses -- 4. Data and methodology -- 5. Results -- 6. Application -- 7. Conclusion -- 8. Bibliography -- Appendix.The aim of this study is to develop a simplified tool to measure pricing efficiency using volatility from price. Volatility is a major aspect of today’s markets and is considered a quintessential aspect that is rooted within practical applications of trading, investing, compliance, and risk management. Current developments and research concerning asset pricing incorporates the factors of market quality and liquidity, which can be reflected through volatility. What can be determined is whether public information derived from end of day pricing can be used to infer the market quality within a short time-frame. This study investigates over 2,000 active trading accounts from a leading broker, and concludes that information derived from volatility can act as a short term predictor of market risk. Within this framework, volatility is seen to be highly correlated with the number of margin calls and liquidations. This can serve as an objective indicator of market quality in general when used by risk management and traders alike during decision making processes.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (iv, 39 pages) graphs, table
An examination of three sources and impact of information asymmetry in financial markets
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 231-265.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Literature review -- Chapter 3. CEO personality and earnings management -- Chapter 4. Trading behaviour around information leakage of analyst recommendations -- Chapter 5. The impact of co-location on institutional execution costs -- Chapter 6. Conclusion -- Appendix -- References.This dissertation presents three sets of empirical tests focused on sources of information asymmetry in financial markets. Specifically it determines the impact of CEO narcissism on earnings management, the factors which influence the release of privileged information by market intermediaries and asymmetrical information access related to technological enhancements. The results in this dissertation address a number of gaps in existing literature, which are of relevance to academics, and provide valuable insights for regulators and market participants.The first set of empirical tests examines the impact of firm CEO’s narcissism on earnings management. There is growing evidence to suggest that narcissistic leaders over-identify themselves with the organizations that they lead and expend considerable resources to achieve their goals, including engagements in unethical behaviour. Previous theoretical studies have conjectured the relation between leadership narcissism and accounting manipulation but lacking in empirical support. This dissertation examines this theoretical hypothesis adopting an unobtrusive yet psychologically supported proxy for narcissism based on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) test. Results reported in this dissertation provides evidence that firms with more narcissistic CEOs are more likely to engage in such behaviour as evidence by the manipulation of accounts to present better earnings. The results highlight that information asymmetry caused by earnings management can be identified at an early stage by virtue of a CEO’s personality. The implications of these results should be of particular interest to regulators and shareholders as management personality is potentially a prescription to corporate fraud.The second set of empirical tests examines the extent of information leakage around analyst recommendations (‘tipping’), the propensity to act on this privileged information received under different circumstances and its resulting profitability. While the earliest evidence of tipping was only documented for upgrade recommendations, there has been increasing evidence of this phenomenon for downgrade recommendations. Using a unique dataset from the ASX, which contains broker identifiers, this study extends the empirical literature on tipping by examining factors where this phenomenon is most prevalent, and the corresponding profit associated with the phenomenon. Results reported in this dissertation demonstrate that irrespective of market conditions, recipients react predominantly to tips on downgrade recommendations. Further analysis by cross-section of firms indicates that leaks on smaller and mid-capitalization stocks exhibit higher abnormal trading volume and affords greater profitability. When negative returns precede the public release of downgrade reports, results demonstrate that recipients are less likely to act. On investigation of short-selling around analyst recommendations, results document no signs of institutional exodus around analyst releases, suggesting that institutional investors do not react to short-term price fluctuations. The implications of this chapter enable a better understanding of supplementary factors that contribute to the phenomenon of tipping.The final set of empirical tests investigates the impact of heightened levels of computerised trading on institutional execution costs. The advent of this new entrant into financial markets has attracted attention from regulators, exchanges, market participants and academics spurring empirical studies on the associated impacts on market quality. However, evidence on the impact to institutional investors has produced mixed results. This dissertation employs an exogenous event of co-location by 12 major exchanges worldwide to document the first empirical evidence on adverse effects to institutional trading costs as a result of intensified activity by computerised trading participants. Results of this dissertation provide that the reduction in exchange latency as a result of co-location attracts more activity by computerised traders and correspondingly, an increase in institutional execution costs.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (265 pages) graphs, table