7440 research outputs found
Sort by
Parity structure on associahedra and other polytopes
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 109-110.Introduction -- 1. Parity structures -- 2. Associahedra -- 3. Polytopes -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- Bibliography.A parity structure is a name given to a formalism of pasting diagrams, among these are: parity complexes in the sense of Street, pasting schemes in the sense of Johnson, and directed complexes in the sense of Steiner. The idea behind these formalisms is to take a set of faces and attach an orientation to each face so that we obtain a presentation of a (strict) free ω-category.The above formalisms include examples such as the simplexes and hypercubes, but are not sufficiently general to allow for other reasonable examples. In this thesis, our main goal is to construct a parity structure on other polytopes. An example of interest is the polytope family known as the associahedra. Notable work on the associahedra includes that of Tamari and Stasheff.One approach to associahedra is via left bracketing functions (lbf) due to Huang-Tamari. We will introduce a generalisation of an lbf which we call a higher left bracketing function (hlbf), and show that they correspond to the faces of the associahedron. We are able to construct a parity structure on the hlbfs. This parity structure does not satisfy the parity complex axioms due to Street. However, it does satisfy a modified set of axioms given by Campbell. It follows from the results of Campbell that we have a loop free pasting scheme in the sense of Johnson.The construction of a parity structure on the associahedron is generalised to a more basic structure known as an abstract pre-polytope. To achieve this, we introduce the idea of a label structure on an abstract pre-polytope. From a label structure, we obtain a parity structure which is then proven to satisfy the axioms due to Campbell. Finally, we use this construction on other polytopes such as the hypercubes and permutohedra.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (x, 110 pages) diagram
Psychosocial safety and security for children following maltreatment: Study 1. Factors associated with placement stability for children in out-of-home-care : Study 2. Multi-systemic and psychosocial safety (MAPS): inter-rater reliability & clinical utility of a clinician-rating tool for therapeutic child protection intervention services
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 221-254.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Study 1. Child and carer characteristics associated with placement stability for children in out-of-home care -- Chapter 3. Study 1. Carer responses -- Chapter 4. The assessment of psychological safety and of children on out-of-home care -- Chapter 5. Action research clinical responses to the MAPS -- Chapter 6. Inter-rater reliability and clinical utility of the multi-systemic and psychosocial safety (MAPS) -- Chapter 7. Discussion.This thesis presents a literature review, two clinically oriented empirical studies and an integrative discussion. The studies focus on factors involved in placement stability and psychosocial safety of children within the child protection system. In Study 1, thirty-nine foster and kinship carers were surveyed to explore factors associated with carer concerns about placement breakdown and caregiver satisfaction. Standardised questionnaires assessed demographic and support factors and the contributions of child behaviour and emotional functioning, carer parenting style, empathy and attachment style. The small sample size of this study limits interpretation and generalizability of results. However, the findings indicate that concerns about placement breakdown were uniquely associated with carer age and that caregiver satisfaction was associated with level of partner support and the number of previous placements the child had experienced. Caregiver comments were also analysed thematically, and these showed that a poor carer-agency working alliance impacted on carer’s views on their ability to maintain placements, their sense of support and overall satisfaction.The second study first reports on the development, and then the face validity, clinical utility and inter-rater reliability of a clinician-rating tool developed by the researcher. The Multi-Systemic Assessment of Psychosocial Safety (MAPS) was developed to assist clinicians to assess the ongoing psychosocial safety of children (aged 6-16 years). Consultation was undertaken with specialist child protection counselling teams. Additionally, nine specialist child protection counsellors, across three area health districts, participated in an inter-rater reliability study of the tool using clinical vignettes, and provided additional written feedback on the face validity and clinical utility of the tool. Moderate to very good inter-rater reliability for risk ratings on the tool was obtained for two vignettes. Poor inter-rater reliability was evidenced for a third, more complex vignette. Participants reported that the MAPS was relatively easy to use, clinically useful in identifying risks and protective factors in child and family contexts, and in identifying therapeutic intervention objectives.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (326 pages
Class formation in the global field of finance: a comparative study of Frankfurt and Sydney
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 192-213.1. Introduction -- Part One. Perspectives on globalisation and class formation. 2. Class formation : stuck in national economies? ; 3. Globalisation without global class formation ; 4.Towardsconceptualising class on a global level -- Part Two. The formation of a global financial class. 5. Approaching class formation in the global field of finance ; 6. Research designs and methods ; 7. Financial markets as a global social field ; 8. Frankfurt and Sydney as financial centres ; 9. A global financial class? Trajectories in the field of finance ; 10. Structural tensions in the field of global finance -- 11. Conclusion : the formation of a global financial class -- 12. References -- Appendix.This thesis investigates whether professionals on the global financial markets, such as investment bankers, traders, and analysts, form a global social class.Over recent decades, rising inequality has reinvigorated interest in issues of class. Despite the experience of world-wide economic crises demonstrating the global reach of the contemporary economy, the research areas of globalisation and class remain surprisingly disengaged from each other. Especially the question of global class formation continues to be underexplored.The first part of this thesis examines why the issue of globalisation remains a niche within research on class. Therefore, the theoretical foundations of the dominant approaches to class are investigated, identifying the causes for the implicit “methodological nationalism” of modern mainstream class analysis in the underlying theories of the economy and social action. Vice versa,an examination of globalisation theory shows that similar obstacles persist in the theoretical reasoning on inequality from a global perspective, precluding a conceptualisation of global class formation. In dialogue with the few existing approaches to conceptualize class on a global level, a framework for the study of global class formation based on Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of social fields is developed.In part two of the thesis this framework is employed to examine empirically whether the global field of finance is currently the source for the formation of a global financial class. The field of finance as the most globalised economic sector is a paradigmatic case for studying the formation of a global class. This interview study on the career trajectories of financial professionals from Frankfurt and Sydney uncovers that, despite the legacy of national economic specificities on the institutional level, financial actors draw in their social praxis on global forms of social, cultural and economic capital and have developed a common culture, worldview, praxis, and habitus, delineating the formation of a global financial class.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (215 pages) illustrations (some colour
Constructing ‘authentic’ memories of the German Democratic Republic since 2008: memoir, fiction and film
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 92-102.Introduction -- Chapter 1. Childhood memories and family history -- Chapter 2. Constructing individual memories of the GDR in a historical novel -- Chapter 3. Memory of a filmmaker -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was arguably one of the most efficient authoritarian regimes of the twentieth century. In this thesis I suggest that to fully understand the lived experience of GDR citizens, and contribute to understandings of the East German past, it is necessary to consider individual memories.This thesis presents a close reading of three post-millennial sources of individual memory: a memoir (Red Love, Leo), a historical novel (The Tower, Tellkamp) and a historical feature film (Barbara, Petzold). Memory theory offers a valuable analytical framework to understand these sources as complex interpretations of individual memory, social memory, political memory and existing cultural memory and also acknowledges the impact of the present and media in their construction.The three texts vividly portray the impact of the GDR State on everyday life and demonstrate that Leo, Tellkamp and Petzold did not experience the GDR in the same way; sometimes their interpretations overlap, and sometimes they conflict.While previous phases of cultural memory focused on the needs of unification and identity struggles, this thesis suggests that there has been a post-millennial shift towards remembering the GDR with greater nuance, but that competing interpretations of the GDR are still present in German memory culture.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (102 pages) colour illustrations, map
To pay or not to pay: how do free virtual studio technologies compare to their paid counterparts?
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 43-48.1. Introduction --- 2. Literature review -- 3. Background to freeware -- 4. Methodology -- 5. Creative component -- 6. Discussion 7. Conclusion -- 8. Reference list -- Appendix.Virtual Studio Technology (VST) has played a pivotal role in the recording revolution and has allowed producers to move away from analog equipment, giving them the tools to mix and master music solely inside the computer. There is significant literature describing the process of mixing, mastering and the free software movement. However, there is little to no research on free vs commercial music software.This study tests the differences between free and commercial VST Plugins for mixing and mastering through the production of two versions of a creative work; one using free plugins and one using commercial plugins. The results are based on an ABX blind test, survey and interview with five music industry professionals. Participants describe the qualitative differences between the free and commercial plugins. An analysis of the results and interviews reveals the perceived differences and opinions of professional mixing and mastering engineers when it comes to free and commercial music software. In addition, this study identifies the different perspectives that each engineer has when it comes to mixing and mastering, and the use and place for free plugins in professional music production.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (57 pages) table
Patient-centred advanced cancer care: a systemic functional linguistic analysis of oncology consultations with advanced cancer patients
No full textTheoretical thesis.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis provides a linguistic description of the practice of patient-centred care based on a corpus of 69 transcribed oncology consultations with advanced cancer patients. Using tools from Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics, the thesis identifies ways in which personhood and patient-centredness is realized semiotically in a series of papers.First, a systematic literature review provides an overview of the previous research on the linguistic operationalisation of patient-centredness and the theoretical approaches applied. This is followed by three types of analyses including (1) looking at the nature of the social context around and enacted by the discourse of oncology consultation and analysing a sub-corpus of10 consultations; (2) looking at how the patients identify themselves and construct their experience and sense of self during the consultations; and (3) considering how two contrasting oncologists in the sample construct their role and that of the patient through their answers to the questions asked by the patients and their companions.The findings suggest that a patient-centred practice involves the enactment of a ‘facilitating’ role by the oncologist. Through this role, the oncologist facilitates a new doctor-patient relationship in which the degree of ‘classification’ and ‘insulation’ (Bernstein, 1990) between them is reduced. The data shows that this is done by considering and discussing the patients’ personal circumstances and their personal lives as affected by the illness as well as through informing the patients about their body, their illness, their options, rights and entitlements, and generally through enabling them to be an informed patient who is the centre of healthcare. Such practice acknowledges that the dying patients are semiotically agentive. It also appreciates the patient’s experience of maintaining a sense of normalcy in the face of a life-limiting illness. A patient-centred practice is further characterised with elaborated reasoning to provide more information and precise information to the conscious and semiotically agentive patient.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (ix, 179 pages) table
Post-Cronulla: narratives of inclusion and exclusion in the representation of Muslims on Australian free-to-air television 2005-2015
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 282-317.Introduction -- Chapter One: Theoretical framework and review of literature -- Chapter Two: Methodology -- Chapter Three: Muslim representations in the Australian media prior to the Cronulla Riots -- Chapter Four: Muslims and 'Speaking Out' on the Special Broadcasting Service -- Chapter Five: Muslims and 'Domestication' on Network Seven -- Chapter Six: Muslims and 'In-betweenness' on Network Nine -- Chapter Seven: Muslims and 'Cosmo-multiculturalism' on Network Ten -- Chapter Eight: Muslims and 'Nation' on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation -- Conclusion.In December 2005, thousands of ‘white’ Australians gathered at Cronulla Beach in Sydney, to ‘cleanse’ the beach of ‘ethnics’. Australian media suggested these riots were a reflection of developing racial tensions in Australia over decades, that they represented a failure in multiculturalism, and that they reinforced divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’. More importantly, the Cronulla Riots (re)presented Australia as a contested space of belonging, where non-white, Middle Eastern and/ or Muslim Australians are constructed primarily through exclusion and ‘otherness’. Assessing the ongoing effects of such exclusionary practices, this thesis addresses the representations of Muslims on Australian free-to-air television in the decade following the Cronulla Riots. The role of ‘otherness’ is explored in the media’s attempt to represent a multicultural nation through the production of narratives of inclusiveness and belonging (rather than exclusion and marginalisation) for Muslims in Australia.This thesis engages with discursive and televisual, textual formations that shape belonging and ‘otherness’, which impact the representation of Muslims on Australian television through binaristic relations of inclusion/exclusion and us/them. Discourse analysis is deployed to place critical understandings of ‘otherness’ in a relationship with representations of Muslim belonging. Conceptually, Edward Said’s (1978) Orientalism and Ghassan Hage’s (1998) ‘White Nation Fantasy’ are used to explore the significance of Muslim representations, and question their relationship to hegemonic determinations of ‘whiteness’ and ‘otherness’ in Australia. This thesis argues that, while narratives of inclusiveness and belonging do represent Muslims within the national realm, they also exploit ‘otherness’ in ways where belonging is always conditional and limited, reproducing contested ideas (of belonging) that the Cronulla Riots exemplified.1 online resource (317 pages
Cenozoic climate reconstructions via the prism of the organic geochemistry of IODP recovered sediments from the southern Pacific, northern Atlantic, and northern Indian Ocean
No full textTheoretical thesis.Includes bibliographical references.1. Introduction -- 2. Global sea level changes or local tectonics? First Miocene biomarkers in cored sedimentary rocks from IODP Expedition 317, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand -- 3. From tropical to temperate climate: decreasing sea surface temperatures in the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand, based on lipid analyses of drilled sediments from IODP Expedition 317 -- 4. Global climate trends during the Miocene examined through an organic geochemistry prism: comparison of the biomarker data from cored sedimentary rocks from IODP Expeditions 317 (Canterbury Basin, New Zealand) and 313 (New Jersey continental shelf) -- 5. Multi-proxy geochemical analyses of Indus Submarine Fan sediments from IODP Expedition 355: implications for sediment provenance and palaeoclimate reconstructions -- 6. Summary -- Appendices.This thesis presents detailed geochemical, hydrocarbon and biomarker analyses carried out on cored marine sediments from three International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expeditions. IODP Expedition 313, New Jersey continental shelf, U.S. middle Atlantic margin (New Jersey–Delaware–Maryland), IODP Expedition 317, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand, and IODP Expedition 355, in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean. The three expeditions have been a focus of attention for an extensive study of eustasy, global climatic variations, and local tectonic activity controls on the regional depositional processes. The correlation between preserved organic matter in marine sediments and climate fluctuations has been widely discussed in the scientific community. While the ability to separate between influences of local and global events on the accumulated organic matter remains challenging, the current thesis aims to look into hydrocarbon and biomarker data from the three expeditions to compare these events. The main purpose of IODP Expedition 317 was to compare the relative influence of local tectonics and global sea level changes on sediments accumulated on the continental shelf and slope off the east coast of the Southern Island of New Zealand. Cored sediments were recovered from Early Oligocene to Holocene sequences, with a particular focus on the sequence stratigraphy of the last 19 million years, when global sea level changes were dominated by glacio-eustasy. Sediments drilled in a transect of two sites on the continental shelf (Sites U1351 and U1353) and one on the continental slope (Site U1352) were used in two studies. The first study provided the first examination of the organic geochemical record from Sites U1351, U1352, and U1353 using bulk geochemistry together with hydrocarbon and biomarker distributions for early Oligocene to early Pliocene samples. Based on these it is suggested that local tectonic activity has had a rapid and significant influence on the accumulation of organic matter on the continental shelf and slope. Samples for the second study were taken from early Oligocene to Holocene sediments from the same three drilling sites, with geochemical and lipid analysis carried out to identify the source of the organic matter, and reconstruct changes in sea surface temperature (SST), soil pH, and mean annual air temperatures (MAT) in the area influenced by local tectonic activity or global climatic events. A global climatic optimum and temperature increase at the early/middle Miocene boundary, combined with the increasing land mass of the sub-continent based on an increase in sedimentation rates since the middle Miocene, suggests gradual intensification in the amount of land vegetation. Interpretation of global eustatic and climatic transformations confirms cooler Neogene SSTs were coupled with a decrease in global sea levels. A comparison study between IODP Expedition 317 Site 1352 samples and IODP Expedition 313 Sites M0027A and M0028A samples was performed. Overall, 43 samples from Expedition 313, dated from late Miocene to early Oligocene, were analysed for hydrocarbon and biomarker content. The hydrocarbon data as well as reconstructed SST, soil pH, and MAT from the New Jersey expedition were compared with results from 55 IODP Expedition 317 samples dated from early Oligocene to late Miocene. There is a decreasing SST trend from the early Miocene to the middle Miocene at both locations. Moreover, both sites show significant soil pH decreases during the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum, and an increase in MAT during the same geological period. The last research project is based on IODP Expedition 355 drilling Site U1456 samples from the Laxmi Basin, Arabian Sea. Multi-proxy data has enabled reconstruction of the evolving provenance of deep sea sediments in the basin, by the use of heavy minerals, bulk isotopic data, bulk and molecular geochemistry, and biomarker and compound specific isotope analyses. The results show that the Indus River was the main source of the sediment into the basin for the last eight million years. Palaeothermometry of the last ten million years based on glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) and long chain unsaturated alkenones show SST fluctuations during this time. Our data indicate a significant increase of C3 vegetation input to the eastern Arabian Sea around 8 Ma, and increased erosion from the Himalayas around 6 Ma. Variation in precipitation patterns are shown by the δD data set as well as by other geochemical and biomarker parameters, and can be attributed to variation in Asian monsoon precipitation patterns. The results show warm water environments for the first part of the Neogene and a significant temperature decrease in the SST in the New Zealand region from ~15 Ma that can be coupled with decrease in global sea levels. Comparison between New Jersey and New Zealand samples suggest strong eustatic influence for the New Jersey region and local tectonic influence on the organic matter accumulation in New Zealand during Miocene. At the same time, the Arabian sea data shows relatively warm late Miocene that is characterised by increasing precipitation levels influenced by Asian monsoon precipitation patterns.1 online resource ( xii, 393 pages) illustration
Soil invertebrate response to petroleum contaminants in subantarctic soils, and implications for remediation efforts
No full textThesis by publication.Bibliography: pages 121-132.1. Introduction -- 2. Ecosystem effects and the management of petroleum-contaminated soils on subantarctic islands -- 3. The influence of vegetation and soil properties on invertebrate communities in a diesel-contaminated soil -- 4. A comparative study on the toxicity of weathered diesel to a subantarctic earthworm, Microscolex macquariensis, and a model earthworm species, Elsenia fetidae -- 5. The toxicity of petroleum hydrocarbon mixtures to the eartworms Microscolex macquariensis and Elsenia fetida -- 6. Discussion and conclusions -- Appendices.Subantarctic islands hold scientific and economic importance, but power to support operations in this region is predominantly produced by diesel-fuelled generators, and several leaks and spills have created areas of contaminated soil. This thesis aims to assess the toxicity of highly weathered petroleum contaminants to soil biota on Macquarie Island, in the context of its unique subantarctic climate and biogeography. In the first ever review of petroleum contaminants in subantarctic soils, their effects on endemic biota were found to be extremely variable. Limitations and opportunities for contaminant management were also identified for the sensitive subantarctic environment, and the benefits of management techniques with minimal collateral disturbance were brought into relief. In a field-based experiment, several biotic, environmental and chemical factors were investigated to determine the most important drivers of soil invertebrate assemblages on subantarctic Macquarie Island. Overall, environmental factors that could be linked to physical soil disturbance held greater influence over soil invertebrate assemblages than did petroleum contaminants. In the first of two laboratory-based toxicity tests, well-aged diesel was not found to affect survival at the highest test concentration in either Microscolex macquariensis (an earthworm endemic to Macquarie Island) or Eisenia fetida (a common model test species of earthworm). Sub-lethal endpoints were more sensitive, though in some cases the effect was hormetic. These results suggest that the addition of diesel to a soil may increase its carbon content, thereby stimulating microbial activity and increasing the amount of food available to the worms. Finally, to simplify chemical analyses, a typical weathered diesel profile was synthesised using six hydrocarbon types. The mixture toxicity adhered more closely to a concentration addition joint action scenario than independent action. When tested individually, alkyl napthalenes and cycloalkanes were the most toxic, whereas n-alkanes and branched alkanes were less toxic. Together, these findings will guide the focus of remediation efforts, with implications for how contaminant management techniques are selected for environmentally sensitive sites such as subantarctic islands. In particular, the end goals of contaminant management must be well-defined, and the broader impacts of any works should be taken into consideration.1 online resource (137 pages : illustrations, maps
The translation of children's literature from English to Korean, with particular reference to marked theme, conceptual metaphor and metonymy in Anna Fienberg's Tashi Series
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 189-209Chapter 1 Introduction -- Chapter 2 Anna Fienberg’s Tashi Series in ST and TT -- Chapter 3 Theoretical Grounding of the Study -- Chapter 4 Methodology - Marked themes as Linguistic Tool -- Chapter 5 Conceptualization of Space and Time in ST and TT: Metonymy and Metaphor -- Chapter 6 Conceptual Image: Chronotope as a Schema in Macro-lens and Micro-lens Perspectives of the Text -- Chapter 7 (The) Conceptual Image of Tashi as Hero: Readers’ Instantiation of Chronotopes as Schemata -- Chapter 8 Conclusion.The conceptual image of a protagonist developed by readers of children’s literature differs according to cultures. The image is therefore a problematic domain in translation. A key question about children’s literature read in translation is whether young readers of the target language (here Korean) enjoy the same aesthetic experience as readers of the source text (here English). Since the language of the surface structure of each piece of writing itself employs multi-dimensional components such as cultural, personal, and linguistic variations, there is always an equivalence issue in the field of translation study due to language differences. Accepting the cognitive linguistics argument that language is a product of the mind informed by psychological mechanisms and processes, this study explores how various linguistic structures and semiotic codes perform in readers’ minds as a result of translation. The concept of the schema is initially considered to be a central domain in which to identify emerging differences, in that text comprehension is mediated by schemata. A reader activates particular action schemata (or ‘scripts’) for such components as how participants are expected to interact, how effect flows from cause, and what outcome is expected. Schemata are cognitive structures that enable readers to understand the essential features in the text in the process of reading, to interpret the story, and even to perceive significance beyond the actual information given. As a culturally and ideologically integrated element of memory, schemata also supply extra or missing information as they are cognitively modified and integrated in the mind. The study is divided into two parts. The first part is based in linguistics and the second is more literary in approach. In the first part I analyze the translation of a fiction series for young readers, with particular attention to the language of literature. I begin with the concepts of “Themes” and “Marked Themes” proposed by M.A.K. Halliday: linguistically positioned in the beginning of a clause, theme is characterized as “what the message is concerned with: the point of departure for what the speaker is going to say”. Halliday and Hassan argued that, “The choice of ‘Theme’ is significant because the interplay between the Theme and Rheme or Given and New is directly related specially to building up cohesion in texts, which determines that the story events fit together meaningfully and the sense of the text is delivered clearly and pleasurably to readers”. My study will focus in particular on marked temporal and spatial themes and the impact these have on the development of the image of a hero in the process of reading in two differently structured languages or as result of reading. Given “the key to understanding issues of literary value and status and meaning lies in being able to have a clear view of text and context, circumstances and uses, knowledge and belief” (Stockwell 2002:4), linguistic tools offer us a means of achieving this understanding. The second part is mainly about the differences and a few minor similarities identified as a result of linguistic analysis of marked spatial and temporal themes. In order to explain those differences, I will explore three domains as they are elucidated by the analysis of the marked spatial and temporal themes – 1) “conceptual metaphor and metonymy” mainly introduced by cognitive linguists Lakoff and Johnson, 2) schema theory, and 3) M.M. Bakhtin’s theory of chronotopes. The chosen source text (ST) is Anna Fienberg's Tashi series (books 1-10) and their translated Korean version as the target text (TT). The original Australian series is very widely read, but was not attractive to many young readers in Korea. Although the popularity of a children’s book or any other literary work depends on various factors, it is likely that the difference between linguistic structures in combination with socio-historical elements are one of the most fundamental motives for that difference in popularity. Through the thesis I consider that first, as a heuristic tool, linguistic analysis in combination with a cognitive approach to translation could be an important, innovative way to deal with how conceptual images form in readers’ minds. As the heroic image of a protagonist results not only from sociocultural values and beliefs but also from linguistic choices in the text, the study suggests that an idiosyncratic way of using semiotic codes is one of the key factors in stimulating reader imagination through schemata, and should be more investigated in the field of children’s literary translation.Appendix 3 and 4 are Excel spreadsheets.1 online resource (vi, 209, 3, 27, 1 pages) colour illustrations