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Structural constraints on the crystallisation of amorphous calcium carbonate
No full textEmpirical thesis."The Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS) and GEMOC" -- at foot of title.Bibliography: pages 133-149.1. Introduction -- 2. Calcium Carbonate preparation and characterisation -- 3. Kinetics of particle growth and crystallisation of calcium carbonate -- 4. Determination of the atomic structure of ACC -- 5. Conclusion -- Appendices -- List of symbols -- Bibliograohy.Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is a biogenic precursor of calcium carbonates forming shells and skeletons of marine organisms which are key components of the whole marine environment. Understanding carbonate formation is an essential prerequisite to quantify the effect climate change and pollution have on marine population, to build biogenic climate proxy archives and to design novel functional materials by biomimetism.Water is a critical component of the structure of ACC and a component controlling the stability of the amorphous phase. Addition of small amounts of magnesium (1–10% of the calcium content) is known to promote the stability of ACC, presumably through stabilization of the hydrogen bonding network. Understanding the hydrogen bonding network in ACC is fundamental to understand the stability of ACC.I successfully developed a synthesis protocol to make stable Amorphous Calcium Carbonate.This study describes the sample synthesis and characterization methods. This is followed by a description of the nucleation and crystallisation of calcium carbonate, along a non-classical pathway. The results are parameterised in terms of kinetics and final product as a function of magnesium doping.The approach used in this study to determine the atomic structure of ACC is to use Monte-Carlo simulations, using the Empirical Potential Structure Refinement program, constrained by X-ray and neutron scattering data. X-ray data are suitable for determining Ca, Mg and O correlations, and neutron data give information on the hydrogen / deuterium (as the interaction of X-rays with hydrogen is too low for us to be able to constrain hydrogen atom positions with only X-rays). The final atomic model includes water molecule positions.This new approach is used to constrain current novel kinetic models, shed light on the role of impurities and provide a basis for understanding biogenic systems in general.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xx, 149 pages) illustrations (some colour
The role of gender-marked information in second language processing
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 332-350.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Gender as grammatical category -- Chapter 3. Grammatical gender in L1 -- Chapter 4. Grammatical gender in L2 -- Chapter 5. Methodology of the experiment -- Chapter 6. Results -- Chapter 7. Discussion.Two main theoretical approaches have been proposed to explain what causes gender errors in L2 processing. Deficit accounts argue that L2 learners who are NS of languages without grammatical gender cannot acquire gender due to impaired underlying syntactic representations. Accessibility accounts argue that morphological errors are due to production problems or even to gender ‘mapping problems’. Recently, the ‘lexical gender learning hypothesis’ has argued that L2 learners exhibit better performances while being taught the gender of nouns when they are provided with the noun suffix together with the determiner rather than when they learn the endings of each gender class seperately from the gender-marked articles. This latter hypothesis is in line with the Competition Model.This thesis investigates the role of gender-marked information in processing Greek as L2. The target population is adult L2 learners of Greek. For the purpose of this study two tasks were elaborated. In Task 1 a non-word (stimulus) was presented to the participants containing three possible types of gender-marked information: (1) morphological (noun suffix), (2) morphological syntactic (determiner + noun suffix) and (3) morphological extensive syntactic (determiner + adjective + noun suffix). The participants’ reaction (in Greek) to the stimulus was to indicate the gender class of the non-word. The presented stimuli in Task 2 were identical to the Task 1. However, a reply was required in English. The corresponding gender value of the stimulus was indicated by the appropriate personal pronoun in English (he, she, it).The findings indicate that L2 learners are capable of processing more accurately and faster the grammatical gender of novel nouns when they are provided with morphological and extensive syntactic gender-marked information than when they are provided with morphological and syntactic information or morphological information only. These findings are in line with the lexical gender learning hypothesis and the principles of the Competition Model demonstrating that the quantity of gender-marked information has a positive effect on L2 processing. Our analysis also reveals that beginners and advanced L2 learners do not differ in terms of the employed processing strategies; they both process and use effectively the maximum amount of available gender-marked information.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xvi, 350 pages illustration
Deep time biomarkers: a study of organic matter and fluid inclusions in Precambrian rocks
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: Pages 265-2971 Introduction -- 2 Reappraisal if hydrocarbon biomarkers in Archean rocks -- 3 In search of early life: Carbonate veins in Archean metamorphic rocks as potential hosts of biomarkers -- 4 Hydrocarbon biomarkers in carbonate veins cutting Archean rocks, and implications for the early biosphere -- 5 Hydrocarbon biomarkers released from metamorphosed Archean rocks by HCl dissolution -- 6 Phenolic compunds in oil-bearing fluid inclusions - implications for water-washing and oil migration -- 7 Summary and conclusions.Hydrocarbon biomarkers are organic molecules with a specific biosynthetic source that can be preserved over billions of years (Ga). They are being searched for in Archean (>2.5 Ga) rocks to investigate (1) the origin of eukaryotic life, (2) the onset of oxygenic photosynthesis by cyanobacteria, and (3) the role of organisms during the Great Oxidation Event. Unfortunately, the detection of biomarkers in Archean rocks struggles with contamination issues, unspecific biomarkers and the lack of suitable sedimentary rocks due to extensive thermal overprints. In 2012 the Jeerinah Formation (2.63 Ga) and Carawine Dolomite (2.55 Ga) from the Pilbara Craton (Western Australia) were drilled under ultra-clean conditions by the Agouron Institute. These sedimentary rocks were solvent extracted with two techniques (bitumen I, bitumen II). Organic matter obtained by the bitumen I extraction (free kerogen) indicate high thermal maturity and biomarkers, such as hopanes and steranes, indicative of bacteria and eukaryotes,respectively, are absent. These findings rebutted previous biomarker evidence from mineral exploration boreholes that were used to explain the rise of eukaryotes and early oxygenic photosynthesis. Organic matter obtained by the bitumen II extraction (mineral-bound kerogen), contained some biomarkers, but these are likely the result of sample contamination and/or the simultaneous extraction of later carbonate veins. The later veins were petrologically assessed and it was found that they formed between2.2-1.a Ga under relatively mild conditions (180-200°C), while the sedimentary rocks revealed temperatures of ~400°C, which is too high for any biomarkers to have been preserved. Solid bitumens and oil-bearing fluid inclusions captured inside the later veins were analysed using bitumen I extraction and hopanes and steranes were successfully detected. This thesis demonstrates the complexity in investigating Archean biomarkers and the dynamics of oil-bearing fluid inclusions to better understand the early biosphere.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xl, 297 pages) illustration
Enthusiasm and restoration in the rhetoric of 17th century British Royalist poetics
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 55-57.Introduction -- Chapter 1. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis : the problem of enthusiasm -- Chapter 2. The Baconian inheritance in the apologetics of Bishop Spratand Abraham Cowley -- Chapter 3. Samuel Butler and Royalist scepticism toward the “Restoration”project -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.The aim of this paper is to give a critical account of the early modern tropes of enthusiasm and restoration within four Royalist voices of Seventeenth-century British literature. The centre of the critical examination is the intersection between these two tropes and the ideas of Francis Bacon and his adherents in the Restoration period. The trope of enthusiasm was used by Royalist thinkers to stigmatise political opposition and was commonly applied to Puritans throughout the 17th century. Due to the fact that enthusiasts sometimes used nature as a basis for their knowledge enquiries, Francis Bacon’s own natural philosophy was often tainted with the stigma of this trope. As a consequence, the challenge of legitimation for natural philosophers and its champions like Francis Bacon, Abraham Cowley and Bishop Thomas Sprat, was to answer this trope and distance their own ideas from enthusiasts. As the evidence presented will illustrate, the arguments Bacon used toward his Jacobean audience in New Atlantis and the ideas of Bacon used by his Restoration adherents repositioned Baconianism as a remedy against the rise of enthusiasm using tropes of restoration. The key finding of this research is that the role of Francis Bacon’s theories of social psychology and language were crucial within Bacon and his adherents’ response to the problem of enthusiasm as well as their program for the “Restoration” of Royalism.This paper also examines Samuel Butler’s response to the claims of Bacon and Baconianism with respect to the tropes of enthusiasm and restoration. The purpose of contrasting Butler’s view of the Baconians and their claims of “Restoration” is to illustrate how and why enthusiasm was an important battleground in the Restoration era. Butler’s different interpretation of “Restoration” highlight some fracture points within Royalist ideology that related to the Baconian inheritance. One prime conclusion drawn from these contrasting views was the central contention between Butler and Baconianism involving their different theories of language and what conclusions we ought to make about the capacity for human restoration.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (57 pages
Assurance of natural resource management: a case study
No full textThesis by publication.Bibliography: pages 180-194.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. LIterature overview -- Chapter 3. Paper 1 - Assurance of natural resource management -- Chapter 4. Paper 2 - The multidisciplinary audit team : diversity challenges for non-financial insurance assurance -- Chapter 6. Paper 3 - Audit reporting on non-financial information : one audit, tow reports -- Chapter 6. Summary and conclusions -- Consolidated reference list -- Appendices.The thesis is set within the context of growing adoption of independent assurance of nonfinancial information (NFI) by organisations, with the specific subject matter focus on assurance of natural resource management (NRM). The Australian Government has invested significant resources in NRM programs. For example, in the state of New South Wales, a region covering over 800,628 square kilometres, Government funding totalled $1,042 million during the period from 2004 to 2010. This significant investment coincided with the establishment of a statutory organisation in 2003, the primary responsibility of which was to provide independent assurance in relation to whether ongoing investment achieved improvements in the condition of natural resources across the regions.This thesis responds to the calls for research (e.g., Adams et al., 2014; O’Dwyer et al.,2011; Power, 2003) into assurance practices within NFI contexts by exploring various aspects of the development and implementation of assurance processes and practices emerging within organisations. The thesis is by publication format and comprises three inter-related but distinct papers, each framed around the key elements of assurance practice, utilising a longitudinal (six year) case study with data collection from multiple sources.The first paper, titled “Assurance of Natural Resource Management”, sets the scene and explores the challenges of the case study organisation in developing an audit framework to guide its legislated NRM audits at a time when NFI assurance standards on specific subject matter were limited and more tailored to the private sector. The findings suggest the development of such guidance is complex and acknowledge a lack of consensus as to the ‘best practice’ in NRM and NFI assurance. The findings also challenge assumptions that accepted assurance concepts developed for the financial audit context, such as audit scope, assurance levels and materiality, are transportable to non-financial assurance and our public sector case context.The second paper titled “The Multidisciplinary Audit Team: Diversity Challenges for NFI Assurance” draws upon resource diversity theory from social psychology and Power’s (2003) theoretical perspectives on emerging non-financial audit practices to examine multidisciplinary audit teams (MATs) in practice. The study explores how the MAT’s composition and diverse member subject matter knowledge and various aspects of team dynamics shape assurance processes (e.g., gathering and assessing audit evidence) in practice. The findings suggest that the challenges and complexities of managing the team, understanding the diverse mindsets of team members, including effective communication between members, are not to be underestimated if the diversity benefits of MATs are to be realised.The third paper titled “Audit Reporting on Non-financial Information : One Audit, Two Reports” examines the construction of the NRM audit report over a three year period. The analysis is framed around the key audit report elements drawing upon Power’s (2003,2004) theoretical insights on NFI audits in addition to literature from NFI assurance, public sector audits and Fiske’s (1990) communication theory. The findings suggest that for the audit report to be of communicative value, it needs to identify clearly the audience, audit objectives, scope, content and level of assurance at the beginning of the audit process.The empirical evidence from the three papers contributes to contemporary NFI and public sector audit and assurance literature and to our understanding of NFI and performanc eassurance practice. More specifically the case study context illustrates how NRM assurance practice has developed in the presence of specific legislative requirements bu tlimited practical guidance. The case study findings have significant practical implications for public and private sector assurors in developing their NFI assurance practices and frameworks and in managing multidisciplinary audit teams.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xiv, 219 pages) diagrams, graph
Values as the path to sustainability: A critical examination of the relationship between values and sustainability behaviour in organisations
No full textTheoretical thesis.Included bibliographic references.Chapter 1: General Introduction -- Chapter 2: How Ethical Shareholders Drive Sustainability : Combining Stakeholder Theory and the Resource Based View -- Chapter 3: How Values for Sustainability are Enacted : A Multilevel Examination -- Chapter 4: General Discussion and ConclusionThis thesis critically explores the idea that values drive sustainable behaviour in organisations. Concerns about a sustainable future are gaining a sense of urgency as much of the developed world attempts to address the depletion of essential life sustaining resources, environmental degradation, as well as a global series of social and economic crises. Corporations, as major entities of human behaviour, have a substantial role to play in working towards a sustainable human future. However, many have argued that this require a shift in values in organisations from traditional profit orientation to valuing people and planet as well.This dissertation presents the results of two studies which examine the link between organisational values and sustainability outcomes, in particular the three P's of people, planet and profit. The main research questions were: 1) What, if any, are the differences between sustainable, and less or non-sustainable companies, when profit outcomes and espoused values are compared. 2) How are organisational values filtered internally through the levels of the organisation, i.e individual/ team/ organisation, to achieve the sustainability outcomes of people, planet, profit? In addressing these questions, the following streams of theory were utilised: Stakeholder theory, the resource based view (RBV), sense making theory and the multilevel approach to organisational research. These theories assisted in predicting and interpreting the link between sustainability values,the sustainability outcomes of people, planet, profit and how values of this nature might be actioned within the organisation itself. The studies thereby provide a basis for future research that can go on to demonstrate a quantifiable and causal connection between the behaviour of people at work and the sustainability of organisations.1 online resource (x,158 pages
The right place at the right time: A historical rationale for the afterlife of the uprising of Jesus of Nazareth
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 84-89.This study aims to determine why the uprising of Jesus of Nazareth fostered an afterlife in spite of the fact that Jesus was executed. There were numerous uprisings at the turn of the Common Era in Palestine, and every uprising leader suffered the same fate, death, and every uprising subsequently desisted, except for Jesus'. The characteristics of the uprisings of Judas son of Hezekias, Simon of Peraea, Athronges the Shepherd, Judas the Galilean, John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth and Theudas (4 B.C.E. - 44 C.E.) are analysed in order to discover reasons to explain this anomaly. The perceptions and actions of the three ruling parties of Palestine at the time (Romans, Herods, Jewish leadership) are investigated to determine what affect they had on each uprising. It is concluded that the reason Jesus' uprising had an afterlife was timing. It is proposed that Jesus' uprising occurred at a time of relative peace and stability in Palestine. It was also a time of political concern for Pilate in relation to his standing with Tiberius. This state of affairs contributed to Pilate allowing Jesus' followers to live and fostered an environment conducive to advancing the movement.1 online resource (90 pages
Challenges in the convergence of international financial reporting standards (IFRS): a comparative study of Indonesia and Australia
No full textTheoretical thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Chapter 1: Overview of the Thesis -- Chapter 2: Paper 1 - The Pathway of Transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Developing Countries: Evidence from Indonesia -- Chapter 3: Paper 2 - The Impact of Culture and Risk Propensity on the Judgements of Accountants: A Comparative Study of Indonesia and Australia -- Chapter 4: Paper 3 - Ethical Decisions by Accountants in Applying International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): Cross-Cultural Evidence from Indonesia and Australia -- Chapter 5: Paper 4 - An Examination of the Perceptions of Accountants towards the Professional Skills Required for Applying the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) -- Chapter 6: Summary and Conclusions.The increasing popularity of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) over the last few years has led to a growing number of IFRS adopters around the world. As of 2016, more than 130 countries have adopted the IFRS, with many other countries stating a commitment to support the global accounting convergence initiated by the International Accounting Standards Board. The worldwide adoption of IFRS is believed to result in a greater cross - national comparability of financial information which, in turn, will benefit the global economy. This thesis aims to undertake a comprehensive examination of the conceptual and practical issues associated with the adoption of IFRS in both developed and developing economies. Specifically, this thesis seeks to answer the question of whether convergence in accounting standards will necessarily lead to comparability of financial reporting practices, and to propose possible ways to improve consistencies in the interpretation and application of the IFRS within and across countries. To address this issue, the thesis undertakes four research projects with the following objectives: (1) to critically analyse the process of convergence in a developing country and to identify the critical issues in that process; (2) to examine whether cultural and personal factors cause differences in the judgements made by professional accountants across countries when interpreting and applying the IFRS; (3) to examine the extent and the cause of differences in the ethical decisions between professional accountant s across countries when applying the IFRS; and (4) to examine the perceptions of professional accountants towards the skills and competencies that are essential for applying the IFRS. The findings of this thesis suggest that there are intense challenges f acing the adoption of IFRS in different countries, which hampers the comparability of financial reporting practices under the standards. In particular, this study demonstrates that the measurement and recognition criteria contained in the IFRS are not interpreted and applied in a consistent manner across and within countries due to differences in cultural, organisational, personal, and ethical characteristics. The findings of this thesis also show that even when the IFRS are adopted, accounting practitioner s might not have adequately developed certain skills that are crucial for the consistent application of the standards. Overall, the results of this thesis raise questions regarding the assumption that the global adoption of IFRS will necessarily lead to co mparable financial statements across countries.1 online resource (xvi, 395 pages
Isolation and semi-synthesis of enterocin analogues as novel antibiotics
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 51-571 Introduction -- 2 The stability of Enterocin -- 3 Semi-synthesis of Enterocin analogues -- 4 Optimisation of cultivation conditions for Steptomyces sp. -- 5 The biological activityof Enterocin and related analogues -- 6 Mode of actions studies for Enterocin and related α-pyrones -- 7 Conclusions and future directions -- 8 Experimental -- 9 References -- 10 Supplementary materialEnterocin, a uniquely-structured polyketide, was first isolated in 1976 from two soil Streptomyces with reported broad-spectrum bacteriostatic activity. In this thesis, the chemical and biological properties of enterocin were re-investigated for its suitability as a next-generation antibiotic scaffold. Importantly, enterocin was found to be less stable than previously reported, undergoing a facile intramolecular rearrangement to a novel polycyclic ketal isomer bereft of antibacterial activity. Enterocin also undergoes further, undocumented degradation under neutral and basic conditions in a range of solvents at room temperature. Semi-synthetic derivatisation of enterocin at its carbonyl and secondary hydroxy positions yielded five new analogues with improved stabilities, albeit with reduced antibacterial activities. These analogues may have applications as pro-drugs to increase the antibiotic bioavailability and half-life. Furthermore, a microbial biodiscovery study was conducted to investigate the co-metabolite profile of an enterocinproducing culture, Streptomyces sp. MST-MA9095. Six α-pyrones related to enterocin were isolated from the culture on an optimised culture medium, four of which showed moderate antibacterial activities against Micrococcus luteus. Preliminary investigations into the mode of action of enterocin suggest that its true ecological role may not be as an antibiotic, but rather as a first-in-class broad-spectrum regulator of secondary metabolite production of other microorganisms.1 online resource (v, 70 pages) illustration
A novel framework for author obfuscation using generalised differential privacy
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 52-56.1: Introduction -- 2: Author Obfuscation -- 3: An Exploration of Privacy -- 4: Theoretical Framework -- 5: Experimental Results -- 6: Concluding Remarks.The problem of obfuscating the authorship of a text document has received little attention in the literature to date. Current approaches are ad-hoc and rely on assumptions about an adversary's auxiliary knowledge which makes it difficult to reason about the privacy properties of these methods. Another approach to privacy, known as differential privacy, is advocated in the literature for its strong privacy guarantees. However, differential privacy has been dismissed as an option for text document privacy due to its design around the release of aggregate statistics, and its dependence on notions of 'adjacency',neither of which apply to text document privacy. In addition, differential privacy does not permit the release of individual data points as required for text document publishing. However, a new approach to privacy known as generalised differential privacy extends differential privacy to arbitrary datasets with no notion of adjacency, and permits the private release of individual data points. In this thesis, we show to apply generalised differential privacy to author obfuscation, drawing inspiration from the example of geo-location privacy, and utilising existing tools and methods from the stylometry and natural language processing literature.1 online resource (56 pages) graphs, table