2,485 research outputs found
Letter re: introduction
No full textLetter from F. J. Ross to Arthur C. Mower, vice president of the American Tobacco Co., introducing him to Amon Carter
Getting to the top: women and decision-making in European media industries
No full textThis chapter discusses the findings from one of the most recent studies, supported by the European Institute for Gender Equality and with the specific remit to assess the progress made against the Beijing Platform for Action’s 1995 Area J, which intended to “. . . increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through media and new technologies of communication, and promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.” The study on which this chapter draws was undertaken between 2012 and 2013 and comprised an analysis of women in decision-making positions across 99 major European media houses in all 28 EU Member States
Soft biometrics for surveillance: an overview
No full textBiometrics is the science of automatically recognizing people based on physical or behavioral characteristics such as face, fingerprint, iris, hand, voice, gait and signature. More recently, the use of soft biometric traits has been proposed to improve the performance of traditional biometric systems and allow identification based on human descriptions. Soft biometric traits include characteristics such as height, weight, body geometry, scars, marks and tattoos (SMT), gender, etc. These traits offer several advantages over traditional biometric techniques. Soft biometric traits can be typically described using human understandable labels and measurements, allowing for retrieval and recognition solely based on verbal descriptions. Unlike many primary biometric traits, soft biometrics can be obtained at a distance without subject cooperation and from low quality video footage, making them ideal for use in surveillance applications. This chapter will introduce the current state-of-the-art in the emerging field of soft biometric
The status of protected area evaluation in Australia and implications for its future
No full textEvaluation of protected area management in Australia has been driven by public sector reporting requirements and concern to improve management performance. This review of the status of management evaluation in large protected area management agencies reveals considerable variability in effort applied to evaluation, with emphasis being given to context and planning for management and outcomes of management as it affects valued resources. Agencies have largely adopted best practice principles in making assessments, but are not comprehensive in assessing all parts of the management cycle. The current emphasis may serve reporting requirements, but does not provide information and links that can assist in identifying the factors that affect achievement (or otherwise) of desired management outcomes. This constrains capacity to adopt an adaptive management approach to park management based on management effectiveness evaluations
Review of the people make the place: dynamic linkages between individuals and organizations
No full textReview of D. Brent Smith ( Editor ). The People Make the Place: Dynamic Linkages Between Individuals and Organizations . New York : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates , 2008 , 316 pages, $79.95 hardcover .Reviewed by Jon Billsberry, Coventry University, Danielle L. Talbot, Patrick C. Nelson, Julian A. Edwards, Steven G. Godrich, Ross A.G. Davidson, and Christopher J.P. Carter, The Open University
Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration Building Dedication Ceremony
No full textThe expansion of the Mabee Business building created spaces conducive for classroom instruction, group meetings, and student and faculty interaction, along with state-of-the-art technology to aid in the learning process.
Paul R. Carter began his service on the Harding board of trustees in 1985, continuing for 25 years until his death in October 2009. Whenever he had the opportunity to speak, he would often quote his favorite poem, and we believe it is representative of the way he lived his life. Build a Better World God said build a better world, and I said how? The world is such a cold dark place and so complicated now. And I, so young and useless, there\u27s nothing I can do. And, God in all his wisdom said, just build a better you. -- Author unknown
Dr. David Burks, University President presided over the dedication ceremony for the naming of the Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration and it\u27s new addition.
Sam Carter and Ross Carter, son and grandson of Paul R. Carter, led prayers, Dr. Bryan Burks, Dean of the College of Business, Daniela Misas, current COBA student, and Stephen Carter, son of Paul R. Carter, spoke at the ceremony
Co-management and Indigenous protected areas in Australia: achievements and ways forward
No full textUntil recent decades, the establishment of protected areas contributed to the dispossession and marginalisation of Indigenous peoples in Australia. Recently, governance and policy frameworks have been developed and refined to recognise protected areas as part of Indigenous land and sea country, and to enable Indigenous people to participate in conservation planning and country management. Australia is an international pioneer in co-management of terrestrial protected areas and the declaration and management of Indigenous protected areas. However, progress has not been uniform across Australia and further policy and protocol development is required in the recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights and interests in marine protected area management; the implications of native title determinations over protected areas; and the achievement of practical, meaningful social and environmental benefits through conservation agreements and activities. This article considers progress in two key areas of Indigenous contribution to protected area management: co-management (joint management) of protected areas, which commenced in the late 1970s; and Indigenous Protected Areas, which commenced in 1997. Our observations concerning the achievements of the last 30 years and the opportunities for future directions within and beyond these initiatives were informed by participant contributions at the 2008 Australian Protected Areas Congress. Conference workshops and deliberations led to recommendations for improvements to enhance the recognition, respect and rights of Traditional Owners as protected area co-managers. Improved partnerships and communications across existing cooperative planning models are needed to enable Indigenous and non- Indigenous collaborators to share ways of enabling Country-based planning and management to assist in species and landscape conservation
On a three-dimensional gait recognition system
No full textThe University of Southampton Multi-Biometric Tunnel is a high performance data-capture and recognition system; designed with airports and other busy public areas in mind. It is able to acquire a variety of non-contact biometrics in a non-intrusive manner, requiring minimal subject cooperation. The system uses twelve cameras to record gait and perform three-dimensional reconstruction; the use of volumetric data avoids the problems caused by viewpoint dependence - a serious problem for many gait analysis approaches. The early prototype by Middleton et al. was used as the basis for creating a new and improved system, designed for the collection of a new large dataset, containing gait, face and ear. Extensive modifications were made, including new software for managing the data collection experiment and processing the dataset. Rigorous procedures were implemented to protect the privacy of participants and ensure consistency between capture sessions. Collection of the new multi-biometric dataset spanned almost one year; resulting in over 200 subjects and 2000 samples.Experiments performed on the newly collected dataset resulted in excellent recognition performance, with all samples correctly classified and a 1.58% equal error rate; the matching of subjects against previous samples was also found to be reasonably accurate. The fusion of gait with a simple facial analysis technique found the addition of gait to be beneficial -- especially at a distance. Further experiments investigated the effect of static and dynamic features, camera misalignment, average silhouette resolution, camera layout, and the matching of outdoor video footage against data from the Biometric Tunnel. The results in this thesis prove significant due to the unprecedented size of the new dataset and the excellent recognition performance achieved; providing a significant body of evidence to support the argument that an individual's gait is unique.L. Middleton, D. K. Wagg, A. I. Bazin, J. N. Carter and M. S. Nixon. A smart environment for biometric capture. Automation Science and Engineering, Proceedings of IEEEInternational Conference on, 57-62, 2006
Fungal Diversity and Cellulytic Activity in the Historic Huts, Ross Island, Antarctica
No full textThe goal of this study was to undertake a microbial investigation of the Historic Huts areas on Ross Island, to gain knowledge of the fungal biodiversity and biochemical framework, focusing on the wood degrading potential of these fungi at both psychrophilic (cold) and mesophilic (moderate) temperatures. Eight hundred and forty nine samples were collected from three Heroic Era Historic Huts of Antarctica, from a variety of substrates but predominantly structural wood. The huts, Discovery Hut at Hut Point, Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans and Nimrod Hut at Cape Royds, are located on Ross Island and were all assembled in the early 20th century by the Heroic Era explorers to house the expeditions, stores and animals. These wooden huts were abandoned when the expeditions left. The introduction of wood and other organic material to a pristine environment along with the creation of a microclimate within the harsh Antarctica environment created interesting sites for studying fungal diversity, wood decay and fungal cellulase enzymes in an extreme environment. Each hut can be classified as offering different conditions and circumstances for fungal propagules. Of the three huts, Terra Nova Hut is the only hut where there are visible fungal blooms within the hut and it, with Discovery Hut, had the greatest number of samples that contained fungi compared to Nimrod Hut which had the least. Discovery Hut, at less than 500 metres from the United States McMurdo Station, is the most visited by scientist and base staff and has been the most demonstrably affected by human impact of the three huts due to its closeness to the research stations on Ross Island To ensure a full understanding of the fungal diversity of the Historic Hut sites, a variety of sampling techniques were used along with a variety of culture media. Two thousand and seventy six isolates consisting of 1177 filamentous fungi and 899 single celled microorganisms (yeast and bacteria) were isolated; all these cultures were frozen and now form the University of Waikato Antarctic Culture Collection. Five genera dominated the fungal isolates that were identified and these were Cladosporium, Geomyces, Cadophora, Penicillium and Thelebolus. The fungal diversity of these Historic Huts' communities is low but the members present are metabolically active, consistent with other microbial communities in the Antarctic. The Historic Huts and surroundings contain a diverse array of provision in the way of wood and supplies, which provide nutrient sources for fungal growth. Endemic organisms present in the soil could have been enriched by using the introduced nutrient sources as primary and/or second metabolic substrates. In addition, fungi could have been introduced with the wooden huts and supplies when they were brought to Antarctica by the Heroic Era explorers, or introduced in the subsequent years with visitors and conservation work conducted at the sites. These introduced organisms, though, would have had to adapt to the change in climate and conditions posed by the Antarctic in order to survive and be subsequently isolated in this study. A screen for carboxymethylcellulase (CMCase) activity was done on a selection of the fungal isolates as the first step to understand the cellulytic potential of the Antarctica fungal community inhabiting the huts. One hundred and six fungal isolates from a total of 404, that were screened were deemed to be CMCase positive, 27 fungal isolates were chosen for further study including quantifying the activity of extracellular endo-1,4-β-glucanase at psychrophilic and mesophilic incubation temperatures. All but one isolate could produce endo-1,4-β-glucanase activity at 4 C and many produced more endo-1,4-β-glucanase activity at 4 C than at 15 C. Cadophora malorum 182, Cadophora malorum 242, Penicillium roquefortii 405, Penicillium roquefortii 408, Geomyces sp. 711, Geomyces sp. 824 and Cladosporium oxysporium 805 were selected for in-depth study of growth characteristics including growth temperature preferences, growth on a variety of cellulose substrates, water activity, and carbon sources, the latter done by using a commercially available microtitre plate containing 95 carbon sources. All seven of the fungal isolates were classified as psychrotolerant and produced, when cultured at either 4 C or at 15 C, cellulase, protease, amylase, xylanase, and pectinase and mannanase enzyme activities. The range of water activity that the Antarctic Penicillium roquefortii isolates could grow at was distinctive when compared with food Penicillium roquefortii isolates. The utilisation of different carbon sources showed that like many studies of Antarctica organism they have a diverse range of enzymatic activity, but interestingly the activity does not differ greatly with incubation temperature with most carbon sources being used or not used at both incubation temperatures tested. Although it took longer for the fungi
to grow at the psychrophilic temperatures, the range of carbon sources they utilised was not reduced. The protein composition of the extracellular supernatants was visualised using various electrophoretic and staining techniques. The cellulase activity of the protein bands was visualised by cellulose-containing zymograms, which illustrated that the cellulase complex in all fungi tested was multi-enzyme and differed between species, isolates and temperatures of culturing. The cellulase activity of Cadophora malorum 182 was enriched by purification techniques including ion exchange chromatography and native preparative electrophoresis. The protein complex was not purified to homogeneity, but enriched for a mixture of proteins and the mixture was described as having the following properties; a temperature range of β-1,4-glucan cellobiohydrolase activity from 20 C to 80 C with the optimum activity seen at 60 C, β-1,4-glucan cellobiohydrolase activity that is stable at 4, 25 and 40 C for at least 24 hrs, lost at 50 C and 80 C within 24 hrs and 2 minutes respectively. Along with β-1,4-glucan cellobiohydrolase activity, the protein mixture contained Avicelase, CMCase, xylanase and mannanase activity. The thesis research showed that there was limited fungal diversity in the Historic Huts and artefacts (a total of five dominant genera were identified) but the fungi are actively growing and producing viable spores in the cold of Antarctica and producing the necessary enzymes for degradation of wood. Although the metabolism and growth rate is slower at psychrophilic temperatures, the fungal isolates studied as part of this thesis research could still function enzymatically at cold temperatures and this includes the degradation of wood as evidenced by in vitro wood decay studies examined by scanning electron microscopy where two isolates of one species demonstrated the ability to degrade wood. The cellulase complex of the investigated fungal isolate was multi-enzymed and although the components were not purified to homogeneity, an enriched mixture of proteins had enzyme activity and stability in a broad temperature range, and activity to a variety of cellulosic substrates.
This thesis research adds to the knowledge of the fungal biodiversity in the Antarctic and increases the understanding of the biochemical framework, participating in relation to wood decay potential of these Antarctic fungal isolates
Cenozoic Plate Tectonic Reconstructions and Plate Boundary Processes in the Southwest Pacific
No full textThe Australia-Pacific-Antarctic plate circuit has long been a weak link in global plate reconstruction models for Cenozoic time. The time period spanning chron 20 to chron 7 (43-25 Ma) is particularly problematic for global plate models because seafloor spreading was occurring in two poorly constrained regions in the Southwest Pacific - the Macquarie Basin southwest of New Zealand, and the Adare Basin north of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. I present a new shipboard dataset collected aboard several recent geophysical cruises which places important constraints on the tectonic evolution of these two regions. Utilizing multibeam bathymetry, magnetic, gravity, and seismic data in the Macquarie Basin, I am able to locate tectonic features and magnetic anomalies with greater accuracy than was previously possible. These tectonic features and magnetic anomalies are then used to calculate relative motion between the Australia and Pacific Plates for chrons 18-11 (40-30 Ma). I use revised locations of the rifted margins along the boundary of the Macquarie Basin to determine a best-fit pre-rift reconstruction for this region. During this same time period, seafloor spreading between East and West Antarctica was occurring along the Adare Trough, an extinct spreading center located north of the Ross Sea. Motion along the Adare Trough accounts for roughly 180 km of previously unrecognized motion between East and West Antarctica. I present multibeam and seismic data in the Adare Basin that place constraints on the timing and character of motion along this plate boundary
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