44 research outputs found
2007 Colin Roderick Lecture
No full textLet me thank my audience for coming to listen to me today: let me thank the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies for inviting me to give this year’s Colin Roderick Lectures.<br />I like to think that Professor Roderick would have looked kindly on the choice of a lecturer drawn from the bleak, ambiguous demi-monde where journalism and literary endeavours meet - for he was involved, as many of you will know, during his days as an editor at Angus and Robertson, in the celebrated libel case in 1961 over “The Bandar-Log,” a novel, still unpublished, by the distinguished Canberra press gallery journalist, Alan Reid. Roderick’s own writings had a strong influence on me at a particular point in my path as an author: but the one act of his that resonates most strongly in my thoughts is the decision he made, 40 years ago, to establish a centre for the study of Australian writing here in the North.</jats:p
Shell walls: A new hope. Using barnacle shell isotopes as a conservation tool for understanding the movement ecology of threatened sea turtles
No full textUnderstanding the geographic distribution of sea turtles within their sub-populations could enhance conservation and management, especially for sub-populations that are the most threatened. Isotope techniques have been used for this purpose and have become popular in the past decade, with an increasing year-to-year trend in published studies. Via systematic literature review of all studies using isotopes to understand sea turtle ecology, this thesis first presents a robust understanding of the current state of the science, identifying knowledge gaps and priorities for future sea turtle conservation research (Chapter 2). This identified that very few stable isotope studies aimed at understanding foraging distributions have been completed on threatened sub-populations of sea turtles, whereas those considered of least concern by the IUCN have been the focus of many. I aimed to address this mismatch between stable isotope studies and conservation needs by developing, validating, and applying a novel isotope technique to understand the foraging distribution of critically endangered South Pacific loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), and in doing so identifying critical habitats for priority management. The technique presented uses isotope ratios from commensal barnacle shells, which vary with temperature (SST) and salinity (SSS) rather than turtle diet. Barnacle shells are formed sequentially, storing chemical information about of the surrounding conditions at the time of formation. This makes it possible to assign a date to samples, and compare isotope ratios with the spatial and temporal distribution of sea water parameters (SST and SSS), if the growth of the animal is well understood. Thus, in this thesis I tested the applicability of using barnacles to understand sea turtle foraging distribution by quantifying barnacle growth rates (Chapter 3), regional relationships between barnacle isotopes (C and O) and SST & SSS (Chapter 5), and discriminating between foraging areas based on time dependent isoscapes for barnacle shell (Chapter 4, 5). Finally, the technique is applied to predict the home area of loggerhead turtles that nest in southern Queensland, Australia, identifying hotspots and relationships between nesting and foraging habitats (Chapter 6). This thesis demonstrates that isotopes from barnacle shells can be used to identify the origin and migration distances of host turtles at varying spatial scales, depending on water chemistry gradients present at the time and location of shell formation. In eastern Australia is it possible to assign turtles to home areas with >86% accuracy when areas are separated by at least 400 km (Chapter 4). Globally, many coastal areas are likely to offer similar or better resolution to this, while pelagic waters will typically offer lower resolution. This thesis also shows that estuarine habitats are important foraging habitats for adult loggerhead turtles, probably more so for southern foragers, while marine habitats are clearly important in northern Australia. Future research should focus on developing isoscapes for barnacle shell in other regions, and combining barnacle analyses with other methods to improve the achievable resolution. I also expect that this technique can be applied widely to other taxa and objects that carry commensal barnacles throughout marine journeys.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of Environment and ScScience, Environment, Engineering and TechnologyFull Tex
Malignant middle cerebral artery syndrome with thrombotic thrombocytopenia following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2
No full textCases of thromboses at unusual sites with thrombocytopenia have been reported following vaccination against Sars-CoV-2. This new syndrome, christened vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), mainly results in venous thromboses. We report the case of a young woman with a right middle cerebral artery stroke following vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. A diagnosis of VITT was made and platelet counts began to recover shortly after commencing treatment with argatroban, intravenous immunoglobulins and corticosteroids. On day 6 following admission, the patient deteriorated neurologically and decision made to proceed with decompressive hemicraniectomy. There were no perioperative complications and anticoagulation with argatroban was reinitiated on the first postoperative day. VITT is a rare condition resembling auto-immune heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. All critical care staff should be aware of the rare link between vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and VITT and the need to rapidly commence both anticoagulation, using heparin alternatives, and immunomodulation
Arthur William Upfield: a biography
No full textThis dissertation is an exhaustive account of the life and work of Arthur William Upfield (1890-1964). It is presented as a critical biography and narrates the life of the writer, in his socio-cultural milieu, from birth. It also positions Upfield as a writer who dealt with issues of Aboriginality at a time when this was a singularly polemical subject. My work is informed by the theory of Zygmunt Bauman and others and is posited in the context of late-modern biography theory.
English-born, Upfield arrived in Australia in 1911 and took work in the bush, serving overseas with the Australian army at the outbreak of World War I and marrying an Australian army nurse in Egypt. Returning with his wife and son to Australia in 1921 he intermittently carried his swag until he was employed patrolling the Western Australian number 1 rabbit-proof fence for three years to 1931. By that time he had published four novels, including two crime novels featuring his fictional creation, the part-Aboriginal, part-European, Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ('Bony'), arguably the first fully-developed character in Australian popular fiction.
Leaving the fence, Upfield settled with his family in Perth and wrote full-time until joining the Melbourne Herald in 1933. Retrenched, he resumed career writing to be further interrupted by a war-time intelligence posting in 1939. In 1943 the first Bony mysteries were published in America, where Upfield's critical success was maintained until his death. In 1945 he left his wife for Jessica Uren, to whom he remained devoted.
Upfield's in all twenty-nine Bony novels, many of which have been translated across eleven languages, afforded him notable success both at home and abroad, in good part due to his descriptive gifts and the uniqueness of his fictional character, the part-Aboriginal Bony
Writing and the rights of reality: usurpation and potentiality in Derrida, Plato, Nietzsche, and Beckett
No full textThe thesis critically evaluates Jacques Derrida's conferral of the rights of reality on writing, focussing on his theory of an arche-text in light of the speculative nature of this theory. The theory is initially considered in the context of Derrida's elucidation of the usurpatory status of writing within the Platonic and Nietzschean texts. This consideration reveals an admission of writing's usurpatory status by both writers while at the same time demonstrating their awareness of the intrinsically speculative nature of this view, the significance of writing lying in its ability to exteriorise the radically indeterminate status of consciousness m relation to reality rather than its ability to displace consciousness or reality The analyses, therefore, not only bring the Derridean hypothesis of a repressive or phonocentric metaphysical episteme into question but also exhibit the historical and philosophical role of potentiality in relation to writing, writing's ultimate significance lying in its capacity to exteriorise our existence as a mode of potentiality. Accordingly, in the second half of the thesis the Derridean theory of writing is countered with a specifically Aristotelian theory of the text as it is exhibited in the prose of Samuel Beckett, an author whose significance lies in his close alignment with Derridean theory within contemporary criticism. It is demonstrated that this identification has obviated an awareness of the significance of potentiality within the Beckettian text, his work consequently being appraised in the previously neglected context of Aristotelian metaphysics
Landscape-painter as landscape-gardener : the case of Alfred Parsons R.A.
No full textIn 2 vols.Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN016830 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Bite your tongue
No full textBACKGROUND 'Bite Your Tongue', published by award winning feminist publisher Spinifex Press is set in 1970s Queensland. This novel-cum-memoir contributes to Australia's literary culture by offering through its structural and figurative modes a site -specific piece focused on a significant historical period. Similar to critically acclaimed Janette Turner Hospital's work, this fictionalised mother-daughter memoir is preoccupied with "secrets that refuse to remain buried".CONTRIBUTION The focus of this work is on silence, shame and finding voice, and how the body operates and survives as the language of this process. Complex and self-reflexive, it is a book about books and the body, language and writing the self. The work's literary contribution has been recognised widely: "idiosyncratic and original" (Gail Jones, author); "a remarkable feat: [it]...moves pretty-well-effortlessly between the directly auto-biographical and the lyricism of good fiction" (Clare Strahan, Overland); "[it] lends its voice to a tradition of Queensland women's writing in a growing cacophony of many tongues" (Jessica Gildersleeve, Queensland Review); a "must read": "Part fable, part fact, it illustrates Rendle-Short's literary prowess." "Here is no Babel. Here is a fantastical tongue-atorium." (Dominique Hecq, Text Journal review).SIGNIFICANCE The work's value is attested to by: invitations to speak at literary conferences and events including Prairie Lights Iowa City (USA), Reaching the World Bangkok, Reality Bites Festival, Lighthouse Lit Festival; the Australian Book Review referred to it as one of the "best books for 2011"; reviewed extensively both nationally and internationally in highly esteemed publications and media outlets such as Queensland Review (Cambridge), Cultural Studies Review, Life Matters and Books and Arts Daily (ABC Radio National), The Weekend Australian, The Lit Show (Iowa), The Age, and The Courier Mail. Shortlisted for the national 2012 Colin Roderick Literary Award
Physiological Electrical Signals Promote Chain Migration of Neuroblasts by Up-Regulating P2Y1 Purinergic Receptors and Enhancing Cell Adhesion
No full textAcknowledgments This work was supported by a grant from NHS Grampian. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are creditedPeer reviewe
Making vision into power : Britain's acquisition of the world's first radar-based integrated air defence system 1935 - 1941
No full textThis thesis represents the first application of a current conceptual model of defence acquisition to analyse the historical process, the 1935 - 1941 British acquisition of an integrated air defence system pivoted upon the innovative technology of radar. For successful acquisition of a military capability, the model posits that balanced attention must be focused acoss eight 'lines of developmen' - not only equipment, but also doctrine and concepts, logistics, structures, personnel, organisation, training and information with an overarching requirement for interoperability. This thesis contrasts what turned out to be a successful acquisition, of radar to achive air interception capability by day in the Battle of Britain, with less successful acquisition, or radar to achieve the same capability at night, where an effective system arrived too late to ward off the Blitz. The results establish the validity of the model and its attendant lines of development concepts, and furnish new insights into acquisition processes and military history. Acquisition lessons are derived for the capability-based involvement of industry, for the experience and personality necessary for key managers at different 'life stages' of an acquisition and for the avoidance of over-rapid 'dysfunctional diffusion' of innovative technologies. Historical insights for the Battle of Britain include the sub-optimal performance, for trivial reasons, of key South Coast radars, and the critical importance of the human elements of the radar-based air defence system. For the Blitz, airborne radar hardware has previously been identified as a key problem, whereas research here exposes the greater need for accurate ground control radar, the sound selection and training of pilots and operators in new tactics, and provision of equipment maintainers and test gear. New evidence illustrates that pursuit of an alternative to radar significantly delayed the optimal solution, and throws fresh light both on personalities and on development process management
Political Theology and the Levellers: A discussion of the theological sources of the political thought of the Levellers and of some implications for modern understandings of political liberalism
No full textThe thesis establishes that the political liberty proposed by the Levellers during the English Civil Wars of the 1640s was derived from a theological doctrine of Christian liberty, rooted in Christology and Ecclesiology, and informed by various legal and philosophical traditions. The work is structured around an examination of the sources of Leveller political thought and a discussion of some implications of this for modern understandings of political liberalism.
The thesis argues that a major key to understanding the Levellers is to see the way in which they utilised existing streams of thought, whilst both synthesising and modifying these. These diverse intellectual currents include the English common law, free grace theology, early General Baptist ecclesiology, and natural law and canon law traditions. The Levellers combine these to give rise to the idea that the state should be strictly limited by the individual’s freedom, rights, and contractual consent.
The thesis takes great care with the religious sources, in order to avoid a number of current misreadings, especially with respect to theological ideas, ecclesial groupings, and terminology, particularly in relation to Puritanism. The opposition to fundamental elements of Puritanism will be shown to be a hermeneutic key that unlocks our understanding of the Levellers.
The research calls into question particular socialist readings of the Levellers. It also implicitly shows that the rejection of liberalism by certain modern Christian thinkers is based on an unnuanced view of political liberalism. Equally, the work provides a corrective to some recent secular accounts of political liberalism that see the historical roots of liberalism in a reaction to the church and religion
