2,259 research outputs found
Prioritizing the risk of plant pests by clustering methods : self-organising maps, k-means and hierarchical clustering
No full textFor greater preparedness, pest risk assessors are required to prioritise long lists of pest species with potential to establish and cause significant impact in an endangered area. Such prioritization is often qualitative, subjective, and sometimes biased, relying mostly on expert and stakeholder consultation. In recent years, cluster based analyses have been used to investigate regional pest species assemblages or pest profiles to indicate the risk of new organism establishment. Such an approach is based on the premise that the cooccurrence of well-known global invasive pest species in a region is not random, and that the pest species profile or assemblage integrates complex functional relationships that are difficult to tease apart. In other words, the assemblage can help identify and prioritise species that pose a threat in a target region. A computational intelligence method called a Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM), a type of artificial neural network, was the first clustering method applied to analyse assemblages of invasive pests. The SOM is a well known dimension reduction and visualization method especially useful for high dimensional data that more conventional clustering methods may not analyse suitably. Like all clustering algorithms, the SOM can give details of clusters that identify regions with similar pest assemblages, possible donor and recipient regions. More important, however SOM connection weights that result from the analysis can be used to rank the strength of association of each species within each regional assemblage. Species with high weights that are not already established in the target region are identified as high risk. However, the SOM analysis is only the first step in a process to assess risk to be used alongside or incorporated within other measures. Here we illustrate the application of SOM analyses in a range of contexts in invasive species risk assessment, and discuss other clustering methods such as k-means, hierarchical clustering and the incorporation of the SOM analysis into criteria based approaches to assess pest risk
'Pilings of Thought Under Spoken': The Poetry of Susan Howe, 1974-1993.
No full textPhDThis thesis discusses the poetry published by contemporary American poet Susan
Howe over a period of almost two decades. The dissertation is chiefly concerned with
articulating the relationship between poetic form, history, and authority in this body
of' work. Howe's poetry dredges the past for the linguistic effects of patriarchy,
colonialism and war. My reading of the work is an exploration of the ways in which a
disjunctive poetics can address such historical trauma. The poems, rather than
attempting to reinstate voices lifted from what Howe has called "the dark side of
history", are a means of reflecting the resistance that the past offers to contemporary
investigation. It is the effacement, and not the recovery, of history's victims, that is
discernible in the contours of these highly opaque texts. Notions of authority are most
often addressed in the poetry through the figure of paternal absence, which has a
threefold function in the work, serving to represent social authority, an aporetic
conception of divinity and an autobiographical narrative. Alongside the antiauthoritarian
currents in the writing - critiques, for example, of the doctrine of
Manifest Destiny or of scapegoating versions of femininity - my thesis stresses Howe's
engagement with negative theology and with a strain of American Protestant
enthusiasm that has its roots in 17th century New England. The dissertation explores
the dissonance caused by the co-existence in the poetry of elements of political dissent
and religious mysticism. Finally, I consider Howe's engagement with literary history
and authors such as Shakespeare, Swift, Thoreau and Melville. The manner in which
Howe deploys the words of others in her work, I argue, allows for a mixture of textual
polyphony and a more conventional notion of authorial 'voice'
Host Range Expansion of an Endemic Insect Herbivore is Associated With High Nitrogen and Low Fibre Content in Exotic Pasture Plants
No full textDevelopment and the G20
No full textThis publication examines what role the G20 can play in international development.
Key findings:
Development is a key component of the G20, but there are concerns over the effectiveness of the current development agenda.
The criticism includes that the development agenda is too diffuse and mostly distant to the G20’s main activities.
But the G20 development agenda has made progress in some important areas, including increasing the resources of the international financial institutions, infrastructure, food security, financial inclusion and reducing the cost of remittances.
However development and global economic issues cannot be treated in isolation; development must be ‘mainstreamed’ and clearly seen as part of the G20’s core agenda.
To the extent that Australia can help strengthen the G20 when it assumes the chair in 2014, and make tangible progress in such areas as - economic growth, financial regulation, trade, financial inclusion, infrastructure and climate change financing – it can make a significant contribution to promoting development and reducing poverty.
Authored by Mike Callaghan AM, Annmaree O’Keeffe AM, Robin Davies, Susan Harris Rimmer , Steve Price-Thomas, Sabina Curatolo, Julia Newton-Howes and Michelle Lettie
How Did I Get to Princess Margaret? (And How Did I Get Her to the World Wide Web?)
No full textThe paper explores the growing use of
tools from the arts and humanities for investigation
and dissemination of social science research.
Emerging spaces for knowledge transfer, such as
the World Wide Web, are explored as outlets for
"performative social science". Questions of ethnics
and questions of evaluation which emerge from
performative social science and the use of new
technologies are discussed. Contemporary thinking
in aesthetics is explored to answer questions
of evaluation. The use of the Internet for productions
is proposed as supporting the collective
elaboration of meaning supported by Relational
Aesthetics.
One solution to the ethical problem of performing
the narrations of others is the use of the writer's
own story as autoethnography. The author queries
autoethnography's tendency to tell "sad" stories and
proposes an amusing story, exemplified by "The
One about Princess Margaret" (see Appendix).
The conclusion is reached that the free and open
environment of the Internet sidelines the usual
tediousness of academic publishing and begins to
explore new answers to questions posed about
the evaluation and ethics of performative social
science
Empathy and transformation in organic inquiry: sharing research in partnership with spirit
No full text[Extract] Our narrative as authors begins with a location of ourselves in relationship to one another. The first author, Sharon, is a PhD graduate who was delighted to happen upon Organic Inquiry. This little-known qualitative methodology is a deeply connected, transformative and liberating qualitative methodology that can provoke researchers to attune to others' lived experiences through their common humanity and their own narrative. Sharon was surprised how beautifully Organic Inquiry fitted with her PhD research topic on the 'Spirituality of menstruation and birth'. The above quote from an interview transcript captures a moment in one participant's unfolding story of witnessing the spirituality of birth. The second author, Susan, the primary PhD supervisor, is a committed qualitative researcher who held some scepticism about this little-known methodology. Both authors grew to appreciate the intense, embodied, transformative capacity of Organic Inquiry and the key role of empathic relationships in the rigour and transformative potential of this methodology. Equally, the research participants reported on its powerful transformative qualities. Organic Inquiry is not known widely, and therefore some historical context is needed
An Interview with Professor Susan McClary [Elektronisk resurs] : The Development of Research on Gender and Music
No full textSusan McClary is a Professor of Musicology and the author of Feminine Endings, one of the most influential books on feminist musicology, both in majority–English–speaking and non–majority English–speaking countries. Throughout her distinguished career she has addressed questions of how gender and sexuality relate to the study and analysis of classical and popular musics. This interview focuses on how she initially became interested in the field, reflections on research on music and gender as well as her analysis of key theoretical and empirical areas for the future of research. The interview was conducted in May 2018 by Sam de Boise (Örebro University, Sweden)</p
Subjective Versus Objective: An Exploratory Analysis of Latino Primary Care Patients With Self-Perceived Depression Who Do Not Fulfill Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Patient Health Questionnaire Criteria for Depression
No full textObjective: Identification and treatment of depression may be difficult for primary care providers when there is a mismatch between the patient’s subjective experiences of illness and objective criteria. Cultural differences in presentation of symptoms among Latino immigrants may hinder access to care for treatment of depression. This article seeks to describe the self-perceptions and symptoms of Latino primary care patients who identify themselves as depressed but do not meet screening criteria for depression.
Method: A convenience sample of Latino immigrants (N = 177) in Corona, Queens, New York, was obtained from a primary care practice from August 2008 to December 2008. The sample was divided into 3 groups according to whether participants met Patient Health Questionnaire diagnostic criteria for depression and whether or not participants had a self-perceived mental health problem and self-identified their problem as “depression” from a checklist of cultural idioms of distress. Psychosocial, demographic, and treatment variables were compared between the 3 groups.
Results: Participants’ descriptions of symptoms had a predominantly somatic component. The most common complaints were ánimo bajo (low energy) and decaimiento (weakness). Participants with “subjective” depression had mean scores of somatic symptoms and depression severity that were significantly lower than the participants with “objective” depression and significantly higher than the group with no depression (P < .0001).
Conclusions: Latino immigrants who perceive that they need help with depression, but do not meet screening criteria for depression, still have significant distress and impairment. To avoid having these patients “fall through the cracks,” it is important to take into account culturally accepted expressions of distress and the meaning of illness for the individual.Peer reviewe
International year of older persons: Mentoring research project
No full textA report, by Judith MacCallum and Susan Beltman, Murdoch University, that identifies models of good practice of mentoring in school settings. The report looks at issues associated with the implementation of mentoring programs in school settings and key recommendations for consideration by Australian schools and education systems
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