http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/ The University of Queensland en Fez http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:243025 This thesis examines the history of Christian interpretation of the seven-day framework of Genesis 1:1-2:3 in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from the post-apostolic era to the debates surrounding Essays and Reviews (1860). I first establish a context for the discussion using a consideration of literary and textual issues that relate to this text. In subsequent chapters I survey, patristic, medieval, Renaissance/Reformation, eighteenth-century Enlightenment, and finally early to mid-nineteenth-century interpretations of the days of creation. I make three arguments: 1) concerning ‘depth’ in this history of interpretation, that readings of Genesis 1:1-2:3 belonging to the modern era often have roots much deeper than first realized, reaching far back into Renaissance, medieval or even patristic eras, via the commonly available channels of literal interpretation, figurative readings including spiritual allegory, Platonic metaphysics and mystical approaches, and the prophetic world-week periodic scheme. Thus the ‘day-age’ scheme reveals its roots in Augustine’s figurative creation days, the world-week historical scheme, Renaissance Platonism, and Newtonian science, while the ‘literal’ alternative of the gap theory combines ancient literal interpretation with a chaos idea derived from Greco-Roman origins myths interpreted through a geological lens. 2) My second argument concerns ‘difference’: that despite such deep-rootedness, treatments of Genesis 1:1-2:3 in these earlier eras are rather alien and little-understood in many ways, due to their very different philosophical and theological contexts. The hasty appropriation of ancient precedents as authoritative support for modern interpretations frequently overlooks or oversimplifies this ‘difference’. 3) Genesis 1:1-2:3 experienced a remarkable ‘trajectory’ in its intellectual and social influence as an authoritative text, steadily gaining influence through the formative early centuries of the Christian church’s existence and exercising a cognitive dominance regarding origins and ontology, regarding all categories of created things, that peaked in the Reformation and Renaissance. Yet with the growing confidence in reason of the early Modern era, the revival of alternate classical philosophies, the renewed reception of the mythic literature of ancient nations, and the input of new data from telescope and microscope, from sea voyage and continental volcano, that cognitive dominance slowly shook and crumbled. By the time of the very qualified reception of Genesis 1:1-2:3 represented by Goodwin’s essay in Essays and Reviews (1860), this once-dominant biblical text was well on the way to its present intellectual marginalization. Yet it still bears its own unique stamp and terse grandeur, and still forms the subject of debates that betray an ideological importance disproportionate to its length. This study permits an insight into the mighty career of a biblical text of seminal importance. 2011-06-27T00:00:00Z Andrew Brown http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:193565 2010-01-22T00:00:00Z Victoria, Jo http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:204087 Language is part of nature, and as such, certain general principles that generate the form of natural systems, will also create the patterns found within linguistic form. Since network theory is one of the best theoretical frameworks for extracting general principles from diverse systems, this thesis examines how a network perspective can shed light on the characteristics and the learning of syntax. It is demonstrated that two word co-occurrence networks constructed from adult and child speech (BNC World Edition 2001; Sachs 1983; MacWhinney 2000a) exhibit three non-atomic syntactic primitives namely, the truncated power law distributions of frequency, degree and the link length between two nodes (the link representing a precedence relation). Since a power law distribution of link lengths characterises a hubterranean structure (Kasturirangan 1999) i.e. a structure that has a few highly connected nodes and many poorly connected nodes, both the adult and the child word co-occurrence networks exhibit hubterranean structure. This structure is formed by an optimisation process that minimises the link length whilst maximising connectivity (Mathias & Gopal 2001 a&b). The link length in a word co-occurrence network is the storage cost of representing two adjacently co-occurring words and is inversely proportion to the transitional probability (TP) of the word pair. Adjacent words that co-occur often together i.e. have a high TP, exhibit a high cohesion and tend to form chunks. These chunks are a cost effective method of storing representations. Thus, on this view, the (multi-) power law of link lengths represents the distribution of storage costs or cohesions within adjacent words. Such cohesions form groupings of linguistic form known as syntactic constituents. Thus, syntactic constituency is not specific to language and is a property derived from the optimisation of the network. In keeping with other systems generated by a cost constraint on the link length, it is demonstrated that both the child and adult word co-occurrence networks are not hierarchically organised in terms of degree distribution (Ravasz and Barabási 2003:1). Furthermore, both networks are disassortative, and in line with other disassortative networks, there is a correlation between degree and betweenness centrality (BC) values (Goh, Kahng and Kim 2003). In agreement with scale free networks (Goh, Oh, Jeong, Kahng and Kim 2002), the BC values in both networks follow a power law distribution. In this thesis, a motif analysis of the two word co-occurrence networks is a richly detailed (non-functional) distributional analysis and reveals that the adult and child significance profiles for triad subgraphs correlate closely. Furthermore, the most significant 4-node motifs in the adult network are also the most significant in the child network. Utilising this non-functional distributional analysis in a word co-occurrence network, it is argued that the notion of a general syntactic category is not evidenced and as such is inadmissible. Thus, non-general or construction-specific categories are preferred (in line with Croft 2001). Function words tend to be the hub words of the network (see Ferrer i Cancho and Solé 2001a), being defined and therefore identified by their high type and token frequency. These properties are useful for identifying syntactic categories since function words are traditionally associated with particular syntactic categories (see Cann 2000). Consequently, a function word and thus a syntactic category may be identified by the interception of the frequency and degree power laws with their truncated tails. As a given syntactic category captures the type of words that may co-occur with the function word, the category then encourages consistency within the functional patterns in the network and re-enforces the network’s (near-) optimised state. Syntax then, on this view, is both a navigator, manoeuvring through the ever varying sea of linguistic form and a guide, forging an uncharted course through novel expression. There is also evidence suggesting that the hubterranean structure is not only found in the word co-occurrence network, but within other theoretical syntactic levels. Factors affecting the choice of a verb that is generalised early relate to the formation and the characteristics of hubs. In that, the property of a high (token) frequency in combination with either a high degree (type frequency) or a low storage cost, point to certain verbs within the network and these highly ‘visible’ verbs tend to be generalised early (in line with Boyd and Goldberg forthcoming). Furthermore, the optimisation process that creates hubterranean structure is implicated in the verb-construction subpart network of the adult’s linguistic knowledge, the mapping of the constructions’ form-to-meaning pairings, the construction inventory size as well as certain strategies aiding first language learning and adult artificial language learning. 2010-04-23T00:00:00Z Julie Louise Steele http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:286406 2012-11-28T00:00:00Z Wyeth, Gordon F http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:105922 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Atukorale, Don Ajantha Sanjeewa http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:204198 Provision of aid has long been influenced by the political priorities of donors, and there is substantial evidence that the administrative rules and regulations of donor organisations create problems for recipient countries. For as long as this fact has been understood, there have been efforts to address it: most recently, spear-headed by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and its associated efforts. This thesis seeks to deepen understanding of this tension by examining the aid relationships in the health sector using analytical frameworks drawn from governance, political economy and health policy. Part 1 ‘defines the territory’ by describing the aid effectiveness challenges faced in the sector in qualitative and quantitative terms. Part 2 seeks to understand why these challenges persist by examining the political and institutional forces which affect provision of aid from (following Reich) ‘above, within and below’. I begin by looking at the ‘high’ political forces affecting aid provision by locating health aid as an instrument of international relations. Then, I look in greater detail the central tension in governance of health aid: the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ between efforts to promote greater coherence and the reality of diversity. Finally, I explore the internal (institutional) forces within aid agencies which affect a particular dimension of aid provision: the length of donor commitments. Part 3 presents in-depth case study research which demonstrates how the political forces from above, within and below play out in practice. The emerging conclusion is that the aid effectiveness agenda, as set out in the Paris Declaration, is only ever likely to be partially successful, for two reasons. First, because global health governance is inherently iterative, dynamic and diverse it cannot be regulated through further global processes (such as aid effectiveness). Second, the aid effectiveness agenda is structured around simple concepts and solutions which (while useful for global advocacy purposes) are no match for the political, institutional and economic complexity which characterises the aid relationship at country level. Indeed, the diversity that global health creates at country level has to be managed by recipient countries themselves, according to their timetable, and in a way tailored to their own context and circumstances. 2010-04-23T00:00:00Z Rebecca Dodd http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158792 There has been, to date, minimal research on the experiences of male victims of crime. The research into gender differences in the experiences of criminal victimization have tended to focus on women leaving the male experience to be extrapolated from that of women. This study uses phenomenology to describe the experiences of men who are criminally victimized. The men described an eight phase process of victimization: “What Happened Was”, the “Emotional Wince”, “He Stole My Power”, “Let Me Tell You How It Felt”, Coming To An Understanding Of The Crime”, “Regaining Control”, “Consciously Taking Back Power” and “It’s Over Now, It’s Not Important”. The main goal of the men was to reclaim their lost sense of personal empowerment, stolen in the instance of the crime. The men also had a need to talk through the crime and its aftermath. A supportive listener assisted the man through the process to re-empowerment, whilst a non-supportive listener could complicate the criminal experience, invalidate the victim and result in the man either disengaging from the support process or adopting the non-confirmatory reactions of the listener. Thus the listener held considerable power. Recommendations include police in-service training and the increased use of community conferencing. It is particularly recommended that some attention be paid to rehabilitating the term “victim” given that men do not easily accept the notion of being a victim. 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Haynes, Jennifer http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:273603 The most common articulatory impairment reported in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is imprecision of consonant production, although, it is noted that depending on the level of severity of PD, articulation of vowels may be affected. It has been hypothesised that the imprecision of consonant production is the result of limited range of movement, slowness of movement, muscle rigidity and reduced force of movement of the articulators. To date, the majority of research has utilised descriptive analysis, acoustical techniques and non-speech physiological measures in the investigation of articulatory function in individuals with PD. The application of dynamic investigation, specifically electromagnetic articulography (EMA) is limited. In an attempt to add empirical data to the body of research, the present thesis aims to use EMA to investigate tongue function in dysarthric and non-dysarthric speakers with PD during sentence production and rapid syllable repetition. Additionally, the present thesis also aims to explore the effects of increased loudness on tongue function in dysarthric speakers with PD. A total of 15 individuals with PD participated in this research. The participants were further divided into two groups, dysarthric speakers with PD (n = 8) and non-dysarthric speakers with PD (n = 7) based on the findings of perceptual speech evaluation. A total of 11 neurologically healthy participants also participated in the study to serve as normal controls. EMA was used to examine the tongue tip and tongue back movements during sentence production and rapid syllable repetition. The lingual kinematic parameters examined included maximum velocity, maximum acceleration, maximum deceleration, duration and distance of tongue movement. In Chapter 2, the lingual kinematics in a group of seven non-dysarthric speakers with PD were examined using EMA, matched with seven normal controls. The tongue tip and tongue back movements were examined during the production of an alveolar sentence Tess told Dan to stay fit and a velar sentence Karl got a croaking frog, respectively. The subclinical lingual kinematic deficits documented in the non-dysarthric speakers with PD included significantly prolonged duration of lingual movement, significant slower rate of sentence production and reduced speed measures (i.e., maximum velocity, maximum acceleration/deceleration) of lingual movement. However, no significant differences in the distance/range of lingual movement were reported. In Chapter 3, the lingual kinematics during alveolar and velar sentence production in a group of eight mild dysarthric speakers with PD were examined, and matched with eight normal controls. During alveolar consonant production, the dysarthric speakers with PD had similar range but prolonged duration of lingual movement; during velar consonant production, the dysarthric speakers with PD had increased range but similar duration of lingual movement. The dysarthric speakers with PD also had increased speed measures of lingual movement primarily in the release phase of consonant production. Having examined the lingual kinematics in dysarthric speakers with PD (DPD) and non-dysarthric speakers with PD (NDPD) separately, a between groups comparison was essential to determine the factors that may contribute to dysarthria in PD. Hence, Chapter 4 compared lingual kinematics in the DPD group, the NDPD group and a group of 11 normal controls during alveolar and velar sentence production. Results showed that both the DPD and NDPD groups had deviant articulatory movement during consonant production that resulted in longer duration of consonant production. When compared to the NDPD group, the DPD group primarily had increased range of lingual movement together with increased speed measures of lingual movement that resulted in comparable duration of lingual movement. The lingual kinematics in a subgroup of five DPD and five NDPD were further explored in Chapter 5 by examining the tongue tip and tongue back movements during rapid /ta/ and /ka/ syllable repetition. The results showed that although the DPD, the NDPD and the normal control groups had comparable rapid syllable repetition rates, significant between groups differences were documented for most of the kinematic parameters. Chapter 6 sought to examine, in detail, the tongue tip kinematics of two dysarthric participants with PD during habitual and loud alveolar sentence production as well as rapid /ta/ syllable repetition. Results showed that the two participants with PD exhibited lingual kinematic deficits in all three speaking conditions with marked individual differences. Positive effects of increased loudness on lingual kinematics were also documented. Overall, the findings of the present thesis are contrary to proposed theories that suggest that the clinical features of hypokinetic dysarthria in PD, including articulatory imprecision, is the outcome of reduced range of articulatory movement. The prolonged duration of lingual movement may plausibly be due to the increased range of lingual movement rather than slowness of lingual movement. Further, increased loudness may contribute to increased tongue function in individuals with PD. The noticeable individual variability documented has important clinical implications. This thesis provides the largest kinematic study of lingual function in individuals with PD using EMA to date. It is anticipated that this research will provide a baseline for further longitudinal study of articulatory function in individuals with PD. 2012-05-06T00:00:00Z Min Wong http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:213103 2010-08-25T00:00:00Z Sharpe, Margaret. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:155219 2008-09-24T00:00:00Z Mrs Tayyiba AlMarri http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:106591 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Depaz, Iris Mayandi http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:206476 The potential benefits that automation could bring to a wide variety of real-world tasks are numerous and well recognised. There has been significant research undertaken into automation in general, but for real-time automation of complex systems (involving complex geometries and dynamics) the problem is far from a solved one. One of the key tasks in a surface mining operation is that of using shovels or excavators to load material onto haul trucks for transportation. Since it is such a crucial task to a number of production cycles, it is a clear area where the productivity and safety benefits of automation could have a large impact. A number of projects are being undertaken concurrently to move towards first partial, and then full, automation of this mining subsystem. This thesis focusses on the collision avoidance problem, specifically on forming a collision hull that distinguishes between intersecting and non-intersecting configurations of two objects. Techniques from computer graphics are leveraged to develop a data structure that stores and organises relevant information about real-world systems for motion-planning tasks, ensuring that the necessary data is available and in a form suited to the task at hand. The Minkowski Sum operation, which can be used fairly directly to form the collision hull of two convex objects under translation, is extended to develop an operation to form the exact collision hull of two arbitrary objects to determine the applicability of such a scheme to complex systems in real-time. A level of detail solution is then proposed, where the Minkowski Hull of bounding hierarchies allows unnecessary parts of the hull to be calculated only in a coarse manner, thus offsetting a lot of the computational cost for any given test. This approach is investigated for both translational motion and joint-space motion. Collision detection is not collision avoidance, and so the algorithms developed in the thesis are tested in a number of applications, to demonstrate their suitability to the collision avoidance task. The applications (discrete collision prediction, visibility graph path planning, and the formulation of a Model Predictive Controller) are restricted versions of the true problems with some simplifying assumptions, but they show the algorithms to be capable both in their execution speed and the information that they provide. 2010-06-28T00:00:00Z Zane Smith http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:253401 2011-09-27T00:00:00Z Williams, Paul Douglas http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:105684 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Paul William Davis http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:106254 2007-08-24T18:06:41Z Yu, Kyong-Ae. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:106593 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Putra, I Nyoman Darma. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:283595 2012-10-18T00:00:00Z Kovtun, Oleksiy http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:293533 2013-03-12T20:45:17Z Humbert, I. L. H. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:183811 Charlotte Brontë’s problematising of first-person narrative foregrounds the fluidity of the concept of identity and insists on its constructed nature. Brontë uses specific narrative techniques in The Professor, Jane Eyre and Villette to achieve this foregrounding, which leads to a complex and sophisticated exploration of the individual’s relationship to society, and how this influences the way individuals construct their identity. Each of these novels presents a different example of such self-construction through the characterisation of the first person narrator. Brontë’s questioning of the stability of the self encourages readers to be aware of such constructs. In my first chapter, I look closely at how narrative authority is parcelled out in Brontë’s nineteenth-century society, and what influence the conferring or withholding of such authority has on the construction of a narrative self. The next three chapters are devoted to discussion of specific examples of narrative self-construction in Brontë’s first-person novels, how her protagonists deal with narrative authority, and the difficulties inherent in speaking or writing with such authority for nineteenth-century women in particular. Individuals construct a sense of their self through telling stories. Brontë’s fiction asks the question, if “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life” is this tantamount to denying women the right to an arena for the construction of a self at all? What role do readers play in the construction of a narrative self for a writer? In the concluding chapter my aim is to open out my analysis of Brontë’s fiction by examining the idea of narrative as a place more generally for imaginative self-construction. I structure the chapter around J. Hillis Miller’s argument in On Literature that the role of reading and writing in this regard has irrevocably changed in the twenty-first century due to the influence and popularity of the on-line world. 2009-09-09T00:00:00Z Mari Webb http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:105788 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Lappan, R. D. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:105711 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Worthington, John. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:293359 2013-03-11T10:15:30Z Abdurrahman, Muktasam http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:231345 This thesis investigates the role of selected Australian Labor Party (ALP) premiers from 1915 to 2007. The ALP began as what Duverger terms a ‘mass party’, and as such, developed internal structures designed to subordinate the parliamentary wing to the extra-parliamentary wing. However, the substantial social change of the last half century, (particularly the decline of many ‘blue collar’ industries and the emergence of television), has led many political scientists, most notably, Kirchheimer, Panebianco and Katz and Mair, to hypothesise that in order to ensure their continued existence, mass parties have evolved into new types of party organisations. A cornerstone of these new models of political organisation is the increasing autonomy of the parliamentary wing, in particular the leadership. Scholars within Australia, including Jaensch, Ward and Marsh, have applied these models in order to understand changes within Australian political parties. Most of this scholarship has focused on the federal wing of the party. This thesis, however, focuses on the state level because this is where unions affiliate to the party and where ties between the parliamentary party and the party organisation are comparatively easier to examine. In this thesis I explore the careers of four ALP premiers from the Queensland branch of the party. Queensland, with its long history of Labor governments, provides an ideal context to locate my research and the four case studies have been strategically selected from different points in the branch’s history in order to trace the degree to which the role of parliamentary leader of the ALP has evolved. I have chosen two premiers from the mass party era and two from the electoralist party era. I utilise archival and interview material to examine the careers of T.J. Ryan (1915-1919) who led the first majority Labor government in Queensland, Vincent Clair Gair (1952-1957) who was the final Labor premier of the mass party era, Wayne Goss (1989-1996) who returned Labor to power after thirty-two years on the opposition benches, and finally Peter Beattie (1998-2007) who replaced Goss as Labor leader and went on to dominate Queensland politics for much of the next decade. These four case studies lead to three central conclusions. First, that Labor premiers in the modern era enjoy greater freedom than their predecessors. Secondly, even though the prominence and power of the party organisation and affiliated unions has declined, Labor leaders continue to face political consequences for neglecting or displeasing the wider party. Finally, my thesis finds, that as would be expected in a literature that seeks to map general trends, the evolution of labour parties, as a specific party type, has not been adequately addressed. My thesis concludes that while labour parties have been forced to adapt in similar fashion to other types of political parties, they also appear to possess structures and historical links that generate resistance to evolutionary pressures. 2011-03-07T00:00:00Z Danielle Miller http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:106364 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Serewko-Auret, Magdalena M. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:276926 2012-07-04T00:00:00Z Walsh, Michael http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:288150 2013-01-04T14:47:52Z van Eps, Carolyn Louise http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:155665 2008-10-09T00:00:00Z Christine Zupanc http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:297127 2013-04-12T12:27:42Z Sheehan, Mary C. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:107066 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Iyer, Radha. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:107046 2007-08-24T18:36:09Z Moore, Evan Guy http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:223180 2010-12-02T00:00:00Z Valadkhani, Abbas. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158022 The macroscopic chemistry method for modelling non-equilibrium reacting gas flows with the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is developed and tested. In the macroscopic method, the calculation of chemical reactions is decoupled from the DSMC collision routine. The number of reaction events that must be performed in a cell is calculated with macroscopic rate expressions. These expressions use local macroscopic information such as kinetic temperatures and density. The macroscopic method is applied to a symmetrical diatomic gas. For each dissociation event, a single diatom is selected with a probability based on internal energy and is dissociated into two atoms. For each recombination event, two atoms are selected at random and replaced by a single diatom. To account for the dissociation energy, the thermal energies of all particles in the cell are adjusted. The macroscopic method differs from conventional collision-based DSMC chemistry procedures, where reactions are performed as an integral part of the collision routine. The most important advantage offered by the macroscopic method is that it can utilise reaction rates that are any function of the macroscopic flow conditions. It therefore allows DSMC chemistry calculations to be performed using rate expressions for which no conventional chemistry model may exist. Given the accuracy and flexibility of the macroscopic method, it has significant potential for modelling reacting non-equilibrium gas flows. The macroscopic method is tested by performing DSMC calculations and comparing the results to those obtained using conventional DSMC chemistry models and experimental data. The macroscopic method gives density profiles in good agreement with experimental data in the chemical relaxation region downstream of a strong shock. Within the shock where strongly non-equilibrium conditions prevail, the macroscopic method provides good agreement with a conventional chemistry model. For the flow over a blunt axisymmetric cylinder, which also exhibits strongly non-equilibrium conditions, the macroscopic method also gives reasonable agreement with conventional chemistry models. The ability of the macroscopic method to utilise any rate expression is demonstrated by using a two-temperature rate model that accounts for dissociation-vibration coupling effects that are important in non-equilibrium reacting flows. Relative to the case without dissociation-vibration coupling, the macroscopic method with the two-temperature model gives reduced dissociation rates in vibrationally cold flows, as expected. Also, for the blunt cylinder flow, the two-temperature model gives reduced surface heat fluxes, as expected. The macroscopic method is also tested with a number density dependent form of the equilibrium constant. For zero-dimensional chemical relaxation, the resulting relaxation histories are in good agreement with those provided by an exact Runge-Kutta solution of the relaxation behaviour. Reviews of basic DSMC procedures and conventional DSMC chemistry models are also given. A method for obtaining the variable hard sphere parameters for collisions between particles of different species is given. Borgnakke-Larsen schemes for modelling internal energy exchange are examined in detail. Both continuous rotational and quantised vibrational energy modes are considered. Detailed derivations of viscosity and collision rate expressions for the generalised hard sphere model of Hassan and Hash [Phys. Fluids 5, 738 (1993)] and the modified version of Macrossan and Lilley [J. Thermophys. Heat Transfer 17, 289 (2003)] are also given. 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Lilley, Charles Ranald http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:261537 Fairy floss is pure sugar: watching someone conjure bolls of pink gossamer from a fairy floss machine is pure magic. If the production of confectionery is like alchemy, confectionery counters have the power to cast a spell upon young consumers and, furthermore, children’s consumption offers escape from the ordinary into the realm of the fabulous and enchanting. Because of this extraordinary appeal, confectionery is still synonymous with childhood, despite David Gillespie’s recent claim that sugar is Sweet Poison (2008), and it performs an ever-increasing number of roles in a multitude of spaces across the physical and cultural landscape of Australia. One might assume that the appeal of confectionery is simply gustatory, but confectionery has more in common with fairytales than food. This is a thesis about lollies, an Australian term for the cheap sugar confectionery bought mostly by children. In particular, it examines the role lollies played in Australian childhood throughout the twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries. By repositioning sugar confectionery as magic, it challenges dominant narratives of devaluation and demonisation that reduce the complexity of lollies and their cultural significance. I propose that the social world is made up of two separate and hierarchical domains—the ordinary world and the magical world—and that lollies belong to the latter, a proposition based on Emile Durkheim’s two-world model. Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnivalesque “second world” (6) corresponds with children’s experience of lollies as magic and reveals the subversive potential of confectionery because it inverts hierarchical norms, thereby elevating coarse laughter, food throwing, and the grotesque body. After first developing the idea of a magical world, this thesis employs five magic tropes from popular literary story lands to explore five aspects of the power that lollies exert over, and bestow upon, children. Using Wonderland as a food model for the early decades of the twentieth century, Chapters Two and Three link the power of lollies to deprivation and to the jewel-like spectacle of the lolly counter. Chapter Four explores the use of lollies as toys, especially in the postwar period, when the expanding world of children’s entertainment paralleled the lands above Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree. The child as consumer is then examined: since lollies are cheap, they give children their first taste of consumer power and demonstrate children’s sophistication and influence in the marketplace. Finally, I explore the subversive nature of lollies and the disgust produced by the violation of food norms, both increasingly evident toward the end of the century. Lollies are simultaneously enchanting and empowering. As magical objects in an ordinary world, they represent luxury, beauty, fun, consumer power, and subversive pleasure as well as gustatory adventure. 2011-11-16T00:00:00Z Toni Risson http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:215491 2010-09-02T00:00:00Z Moore, David E. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:213111 2010-08-25T00:00:00Z Swindells, R. J. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158351 Ambient Information Displays provide alternate means of displaying information that does not require the direct attention of the user. As the amount of information that people need to process each day grows, alternative methods of information consumption need to be explored. Ambient Displays provide a way of doing this by exploiting people’s peripheral processing capabilities. Significant previous research has investigated the development of different types of displays and analysed the ways that users interact with these displays. Commercial Ambient Information services in the form of wireless devices driven from central servers are available overseas. Little research however has been performed in the field of reusable frameworks for the display of Ambient Information. This work explores two assertions: Many apparently different Ambient Displays can be characterised in terms of a number of common functional modules. The common modules can be developed and reused to greatly simplify the implementation of later Ambient Displays, without each type of display needing to have the same inputs, outputs, or management methodologies. After a background exploration into devices, software structures and the current stateof- the-art in ambient technologies, an iterative development process is utilised to characterise in detail the components required. These components are to be reusable across multiple displays, so that subsequent implementations can be built more quickly and economically. The completion of the iterative process results in a number of developed components that were reused through each of these example displays. To validate the choice of components, a number of thought-experiment style implementations are conducted, where each potential application is analysed and an implementation utilising the developed components is proposed. The fundamental aspect of the proposed set of components is “Scenario Based Information Transformation”. The assertion is that displays consist of transformations of data from one form to another; the underlying work performed by any given application can be modelled in terms of a transformation scenario. To support applications based on top of scenarios, the following components are required: - Underlying web framework – providing the basic environment in which to develop applications. - Executors – application installed on local user’s machines, performing the actual transformation work in taking data from sources and transforming it for the outputs. - Authentication/Identity Management – web application supporting the OpenID protocol, and managing identity information for each user. - Configuration Storage – allowing for the separated/private storage of user information. - Scenario Dispatch – providing the bridge between web applications and the underlying communication method for executors. Analysis of a range of typical applications shows that using these components, applications that monitor different physical or electronic data sources and produce outputs in many varied forms using a variety of communications technologies can be easily developed. In parallel to the software development, hardware output devices are explored. SunSPOT wireless sensor devices and lost-cost USB connected devices are both investigated, each providing quite different experiences and usage possibilities, and allowing several demonstration applications to be fully implemented and tested. The results of this work confirm that it is possible to share components between ambient displays, and to characterise many different displays in terms of a set of common functional components. Display authors need not build the entire infrastructure for new displays, lowering the cost barrier for the design of new displays, and the introduction of new data sources into an ambient information environment. 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Jones, Paul Robert http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189734 Smart film, a term coined by Jeffrey Sconce in his 2002 Screen article, “Irony, Nihilism and the New American ‘Smart’ Film”, refers to a wave of controversial, contemporary American films characterised by irony, quirky black humour, deadpan performance and an observational, blank style. Apart from Sconce, there has been little theorisation on smart cinema within the field of American screen studies. This thesis redresses this gap by providing the first extended study on smart film. It draws on, and adds to, the framework provided by Sconce, via the examination of a particular ‘subset’ of smart films concerned with the representation of youth and adolescence. These specifically target a more adult, ‘smart’ niche audience, who derive pleasure from their ironic ‘cleverness’, and ‘arty’ sensibility. In particular, this project focuses on the way these films are differentiated from more mainstream narrative cinema by their generic, affective and ethical structures. Following Sconce, this thesis analyses the constituents of the ‘art of the smart’—of the aesthetic strategies that differentiate the smart youth film, and the modes of address that may encourage, or discourage, particular experiences of affectivity and ethical engagement in the films’ portrayals of their youthful, anti-heroic protagonists. This includes a discussion of their cinematic origins, their production contexts with specific reference to institutional shifts in American independent cinema, and the way their reception is particularly aligned to the cultural tastes and consumption patterns of ‘Generation X.’ This thesis argues that smart film necessitates the development of more far-reaching ways of theorising the intersection between cinema, genre and youth. It extends the current theorisation on melodrama and the teenpic by arguing that smart film incorporates stylistic and thematic features, which both intersect with these established generic modes for representing youth and the family, and, at the same time, reflect a paradigm shift away from them as a result of their emphasis on irony and black comedy. It explores the cultural significance of their representations of youth, and their familial relationships, and the way this relates to social and cinematic constructions of youth and the family over time. This draws particular attention to their engagement with more serious, socially relevant, and taboo acts of sexual transgression, and how this is problematically mediated by what may appear as an ‘inappropriate’ aesthetic of black comedy. Much of the distinction of smart youth films lies in the way they challenge normative modes of cinematic representation via their portrayals of youth, which combine psychological realism with blank, ironic affect. This has specific implications in terms of their spectatorship and reception, and leads to a central concern in this thesis to determine the ways in which irony and distanciation create ambivalent modes of engagement in these films. This is specifically examined in relation to character, drawing on the cognitive framework provided by Murray Smith’s “structure of sympathy”, and the analysis of their ironic, anti-naturalistic strategies of performance, which complicate a realist construction of character subjectivity, authenticity, and allegiance. However, this thesis also argues that an astute examination of smart film’s formal content and narrative construction often reveals key moments of sincerity, character authenticity, and avenues of empathy that may allow for a momentary emotional connection with character and the filmic world. The final chapter focuses on the ethical dimension of these films, their relationship with nihilism, and the question of whether youth films have a responsibility to offer positive role models and ethical guidance. It discusses the way that irony functions as a strategic gesture, which can offer incisive moral and social criticisms, but is complicated by the lack of cues for how to morally judge, or emotionally relate to, characters and their actions. Overall, smart films’ ambivalence suggests that the spectator may be required to extend their paradigms of response, particularly in the way these films articulate their ‘taboo’ content. This necessitates an examination of the dialogic, intersubjective process of the way the materiality of the film intersects with the socialised, contextual body of the spectator to embrace the possibility of a more active, intellectual spectatorship. Specifically, this incorporates an evaluation of the social cognitions, epistemology, and pleasures derived from the contemporary circulation and comprehension of irony, and how this can generate an understanding of smart film in relation to their affective and ethical regimes. Finally, this thesis concludes with an examination of the influence of smart film on television and current post-ironic trends in American cinema. 2009-12-10T00:00:00Z Deborah Thomas http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:178925 This research proposes that a construct called Sponsorship Linked Advertising (SLA) is valuable in understanding how brand and corporate advertising link to sponsorship and event marketing. SLA includes both ads that communicate a link to a sponsored event (tiedness) and those that demonstrate, through their overall design, an event’s motif or theme (themedness). In its themed form, SLA differs from creative advertising by virtue of the fact that creative advertising can exist independent of any sponsorship link, whereas sponsorship linked advertisements intentionally unite a sponsorship and an event either implicitly and/or explicitly. With sponsorship investment estimated to be $45.2 billion worldwide (International Events Group 2009) and leverage advertising (i.e., advertising that is employed to heighten awareness of sponsorships or better articulate sponsor-event links) reflecting a similar amount, empirical examination, validation and implementation guidance of SLA as a leveraging strategy is critical. The unique marketing opportunities associated with popular sporting, charitable and arts events also attract non-sponsoring companies which also seek to affiliate with the event, an activity known as ambushing (McKelvey and Grady 2008). Examination of SLA is therefore important in an increasingly competitive and cluttered global sponsorship arena, in which ambushing is becoming a pervasive practice, attracting considerable attention from event organisers, sponsors and policy makers alike, while also detracting from or diluting intended sponsorship communications. Despite widespread use of SLA, no empirical validation of this strategy has been undertaken to date. The present research addresses this gap. Initially, the SLA construct is defined, categorised, and measured through content analysis, then a series of experimental studies are used to achieve empirical validation of the SLA construct. Streams of sponsorship and advertising effectiveness research, along with theories of associative learning, attribution and persuasion, are used to guide examination of SLA effectiveness in new empirical work. Specifically, a series of experiments are used to examine consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to SLA. The first experimental study tests a main effect of ad type as well as interactive effects of tiedness and themedness with sponsorship availability (i.e., knowledge of true sponsor) on outcomes including nature and type of thoughts elicited, ad scepticism and sponsor motive attributions. Findings from this study suggest that SLA exposure induces more positive thoughts, less ad scepticism and more favourable attributions than exposure to Non SLA. These results provide initial evidence that consumers process SLA differently to other ad types and interestingly, may derive enjoyment from, or at least exhibit less ad scepticism towards viewing SLA. Finally, the influence of competitive context on sponsor recall is tested by simulating exposure to ambush and/or SLA ad types following a sponsorship announcement. Findings provide evidence to support a memory interference hypothesis and imply that accuracy of sponsor recall is diminished by presence of an ambush ad, but that this effect is moderated by presence of SLA leveraging a previously announced sponsorship. Taken together, the results of this series of studies provide an empirical measurement of SLA strategy and demonstrate construct validity. Further, interpretation of the results gives rise to specific creative strategies for practical implementation. Ecological validity is built into the design by using real events within ad stimuli and investigating SLA in the competitive context in which it occurs. Hence, the results are said to be generalisable to real-world situations, and the resultant creative strategies are arguably contextually valid. This research contributes to existing marketing and sponsorship literature by proposing and empirically validating a new construct. Theoretically, it examines consumer response to SLA by combining information processing and resistance based perspectives. It extends traditional views of ambushing by offering empirical evidence of the practice being widespread and extending to low level sponsors and event “free riders”. Practical implications of this research extend to advertisers and sponsors faced with the challenge of effectively leveraging huge sponsorship investments and assessing return on such investment. Empirical testing of ambushing effects has important implications for the debate on increased regulatory intervention of such practices, a debate centred upon tension between balancing fair marketing practice with the rights of sponsors and event organisers. 2009-07-02T00:00:00Z Sarah Kelly http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:261906 Abstract The Ferrosols of the South Burnett region were considered to be good soils in the early days of agriculture. Continuous cropping of these soils has resulted in a reduction in their chemical and physical fertility. One aspect of this reduction has been the decline in K status, especially in the subsoil. The change to conservation tillage has accentuated nutrient stratification giving high nutrient concentrations in soil surface layers (0-10cm) and lower concentrations in the subsoil (20-40cm). The stratification could be attributed to the lack of mixing of surface applied fertilisers, the annual return of crop residue to the soil surface, and the cycling of nutrients from deep soil layers to shallow layers through nutrient uptake by plant roots. Dry periods during the summer cropping season are common due to the highly variable, summer-dominant rainfall pattern of the South Burnett. As the topsoil dries out, crops will forage for moisture and nutrients from lower in the soil profile where K reserves are smaller. The combination of dry periods and stratified K reserves has resulted in an increasing incidence of K deficiency symptoms in summer crops. The objective of this research was to investigate K application strategies for conservation tillage farming to improve profile K distribution in the South Burnett region in order to overcome the negative K balance and the crop K deficiencies associated with the stratified profile and dry weather. To meet these objectives requires the application of K in bands. Published studies have shown that for soils that have stratified nutrients, if the soil K is low, especially in the subsoil, and dry conditions have existed over the growth period, then there is a significant increase in crop yield with subsoil banding of fertiliser over broadcast fertiliser placement. There are a number of issues that needed to be investigated to determine the optimum method for applying fertiliser K in a band. When banding immobile nutrients such as K there is the potential for there being insufficient root volume in contact with the fertiliser for optimum plant uptake. There are a number of options available to overcome this potential problem. The first would be to take advantage of root proliferation, a plant’s natural response to a heterogeneous supply of nutrients. A significant increase in root length density is promoted by concentrated zones of K in this soil when the ratio of the K concentrations in the fertilised zone to the K concentration in the unfertilised zone is greater than 9 (Chapter 6 and Chapter 7). However, this root proliferation is not to the extent that would be expected with N and P, and it can not be stated with certainty that it is K promoting root proliferation, and that this is not a form of secondary promotion such as where the concentrated K is resulting in a concentrated zone of N in the form of NH4+. The results also show that root proliferation does not appear to be promoted when the ratio is equal to or less than 4.5 (Chapter 3). Another option is to add N and/or P in a fertiliser band with K to promote root proliferation. Combinations of these nutrients applied together in a band in the Ferrosol soil of the South Burnett will remain in the position of application (Chapter 5), ensuring the maximum potential from root proliferation could be achieved. There were concerns regarding the toxic effects that can occur when blending high concentrations of different nutrients together. However, there were no adverse effects on root access and root absorption from concentrated fertiliser blends containing K, N and P (Chapter 4). The addition of N and/or P in a fertiliser band will promote root proliferation over having K only in the fertiliser band (Chapter 6). However, this increased root volume in contact with the K fertiliser did not result in an increased absorption of K from the fertiliser band by the plants. Although plant tissue K was below adequate concentrations, mass balance calculations of K showed that there was sufficient applied fertiliser K for adequate plant tissue K concentrations to be reached. Modelling indicated that under the initial conditions and the conditions prevalent at 45 DAS, the plants would have been able to absorb sufficient K for plant tissue K concentrations to be above adequate levels. The most likely reasoning for the insufficient plant uptake of K was soil K was rendered unavailable to the plant. What happened to the original K which was initially plant available can not be confirmed conclusively. It was hypothesised that over the growth period there was fixation of K by the soil, due to the high concentration of K in the fertiliser band (movement of K into ‘fixed’ pools in the soil), resulting in reduced levels of plant available K. Root volume in contact with fertiliser can be increased by increasing the soil volume fertilised, although this would reduce the concentration of the nutrient and reduce the potential for root proliferation. This concept was explored with a pot trial that exposed plants to different volumes of soil fertilised with the same quantity of K fertiliser (Chapter 7). The volume of soil fertilised has no effect on the cumulative plant uptake of K up to 70 days after sowing. It was concluded that this occurred as a result of the increased root length density in concentrated K zones (root proliferation, although not to the extent that would be expected with N and P), and physiological plasticity (increased plant uptake rate). When 25% or more of the soil volume contains the fertiliser K there was sufficient root volume in contact with the fertiliser to permit uptake and therefore no need for root proliferation. Where smaller soil volumes were fertilised; root length density increased in the vicinity of the fertiliser to the point where sufficient root volume was in contact with the fertiliser. When small soil volumes are fertilised with K, such as in a band, there is also an increase in root length density in the vicinity of the fertiliser, but not to the extent required for adequate plant uptake of K. In this situation it appears that there is physiological plasticity (increased plant uptake rate of K) to make up the shortfall. When only a small proportion of the soil is fertilised, such as in a band, the volume of soil in contact with the K fertiliser is minimised and, consequently the quantity of K that can be fixed by the soil is reduced. This results in a higher concentration of plant available soil K, in the soil solution and as exchangeable K. This greater plant available K is able to buffer increased uptake rates that occur to compensate for the small volumes of soil containingK fertiliser, and the resultant lack of root volume in contact with the K fertiliser. However, this increased uptake rate on its own is insufficient for adequate K uptake, requiring root proliferation to increase the root volume in contact with the K fertiliser to a point where the combined plasticity is sufficient to ensure adequate plant uptake of K. 2011-11-21T00:00:00Z Jason Perna http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:273350 I begin by evaluating four theories: mereological essentialism, the occasional identity thesis, four-dimensionalism and the constitution view. I compare the solutions these theories offer to puzzles of material constitution with particular attention being paid to their treatment of Leibniz’s Law, the ontological status of objects and the distinction between objects and their matter. If a lump of clay constitutes a statue, the lump of clay and the statue are metaphysically distinct such that they are distinct kinds, but numerically one thing—the statue as constituted by the lump of clay. I defend this view against criticism that it collapses into identity or substance dualism, exploding reality with unnecessary objects. I amend constitution to better account for cases of composite objects and to better solve puzzle cases involving change in parts over time. Finally, I go on to apply constitution to an unorthodox puzzle for theories of objects—the problem of the individuation of events. Events are things that happen. If we grant that events are in the same or similar ontological category to objects, there is a strong analogy between the problem of material constitution and the problem of events. In signing the US Constitution you may also do your bit to ratify it. However, the signing and the ratifying have different properties. I suggest that the signing and the ratifying are distinct in kind, but are not two separate events. I develop a constitution relation—a contingent, irreflexive, asymmetric and transitive relation—for events. This relation has the potential to be applied to the mind-body problem. 2012-04-30T00:00:00Z Tessa Jones http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:244426 This dissertation examines four important early works by Herman Melville with the aim of discovering, in part, the substance and meaning of the author‘s engagement with the symbols and philosophies of Freemasonry. The goals and beliefs of the Fraternity — liberty, tolerance, equality and universal brotherhood — were also distinguishing features of both Enlightenment thought and the virtues that drove the American Revolution. In consequence Freemasonry became a major cultural force in America from the early years of the Republic to the late nineteenth century; its ideological ties to the nation were celebrated publicly, and often. With this in mind, I have examined how Melville‘s fictional treatment of nineteenth-century political and cultural ideologies was informed by a number of factors: the relationships between Melville, his family and their position in American history; and his deployment of Masonic iconography in a literary exploration of the antebellum period. My analysis of Typee, Mardi, White-Jacket, and Moby-Dick, is also concerned with the value of his fiction as a dialogue between the author and the culture from which it arose. Like most literary works of the period, Melville‘s novels mediate between the author‘s own personality and public sociality. In the context of this mediation and what I argue is the advocatory nature of his texts, I suggest that — more than any of the nation‘s literary figures since James Fenimore Cooper — Herman Melville not only wrote about America, but to America. Melville‘s literary pursuit of the democratic ideal, and his complementary articulation of the notion of brotherhood, may be read as effectively scrutinizing the many polarities in nineteenth-century American society: matter and spirit, private and public, secrecy and revelation, individual and nation. I argue that by privileging the simple republican paradigm over the complex realities of his own time, Melville may be seen as an impractical idealist — an "idealogue" — whose work encourages a re-thinking of antebellum society‘s basic political and social tenets. Indeed, I suggest that his dream of national regeneration — essentially a call for the restoration of Jeffersonian political values — was a richly conceived but necessarily ― "imaginary" democracy. 2011-07-21T00:00:00Z Michael Brunckhorst http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:105866 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Kim, Soon-Kyeong http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:107179 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Joyce, Karen E http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:229388 2011-02-17T00:00:00Z Xu, Hua http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:107081 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Siegrist, Paul M. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:106470 2007-08-24T00:00:00Z Scarth, Peter http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:211463 Comminution, or particle size reduction, involving crushing and grinding, is a highly energy intensive process. This is largely due to the prevailing use of tumbling mills for grinding, where the nature of the particle breakage process is unconstrained and random. This indiscriminate nature of breakage contributes to the inefficient use of energy and may not promote liberation of valuable minerals in the ore. It results in high energy consumption and the generation of critical size material and ultra fines, both of which are difficult to process. The total demand for minerals is increasing to meet the requirements of the developing world and beyond. As a result, large reserves of high grade ore deposits have already been depleted. This has seen the need to mine and process ever lower grade, more competent and finely disseminated ores at much higher throughputs and finer product sizes. The inefficient nature of the comminution process coupled with ore reserves of declining head grade and the imminent introduction of a carbon trading scheme, suggests that the long term viability of the mineral processing industry depends on developing new methods and strategies to improve the efficiency of all processes. This will facilitate higher throughput rates at lower energy consumption. This is particularly important for the comminution process, as it is the most energy intensive part of a mineral processing circuit. A review of the current comminution circuit design practices reveals a general view that the comminution circuit design process is complicated and inexact involving the consideration of many interacting factors. A trend has been the repeated design and installation of large, low capital cost and uncomplicated crushing and grinding circuits. These normally feature one or two stages of crushing, followed by one or two large tumbling mills and a single classification stage. For most new comminution circuits, the general configuration and layout are more similar than different, where the size of the tumbling mills are dictated by the target product size and the throughput rate. The methodology for energy efficient comminution circuit design presented in this thesis challenges the popular trend of large and generic comminution circuits. The methodology promotes a better understanding and use of the ore properties and options to reduce energy consumption, including: • The inclusion of pre-concentration techniques at the head of a comminution circuit. The purpose of pre-concentration is to remove coarse size liberated gangue from later stages of processing and energy intensive particle size reduction. The selection of pre-concentration techniques is based on inherent ore textures and ore properties at a large scale. • The use of more efficient comminution equipment and autogenous grinding techniques. Through the re-distribution of comminution energy in a comminution circuit, the generation of problematic size fractions such as critical size material and ultra fines can be minimised or even eliminated. This aids the overall efficiency of the comminution process and minimises power usage for the same throughput and product size. It also limits the consumption of grinding media and the associated embedded energy resulting from grinding media manufacture. • The selection of the coarsest possible target product size(s) for a comminution circuit. This is achieved by thorough analysis and understanding of mineral liberation data of a coarse stream in a comminution circuit and the options and methods available to separate composite valuable mineral bearing particles from mainly liberated gangue in the stream. When these energy efficient strategies are combined in the design and configuration of a comminution circuit, energy savings are likely to be significant. However, it is difficult to accurately quantify the impact on energy savings and circuit operation when all three energy efficient strategies feature in the design of a comminution circuit. Instead, studies in this thesis have shown that the use of just one these strategies in the design of a comminution circuit can: • Reduce the total energy consumption by up to 42% (when compared to a conventional crushing and grinding circuit) through the use of more efficient comminution equipment and autogenous grinding techniques. This equates to grinding energy and grinding consumables savings in excess of $11M per annum for a typical 5Mtpa concentrator. It also can reduce the operating costs by up to a half. • Reduce the energy required for size reduction by 46% when liberated non-sulphide gangue is removed from a coarse stream in the comminution circuit and from further size reduction. This opportunity is identified by the thorough examination of mineral liberation data of this stream. The rejection of gangue at this point in the comminution circuit can provide a saving of approximately $3.5m per year in total grinding costs. It is noted that these energy savings can be at the cost of greater capital cost investment and, some may say, increased operating complexity. Incorporating the energy efficient strategies in a design methodology for comminution circuits can have a few significant implications: • It can increase size and value of the resource being treated as the rejection of liberated gangue by pre-concentration can decrease the mine cut-off grade. • It can improve performance of downstream separation processes as less gangue is present in the feed and the feed size distribution is narrower, allowing for better separation efficiency. • It can reduce the consumption of grinding consumables and minimise the associated energy used it their manufacture. • It may require higher capital cost investment but this is likely to be off set by the reduced energy and grinding media consumption as well as increasing energy costs and the introduction of a carbon trading scheme. This thesis develops and demonstrates a methodology, or a conceptual framework, for comminution circuit design which links together energy efficient design strategies which can reduce all forms of energy consumption and their cost. 2010-08-09T00:00:00Z Zeljka Pokrajcic http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:264429 Path planning for multiple agents is a challenging problem for navigation in dynamic environments, especially for real-world applications such as air transportation. This thesis explores the use of Genetic-Based Machine Learning (GBML) techniques – and the eXtended Classifier System (XCS) approach in particular – for designing general optimal or near-optimal solutions to path planning problems for Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) environments. The approach is developed and evaluated on a simplified 3D multi-agent path planning problem from Air Traffic Management (ATM). A decoupled heuristic approach is used, in which XCS agents are first trained to find path planning solutions which are optimal or near optimal for their particular performance objectives. Then a separate supervisor agent, analogous to an air traffic controller, is used to assign priority dynamically among aircraft agents in order to resolve conflicts. Although the case study is a path planning problem in simplified ATM environments, many challenges still needed to be overcome in order to make this approach systematic. First, the long action chain problem was encountered. As indicated in literature, the traditional approach to using XCS on multi-step problems has difficulty in exploring all states in an environment with more than 10 steps, because solutions are biased to be accurate for those states explored more often, but inaccurate for those unexplored or less-explored states. To overcome this problem, we show that by designing an appropriate local reward function, instead of using the traditional delayed-reward feedback mechanism, XCS can be used to generate optimal or near-optimal heuristic solutions to the ATM path planning problem. Secondly, safety is an important issue in air transportation. The challenge was how to ensure that safety constraints are taken into account as far as possible during learning. A general solution for biasing XCS to avoid undesired actions is developed and shown to significantly improve safety on the 3D path planning problem. The third main challenge was how to generalise from the hand-crafted local reward function solution to a more generalisable approach based simply on path fitness. The traditional approach to multi-step problems in XCS is to use delayed rewards with discounting. But this approach either fails to work or works poorly for many path planning problems. This is known as the aliasing state problem in path planning. To overcome this problem in our ATM environment, we developed a new means for feeding delayed rewards into XCS. In this approach the user simply needs to provide the global reward function and XCS learns a suitable local reward function. We show that the approach achieves results which are almost as good as the hand-crafted solution. Another practical challenge was to reduce the size of the rule set used by XCS. The size of the rule set used in Learning Classifier Systems has a large effect on the computation time and resources used during training and evaluation. Some new genetic algorithm operators are developed and shown to reduce the rule set size by 20-40%. Finally, a Q-learning system was developed for solving the agent prioritisation problem. The controller agent uses Q-learning to assess how much flexibility agents have in their path planning solutions and to give priority to agents with less flexibility. We show that this leads to significantly improved team performance over fixed priority schemes, without unduly affecting individual agent’s performance. In summary, the main contributions of this thesis are: (1) developing a novel mechanism to feedback a global reward from the last step to previous steps in XCS to derive a suitable local reward function; (2) developing a way of incorporating domain knowledge to prevent undesired actions to XCS; (3) providing new parent selection and genetic algorithm operators in XCS to reducing the final rule set size, which may also be a contribution in the Genetic Algorithm realm more generally; (4) demonstrating a prototype of an off-line path planning system in air transportation. 2012-01-05T00:00:00Z Kuang-yuan Chen http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:215361 Abstract This thesis describes the design, fabrication and operation of a microfluidic device for the screening of biomolecule mixture surface mediated effects. The characterisation of a surface immobilisation strategy that will allow the robust attachment of candidate biomolecules on a substrate for use in cell culture applications. This is carried out in the form of a modified and optimised layer-by-layer surface immobilisation strategy and its subsequent thorough and robust characterisation. This was achieved by compiling and critically analysing large amounts of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) data and the model utilised to provide meaningful, physical data as an output. QCM-D data was combined with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) data to validate the assumptions used within the QCM-D model package. Further evidence demonstrating the presence of the multilayer, as described by QCM-D and SPR, is achieved using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). These results show that the multilayer surface is robustly attached to the substrate and consists of a large amount of water whilst being able to immobilise mixtures of four proteins. A custom protocol for fabricating these two layer devices was devised and is presented. Scale limitations have been overcome to provide mixing capabilities for large extracellular matrix molecules to be immobilised on the previously described, microfluidically generated surface immobilisation strategy. The optimisation and characterisation of the mixing within this microfluidic device, affected by the incorporated staggered herring bone mixer is also shown. Using dynamic force spectroscopy (DFS) along with a custom designed force curve data processing and analysis package, the spatial localisation of a mixture of four immobilised biomolecules was determined. The aim of this study was to compare the spatial localization of a mixture of four biomolecules created by; standard cell culture protocols (adsorbed from bulk onto tissue culture polystyrene) and a surface created via microfluidic deposition on top of a previously described surface immobilisation strategy. The design and robust application of this custom analysis package allows the definition of a “Barricade of Specificity” such that interactions between an antibody functionalised AFM tip and a surface composed of a mixture of proteins, to be categorised as either a “true” specific interaction, or a non-specific interaction. The application of this Barricade of Specificity thus allows the spatial localisation of four immobilized biomolecules to be determined with a large degree of accuracy as a result of the large rage of non-specific interactions surveyed and the strict definition of a valid rupture force. The final chapter details the application of the microfluidic platform to enable high throughput screening of the effects of extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, singly and in combination, with regards to the effect on the expression of cell surface markers on umbilical cord blood (UCB) derived CD34+ cells. Careful selection of candidate ECM molecules, cytokine and oxygen concentration has resulted in little difference in the effect on UCB derived CD34+ cells differentiation state after seven days in culture. The major effect has been the maturation towards lymphocyte and leukocyte precursors. However, of the four ECM molecules tested individually, in binary and in quaternary combinations, osteopontin (Opn) and laminin (Ln) demonstrated differences compared to other surfaces tested. In order to further assess the effect of these protein surfaces on the cell surface marker expression of UCB derived CD34+ cells, further tests are warranted for increased periods of time to enable greater discrimination in marker expression and thus increase our understanding of the fundamental biology of this rare and clinically useful cell source. 2010-08-30T00:00:00Z Michael Hines http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:277665 2012-07-17T00:00:00Z Huang, Huajin Kim