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:205553 2010-05-26T00:00:00Z Cokley, Keith V. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:184931 2009-10-15T00:00:00Z Williams, Christine H. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158460 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Mackenzie, Marion Elizabeth http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189750 2009-12-11T00:00:00Z Munro, Craig http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:198483 2010-03-09T00:00:00Z Lane, Marcus B. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:186135 2009-11-13T00:00:00Z Zlobicki, Malgosia Teresa http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:235078 Assessing the possible impacts of future climate change is a major issue currently requiring attention by governments worldwide. By assessing the likely impacts of climate change for the full range of environmental and regional sectors, governments will be able to prioritise adaptive strategies to manage the climate change impacts in an economically responsible way. This study represents a portion of a NSW state government funded study assessing the possible impacts of climate change to the NSW coastline. As part of this study, a modelling approach capable of assessing the impact of climate change to the existing shoreline has been developed. The developed modelling approach, based on existing coastal engineering theory, has been designed specifically to assess the impact of climate change on shoreline response for an open coast beach. The time stepping model further develops the Miller and Dean (2004) cross-shore model using a geometric representation of the cross-shore profile. The geometric approach has been applied using Bruun Rule style conservation of mass principles. To assess the possible shoreline response to the combined impact of climate change driven sea level rise and variations in wave climate, developed cross-shore and longshore models have been dynamically linked. Combining of the modelling programs has enabled an efficient way to assess the likely impacts of climate change on shoreline response. Specifically, the assessment of the likely impacts of climate change variations predicted by McInnes et al. (2007) on Wooli Wooli Beach has been undertaken using this developed modelling approach. Summarising the findings specific to Wooli Wooli Beach, using the developed assessment approach, accounting for the combined impact of climate change on cross shore and longshore sediment transport processes, the results indicate there is a significant non-uniform alongshore response to the climate change forcing. The results show that greatest shoreline recession is likely to occur along the southern section of Wooli Wooli beach, adjacent to the northern training wall of the Wooli Wooli River. North of this location the shoreline recession results are reduced, with the northern section of Wooli Wooli beach exhibiting the smallest recession. Alongshore, for the three assessed climate change scenarios, at the southern end of Wooli Wooli beach where the predicted erosion is of the greatest magnitude between 73m and 83m of shoreline recession is predicted. Comparing the various scenario results, it is evident that the projected increases in sea level dominate the shoreline response at Wooli Wooli. Projected changes in wave climate are predicted to have an effect of the future shoreline evolution, though the magnitude of change is comparably less than that resulting from sea level rise in isolation. In the broader context of shoreline response to climate change, the Wooli Wooli assessment results highlight some interesting trends. The results indicate that shoreline response to sea level rise is highly non-uniform for littoral drift dominated coastlines. Where the annual net longshore transport pattern dominates, such as at Wooli Wooli Beach, the modelling results indicate beach sections immediately downdrift from major headland/groyne controls are likely to experience the greatest shoreline recession. These results highlighted the need to account for both cross shore and longshore processes during climate change assessments for littoral drift dominated coastlines, typical of northern NSW. Traditional climate change assessments using the Bruun Rule, represent only a cross shore assessment, and do not account for the joint interaction of the shoreline evolution to combined cross shore/longshore processes. Using the developed timestepping model approach outlined in this paper, more detailed shoreline response assessments are now able to be conducted, accounting for these complex sediment transport processes. 2011-03-11T00:00:00Z Christopher Huxley http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:157843 This is a theoretical thesis in the area of quantum measurement theory. Due to the extensive breadth of this field we choose to narrow our focus to examine a particular problem - the quantum Zeno effect (defined below). Quantum measurement theory is introduced in Chap. 1, using the terminology of effects and operations. This approach allows an operational definition of such terms as a state vector, an ensemble, and a measurement device (for instance), and a consideration of interactions between quantum systems and inaccurate measurement devices. We further introduce the quantum trajectories approach to consider the evolution of an individual quantum system subject to measurement. The quantum Zeno effect is introduced in Chap. 2. Any quantum treatment of a measurement interaction must consider the measurement backaction onto the measured system and this backaction will disrupt the free evolution of the system. The quantum Zeno effect occurs in the strong measurement limit where the measurement backaction totally freezes the evolution of the system, thus rendering the measurement useless. The effect is introduced via projective measurements of two level systems subject to measurement of level populations. At this stage we are able to discuss the main questions addressed by this thesis, and present its structure in Chap. 2. We then develop a new measurement model for the interaction between a system and a measurement device in Chap. 3. Our motivation in doing this is to better model the usual laboratory meter, and in our approach the meter dynamics are such that it relaxes towards an appropriate readout of the system parameter of interest. The irreducible quantum noise of the meter introduces fluctuations that drive the stochastic dynamical collapse of the system wavefunction. In our model, the measured system dynamics (if treated selectively) are described by a stochastic, nonlinear Schroedinger equation. A double well system subject to position measurement provides a natural first application for this model. This is done in Chap. 4 where we monitor the coherent tunnelling of a particle from one well to the other. The advantage afforded by considering this system is that it displays differing regimes where the measurement observable (position) is approximated as possessing either, respectively, a continuous or a discrete eigenvalue structure. Thus, we use this one model to explore the quantum Zeno effect in both measurement regimes. The above treatment is of a theoretical measurement model. In Chap. 5 we turn to consider a recent experimental test of the quantum Zeno effect which examined the dynamics of a two level atom subject to pulsed measurements of atomic level populations. We treat a slightly modified experiment in a fully continuous measurement regime. By first unravelling the optical Bloch equations, and second, using the quantum trajectories approach we demonstrate the existence of certain measurement regimes where there is a quantum Zeno effect, and other regimes where no measurement of the atomic populations is being effected at all. Through these results we demonstrate the importance of making a full analysis of the system-detector interaction before any conclusions can be made. In the remainder of the thesis we propose further possible tests of the quantum Zeno effect. In Chap. 6 the evolution of a Rydberg atom exchanging one photon with a single cavity mode subject to measurement is examined. The measurement is made by monitoring the photon number occupancy of the cavity mode using a beam of Rydberg atoms configured so as to perform phase sensitive detection. In the limit of frequent monitoring we show that the free oscillation of the atomic inversion is disrupted, and the atom is trapped close to its initial state. This is the quantum Zeno effect. In Chap. 7 we realize the Zeno effect on two possible systems. We consider first, a two level Jaynes-Cumming atom interacting with a cavity mode, and second, two electromagnetic modes configured as a multi-level parametric frequency converter. These systems interact with another cavity mode via a quadratic coupling system based on four wave mixing, and constructed to be a quantum nondemolition measurement of the photon number. This mode is damped to the environment thus effecting a measurement of the system populations. Again we show that this interaction, can manifest the quantum Zeno effect. Our explicit modelling of the system-detector interaction enables us to show how the effect depends on the resolution time of the detector. Finally, we consider a proposed measurement of the square of the quadrature phase of an electromagnetic mode in Chap. 8. Here, a three mode interaction mediated by a second order nonlinear susceptibility is considered. One mode, the pump, is prepared in a feedback generated photon number state to give insight into the role of pump noise. The other two modes are treated as an angular momentum system, and we show that photon counting on the two mode rotation system effects the above mentioned measurement. In addition, this measurement provides a direct measure of the second order squeezing of the signal. With that we finish our investigation of the quantum Zeno effect using the techniques of quantum measurement theory. However, in the epilogue [Chap. 9] we note that no thesis in quantum measurement theory would be complete without some consideration of the ``meaning" attributed to the theory. In the epilogue we take a novel historical approach and examine the method by which metaphysical theories are formed to draw conclusions regarding quantum metaphysics. 2010-03-22T00:00:00Z Gagen, Michael Joseph http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189289 2009-12-07T00:00:00Z Ball, Leslie James http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189754 2009-12-11T00:00:00Z Fisher, Fedora Gould http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:184401 2009-10-01T00:00:00Z Tanavud, Charlchai http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:184511 2009-10-05T00:00:00Z Western, Melissa http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:9880 2005-04-05T00:00:00Z Stewart, Ian http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185184 2009-10-23T00:00:00Z Grindrod, Robert http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185402 2009-11-03T00:00:00Z Murphy, Julia http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158559 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Everingham, Jo-Anne http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158794 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Graham, Daniel http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158712 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Aird, Rosemary Lyn http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158095 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Rickertt, Jeffrey http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:283138 2012-10-12T12:58:41Z Smith, Martin Alexander http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:134695 The aim of this study was to evaluate risk management strategies and decision support tools that might be useful to dryland farmers in southwest Queensland to improve their decision making. This topic was chosen because there has been little previous work done to examine the sources of risk faced by farmers in that area, the practical risk management strategies employed by these farmers, or their interests in and attitudes towards risk management. This study adopted an action-learning approach to present farmers with opportunities to use various tools that might help to manage the range of risks affecting their farm management. The study was designed to test farmers’ interests in existing tools, or the potential for developing new tools, to assist dryland farmers in southwest Queensland improve their risk management. The thesis is presented in three parts including an introduction to the study and an extensive review of the relevant literature on decision making and risk management (Part I), an overview of the area in southwest Queensland where this study was focused and the various research methods used in this study (Part II). Part III comprises four chapters reporting results and presents the conclusions from the study. The thesis also reviews the advantages and disadvantages mentioned in the literature about decision support systems (DSS) in Australian agriculture and examines some programming and simulation models that can be applied to risk management in agriculture. The research methods used in this study included a literature review, interviews, focus group discussions, an ‘expert’ survey, training workshops for farmers, and evaluation techniques. The observations and reflections from the preliminary inquiries identified soil moisture management and crop choice as the critical issues concerning dryland farmers in southwest Queensland when dealing with crop production risks. Those discussions suggested possibilities for developing a decision support tool to help farmers in the study area assess their planting options. In developing the options for a decision support tool for planting decisions, a series of workshops was conducted with farmers in the study area, while some observations of farmers who attended similar workshops in adjacent areas are also reported. These workshops provided the opportunity for participants to experience some existing risk management and decision support tools. They were also designed to collect inputs to develop an appropriate decision support tool for crop planting decisions. A ‘Key to dryland planting decisions’ for farmers in southwest Queensland was developed and the personal experiences and lessons that the author has learnt through the course of this research are reported. The thesis enhances the understanding of farmers’ attitudes to risk, contemporary risk management strategies, and decision supports tools used in agriculture. This research has contributed to knowledge in the following ways. It has presented a methodological framework for doing research of this type. This study has identified the different sources of risk faced by dryland farmers in southwest Queensland and the practical risk management strategies they employ. The research has introduced those farmers to some existing risk management and decision support tools. The research has contributed more specifically to improving their management decisions by developing a decision support tool that could help dryland farmers in southwest Queensland make better informed and more appropriate planting decisions in the very uncertain and risky conditions with which they have to cope. 2008-04-04T00:00:00Z Nguyen, N. C. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189274 2009-12-07T00:00:00Z Byrne, Neil J. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:184333 2009-09-29T00:00:00Z Christie, Gayre http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:157833 In this thesis, high order stochastic Runge-Kutta methods are developed for the numerical solution of (Stratonvich) stochastic differential equations and numerical results are presented. The problems associated with non-communativity of stochastic differential equation systems are addressed and stochastic Runge-Kutta methods particularly suited for such systems are derived. The thesis concludes with a discussion on various implementation issues, along with numerical results from variable stepsize implementation of a stochastic embedded pair of Runge-Kutta methods. 2008-11-21T21:02:45Z Burrage, Pamela Marion http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189301 2009-12-07T00:00:00Z O'Donnell, Dan http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:157979 This thesis examines how power and knowledge come together in promotional discourses to form particular constructions of student subjectivity and particular constructions of the international university. It maps what is visible and sayable about international students and the international university and in doing so analyses the operations of power and knowledge within international education markets. Two key questions are pursued by this thesis. First, how do discourses of international education perceive and construct understandings of the international student? Second, how do networks of governmental and institutional practices shape the contemporary international university? More speci?cally, how is the international university implicated in the globalisation of higher education? Using governmentality as an analytical framework and Foucault’s archaeological method, this study undertakes a cross national analysis of both macro-contextual forces and micropractices. It sources data from four national settings which include the three major ‘producers’ of international education, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, and a postcolonial consumer, Singapore, which is also an aspiring provider of international education. To identify what is visible and sayable about international students and the international university the following sets of data are analysed: image, written text, interviews and the spaces and places which constitute international education networks (‘spatial scripts’). Three subjectivities are implied of the international student and ‘educated subject’ across all three producer settings: a passive ‘other’ to be tutored into the ways of the West, an elite ‘other’ whose allegiances are to be cultivated and an economic subject steeped in competitive individualism who holds an instrumentalist orientation to education. The ?ndings of this thesis also suggest that the dominant discursive practices in international education markets are neocolonial and neoliberal. The demands of responding to the economic dimensions of globalisation has steered the international university to privilege an institutional subjectivity which is supportive of the neoliberal state. It is a central instrumentality in upholding the state’s national interest. In this regard, the international university depicts a historical continuity with its predecessor, the modernist university. At the same time, the rules of an older lexicon of power remain in place in the international university. These are premised on the West as an educator of the ‘other’ and work against reversing the present unequal flows of influence to more reciprocal intellectual exchanges. Dominant constructions of international education are thus, antithetical to the theoretical principles of ‘interdependence’ and ‘interconnectedness’ espoused by key globalisation theorists. 2010-03-22T00:00:00Z Sidhu, Ravinder Kaur http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:184919 2009-10-15T00:00:00Z Stewart, Kay http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185195 2009-10-23T00:00:00Z Barcan, Ruth Margaret http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:188114 2009-11-27T00:00:00Z Robinson, Shirleene Rose http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:190012 2009-12-14T00:00:00Z Miller, Jennifer M. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:195397 2010-02-15T00:00:00Z Knight, Kenneth W. (Kenneth Wilson) http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:184436 2009-10-02T00:00:00Z Koerner, Richard http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:10257 2005-05-04T00:00:00Z Issar, Gurpreet http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189976 2009-12-14T00:00:00Z Kellie, Deborah http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:138902 2008-05-26T00:00:00Z Millers, Emma-Karin I. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189740 2009-12-11T00:00:00Z Barnes, R. S. K. (Richard Stephen Kent) http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:186819 2009-11-17T00:00:00Z McClay, David J. L. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158104 2008-11-21T00:00:00Z Ruhanen-Hunter, Lisa M. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185458 2009-11-06T00:00:00Z McMorrow, James F. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:218810 2010-10-20T00:00:00Z Eono, Jean-Claude. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:205100 2010-05-12T00:00:00Z Scott, Ann. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:205342 2010-05-19T00:00:00Z Heckenberg, Kerry http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185434 2009-11-05T00:00:00Z Kowald, Margaret http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:190026 2009-12-15T00:00:00Z Erickson, Frederick J. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185630 2009-11-11T00:00:00Z Connors, Libby http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:198858 2010-03-11T00:00:00Z Kidd, Alexander Philip http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189802 2009-12-11T00:00:00Z Fisher, Joan http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:195395 2010-02-15T00:00:00Z Dick, Ross Stanley http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:189947 2009-12-14T00:00:00Z Lingard, Bob http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:185197 2009-10-23T00:00:00Z Penrose, Beris Gene