Towards a history of law as an academic discipline

This paper argues for more studies which situate legal scholars within the context of Australian law schools. Abstract The purpose of this paper is to argue for more histories of Australian legal scholars that study their endeavours through the lens of legal education; in other words, studies which situate legal scholars within the context of Australian law schools. I argue that these histories could contribute vitally to the history of law as an academic discipline in Australia by providing crucial insights into two of the most important developments in the history of law, lawyers and legal education: the movement of legal education into universities and the significant expansion of university law schools. I suggest that such histories could contribute to the basis of rational discussion within the discipline, adding to its intellectual core

Seroprevalence of antibodies to chlamydia pneumoniae and legionella pneumophila in mine workers, factory workers and pneumonia patients

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg. for the Degree of Master of Science in Medicine Johannesburg 1994South African gold-miners work under stressful conditions and live in communal hostels. Respiratory infections are common in these workers and several cases of Legionnaires' Disease have previously been diagnosed in workers at a gold mine on the East Rand. The prevalence of antibodies and the rate of seroconversion within a period of six months, to C. pneumoniae and L. paeumopbils, both common causes of atypical pneumonia, was studied in relation to several risk factors including age, smoking habits, previous underground experience and past exposure to dust and humidity in the environment. Factory workers from a rural area in Natal and hospitalised patients with community acquired pneumonia were tested for comparison. Water samples were collected from several areas at the mine, including both surface and underground samples" Antibodies to C. pneumoniae were present in 66% of the mine workers, compared to 50% of pneumonia patients and 22% of factory workers, a statistically significant difference (P<O.OOl), Seroconversion was demonstrated ill 17% of the mine workers within a period of six months working underground, and in 22% of pneumonia patients, with convalescent stage sera taken 1-6 weeks after onset of symptoms. None of the risk factors studied influenced the prevalence of C. pneumoniae antibodies in the mine workers, but a significant association between the presence of respiratory symptoms in the six month period and seroconversicn was demonstrated (P<O.025). Using heat- killed antigens, antibodies to L. paeumopbile serogroups 1-4 were demonstrated in 36% of the mine workers, in 16% of the pneumonia patients and in 10% of factory workers (P<O.OOl). Seroconversion occurred in 18% of mine workers and in 14% of pneumonia patients. An association could not be demonstrated between any (if the risk factors studied and the prevalence of antibodies or the rate of seroconversion to L. pneumophila in the mine workers. No legionellae were cultured from the water samples, and the presence of these organsims in chlorinated water from both surface and underground samples could not be confirmed

Oral History

This is part of the series Essays on the Local History and Archaeology of West Central Scotland , commissioned for the Regional Framework for Local History and Archaeology, a partnership project led by Glasgow Museums, with representatives from the councils of East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire

Mapping the visual magnitude of popular tourist sites in Edinburgh city

There is value in being able to automatically measure and visualise the visual magnitude of city sites (monuments and buildings, tourist sites) &ndash; for example in urban planning, as an aid to automated way finding, or in augmented reality city guides. Here we present the outputs of an algorithm able to calculate visual magnitude &ndash; both as an absolute measure of the fa&ccedil;ade area, and in terms of a building&rsquo;s perceived magnitude (its lesser importance with distance). Both metrics influence the photogenic nature of a site. We therefore compared against maps showing the locations from where geo-located FlickR images were taken. &nbsp;The results accord with the metrics and therefore help disambiguate the meaning &nbsp;of FlickR tags

Hover performance tests of baseline metal and Advanced Technology Blade (ATB) rotor systems for the XV-15 tilt rotor aircraft

Rotor hover performance data were obtained for two full-scale rotor systems designed for the XV-15 Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft. One rotor employed the rectangular planform metal blades (rotor solidity = 0.089) which were used on the initial flight configuration of the XV-15. The second rotor configuration examined the nonlinear taper, composite-construction, Advanced Technology Blade (ATB), (rotor solidity = 0.10) designed to replace the metal blades on the XV-15. Variations of the baseline ATB tip and cuff shapes were also tested. A new six-component rotor force and moment balance designed to obtain highly accurate data over a broad range of thrust and torque conditions is described. The test data are presented in nondimensional coefficient form for the performance results, and in dimensional form for the steady and alternating loads. Some wake and acoustic data are also shown

Media Mapping: Using Georeferenced Images and Audio to provide supporting information for the Analysis of Environmental Sensor Datasets

Field based environmental monitoring projects often fail to gather supporting temporal information on the surroundings, yet these external factors may play a significant part in understanding variations in the collected datasets. For example when sampling air quality the values may change as a result of a bus passing the sampling point, yet this temporal local information is difficult to capture at a con-sistently high resolution over extended time periods. Here we develop an applica-tion which runs on a mobile phone able to capture visual and audio data with cor-responding time and location details. We also develop a desktop analysis tool which synchronises the display of this dataset with those captured from environ-mental sensors. The result is a tool able to assist researchers in understanding local changes in environmental datasets as a result of changes in the nearby surrounding environment

Evaluation of detection methods for Legionella species using seeded water samples

South African laboratories are currently using various methods in a non-standardised approach to detect Legionella species in environmental samples. In an attempt to provide guidelines for the development of a standard method, a number of currently available detection methods were evaluated, using seeded samples of sterile and non-sterile tap water, cooling water and make-up water. The samples were seeded with a type strain of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 (American Type Culture Collection 33152). The effect of sample concentration by centrifugation and membrane filtration followed by either vortex or sonication for resuspension of organisms was studied. Three currently available culture methods were evaluated: the International standard method (ISO/DIS 11731), the Australian standard method (AS 3896 - 1991) and a locally-developed adaptation of the most probable number method (MPN). In addition, the direct immunofluorescence test and a commercially available latex agglutination test kit were included in the evaluations. The usefulness of treatment with acid or heat prior to culture was also compared. Our results indicated that concentration by membrane filtration using nitro-cellulose filters with a pore size of 0.45 ?m, followed by sonication for 10 min, would be the most appropriate concentration and resuspension method for the samples. In the absence of sample pretreatment with acid or heat, organism recovery from sterile seeded samples on BCYE ranged from 85.9 - 98.7%. However, in the non-sterile samples, these figures dropped to 8.1 - 38.5%. Sample pretreatment resulted in a further loss of at least 50% of organisms in all the samples, regardless of the pretreatment method or culture medium used. In general, the ISO and AS methods were more appropriate than the MPN method for organism recovery from sterile seeded samples. However, for the nonsterile samples, the MPN method yielded better recovery. WaterSA Vol.27(4) 2001: 523-52

Building colour terms: A combined GIS and stereo vision approach to identifying building pixels in images to determine appropriate colour terms

Color information is a useful attribute to include in a building&rsquo;s description to assist the listener in identifying the intended target. Often this information is only available as image data, and not readily accessible for use in constructing referring expressions for verbal communication. The method presented uses a GIS building polygon layer in conjunction with street-level captured imagery to provide a method to automatically filter foreground objects and select pixels which correspond to building fac&cedil;ades. These selected pixels are then used to define the most appropriate color term for the building, and corresponding fuzzy color term histogram. The technique uses a single camera capturing images at a high frame rate, with the baseline distance between frames calculated from a GPS speed log. The expected distance from the camera to the building is measured from the polygon layer and refined from the calculated depth map, after which building pixels are selected. In addition significant foreground planar surfaces between the known road edge and building fac&cedil;ade are identified as possible boundarywalls and hedges. The output is a dataset of the most appropriate color terms for both the building and boundary walls. Initial trials demonstrate the usefulness of the technique in automatically capturing color terms for buildings in urban regions