Indigenous affairs: a quick guide to key internet links

Provides links to key resources for Indigenous affairs in Australia, including information on \u27Closing the Gap\u27 agreements, funding, geography, and government agencies. Summary This Quick Guide provides links to: the Council of Australian Government (COAG) key agreements under ‘Closing the Gap’ a listing of Australian Government departments with responsibility for Indigenous affairs and their key programmes statistics and funding a map of ‘Aboriginal Australia’ directories of Indigenous organisations and businesses key organisations outside Government departments state, territory and local government websites and overseas websites

New synthetic strategies towards cephalotaxus alkaloids

Michael alkylation, with methyl acrylate, of nitrocyclohexenes bearing functionalized aromatic substituents at the 2-position, was found to be highly stereo selective. Subsequent dissolving metal reductive cyclization was highly efficient, and these two steps thus provided a stereo specific entry to a substituted 1-azaspirocyclic system, related to the cephalotaxine skeleton. Application of this methodology to trans-4-(3,4-dimethoxy-6-carbo- methoxyraethylphenyl)-5-nitrocyclohexene afforded spirolactam ester 6-(3,4-dimethoxy-6-carboraethoxymethylphenyl)-2-oxo-l-azaspiro[4.5]dec-8-ene. On reduction with DIBAL-H at -78ºC, this cyclized in high yield, with high stereoselectivity to the corresponding 3-benzazepine-2-ol system.Similar methodology with trans-4-(3,4-methylenedioxy-6-nitrophenyl) -5-nitrocyclohexene, allowed for a formaldehyde insertion reaction to provide a 1,3-benzodiazepine analogue. Preliminary studies hold promise for allowing modification of the cyclohexene ring to known pre-targets of cephalotaxine. These findings bring the synthetic strategy towards providing a competitive route to (±) cephalotaxine, and also a range of analogues, including the unknown 11-aza and 10-hydroxy-8-oxo systems

Whose Tchaikovsky? Consumerism, nationality, sex and the curious case of the disappearing composer in Tchaikovsky and The Music Lovers

Abstract: This article offers the first sustained analysis of two films about the life of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made in 1969 and 1970 respectively. One of these, Ken Russell's The Music Lovers (1970), is well known in the West. The other, Tchaikovsky (1969) by Igor Talankin, is much less famous. The films were made across the divide of the Cold War, and though it might be tempting to see these biopics as mirror-images of one another, rival products of different political and social cultures, this article tempers such a reading in order to explore some unintended but nevertheless suggestive parallels between the two. Exploring both through their treatment of consumerism, nationality (specifically Russianness) and sexuality, the article argues that for different reasons and in slightly different ways, they offer a significant case study in how "problematic" aspects of a composer's life can be obscured to the point where they disappear. This in turn makes the films an important point of reference for how "otherness"-particularly national and sexual "otherness"-has historically been handled by the big screen

Splitting probabilities as a test of reaction coordinate choice in single-molecule experiments

To explain the observed dynamics in equilibrium single-molecule measurements of biomolecules, the experimental observable is often chosen as a putative reaction coordinate along which kinetic behavior is presumed to be governed by diffusive dynamics. Here, we invoke the splitting probability as a test of the suitability of such a proposed reaction coordinate. Comparison of the observed splitting probability with that computed from the kinetic model provides a simple test to reject poor reaction coordinates. We demonstrate this test for a force spectroscopy measurement of a DNA hairpin

Ancient literary conceptions of eastern scythian ethnography from the 7th to the 2nd Century B.C.

The Scythians were an idea. The ancient Iranian-speaking nomads of Eurasia (from the Carpathian mountains in the west to the Tien Shan in the east) left no written texts of their own. They left instead a trail through the records of the sedentary societies with which they came into contact. These records are numerous, but scattered. The perspectives they offer range from Urartian, Assyrian and Babylonian, to Ionian, mainland Greek, Persian, Bosporan, Alexandrian, Seleukid, Baktrian, Parthian and Chinese. The forms in which records are extant range from maritime and overland itineraries, military surveys, geographies, histories, and treatises on natural science, medicine, philosophy and politics, to poems, romances, titulary epigrams, historical inscriptions, letters and prayers. It is through these diverse records that the ethnographic history of ancient Eurasia is to be approached. As the ethnography of the Maeotis-Caucasus region and Central Asia are often closely linked by literary tradition and historical circumstances, the primary concern of the present work has been taken to be those records of most relevance to the ethnography of the nomads dwelling between the Don and Crimean Bosporos in the west and the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains in the east, nomads who might for convenience be called 'Eastern Scythians'. This work will not concern itself with those sources dealing with the so called 'Royal Scythians' of the Ukraine, Dobrudja and Crimea (e.g. most of Herodotos' Book IV). Western and Soviet scholars may be characterised as adopting fundamentally different approaches to the study of these nomads' ethnographic history. The western scholars favour philological investigation, migration theories, and a perspective from the periphery, while the Soviet scholars favour archaeological investigation, theories of indigenous ethnogenesis, and the periodisation of nomad social, economic and cultural change. Western scholars rarely stop to reflect upon either their own methodology or that of the Soviets, while Soviet scholars often reflect upon their own methodology and criticise that of the Western scholars. More significant, however, than these methodological differences are the methodological similarities. Common to nearly all modem scholars writing in the field of Scythian studies, Western and Soviet, archaeologist, philologists and historians, are two tendencies..

Analysis, Performance, and Images of Musical Sound: Surfaces, Cyclical Relationships and the Musical Work

In this paper we hope to reinscribe the familiar musicological concepts of analysis and performance, drawing them into new relationships, in order to turn them against their presuppositions and produce new configurations. Though an exploration of analysis, performance and images of musical sound, these new configurations highlight surface details and offer a alternative approach to previous analysis and performance paradigms, leading to a reformulation of the concept of musical "work". In order to focus our argument we define "analysis" as the methodological activity of analyzing a score as practiced in most Western art music analytical journals published today. Likewise, while the concept of musical performance can encompass improvisation and physical gesture, we take "performance" to mean the Western art music performance tradition, as practiced today, of score interpretation. Although both definitions are admittedly limited, they represent typical approaches and activities within both fields

A study on the water chemistry and plankton in blackwater lakelets of the south-western Cape

Includes bibliographies.Blackwater lakelets in the south-western Cape are amongst the most darkly coloured humic waters in the world. In addition the aquatic invertebrate fauna of this region represents a relict and highly endemic group of the South Temperate Gondwanian fauna. The major environmental and biological variables were investigated over a period of fifteen months in six south-western Cape vleis (Suurdam, Gillidam, Sirkelsvlei, Grootrondevlei, Grootwitvlei and Rondevlei), which range in colour from a very dark brown to only slightly stained and vary in pH from 3.7 to 10.1. Using absorbance and fluorescence measurements and the Folin-Ciocallteu reagent, relative measures of the quantity and quality of humic compounds were obtained. Suurdam, Gillidam and Sirkelsvlei contained waters of greatest humic content (Suurdam mean A₂₉₀ = 6.561), with a common mid-winter to spring minimum; levels were lower in Grootrondevlei and Grootwitvlei (Grootrondevlei mean A₂₉₀ = 0.996), with a common mid-winter to spring maximum; and lowest in Rondevlei (mean A₂₉₀ = 0.284), with a slight peak in winter. Maxima were related to increased inflow of water with winter rain. Humic compounds in Suurdam, Gillidam and Grootrondevlei were of relatively high molecular weight and phenolic content, indicating an allochthonous origin. In Sirkelsvlei humic compounds were of lower molecular weight and phenolic content, possibly as a result of precipitation of the higher molecular weight fraction due to the high total salinity. Grootwitvlei and Rondevlei had lower molecular weight fractions probably as a result of autochthonous humic production, precipitation with calcium and greater rates of humic degradation; a higher molecular weight allochthonous fraction was present in winter in these two vleis. Buffering at low pH and the complexation of both iron and soluble reactive phosphorous were evident in Suurdam and Gillidam. Catchment geology, atmospheric precipitation, evaporation and the input of vertebrate excreta explain the inorganic chemical environments of the vleis. Acid, well-leached soils and calcareous sands resulted in mean pH values of 3.8 and 4.2 in Suurdam and Gillidam and 8.0 and 8.6 in Grootwitvlei and Rondevlei. The cation composition of the vleis on well-leached acid soils was primarily determined by the atmospheric precipitation of marine salt; evaporation and calcareous sands increased the salinity or relative calcium concentrations in some vleis. Animal excreta in Grootwitvlei and Rondevlei also alter the cation composition slightly, and increase the load of major nutrients. Nitrogen and phosphorous are largely of biological origin. Nutrient levels in the vleis are variously affected by marginal macrophytes, the sediments, primary production and the levels of humics. Chlorophyll a levels indicated low phytoplankton biomass in Suurdam, Gillidam and Grootrondevlei (Suurdam, mean chlorophyll a = 0.9ug1-¹ ) and no distinct seasonality; intermediate levels in Sirkelsvlei (mean chlorophyll a = 11.6ug1-¹ ) and high levels in Grootwitvlei and Rondevlei (Rondevlei, mean chlorophyll a = 60.4ug1-¹ ) displayed a common mid- to late-summer peak. Summer stratification was present only in Suurdam and Gillidam. Maximum phytoplankton biomass of the different vleis related to pH, the quantity and quality of the humic substances, and the nutrient loading. Chlorophyll b: chlorophyll a ratios and chlorophyll c: chlorophyll a ratios indicated a dominance of b- and c-containing species in Suurdam, Gillidam and Grootrondevlei and a dominance of species containing only chlorophyll a in Grootwitvlei and Rondevlei. Multi-dimensional scaling showed four distinct zooplankton community groupings. In Suurdam, the community was dominated by Microcyclops crassipes and was characterised by low zooplankton abundance (mean no.m-³ = 1783), a low species richness, an absence of limnetic cladocerans, and high species diversity (H') and evenness (J') indices. The community appeared to be limited by the low pH and the pH-dependent humic toxicity of the water. The communities in Gillidam, Grootrondevlei and Grootwitvlei were dominated by Metadiaptomus purcelli; otherwise that of Gillidam showed similar characteristics to that of Suurdam and was probably limited by the same factors. Both communities contained individuals of small mean size, more likely a result of limitation by the chemical environment rather than of predation pressure. A number of large-bodied limnetic cladoceran species and Lovenula simplex were present in Grootrondevlei, but absent from Grootwitvlei, possibly as a result of a visual predation pressure. In Sirkelsvlei the community was dominated by Metadiaptomus capensis and Lovenula simplex was present in lower numbers. Species richness, species diversity (H') and evenness (J') were low, with few limnetic cladoceran species present. High total salinity probably determines the community composition and seasonal variation. The eutrophic Rondevlei contains a community dominated by cosmopolitan and common Pan-Ethiopian species, in contrast to the endemic south temperate Gondwanian species of the other vleis. The community was dominated by Thermocyclops oblongatus, Brachionus calyciflorus and Brachionus rubens, and was characterized by greater species richness, and high species diversity (H') and evenness (J'). Total zooplankton abundances were much greater than in the other vleis (mean no.m-³ = 618944). Size-selective predation and the quantity and quality of the phytoplankton probably determine community composition. It is concluded that zooplankton diversity and abundance are influenced, both directly and indirectly, by the concentration and character of the humic substances and the pH, particularly at high concentration and low pH

Low Earth Orbit satellite/terrestrial mobile service compatibility

Currently the geostationary type of satellite is the only one used to provide commercial mobile-satellite communication services. Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems are now being proposed as a future alternative. By the implementation of LEO satellite systems, predicted at between 5 and 8 years time, mobile space/terrestrial technology will have progressed to the third generation stage of development. This paper considers the system issues that will need to be addressed when developing a dual mode terminal, enabling access to both terrestrial and LEO satellite systems