Some studies on chlorocuprates

The work in this thesis is concerned with alkylammonium chlorocuprates and their solid solutions. The stoichiometries and structures of various chlorocuprate anions are considered in terms of the influence of the size and shape of the cation on the compounds formed. The determination of the structure of (Me3NH)3 Cu2 C17 by X-ray crystallography is described; it is unusual because it contains two distinct chlorocuprate anions, CUC14 2-tetrahedra and (CUC13-)n chains. The symmetry of the CuC142- tetrahedron is approximately C3v, and this is attributed to the effect of the packing of (CuC13-)n chains, together with interactions between CuC142- and the cations. The CuC12- 2- 2- 4 ion in this compound is replaceable by CoC14 and ZnC14 ' while the (CuC13-)n chains are not disturbed. This led to a consideration of the possible effects of replacing the Jahn-Teller distorted ion in simple tetrachlorocuprates by ions not affected by this distortion, and hence to the preparation of solid 'solutions A2 (M,M' )C14. The formation of solid solutions from a system of two salts having a common ion and a solvent is discussed, with particular emphasis on systems which deviate from ideal behaviour. The preparations of solid solutions (Me4N)2(Cu,Co)C14, (Me4N)2(Cu,Zn)C14 and Me4N)2(Co,Zn)Cl4 from ethanol and water are described, and related to the general conditions for solid solution formation. Solid solutions (Me3NH)3Cu(Cu,Co)C17 are also given. Differential scanning calorimetry has been used in an attempt to elucidate the nature of the thermal transitions in (Me4N)2MC14 and in the solid solutions. The crystal structures of (Me4N)2CuC14, and (Me4N)2(Cu,Co)C14 (Cu:Co = 1:1) have been determined, and compared with that of (Me4N)2CoC14' It has been . 2- 2- shown that CuC14 and CoC14 each retain their characteristic configuration in the solid solution, so that CuC142- is the more distorted, because of the Jahn-Teller effect

Method and History of a Multidisciplinary Field Project: Population and Resources of South Guadalcanal, 1971-75

Reprinted from Yagl-Ambu, Volume 7, No. 2, June 1980. p. 47-76.Brief discussion in late 1969 between personnel in the Department of Agriculture and the University of Hawai'i led to the field survey that became known as the Guadalcanal Weather Coast Project.The project aimed to investigate the population-resource systems of south Guadalcanal and to assess the extent to which they were susceptible to change. In this paper, one of the staff supervisors details the project design and a student team member assesses its execution

Catholic School Counseling: From Guidance to Pastoral Care

Those ministering to youth increasingly find themselves having to address numerous issues and complexities, which extend beyond the scope of the school setting. Catholic school students are not immune to these issues, and to address the needs of their students, Catholic school counselors must embrace aspects of the social sciences that affirm and elevate the message of the Gospel. The intent of this article is to present a Christian perspective of guidance counseling and to highlight those orientations and therapies that uphold Christian values

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Student Concerns in the Teaching Practicum

There is general consensus in the literature that students consider the practicum to be a highly valued component of their teacher education degree. Nevertheless, there are wide ranging concerns reported by students related to their teaching practice. This paper reports on these concerns in the form of a cross-cultural comparison of an Australian and a Singaporean sample of students. Singaporean and Australian students completing their first practicum independently responded to a questionnaire based on the Survey of Practicum Stresses (D'Rozario & Wong, 1996). The psychometric properties of their 7-factor model were tested using the Australian data. This resulted in a 4-factor model, which was confirmed using structural equation procedures. Details of effective but under-employed analysis techniques are presented. This model was employed subsequently to provide cross-cultural comparisons of student concerns in the teaching practicum. Significant differences between the stresses experienced by Singaporean and Australian students point to the need to understand student stress within a cultural context

Absent voting, the Help America Vote Act 2002, and the American overseas voter :an analysis of policy effectiveness and political participation

PhD ThesisThe 2000 Presidential Election demonstrated that the rules that dictate the conduct of elections are fundamental in legitimating electoral processes and outcomes. For the United States, these election rules extend beyond borders, impacting millions of Americans resident overseas. Following the 2000 Election, a number of policy initiatives directed at improving the voting process for American overseas voters were undertaken. However the effectiveness of those policies was not clear. This thesis represents the first scholarly study assessing the effectiveness of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009 (MOVE). This assessment will show that neither HAVA nor the MOVE Act have improved the electoral participation of American overseas voters. Through a comprehensive review of the historical development of absent voting legislation in the United States, it will be shown that the events of the 2000 Election should not have been surprising to anyone. This historical review will demonstrate that problems associated with ensuring the franchise for absent voters have been recurring and highly political. In this partisan atmosphere, effective solutions to ensure the franchise of American overseas voters have not emerged. The 2000 Presidential Election also highlighted the potential impact of the political activity of Americans resident overseas on political outcomes in the continental United States. Previous research has not collected or analysed data regarding the demographics, associational involvement or the political attitudes and ideological self-identification of this group. Using data collected on a survey of American voters overseas, the thesis attempts to fill this research gap by analysing how this group relate to the United States political system from abroad and their propensity to participate

Genetic Programming for Computationally Efficient Land Use Allocation Optimization

Land use allocation optimization is essential to identify ideal landscape compositions for the future. However, due to the solution encoding, standard land use allocation algorithms cannot cope with large land use allocation problems. Solutions are encoded as sequences of elements, in which each element represents a land unit or a group of land units. As a consequence, computation times increase with every additional land unit. We present an alternative solution encoding: functions describing a variable in space. Function encoding yields the potential to evolve solutions detached from individual land units and evolve fields representing the landscape as a single object. In this study, we use a genetic programming algorithm to evolve functions representing continuous fields, which we then map to nominal land use maps. We compare the scalability of the new approach with the scalability of two state-of-the-art algorithms with standard encoding. We perform the benchmark on one raster and one vector land use allocation problem with multiple objectives and constraints, with ten problem sizes each. The results prove that the run times increase exponentially with the problem size for standard encoding schemes, while the increase is linear with genetic programming. Genetic programming was up to 722 times faster than the benchmark algorithm. The improvement in computation time does not reduce the algorithm performance in finding optimal solutions; often, it even increases. We conclude that evolving functions enables more efficient land use allocation planning and yields much potential for other spatial optimization applications

The Australian Farm Business Management Network: Industry, Education, Consultancy and Research Coming Together

Under the sponsorship of the University of Sydney, on 5-6th December 2002 the future of farm management in Australia was discussed. The fundamental conclusion achieved by key primary industry representatives, corporate executives, academics, consultants and researchers is that farm management will have a more significant role to play in the future than previously in servicing the primary sector. The idea of farm management as a profession was proposed. Its basis would be business management supported by farming systems and technology, and using an holistic approach to action (i.e. finance, people and environment). The new profession of Farm Business Management would seek to influence education, research, consultancy and extension in Australia. Interested parties participating of the 2002 National Farm Management Workshop came away with the idea of championing a consultative network, constituted by interested institutions and interested individuals, as a first step in the process of nurturing the future development of farm business management. By integrating farmers and academics with corporate executives, consultants and researchers the objective is to behave as a consultative group. This group will influence educational models, implement consultancy and research strategies, and network in social and professional terms. Moreover, this network will provide a systematic opportunity for the channelling of farm business management and farming systems related information at different levels for education, extension and scientific purposes. This network is called the Australian Farm Business Management Network (AFBMnetwork).Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Life at school in Australia and Japan: the impact of stress and support on bullying and adaptation to school

In this international, comparative study, path analysis was used to examine eight different aspects of Japanese and Australian students' experiences of school life in relation to their effect on adaptation to school. Adaptation was constructed to include information on enjoyment of school, feelings of belonging to school, and relationships with other students. Two separate path models were tested to compare questionnaire data from over 3000 Australian and 6000 Japanese students across Years 5-10. The questionnaire was developed collaboratively by the authors to examine issues of common concern in both countries. Issues that related to the impact on adaptation to school of stress and support: family teachers, peers and school work, as well as bullying were of particular interest. Lack of support and the influential effect of stress were found to exert direct negative effects on adaptation to school, especially for high school students in Japan and Australia. The path results also confirmed the stressful effects of bullying in both countries. The finding of a strong relationship between bullying others and being victimised is discussed in the paper. Finally, the differences and similarities between Japanese and Australian students' perceptions of school life are extrapolated

The Men’s Safer Sex Trial: a feasibility randomised controlled trial of an interactive digital intervention to increase condom use in men

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the feasibility of an online randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Men’s Safer Sex website, measuring condom use and sexually transmitted infection (STI). METHODS: For this study 159 men aged ≥16 with female sexual partners and recent condomless sex or suspected STI were recruited from three UK sexual health clinics. Participants were randomised to the intervention website plus usual clinic care (n = 84), or usual clinic care only (n = 75). Online outcome data were solicited at 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: Men were enrolled via tablet computers in clinic waiting rooms. Software errors and clinic Wi-Fi access presented significant challenges, and online questionnaire response rates were poor (36% at 3 months with a £10 voucher; 50% at 12 months with £30). Clinical records (for STI diagnoses) were located for 94% of participants. Some 37% of the intervention group did not see the intervention website (n = 31/84), and (as expected) there was no detectable difference in condomless sex with female partners (IRR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.96). New acute STI diagnoses were recorded for 8.8% (7/80) of the intervention group, and 13.0% (9/69) of the control group over 12 months (IRR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.90). CONCLUSIONS: It is likely to be feasible to conduct a future large-scale RCT to assess the impact of an online intervention using clinic STI diagnoses as a primary outcome. However, practical and technical challenges need to be addressed before the potential of digital media interventions can be realised in sexual health settings