The symphonies of Ross Edwards: genesis and analysis of symphonies 1 – 5 (1991 – 2005)

This doctoral thesis on the five symphonies of Ross Edwards is the first detailed study to have been written about this significant group of large-scale symphonic works by one of Australia’s most distinguished composers. The approach to discussing these works has been to differentiate between matters of genesis and analysis. The discussions of genesis consider both the circumstances of commission and performance as well as matters of inspiration and influence. The analytical discussions cover matters of form (including segmentation of the structural schemes), melodic style, harmonic vocabulary, rhythmic shaping, and the composer’s treatment of the orchestral palette. The overall approach to the analytical discussions has been to try and reveal the compositional processes through which this music came into being. In this sense the thesis is a study of compositional technique rather than an exercise in applying or testing any particular analytical method. The main analytical tool has necessarily been one of reduction. The information presented in the full, orchestral score has been reduced in most musical examples to a short score, in order to expose particular features of melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic interest and significance. The study has been carried out with reference to all the available primary source materials, including sketches, autograph scores, and recordings. The study has been enriched by direct contact with the composer, himself. He was consulted by email and in a face-to-face interview which was recorded and from which a transcript was made. Although the study reflects this direct contact with the composer, it does not aspire or pretend to be in any way an ‘authorised’ account of the music. It does, however, seek to convey some of the conceptual concerns that Edwards has for the environment, and for our place in the natural world. It also seeks to convey something of his intentions at the spiritual level.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 201

Aviation biofuels: How are enzymes deemed to play a critical role in the development of sustainable solutions?

In an increasingly carbon constrained world, the aviation industry is under considerable pressure from regulators and the flying public to improve its environmental performance. This industry has come together to set collaborative and ambitious goals to achieve by 2050 the reduction by 50% of its greenhouse gas emissions, compared to the 2005 base line. Along with airplane technology and operational efficiency, the development of sustainable aviation biofuels constitutes one of the key levers by which these objectives can be met. Significant efforts are underway to mature and deploy a range of technologies for the production of sustainable aviation fuels. Such solutions seek not only environmental and societal sustainability but also performance and cost effectiveness. Across this technology landscape and considering the potential routes to convert biomass into aviation fuel, enzyme can make the difference in addressing some of the corresponding challenges. Among the current sugar- and lipid-based aviation biofuels available so far, the engineering of enzymes has been already contributing greatly to the development of the corresponding technology pathways. This, together with the recent advances in synthetic biology, has led in particular to the design of fine-tuned microbial catalyst able to convert sugars into biofuel precursors. Novel or improved enzyme functionalities are also necessary to further enhance the commercial prospects for sustainable biofuels for aviation, notably by enabling the use of alternative lower cost feedstocks

An investigation into the simultaneous impact of climate change and land use modification on a tri-trophic species interaction

Nature is intrinsically complex; yet ecological research is steadily gaining insight into the relationships between abiotic and biotic conditions. This thesis seeks to examine these interactions; between the causal drivers of global environmental change (GEC) and between biotic units in which that change is manifested. Concern is mounting over the ecological surprises that multiple GEC drivers can exert on biota when they act simultaneously. Studying the greatest current threat to biodiversity, habitat modification, and the greatest potential future threat, climate change, I investigate the nature of these interactions. I determine whether they are of a synergistic nature, whereby one driver is exacerbated by another; or of an antagonistic nature, whereby the effect is reduced. These effects are quantified on two measures of biotic change: abundance and species interactions in a tri-trophic forest study system in New Zealand. Taking a range of methodological approaches I utilise: field observation analysis, in-situ experiments and ex-situ experiments to investigate aspects of the umbrella research question. Throughout this research I study a tri-trophic biotic system in which to investigate broad ecological trends: an understory shrub, Macropiper excelsum; its herbivorous moth, Cleora scriptaria; and the herbivore’s endoparasitoids, Aleiodes declanae and Meteorus pulchricornis. Three principal findings emerge from this investigation. Firstly, although climate and habitat fragmentation exhibit a mixture of effects on biota, when they interact, the net effects are all seemingly negative: abundance is reduced and the frequency of biotic interactions decrease. Secondly, these drivers combine in a non-additive fashion depending upon the trophic level and biotic measure assessed: antagonistically interacting to impact the plant species and species interactions and synergistically interacting to impact the insect species and abundance. Thirdly, the influence of interspecific relationships on dynamics within this study system is ostensibly comparable to the impact of anthropogenic pressures. This research suggests that, where possible, it is vitally important to investigate all known simultaneous drivers of change, to specify which taxonomic unit is being studied and to integrate biotic interactions when predicting the impacts on biodiversity in a changing world

Sarah Jane Matilda

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6736/thumbnail.jp

The Coon\u27s March : Marching Song

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3062/thumbnail.jp

The path to individualised breast cancer screening

The main objective of work presented in this thesis was to explore the clinical utility of the Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) based on breast cancer associated common low risk variants, which explain ~18% of the familial relative risk, for individual breast cancer risk prediction. It did so by generating knowledge about the PRS in the Dutch general population and in clinic-based breast cancer families, as well as in a large international population of BRCA1/2 pathogenic variant carriers. We have validated the association of the PRS with breast cancer for women in both the Dutch population and breast cancer families and showed a better risk-discrimination by adding the PRS to family-based risk prediction. Secondly, we have shown that addition of the PRS to family-based risk prediction has an impact on screening recommendations for many non-carriers and carriers of a pathogenic variant in a moderate breast cancer gene. The results will support implementation of comprehensive risk prediction in the clinic, and may help women to make more informed choices about their optimal clinical management.Dutch Cancer Society (KWF), grant UL2014-7473LUMC / Geneeskund

Tracking and Resisting Backlash Against Equality Gains in Sexual Offence Law

The authors document feminist efforts to expose, challenge, and eliminate direct, indirect, and systemic inequality in the substantive, evidentiary, and procedural laws proscribing sexual offences and in the enforcement and application of those laws have not only been consistently resisted by police, lawyers, judges, and juries, but have also consistently generated backlash against those responsible for and/or supportive of such egalitarian change. Actual and imagined social, economic, political and legal equality gains by women as a class-however unevenly distributed- have triggered a variety of types of backlash, including an escalation in actual or threatened violence against women accompanied by new equality-resistant strains of legal doctrine that effectively offset or bypass earlier reforms. The authors illustrate these forms of backlash by examining three decades of feminist reforms to sexual assault laws

Capacitors with low equivalent series resistance

An electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) in a coin or button cell configuration having low equivalent series resistance (ESR). The capacitor comprises mesh or other porous metal that is attached via conducting adhesive to one or both the current collectors. The mesh is embedded into the surface of the adjacent electrode, thereby reducing the interfacial resistance between the electrode and the current collector, thus reducing the ESR of the capacitor