The world is changing: ethics and genre development in three twentieth-century high fantasies.

This thesis examines three genre high fantasy texts published between 1954 and 2001: J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings', Ursula K. Le Guin’s 'Earthsea' cycle and Patricia A. McKillip’s 'The Riddle-Master’s Game'. The emphasis is on examining how the three texts use a common set of structures to articulate a developing argument about forms of human engagement with the physical world in the face of environmental crisis. Using theories of literary ecology and narrative paradigm, I examine the common structure shared by the three high fantasies and the weight of ethical implications it carries. The texts position the transcendent impulse of the mode of tragedy, and the behaviour it generates, as the source of crisis, and posit as a solution to the problem the integrative ethic characteristic of the comedic mode. They argue that a transition between these two ethics is necessary for the continued survival of the Secondary World. This thesis examines each text’s use of narrative paradigm to articulate methods by which this ethical transition may be achieved. An argumentative trend is documented across the three fantasies through the representation of situation, problem and solution. In each text, as the Secondary World becomes more completely a closed physical system, the source of the solution to the problem caused by the transcendent presence and the achievement of ethical transition are both relocated within the control of human actors. The three fantasies express a gradual movement toward the acceptance of not only human responsibility for, but the necessity for action to remedy, the damaged state of the world. I argue that the texts’ dominant concern is with the human relationship with and to context. Indeed, I argue that the three fantasies reflect the developing understanding of the human role in not only precipitating, but responding to, environmental crisis, and may function as both a reflection of and an intervention in that crisis.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 200

Sustainably reconciling offshore renewable energy developments with Natura 2000 sites: an adaptive management framework

This thesis investigates how the ecosystem-based principles of resilience and adaptive management can be best implemented under the appropriate assessment of the Habitats Directive to reconcile the increasing demand for offshore renewable energy (ORE) and biodiversity conservation. Particular heed is given to the question of how the implementation of the Habitats Directive can be coupled with the development of nascent ORE technologies and the potential impacts these innovations may have on marine Natura 2000 species and their habitats. More specifically, the research challenges the strict interpretation of the precautionary principle which has been crystallised by the EU judiciary under the regime of Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive. The jurisprudential interpretation of the Habitats Directive needs to evolve in order to better reflect the ecological and infrastructural challenges associated with deploying innovative renewable energy technologies in dynamic and complex offshore environments. In this vein, the thesis suggests a novel approach to interpretation of the Habitats Directive to help accommodate these legal challenges. In so doing, it reinforces the interface between law and ecological science and considers the utility of embracing the principles of adaptive management as a better methodology to enhance the outcomes of the appropriate assessment and reconcile the interests for offshore renewables and protection of Natura 2000 sites. The aim of this research is solution-based: it seeks to improve the implementation of the assessment requirements of the Habitats Directive before they truly become an ‘obstacle course’ for offshore renewable energy developers

The development and taste of fruit of gold kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. Var. chinensis "Gold3")

The “Gold3” cultivar of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. var. chinensis “Gold3”) has proven to be capable of producing high yields, however, growers have also noted an increased risk of small fruit that have high acidity, low dry matter and poor flavour. This thesis investigated how fruit composition and flavour components develop in “Gold3” kiwifruit, and whether altering the carbohydrate supply using common orchard practises would influence the accumulation and partitioning of the flavour components (starch, sugars and acids) in fruit. Fruit from a “Gold3” orchard were sampled fortnightly, from anthesis through to harvest, from canes receiving five treatment combinations of leaf or fruit thinning and girdling. These treatments increased or decreased carbohydrate supply, either early or late in fruit development. Overall, the “Gold3” fruit demonstrated similar patterns of starch, sugar and acid accumulation to other A. chinensis cultivars, in particular the gold kiwifruit cultivar “Hort16A”, with slight differences in timings and peak concentrations. An altered carbohydrate supply to developing fruit strongly influenced their composition in unique ways. As expected fresh weight growth and starch accumulation responded positively to a period of high carbohydrate supply. Regulation of organic acids were shown to be more complex, with the concentrations of some acids responding inversely to increased carbohydrate supply. At eating ripe the fruit from lower carbohydrate supply had altered sugar: acid ratios, with increased total acid concentrations, as well as decreased sugar concentrations. To identify how these compositional changes affected the taste of fruit at eating ripeness, a controlled consumer sensory experiment was carried out with 78 inexperienced consumers. Fruit from the different treatments were all perceived as having acceptable flavours, despite the fruit having significant differences in the standard flavour determinants (DM, rSSC and TA). Consumers were able to detect differences in sugar and acid concentrations between treatments. Low carbohydrate supply treatments had significantly higher TA, citric acid and quinic acid concentrations, combined with lower °Brix, DM and sucrose concentrations at eating ripe. Consumers more closely associated these fruit with being more acidic and having more sour and under-ripe flavours compared to the treatments that received increased carbohydrate supply. Overall the results of the research support the hypothesis that “Gold3” kiwifruit are vulnerable to changes in composition due to changes in growing conditions, and that these changes influence flavour as perceived by consumers. These effects may be more pronounced in orchards where high crop loads, shading, or variation in leaf to fruit ratio between shoots create populations of even more carbon deficient fruit

The early stages of heart development: insights from chicken embryos

The heart is the first functioning organ in the developing embryo and the detailed understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in its formation provides insights into congenital malformations affecting its function and therefore the survival of the organism. Because many developmental mechanisms are highly conserved, it is possible to extrapolate from observations made in invertebrate and vertebrate model organisms to human. This review will highlight the contributions made through studying heart development in avian embryos, particularly the chicken. The major advantage of chick embryos is their accessibility for surgical manipulations and functional interference approaches, both gain- and loss-of-function. In addition to experiments performed in ovo, the dissection of tissues for ex vivo culture, genomic or biochemical approaches, is straightforward. Furthermore, embryos can be cultured for time-lapse imaging, which enables tracking of fluorescently labeled cells and detailed analyses of tissue morphogenesis. Owing to these features, investigations in chick embryos have led to important discoveries, often complementing genetic studies in mouse and zebrafish. As well as including some historical aspects, we cover here some of the crucial advances made in understanding of early heart development using the chicken model

Schizophrenia and the progression of emotional expression in relation to others

Gaining an improved understanding of people diagnosed with schizophrenia has the potential to influence priorities for therapy. Psychosis is commonly understood through the perspective of the medical model. However, the experience of social context surrounding psychosis is not well understood. In this research project we used a phenomenological methodology with a longitudinal design to interview 7 participants across a 12-month period to understand the social experiences surrounding psychosis. Eleven themes were explicated and divided into two phases of the illness experience: (a) transition into emotional shutdown included the experiences of not being acknowledged, relational confusion, not being expressive, detachment, reliving the past, and having no sense of direction; and (b) recovery from emotional shutdown included the experiences of being acknowledged, expression, resolution, independence, and a sense of direction. The experiential themes provide clinicians with new insights to better assess vulnerability, and have the potential to inform goals for therapy

Identifying opportunities for optimising the management of high-risk COPD patients in Australia : an observational study

Acknowledgements: We thank Dominique Novic, Ata Kichkin, Chi Ming Lau, John Pakos, Josephine Samuel-king, Bruce Willet and the Research Working Group for their valuable contribution.Peer reviewe

The Neural Crest Migrating into the Twenty-First Century

From the initial discovery of the neural crest over 150 years ago to the seminal studies of Le Douarin and colleagues in the latter part of the twentieth century, understanding of the neural crest has moved from the descriptive to the experimental. Now, in the twenty-first century, neural crest research has migrated into the genomic age. Here, we reflect upon the major advances in neural crest biology and the open questions that will continue to make research on this incredible vertebrate cell type an important subject in developmental biology for the century to come

Ending the reign of short-acting β2-agonists in Australia?

Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge and thank Steph James, Kiran Dhillon, Sophie Jones, Rob Campbell, Ying Liu, Marion Magee, Ondrej Rejda, Lisa Sugg, and Nicole O'Sullivan for their valuable contributions.Peer reviewe

Head segmentation in vertebrates

Classic theories of vertebrate head segmentation clearly exemplify the idealistic nature of comparative embryology prior to the 20th century. Comparative embryology aimed at recognizing the basic, primary structure that is shared by all vertebrates, either as an archetype or an ancestral developmental pattern. Modern evolutionary developmental (Evo-Devo) studies are also based on comparison, and therefore have a tendency to reduce complex embryonic anatomy into overly simplified patterns. Here again, a basic segmental plan for the head has been sought among chordates. We convened a symposium that brought together leading researchers dealing with this problem, in a number of different evolutionary and developmental contexts. Here we give an overview of the outcome and the status of the field in this modern era of Evo-Devo. We emphasize the fact that the head segmentation problem is not fully resolved, and we discuss new directions in the search for hints for a way out of this maze