Jonathan Harvey's 'Tombeau de Messiaen' : A fitting tribute to a great composer

Philip Mead commissioned and first performed 'Tombeau de Messiaen' in 1994. It has since come to be recognised as a classic of the medium, being performed by many pianists around the world. This paper explores the work's"raison d'etre"; its relationship to the piano music of Messiaen and the nature of the piano writing; its relationship to his other works; and the many fascinating insights I learned about the work through working closely with the composer in preparation for the first performance.Peer reviewe

Ability of History Taking Alone to Identify Early Pregnancies Among Potential Measles Vaccinees

Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the ability of history taking alone, compared with pregnancy testing, to identify early pregnancies among potential female measles vaccinees

A sensitivity analysis of the prediction of the nitrogen fertilizer requirement of cauliflower crops using the HRI WELL_N computer model

HRI WELL_N is an easy to use computer model, which has been used by farmers and growers since 1994 to predict crop nitrogen (N) requirements for a wide range of agricultural and horticultural crops. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to investigate the model predictions of the N fertilizer requirement of cauliflower crops, and, at that rate, the yield achieved, yield response to the fertilizer applied, N uptake, NO3-N leaching below 30 and 90 cm and mineral N at harvest. The sensitivity to four input factors – soil mineral N before planting, mineralization rate of soil organic matter, expected yield and duration of growth – was assessed. Values of these were chosen to cover ranges between 40% and 160% of values typical for field crops of cauliflowers grown in East Anglia. The assessments were made for three soils – sand, sandy loam and silt – and three rainfall scenarios – an average year and years with 144% or 56% of average rainfall during the growing season. The sensitivity of each output variable to each of the input factors (and interactions between them) was assessed using a unique ‘sequential' analysis of variance approach developed as part of this research project. The most significant factors affecting N fertilizer requirement across all soil types/rainfall amounts were soil mineral N before planting and expected yield. N requirement increased with increasing yield expectation, and decreased with increasing amounts of soil mineral N before planting. The responses to soil mineral N were much greater when higher yields were expected. Retention of N in the rooting zone was predicted to be poor on light soils in the wettest conditions suggesting that to maximize N use, plants needed to grow rapidly and have reasonable yield potential. Assessment of the potential impacts of errors in the values of the input factors indicated that poor estimation of, in particular, yield expectation and soil mineral N before planting could lead to either yield loss or an increased level of potentially leachable soil mineral N at harvest. The research demonstrates the benefits of using computer simulation models to quantify the main factors for which information is needed in order to provide robust N fertilizer recommendations

Reading the local and global: teaching literature in secondary schools in Australia

Recently Australia has witnessed a revival of concern about the place of Australian literature within the school curriculum. This has occurred within  a policy environment where there is increasing emphasis on Australia’s place  in a world economy, and on the need to encourage young people to think of  themselves in a global context. These dimensions are reflected in the  recently published Australian Curriculum: English, which requires students to read texts of ‘enduring artistic and cultural value’ that are drawn from  \u27world and Australian literature’. No indication, however, is given as to how the reading and literary interpretation that students do might meaningfully be framed by such categories. This essay asks: what saliences do the categories of the ‘local’, the ‘national’ and the ‘global’ have when  young people engage with literary texts? How does this impact on teachers’  and students’ interpretative approaches to literature? What place does a  ‘literary’ education, whether conceived in ‘local’, \u27national’ or ‘global’  terms, have in the twenty-first century

A History of the Book in Australia

review of A History of the Book in Australia 1891-1945: A National Culture in a Colonised Market. Eds Martin Lyons and John Arnold. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2001. Paper Empires: A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005. Eds Craig Munro and Robyn Sheahan-Bright. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2006. Making Books: Contemporary Australian Publishing. Eds David Carter and Anne Galligan. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2007

A Prose Kinema: Kenneth Slessor's Film Writing

This article notes that Slessor was a film critic as part of journalistic duties and argues that the modernity of his poetry is related to his interest in film, which included drafting a film script of Lindsay's Redheap. An appendix presents his review of The Thirty Nine Steps

The Injusticeable and the Imaginable

n/

Proust at Caloundra

Review of Robert Dixon and Brigid Rooney, eds Scenes of Reading: Is Australian Literature a World Literature