A study of the basic components of seismic hazard assessment for the South Australian area

This thesis examines briefly seismic hazard assessment procedures as used in Australia and overseas. The three base components of any analysis are examined, viz (i) spatial distribution of events within the source, (ii) recurrence of events within the source and (iii) attenuation of effects from the source. The base components are then related specifically to South Australian conditions. It is established that though there are uncertainties in the spatial distribution of events and their recurrence these problems are common to all seismic areas worldwide and these matters are receiving research attention overseas which can be applied here. The passage of time will enable better precision in defining spatial distribution and, recurrence as data are quite well recorded at present- The third component is examined and. it is established that the best use is being mad.e of scant available data at present. However attenuation relationships should not be "borrowed" as presently done from overseas areas without verification and unless strong motion instruments are distributed widely and not grouped at the city centre as at present, little future advance can be anticipated in the accuracy of seismic hazard assessment, due to the weakness inherent in attenuation assumptions.Thesis (M.Eng. Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Civil, Environmental & Mining Engineering, 1983

Organisational improvement through learning organisation theory

A research study was conducted of the management theories and quality philosophies that have been expounded throughout the twentieth century. This study included the modem thinking for quality improvement and business excellence to include the modem concept of Learning Organisations. This research project was undertaken with the aim of producing a framework based on the culture of Learning Organisation Theory and including within it the external influences on such a culture. The framework consisted on a core of human values, divided into five areas that are deemed important to learning organisations. These were surrounded by the basic values of Trust, Honesty and Openness thus protecting the core from outside influence. Elements from traditional management systems theory provided the outer casing for the framework, these elements influencing the core for both good and bad. The contents of the framework were then studied in three organisations of differing background with a view to firmly establishing the elements and areas within the framework for validity in these three organisations. The common theme between all the organisations chosen was that they had all in the recent past been involved in major management and internal change. One study involved the development of a questionnaire and supporting matrices in order to identify the areas and elements of the framework, thus establishing their existence. Active research techniques were used in the other studies in order to establish both 'why' the elements are important and any interrelationship between the areas. As a result of these studies suggestions for modification to the framework were established in order to strengthen the thinking and these were encompassed in to the framework. Probably the most significant of these changes was the inclusion of 'Leadership' as being a major factor in the filtering of undesirable elements. The outcome from the research is that the aim was achieved and a framework was developed that, for the first time, was drawn up in such a way that the elements and areas can easily be recognised and an understanding of what they represent is clearly shown. The reasons as to why these elements are important are also established. This is regarded as an advancement in this field of study.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Positive selection and inactivation in the vision and hearing genes of cetaceans.

The transition to an aquatic lifestyle in cetaceans (whales and dolphins) resulted in a radical transformation in their sensory systems. Toothed whales acquired specialized high-frequency hearing tied to the evolution of echolocation, while baleen whales evolved low-frequency hearing. More generally, all cetaceans show adaptations for hearing and seeing underwater. To determine the extent to which these phenotypic changes have been driven by molecular adaptation, we performed large-scale targeted sequence capture of 179 sensory genes across the Cetacea, incorporating up to 54 cetacean species from all major clades as well as their closest relatives, the hippopotamuses. We screened for positive selection in 167 loci related to vision and hearing, and found that the diversification of cetaceans has been accompanied by pervasive molecular adaptations in both sets of genes, including several loci implicated in non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL). Despite these findings, however, we found no direct evidence of positive selection at the base of odontocetes coinciding with the origin of echolocation, as found in studies examining fewer taxa. By using contingency tables incorporating taxon- and gene-based controls, we show that, while numbers of positively selected hearing and NSHL genes are disproportionately high in cetaceans, counts of vision genes do not differ significantly from expected values. Alongside these adaptive changes, we find increased evidence of pseudogenization of genes involved in cone-mediated vision in mysticetes and deep diving odontocetes

Adaptive Functional Diversification of Lysozyme in Insectivorous Bats

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31172077 to S.Z.), an East China Normal University Fostering Project for National Top Hundred Doctoral Dissertations (PY2011012 to Y.L.), an Innovation Fund of East China Normal University (78210200 to G.H.), and a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council China Partnering Award (BB/G530392/1 to G.J., S.J.R., and S.Z.)

Pasture legume varieties and ewe fertility

ALTHOUGH it was first thought that all varieties of subterranean clover would cause ewe infertility, research in the last 10 to 15 years has shown that varieties differ in potency. The relative level of potency has also been shown to remain consistent for any one variety under normal conditions

A phylogenomic analysis of the role and timing of molecular adaptation in the aquatic transition of cetartiodactyl mammals

This work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC 1076 Starting grant no. 310482) awarded to S.J.R. and a Newton International Fellowship awarded to M.R.M

A new powerful method for probing the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets

Although atmospheric transmission spectroscopy of HD209458b with the Hubble Space Telescope has been very successful, attempts to detect its atmospheric absorption features using ground-based telescopes have so far been fruitless. Here we present a new method for probing the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets which may be more suitable for ground-based observations, making use of the Rossiter effect. During a transit, an exoplanet sequentially blocks off light from the approaching and receding parts of the rotating star, causing an artificial radial velocity wobble. The amplitude of this signal is directly proportional to the effective size of the transiting object, and the wavelength dependence of this effect can reveal atmospheric absorption features, in a similar way as with transmission spectroscopy. The advantage of this method over conventional atmospheric transmission spectroscopy is that it does not rely on accurate photometric comparisons of observations on and off transit, but instead depends on the relative velocity shifts of individual stellar absorption lines within the same on-transit spectra. We used an archival VLT/UVES data set to apply this method to HD209458. The amplitude of the Rossiter effect is shown to be 1.7+-1.2 m/sec higher in the Sodium D lines than in the weighted average of all other absorption lines in the observed wavelength range, corresponding to an increment of 4.3+-3% (1.4 sigma). The uncertainty in this measurement compares to a photometric accuracy of 5e-4 for conventional atmospheric transmission spectroscopy, more than an order of magnitude higher than previous attempts using ground-based telescopes. Observations specifically designed for this method could increase the accuracy further by a factor 2-3.Comment: LaTex, 5 pages, 4 figs; submitted to MNRAS Letter