WARDANDI BOODJA: TRUTH-TELLING

This exegesis is an art and reconciliation response to the Uluru Statement From the Heart. Wardandi Nyungar Elders, Bill, and Nina Webb inform this project of the 1841 Wonnerup/Minninup massacre. Action Research informs the use of Yarning, decolonisation, and collaboration to hear alternative historical narratives. The project culminated in public art and truth-telling workshops to learn and heal together. I ask can art and yarning assist with historical truth-telling and reconciliation

Molecular basis of heavy-chain class switching and switch region deletion in an Abelson virus-transformed cell line

We demonstrated that a subclone of an Abelson murine leukemia virus-transformed B-lymphoid cell line switched from mu to gamma 2b expression in vitro, by the classical recombination-deletion mechanism. In this line, the expressed VHDJH region and the C gamma 2b constant region gene were juxtaposed by a recombination event which linked the highly repetitive portions of the S mu and S gama 2b regions and resulted in the loss of the C mu gene from the intervening region. An additional recombination event in this subclone involved an internal deletion in the S mu region of the expressed (switched) allele. One end of this deletion occurred very close to the switch recombination point. Despite the recombination-deletion mechanism of switching, the gamma 2b-producing line retained two copies of the C mu gene and two copies of the sequence just 5' to the S gamma 2b recombination point. The possible significance of the retention of these sequences to the mechanism of class switching is discussed

Modelling time-varying gravity fields from Level-1B GRACE data using mascons

PhD ThesisAs an alternative to spherical harmonics, mass concentration (mascon) parameters have been successfully applied to the recovery of time-varying gravity (TVG) fields from the GRACE satellite mission. However, before meaningful mass anomalies can be estimated, the noise and errors inherent in the solutions needs to be quantified and appropriate procedures adopted for mitigation. The uniqueness of the mascon methodology is the capability to mitigate noise and errors using spatial and temporal constraints, which can be adapted and tailored to any geophysical signal of interest. Therefore, in the first instance, this work was motivated by the need to improve the accuracy of GRACE TVG fields by understanding the effect of noise and errors. This study then aims to validate mascons for recovery of basin scale inter-annual mass variability at a 10 day temporal resolution. Newcastle University’s orbit determination software, Faust, was modified to allow for estimation of mascon parameters including: modelling of accelerometer bias values; mascon parameterisation; and processing based on short-arc gravity field recovery and KBRR data. Accuracy assessments were undertaken using simulations in the presence of realistic noise facilitating the comparison of mascons and spherical harmonic coefficients, including an assessment of potential limitations associated with each technique. Comparisons with time-series derived from CSR RL05 Level-2 data validated the mascon TVG field recovery, before estimation of the mass change of Antarctica, Greenland and Alaska. Several hydrological basins, including the Amazon and Indus were also assessed before the GRACE trends resulting from the Sumatra earthquake of 2004 were investigated. While only provided for validation, these comparisons provide confidence in the mascon mass estimates. Between January 2003 and December 2013 a mass change of -83 ± 12 Gt/year and -242 ± 7 Gt/year were estimated for Antarctica and Greenland respectively by linear regression using mascons with a 10 day temporal resolution. Overall, the work undertaken in this thesis provides evidence of the improved accuracy achievable when using mascon parameters to estimating TVG fields from Level-1B GRACE data. ii As part of this work a processing methodology to estimate mascon parameters from Level-1B GRACE data using Newcastle University’s orbit determination software Faust has been established and documented. This leaves the University well placed to continue processing mascon solutions from Level-1B GRACE data and to estimate mascon solutions from the GRACE-FO mission. Through simulations, mascon parameters were found to offer advantages over spherical harmonics for the mitigation of noise and for improving the temporal and spatial recovery of the TVG field from GRACE. The mascon constraint matrix allowed more signal to be preserved up to degree ~35. Using basin constraints, simulation revealed that the constraint matric can be tuned to recovery the gravity changes resulting from any geophysical phenomena of interest. Basin constraints were found to optimise the signal recovery of GLDAS and a known mass change signal over Antarctica and Greenland. A novel way to create realistic noise and errors in the KBRR measurement was also documented. Generating monthly and 10 day mascon solutions using real data revealed that the noise and errors in mascon solutions is comparably lower than in CRS RL05 solution while also validating the mascon methodology established here. Comparison to published mass trends to those estimated using mascon parameters showed that the estimation of mascon parameters has application in the study of mass change in the cryosphere, hydrological applications and for the study of the co-seismic mass changes resulting from earthquakes.NERC

Evaluation of an Adaptive Suspension Vehicle

The Adaptive Suspension Vehicle, a proof-of-concept, six-legged robotic walking machine, was subject to a series of field trials to evaluate the maneuverability and trafficability characteristics of walking machines. Maneuverability trials were structured to test performance as a carrier for frame-mounted feller-buncher heads in both thinning and clearcutting applications. The trafficability trials focused on the type and extent of soil disturbance, especially changes in soil bulk density, mechanical resistance, macro- and micro-porosity, the machine was found to impact the soil very differently than wheeled or tracked equipment. Direct comparisons of soil parameters were limited because of time and budget restrictions but seem to indicate that the legged locomotion offered distinct production and soil disturbance advantages, especially on steep slopes and in wetlands

Performance as City Pandemic Response: Innovations to Innovate

Interim report from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project 'Sustaining Social Distancing and Reimagining City Life'. The report explores the value and importance of performance and the arts to city pandemic preparedness and response processes to identify 5 key challenges facing emergency planning professionals. Partly responding to calls for new approaches and ways of thinking from within emergency planning, we offer a series of 'invitations to innovate' in relation to the challenges identified, inviting conversations on questions of urban resilience, pandemic planning and response and cities’ social and aesthetic performances

A Test Statistic for Weighted Runs

A new test statistic based on success runs of weighted deviations is introduced. Its use for observations sampled from independent normal distributions is worked out in detail. It supplements the classic $\chi^{2}$ test which ignores the ordering of observations and provides additional sensitivity to local deviations from expectations. The exact distribution of the statistic in the non-parametric case is derived and an algorithm to compute $p$-values is presented. The computational complexity of the algorithm is derived employing a novel identity for integer partitions.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. Match published paper as close as possibl

An assessment of forward and inverse GIA solutions for Antarctica

In this work we assess the most recent estimates of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) for Antarctica, including those from both forward and inverse methods. The assessment is based on a comparison of the estimated uplift rates with a set of elastic-corrected GPS vertical velocities. These have been observed from an extensive GPS network and computed using data over the period 2009-2014. We find systematic underestimations of the observed uplift rates in both inverse and forward methods over specific regions of Antarctica characterized by low mantle viscosities and thin lithosphere, such as the northern Antarctic Peninsula and the Amundsen Sea Embayment, where its recent ice discharge history is likely to be playing a role in current GIA. Uplift estimates for regions where many GIA models have traditionally placed their uplift maxima, such as the margins of Filchner-Ronne and Ross ice shelves, are found to be overestimated. GIA estimates show large variability over the interior of East Antarc tica which results in increased uncertainties on the ice-sheet mass balance derived from gravimetry methods