Connectedness to cultural heritage among generations of Abruzzese Italian from Griffith NSW

The thesis centres on the concept of connectedness to Italian cultural heritage for second and subsequent generations of descendants. The study uses semi-structured interviews with participants to investigate cultural identity for the descendants of migrants, the meaning and value attached to such identity and how these identities, once formed, may change, be maintained and transmitted among generations. The participants who inform this study are descendants of Italian migrants from the Abruzzo region in Italy who settled and raised their families in the town of Griffith in southwest NSW. Questions are investigated a) within the particular context of a rural community with a strong Italian presence (that is Griffith), (b) within a particular regional group (that is descendants of Abruzzese migrants), and (c) among different generations (that is participants who had a parent, grandparent or a great grandparent who were of Italian origin). This study explores six factors that work towards forming a sense of connectedness, namely: the family, cultural manifestations of Italian identity, visits to Italy, interaction with family in Italy, Italian language and dialect, and intermarriage. These factors rove the discussion with participants and were the basis of analysis. Findings indicate that to varying degrees participants have maintained a connection to their cultural heritage. What distinguishes them is the different connotations placed on the manifestations of that connectedness

Evidence for cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in foetal programming of hypertension following a maternal high fat or high sucrose diet

Studies support the hypothesis that a maternal high fat (HFD) or high sucrose (HSU) diet during pregnancy is associated with hypertension in offspring due to mechanisms of fetal programming. In this study we tested the programming effect of a HFD and HSU diet on cardiovascular and autonomic responses at rest and in response to dehydration (DS) and air jet (AJ) stress. Pregnant rat dams were placed on a HFD (59% fat), HSU (10%w/v) or control (5% fat) diet. At 6 months the offspring were implanted with telemetry blood pressure transmitters. BP and derived spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity, heart rate variability and BP variability were measured at rest, during DS and during AJ. Offspring from a maternal HF diet show elevated BP at rest compared to controls. In response to AJ and DS, all animals showed an increase in cardiovascular variables, however, the magnitude of increase in cardiovascular variables were similar between groups in both male and female rats. We found limited evidence of altered autonomic function in the HFD rats, despite their higher blood pressure. Offspring from a maternal HSU diet showed no differences in cardiovascular or autonomic responses at rest or in response to either DS or AJ

Nutrition and ocular disease in an older Australian cohort : the Blue Mountains Eye Study

Wolfram syndrome patients are mainly characterised by juvenile onset diabetes mellitus and optic atrophy. A synonym is the acronym DIDMOAD: diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy, deafness. Diabetes insipidus and sensorineural high-frequency hearing impairment are important additional features. This rare autosomal recessively inherited neurodegenerative syndrome is caused by mainly inactivating mutations in the WFS1 gene. It is located at chromosome 4p16 and encodes wolframin, a transmembrane protein. No function has yet been ascribed to this protein

Foraging gene expression patterns in eusocial sweat bees using qRT-PCR

In nine patients with unilateral deafness and normal hearing in the contralateral ear, measurements of sound localization and speech perception were obtained before intervention, with a conventional contralateral routing of sound (CROS) hearing aid and later with a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) implanted in the deaf ear. Sound localization did not show any differences between the three conditions. Speech perception using short, everyday sentences showed a reduction in the head-shadow effect of 2 dB for both the conventional CROS hearing aid and the BAHA in comparison to the unaided condition. Patients' real-life experiences of the three conditions were evaluated using the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) questionnaire. The results showed a significant benefit with the BAHA in situations involving background noise and reverberation and a reduced aversion to loud sounds in comparison to the unaided and conventional CROS conditions

Analysis of a new family of DC-DC converters with input-parallel output-series structure

There is an increasing trend of development and installation of switching power supplies due to their highly efficient power conversion, fast power control and high quality power conditioning for applications such as renewable energy integration and energy storage management systems. In most of these applications, high voltage conversion ratio is required. However, basic switching converters have limited voltage conversion ratio. There has been much research into development of high gain power converters. While most of the reported topologies focus on high gain and high efficiency, in this thesis, the input and output ripple currents and reliability are also considered to derive a new converter structure suitable for high step-up voltage conversion applications. High ripple currents and voltages at the input and output of dc-dc converters are not desirable because they may affect the operation of the dc source or the load. A number of converters operating in an interleaved manner can reduce these ripples. This thesis proposes a dc/dc switching converter structure which is capable of reducing the ripple problem through interleaved action, in addition to high gain and high efficiency voltage conversion. The thesis analyses the proposed converter structure through a dual buck-boost converter topology. The structure allows different converter topologies and combinations of them for different applications to be configured. The study begins with a motivation and a literature review of dc/dc converters. The new family of high step-up converters is introduced with an interleaved buck-boost as an example, followed by small-signal analysis. Experimental verifications, conclusions and future work are discussed

Functional surface micropatterns by dewetting of thin polymer films

Patterned polymer surfaces are of great importance with respect to an increasing number of technological and bio-medical applications, due to their great versatility in terms of chemical composition, properties and processing techniques. Surface micro-patterning by spontaneous dewetting of thin polymer films represents a versatile and robust process to fabricate surfaces with controlled topography and chemistry at the micro-scale. In this Thesis, we used polymer dewetting in combination with complementary approaches to engineer both surface chemistry and the ordering of the dewetting patterns. The dewetting of poly(D,L-glycolide-co-lactide) (PLGA) thin films on polystyrene (PS) was combined with the grafting of protein-repellent poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), in order to form topographical and chemical surface micropatterns consisting in protein-adhesive PS domains surrounded by protein-repellent PEG-grafted PLGA films. The produced micropatterned surfaces were used for site-specific protein adsorption, and represent a promising platform for biological applications, such as proteomics, single-cell studies and tissue engineering. Spatially ordered surface micropatterns were obtained by combining polymer dewetting with microcontact printing and colloidal lithography, respectively. The dewetting of thin PS films was guided within specific regions of the substrate by prestamping of the silicon substrate with self-assembled monolayers of an alkylsilane by microcontact printing. Ordered micropatterns consisting in arrays of holes with tunable size were obtained by exploiting the spontaneous dewetting of poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (P4VP) thin films on PS from the holes produced by colloidal imprinting with two-dimensional colloidal crystals assembled on the polymer bilayer

The Computation of Surface Lightness in Simple and Complex Scenes

The present thesis examined how reflectance properties and the complexity of surface mesostructure (small-scale surface relief) influence perceived lightness in centresurround displays. Chapters 2 and 3 evaluated the role of surface relief, gloss, and interreflections on lightness constancy, which was examined across changes in background albedo and illumination level. For surfaces with visible mesostructure (“rocky” surfaces), lightness constancy across changes in background albedo was better for targets embedded in glossy versus matte surfaces. However, this improved lightness constancy for gloss was not observed when illumination varied. Control experiments compared the matte and glossy rocky surrounds to two control displays, which matched either pixel histograms or a phase-scrambled power spectrum. Lightness constancy was improved for rocky glossy displays over the histogram-matched displays, but not compared to phase-scrambled variants of these images with equated power spectrums. The results were similar for surfaces rendered with 1, 2, 3 and 4 interreflections. These results suggest that lightness perception in complex centre-surround displays can be explained by the distribution of contrast across space and scale, independently of explicit information about surface shading or specularity. The results for surfaces without surface relief (“homogeneous” surfaces) differed qualitatively to rocky surfaces, exhibiting abrupt steps in perceived lightness at points at which the targets transitioned from being increments to decrements. Chapter 4 examined whether homogeneous displays evoke more complex mid-level representations similar to conditions of transparency. Matching target lightness in a homogeneous display to that in a textured or rocky display required varying both lightness and transmittance of the test patch on the textured display to obtain the most satisfactory matches. However, transmittance was only varied to match the contrast of targets against homogeneous surrounds, and not to explicitly match the amount of transparency perceived in the displays. The results suggest perceived target-surround edge contrast differs between homogeneous and textured displays. Varying the mid-level property of transparency in textured displays provides a natural means for equating both target lightness and the unique appearance of the edge contrast in homogeneous displays

Emoto - visualising the online response to London 2012.

In recent years we have moved from data scarcity to data abundance. As a response, a variety of methods have been adopted in art, design, business, science and government to understand and communicate meaning in data through visual form. emoto (emoto2012.org) is one such project, it visualised the online audience response to a major global event, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. emoto set out to both give expression to and augment online social phenomena, that are emergent and only recently made possible by access to huge real-time data streams. This report charts the development and release of the project, and positions it in relation to current debates on data and visualisation, for example, around the bias and accessibility of the data, and how knowledge practices are changing in an era of so-called 'big data.

Research Report 2008–2009

The NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre at the University of Sydney runs large multicentre investigator-initiated clinical trials, takes part in trials of national and international collaborative trial groups and contributes expertise to trials run by others. It also: • undertakes research into trial methods and is recognised through publications as a leader in trial methodology • reviews and synthesises evidence from completed trials, and is at the forefront of developments in methods, such as prospective meta-analysis • advises on trial design and operation, and randomises patients and analyses data for other groups conducting trials, particularly through its Outreach program • takes a lead in proposing new directions for trial research in Australia, particularly with regard to integrating clinical trials with national policy and clinical practice • offers placements for postgraduate students in all of these areas • runs short courses in the design and conduct of clinical trials as part of its undertaking to train people for Australian medical research. Core funding is provided by the NHMRC, and specific projects are funded by government, public and private institutions and the pharmaceutical industry. The CTC is at two sites in Camperdown in inner Sydney — the Medical Foundation Building on Parramatta Road and on Mallett Street. This report covers the CTC’s achievements for the biennium 2008–200

Comparing ‘apples with apples’: professional accounting practices in university classroom discourse

How are professional accounting practices represented in university classroom discourse and what are the implications of this for theory and practice in professional learning? Professional accounting practices order the world, and are also ordered. In reducing the complexities of social activity to abstract meanings that render it measurable, diverse and complex structures can be compared ‘apples with apples’. This study investigates the relocalization of professional accounting practices in university classroom discourse, working with tools from Legitimation Code Theory, systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis. Findings draw on digital recordings of seminars presented by three lecturers in different subjects of a Master of Accounting program in an Australian metropolitan university. The analysis examines movements between context-independent and more context-dependent meanings in classroom discourse that mark shifts in emphasis from accounting as a system of representation, to accounting as interpersonal exchange. It considers two sets of social relations at play in the professional classroom: those between lecturers and students, and those within professional practice that are relocalized in classroom discourse. The framework developed in this study complements current research within the sociology of education. Discussion connects the analysis with recent explorations of knowledge practices in education within Legitimation Code Theory. It draws on foundational principles of a systemic functional model of language, considering the basis of professional practice and professional learning in interpersonal exchange. Conclusions are oriented towards theory and practice in professional learning, recognizing professional educators as agents of change and mediators of ways of thinking and acting in their field that are potentially transformative