Going beyond archiving - a collaborative tool for typological research

The work described in this paper aims to outline some of the design aspects for a collaborative tool for typological research. This tool is designed to allow for the collation, from multiple contributors, of linguistic examples and their analysis with regards to an open set of variation dimensions of both onomasiological and semasiological nature. The resulting knowledge base combines linguistically relevant categories of human conceptualisation (e.g. in-group, such as ethnic or family group, categories) together with their linguistic coding (e.g. in gender affixes, verbal agreement), all based on actual linguistic examples from diverse natural languages as its underlying data-driven foundation. The system is based on Semantic Web technology and hence can be queried in a flexible way that allows for combining any variation dimensions within a query (e.g. it allows to answer questions such as which languages exhibit joint attention marking by way of verbal suffixing). We will focus on design aspects relating to sustainable data. How can sustainable data for such a project be delimited? Surely, this encompasses commonly accepted aspects such as standards conformity, longevity, and accessibility, which we will address in the paper. Additionally and in particular, however, we will argue that user orientation and involvement is a critical factor. Following on from this, the tool is designed in a way that it (i) does not require linguistic users to be trained extensively in system usage, (ii) allows linguists to deploy their standard methods of data entry (e.g. interlinear glossing), and (iii) provides contributors with immediate integration of their own with previously entered data and access to the resulting analysis (i.e. querying) and research potential. The paper will roughly be structured as follows: We will describe the background and aims of the project, and contextualise it in relation to other similar projects. We will then concentrate on how sustainability is addressed, discussing a number of different facets of sustainability. This includes data storage formats, user interface and workflow modelling, knowledge base design, and system features (in particular system output). We will also outline some problems that have arisen so far and close with an outlook on future development.PARADISEC (Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories, Ethnographic E-Research Project and Sydney Object Repositories for Research and Teaching

The Role of Social Identity Inclusiveness and Structure in Intergroup Relations: Individual and Contextual Differences in Ethnic and Religious Minority Group Members

This thesis proposes a conceptual and operational framework to examine how minority group members subjectively construe their ingroup. Four community studies were devised to test this framework, and to examine individual versus contextual differences in ingroup construals. Chapter 1 provides a critical analysis of existing models of multiple social identities. Subsequently, a new conceptual framework is proposed to assess how minority group members construe their ingroup in the context of multiple, cross-cutting group memberships. The subjective combination of multiple ingroups is described in terms of Social Identity Structure (SIS) and Inclusiveness (SII). Chapter 2 introduces a method, the Triple-Crossed Categorisation Task, to measure both constructs. The validity of SII and SIS is assessed in a sample of Turkish Australian Muslim adults (Chapter 3), and adolescents (Chapter 4). Both studies showed SII to be a valid construct, distinct from measures of identification, and positively related to outgroup contact. Moreover, eight different SIS’s were replicated across both studies, further attesting to the validity of the conceptual model. Importantly, across both studies, SII uniquely predicted attitudes toward a range of outgroups. The following chapters examine whether and how Turkish Australian Muslims alter their ingroup construals after exposure to a religious identity threat versus reassurance (Chapter 5), or to a religious versus ethnic identity threat (Chapter 6). In both experiments, SII was not affected by threat. The distribution of SIS’s did show some effects of threat, but the pattern was not consistent across studies. Finally, Chapter 7 discusses these findings in light of the individual and contextual factors surrounding minority members’ ingroup construals. The contributions to the study of multiple social identities, practical implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed as well

Resource Provisioning Exploiting Cost and Performance Diversity within IaaS Cloud Providers

IaaS platforms such as Amazon EC2 allow clients access to massive computational power in the form of instances. Amazon hosts three different instance purchasing options, each with its own SLA covering pricing and availability. Amazon also offers access to a number of geographical regions, zones, and instance types to select from. In this thesis, the problem of utilizing Spot and On-Demand instances is analyzed and two approaches are presented in order to exploit the cost and performance diversity among different instance types and availability zones, and among the Spot markets they represent. We first develop RAMP, a framework designed to calculate the expected profit of using a specific Spot or On-Demand instance through an evaluation of instance reliability. RAMP is extended to develop RAMC-DC, a framework designed to allocate the most cost effective instance through strategies that facilitate interchangeability of instances among short jobs, reliability of instances among long jobs, and a comparison of the estimated costs of possible allocations. RAMC-DC achieves fault tolerance through comparisons of the price dynamics across instance types and availability zones, and through an examination of three basic checkpointing methods. Evaluations demonstrate that both frameworks take a large step toward low-volatility, high cost-efficiency resource provisioning. While achieving early-termination rates as low as 2.2%, RAMP can completely offset the total cost when charging the user just 17.5% of the On-Demand price. Moreover, the increases in profit resulting from relatively small additional charges to users are notably high, i.e., 100% profit compared to the resource provisioning cost with 35% of the equivalent On-Demand price. RAMC-DC can maintain deadline breaches below 1.8% of all jobs, achieve both early-termination and deadline breach rates as low as 0.5% of all jobs, and lowers total costs by between 80% and 87% compared to using only On-Demand instances

Nucleon superfluidity versus thermal states of isolated and transiently accreting neutron stars

The properties of superdense matter in neutron star (NS) cores control NS thermal states by affecting the efficiency of neutrino emission from NS interiors. To probe these properties we confront the theory of thermal evolution of NSs with observations of their thermal radiation. Our observational basis includes cooling isolated NSs (INSs) and NSs in quiescent states of soft X-ray transients (SXTs). We find that the data on SXTs support the conclusions obtained from the analysis of INSs: strong proton superfluidity with T_{cp,max} >= 10^9 K should be present, while mild neutron superfluidity with T_{cn,max} =(2*10^8 -- 2*10^9) K is ruled out in the outer NS core. Here T_{cn,max} and T_{cp,max} are the maximum values of the density dependent critical temperatures of neutrons and protons. The data on SXTs suggest also that: (i) cooling of massive NSs is enhanced by neutrino emission more powerful than the emission due to Cooper pairing of neutrons; (ii) mild neutron superfluidity, if available, might be present only in inner cores of massive NSs. In the latter case SXTs would exhibit dichotomy, i.e. very similar SXTs may evolve to very different thermal states

Learning to Navigate Enterprise Bargaining: The NTEU and Employment Relations in Higher Education

This thesis is built on the premise that Enterprise Bargaining is a difficult thing to do. The introduction of Enterprise Bargaining to the higher education sector was a steep learning curve for all parties. This thesis focuses on leadership, strategic decision making and organisation learning in the National Tertiary Education Union. It offers a novel approach to the study of workplace leadership and organisational learning by combining traditional approaches to the study of trade unions with research in the fields of knowledge management and social network theory to study the learning process in the NTEU. Mapping the decision making process over time for four rounds of enterprise bargaining in higher education has shown how learning is cumulative as lessons learned are folded into a collective understanding which guided the NTEU’s approach to the next problem. A further major finding relates to the process of innovation. The process of adapting t o the changing external environment was often accompanied by clashes of opinion and battles for influence as new ideas confronted the collective learning of the past. Finally, the site of innovation can be found at any level of the organisation. In the case of the NTEU, it was often from the periphery of the union, the branches, where the full impact of the changes in the external environment was being felt and where new ideas were being developed to address them