Land Rich, Dirt Poor? Aboriginal land rights, policy failure and policy change from the colonial era to the Northern Territory Intervention

This thesis examines the development of Aboriginal land policy in the Northern Territory of Australia, and uses a policy dynamics approach to analyse the policy decision making in this area over long time periods. This approach is useful in helping to uncover key areas of continuity, and gradual change, in Aboriginal land policy, since the early colonial era, and it draws attention to the ways in which policies framed around Aboriginal land rights in the current era have retained links to the earliest policies framed during invasion and settlement. The thesis argues that path dependency has been a very significant feature of Aboriginal land policy, and the Howard Coalition government’s recent amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 in 2006 and 2007 are better understood as a part of a much longer policy trajectory. The thesis identifies five distinct (though overlapping) temporal sequences: (a) the early colonial era, marked by fear, brutality and misunderstanding between settlers and Indigenous people; (b) the humanitarian era, shaped by the Buxton committee report of 1837 which called for the creation of Aboriginal reserves as both compensation and a form of protection; (c) the later protection era which saw early humanitarian impulses turn to a greater focus on segregation and control; (d) the assimilation era, where reserves were closed in the southern parts of Australia, with the expectation that Aboriginal people join white society, while extensive reserves were retained in the north where Aboriginal people were understood to retain traditional customs and lifestyles; and (e) the land rights era, where activist campaigns in response to prominent conflicts over non-Indigenous use of Aboriginal land for pastoral and mining resulted in governments converting reserves into Aboriginal-owned land, under inalienable communal title. Two critical junctures, in the form of government reviews, are pinpointed as moments where substantial policy change has been rendered possible: the Buxton committee in 1837 and the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission led by Justice Edward Woodward in 1973-4. Outside these critical junctures, policy development has been incremental. The thesis explores the shifting frames used by policy makers around Indigenous land from the colonial era to the present day with respect to four themes: the purpose of allocating sections of land for Aboriginal use or recognition of ownership, access to Indigenous land, difference in terms of Indigenous expectations of ownership and relationship with land, and the governance or power to make decisions with respect to Indigenous land. It traces these themes from the initial formulations of Aboriginal rights to land in terms of humanitarian protection, social justice and economic development in the early colonial era, through to the rise of the land rights movement in the 1960s and the current focus on marketisation, economic development and the push to use Indigenous land to alleviate disadvantage. Careful tracing of each of these themes over time illuminates the path dependency which dominates in this policy area, and isolates the two critical junctures where substantial leaps in problem definition are discernible. The thesis considers Aboriginal land rights policy in the Northern Territory in the light of the current dominant debate around policy failure in Indigenous affairs, and reflects on the Howard government’s strategic use of the frame of policy failure to explain the need for the government to “wind back” land rights. The thesis uses contemporary theory concerning the politics of evaluation (including emphasis on short term contingency and political strategy) and the political use of evidence and expertise in policy making to explain the development of policy on Aboriginal land through each identified temporal sequence, up to and including the most recent sequence spanning the Howard government’s 2006 amendments and the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. The thesis observes the erratic and selective use of expert knowledge of Aboriginal people and their economic, social, spiritual and political relationship with the land, and the persistent triumph of settler ideology over Aboriginal interests in land policy

Students\u27 needs and attitudes: EFL education in Japanese high schools

Much of the literature on EFL education in Japan describes a system that is fraught with problems. Over the last decade the Japanese Education Ministry (Monbusho) has introduced a number of reforms and introduced some new EFL courses into Japanese schools. The stated aim of the new courses has been to focus on the development of students\u27 communicative abilities in English. However, the effectiveness of these reforms has been questioned particularly at the senior high school level. According to a number of commentators, difficulties occur because of a back wash effect of the university entrance examinations. Others criticise the teachers for continuing to use traditional teaching methods that may no longer satisfy the needs of present generation students

Ion thruster project

The mercury bombardment electrostatic ion thruster is the most successful electric thruster available today. A 5 cm diameter ion thruster with 3,000 specific impulse and 5mN thrust is described. The advantages of electric propulsion and the tests that will be performed are also presented

Towards tailored superplasticizers

Superplasticizers (SP) of the “new generation” are essentially polycarboxylate polymers. Polymers of this family can be produced with almost infinite variations in their chemical structure, which allow the fulfilment of specific (tailored) properties. These polymers are more efficient for water reduction and for keeping concrete workability for longer periods. Another class of superplasticizer also available essentially for extreme specifications, is poly(oxyethylen) phosphonates. A few years ago, one objective of superplasticizer development was to produce very robust SPs usable in all types of concrete with limited incompatibilities. It seems now that such a product will probably never exist due to the underlying complexity and variability of cement. More versatile SPs can, however, be obtained by blending different polymers. As the interactions cement/superplasticizer are better understood, tailored SPs for given applications are becoming more readily available. This paper aims at highlighting some key structure-property relationships of these different SPs. The role of the polymer fraction that does not get adsorb onto cement particles is also mentioned

A Wavefunction Description for a Localized Quantum Particle in Curved Spacetimes

We reduce Dirac's spinor formalism for a spin 1/2 particle to a complex wavefunction description in curved spacetimes. We consider a localized fermionic particle in curved spacetimes and perform an expansion in terms of the acceleration and curvature around the center of mass of the system, generalizing the results of [Phys. Rev. D 22, 1922]. Under a non-relativistic approximation, one obtains a quantum description in a Hilbert space of complex wavefunctions defined in the rest space of the system. The wavefunction of the particle then evolves according to a modified Schr\"odinger equation associated with a symmetric Hamiltonian. When compared to the standard Schr\"odinger equation for a wavefunction, we obtain corrections in terms of the acceleration of the system's center of mass and curvature of spacetime along its trajectory. In summary, we provide a formalism for the use of a complex wavefunction to describe a localized quantum particle in curved spacetimes.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure. RevTeX 4.1. V3. Improved the introduction, added references and fixed minor typo

The role of quantum degrees of freedom of relativistic fields in quantum information protocols

We analyze the differences between relativistic fields with or without quantum degrees of freedom in relativistic quantum information protocols. We classify the regimes where the existence of quantum degrees of freedom is necessary to explain the phenomenology of interacting quantum systems. We also identify the precise regimes where quantum fields can be well approximated by quantum-controlled classical fields in relativistic quantum information protocols. Our results can be useful to discern which features are fundamentally different in classical and quantum field theory.Comment: 16 pages + appendix, 9 figure

What gravity mediated entanglement can really tell us about quantum gravity

We revisit the Bose-Marletto-Vedral (BMV) table-top experimental proposal - which aims to witness quantum gravity using gravity mediated entanglement - analyzing the role of locality in the experiment. We first carry out a fully quantum modelling of the interaction of matter and gravity and then show in what way gravity mediated entanglement in the BMV experiment could be accounted for without appealing to quantum degrees of freedom of the gravitational field. We discuss what assumptions are needed in order to interpret the current BMV experiment proposals as a proof of quantum gravity, and also identify the modifications that a BMV-like experiment could have in order to serve as proof of quantum gravity without having to assume the existence of a local mediators in the gravitational field.Comment: 5 pages + appendices, 1 figure. V4: incorporated feedback, and improved presentatio

Adsorption de polycarboxylates et de lignosulfonates sur poudre modèle et ciments

Placing concrete requires much more water than the cement needs for its hydration. This results in an important porosity in the hardened concrete, which accentuates the degradation of this material. By adding small amounts of polymeric admixtures, called superplasticizers, to the fresh concrete one can significantly reduce the amount of water required to obtain the suitable workability. The plasticizing effect of superplasticizers has been studied for many years, and remains today, an ongoing field of research. This research led to a better understanding of the forces that act during the deflocculation and dispersion of cement grains induced by superplasticizers. This research work was performed within the framework of the "Superplast" European project. Its main objective has been to determine which parameters (molecular structure, induced charge, adsorption mode, molar mass) influence the plasticizing effects of superplasticizers. The results of this study will allow synthesis new polymeric admixtures with better performances than those currently available. For this study, two types of superplasticizers were selected: lignosulfonates and polycarboxylates. For each one, different samples were synthesised and characterised. For each sample, adsorption, rheological and interaction forces measurements were performed by our partners while we have performed adsorption and electroacoustic measurements on model powder suspensions. Different cement model powders were investigated and a magnesium oxide was selected. The particle size distribution and reactivity were carefully characterized. The inert model system (MgO) allowed us to study adsorption mechanisms without the complexity linked to cement hydration reactions that modify surface and solution of the suspension. Particle surface charge and pH are the two main parameters that influence the polymer adsorption and the polymer conformation. Magnesium oxide which has a high isoelectric point (around at pH 12.4) allows a surface charge similar to cement suspensions at high pH. First, we have measured the adsorption isotherms of all superplasticizers on model suspensions in NaOH (0.01M). This study allowed us to evaluate the affinity of each polymer for MgO and its adsorption plateau. These measurements showed that the lignosulfonates have a higher affinity than the polycarboxylates. They also showed that lignosulfonate adsorption is mainly influenced by their molar mass and their carboxylic group content (for similar sulfonate group content) while polycarboxylate adsorption is mainly driven by the backbone length, the side chain length and the carboxylic group content. Adsorption plateaux allowed us to calculate the surface coverage ratio and to estimate the superplasticizer conformation on the surface. Adsorption isotherms were finally measured on a Portland cement. The polymer adsorption is influenced by the same parameters as on MgO. The model system MgO is representative for the polymer adsorption on cement. In a second step, different electrolytes were added to model suspensions. This practice allowed us to study separately the effect of the main ions present in cement suspensions (Na+, Ca2+, SO42-, OH-) and to mimic the ionic composition of the aqueous phase of the cement suspension. Lignosulfonate adsorption is neither influenced by the studied ions or the pH. Only an increase of ionic strength increases the adsorbed polymer mass. Polycarboxylate adsorption is influenced by calcium and sulfate ions and by the particle surface charge. Finally, superplasticizer adsorption was studied on different cements by our partners and on a fly ash and a silica fume by ourselves. Lignosulfonate adsorption isotherms on cements showed that affinity and adsorbed polymer mass increases with the C3A content and decreases with the alkalis content. The isotherms measured on industrial by-products showed that superplasticizers adsorb on fly ash, but not on silica fume

Harvesting entanglement from the gravitational vacuum

We study how quantum systems can harvest entanglement from the quantum degrees of freedom of the gravitational field. Concretely, we describe in detail the interaction of non-relativistic quantum systems with linearized quantum gravity, and explore how two spacelike separated probes can harvest entanglement from the gravitational field in this context. We provide estimates for the harvested entanglement for realistic probes which can be experimentally relevant in the future, since entanglement harvesting experiments can provide evidence for the existence of quantum degrees of freedom of gravity.Comment: 18 pages + appendices, 16 figures, revTex 4.