Introduction : the global flow of creative ideas

In the era of late modernism, various pressures play a decisive role in shaping the texture and meaning of the world around us. Population, work, transportation, new technologies of information and communication, lifestyle cultures and other forces are increasingly mobile, and this in turn helps make for a new set of public and personal surroundings. Social life everywhere now appears to share more and more in an international (if not a global) order, even if inequality and stratification remain common inside territories and across territories. Still, the perception is that a particular cultural life is increasingly universal. More and more consumers come to share in its practices and products, with those products becoming more and more homogeneous. This standardization argument finds much support in the apparent internationalization of many elements of media, entertainment, leisure and lifestyle cultures, with cultural conglomerates determined to maximize their global market reach. Once upon a time, in order to understand the economic, political and cultural forces affecting citizens and society, it was mostly deemed sufficient to look within the boundaries of the nation-state. Over the past two decades, these same pressures of globalization have impacted on critical research, highlighting the methodological need to adopt an optic that is more cross-border and transcultural as a means of gaining greater understanding of cultural life.

Seismic performance of brick infilled RC frame structures in low and medium rise buildings in Bhutan

The construction of reinforced concrete buildings with unreinforced infill is common practice even in seismically active country such as Bhutan, which is located in high seismic region of Eastern Himalaya. All buildings constructed prior 1998 were constructed without seismic provisions while those constructed after this period adopted seismic codes of neighbouring country, India. However, the codes have limited information on the design of infilled structures besides having differences in architectural requirements which may compound the structural problems. Although the influence of infill on the reinforced concrete framed structures is known, the present seismic codes do not consider it due to the lack of sufficient information. Time history analyses were performed to study the influence of infill on the performance of concrete framed structures. Important parameters were considered and the results presented in a manner that can be used by practitioners. The results show that the influence of infill on the structural performance is significant. The structural responses such as fundamental period, roof displacement, inter-storey drift ratio, stresses in infill wall and structural member forces of beams and column generally reduce, with incorporation of infill wall. The structures designed and constructed with or without seismic provision perform in a similar manner if the infills of high strength are used.

Printmaking as an expanding field in contemporary art practice : a case study of Japan, Australia and Thailand

This thesis proposes that contemporary printmaking, at its most significant, marks the present through reconstructing pasts and anticipating futures. It argues this through examples in the field, occurring in contexts beyond the Euramerican (Europe and North America). The arguments revolve around how the practice of a number of significant artists in Japan, Australia and Thailand has generated conceptual and formal innovations in printmaking that transcend local histories and conventions, whilst paradoxically, also building upon them and creating new meanings. The arguments do not portray the relations between contemporary and traditional art as necessarily antagonistic but rather, as productively dialectical. Furthermore, the case studies demonstrate that, in the 1980s and 1990s particularly, the studio practice of these printmakers was informed by other visual arts disciplines and reflected postmodern concerns. Departures from convention witnessed in these countries within the Asia-Pacific region shifted the field of the print into a heterogeneous and hybrid realm. The practitioners concerned (especially in Thailand) produced work that was more readily equated with performance and installation art than with printmaking per se. In Japan, the incursion of photography interrupted the decorative cast of printmaking and delivered it from a straightforward, craft-based aesthetic. In Australia, fixed notions of national identity were challenged by print practitioners through deliberate cultural rapprochements and technical contradictions (speaking across old and new languages).However time-honoured print methods were not jettisoned by any case study artists. Their re-alignment of the fundamental attributes of printmaking, in line with materialist formalism, is a core consideration of my arguments. The artists selected for in-depth analysis from these three countries are all innovators whose geographical circumstances and creative praxis drew on local traditions whilst absorbing international trends. In their radical revisionism, they acknowledged the specificity of history and place, conditions of contingency and forces of globalisation. The transformational nature of their work during the late twentieth century connects it to the postmodern ethos and to a broader artistic and cultural nexus than has hitherto been recognised in literature on the print. Emerging from former guild-based practices, they ambitiously conceived their work to be part of a continually evolving visual arts vocabulary. I argue in this thesis that artists from the Asia-Pacific region have historically broken with the hermetic and Euramerican focus that has generally characterised the field. Inadequate documentation and access to print activity outside the dominant centres of critical discourse imply that readings of postmodernism have been too limited in their scope of inquiry. Other locations offer complexities of artistic practice where re-alignments of customary boundaries are often the norm. By addressing innovative activity in Japan, Australia and Thailand, this thesis exposes the need for a more inclusive theoretical framework and wider global reach than currently exists for ‘printmaking’.

Class language

How social class factors into linguistic practices and use, language change and loss has been a major theme in postwar sociolinguistics and ethnography of communication, language planning and sociology of language. Key foci of linguistic and sociological research include the study of social class in everyday language use, media and institutional texts. A further concern is to understand the relationship between social class stratification, intergenerational social reproduction, and language variation. Bourdieu’s model of linguistic habitus and cultural capital offers a broad theoretical template for examining these relations, even as they are complicated by forces of economic and cultural globalization, new media and identity formations.

Militarising the body politic : new media as weapons of mass instruction

As militarization of bodies politic continues apace the world over, as military organizations again reveal themselves as primary political, economic and cultural forces in many societies, we argue that the emergent and potentially dominant form of political economic organization is a species of neo-feudal corporatism. Drawing upon Bourdieu, we theorize bodies politic as living habitus. Bodies politic are prepared for war and peace through new mediations, powerful means of public pedagogy. The process of militarization requires the generation of new, antagonistic evaluations of other bodies politic. Such evaluations are inculcated via these mediations, the movement of meanings across time and space, between formerly disparate histories, places, and cultures. New mediations touch new and different aspects of the body politic: its eyes, its ears, its organs, but they are consistently targeted at the formation of dispositions, the prime movers of action.

Development of a computer simulation tool for application in adolescent spinal deformity surgery

Scoliosis is a three-dimensional spinal deformity which requires surgical correction in progressive cases. In order to optimize correction and avoid complications following scoliosis surgery, patient-specific finite element models (FEM) are being developed and validated by our group. In this paper, the modeling methodology is described and two clinically relevant load cases are simulated for a single patient. Firstly, a pre-operative patient flexibility assessment, the fulcrum bending radiograph, is simulated to assess the model's ability to represent spine flexibility. Secondly, intra-operative forces during single rod anterior correction are simulated. Clinically, the patient had an initial Cobb angle of 44 degrees, which reduced to 26 degrees during fulcrum bending. Surgically, the coronal deformity corrected to 14 degrees. The simulated initial Cobb angle was 40 degrees, which reduced to 23 degrees following the fulcrum bending load case. The simulated surgical procedure corrected the coronal deformity to 14 degrees. The computed results for the patient-specific FEM are within the accepted clinical Cobb measuring error of 5 degrees, suggested that this modeling methodology is capable of capturing the biomechanical behaviour of a scoliotic human spine during anterior corrective surgery.

Modelling water droplet movement on a leaf surface

The central aim for the research undertaken in this PhD thesis is the development of a model for simulating water droplet movement on a leaf surface and to compare the model behavior with experimental observations. A series of five papers has been presented to explain systematically the way in which this droplet modelling work has been realised. Knowing the path of the droplet on the leaf surface is important for understanding how a droplet of water, pesticide, or nutrient will be absorbed through the leaf surface. An important aspect of the research is the generation of a leaf surface representation that acts as the foundation of the droplet model. Initially a laser scanner is used to capture the surface characteristics for two types of leaves in the form of a large scattered data set. After the identification of the leaf surface boundary, a set of internal points is chosen over which a triangulation of the surface is constructed. We present a novel hybrid approach for leaf surface fitting on this triangulation that combines Clough-Tocher (CT) and radial basis function (RBF) methods to achieve a surface with a continuously turning normal. The accuracy of the hybrid technique is assessed using numerical experimentation. The hybrid CT-RBF method is shown to give good representations of Frangipani and Anthurium leaves. Such leaf models facilitate an understanding of plant development and permit the modelling of the interaction of plants with their environment. The motion of a droplet traversing this virtual leaf surface is affected by various forces including gravity, friction and resistance between the surface and the droplet. The innovation of our model is the use of thin-film theory in the context of droplet movement to determine the thickness of the droplet as it moves on the surface. Experimental verification shows that the droplet model captures reality quite well and produces realistic droplet motion on the leaf surface. Most importantly, we observed that the simulated droplet motion follows the contours of the surface and spreads as a thin film. In the future, the model may be applied to determine the path of a droplet of pesticide along a leaf surface before it falls from or comes to a standstill on the surface. It will also be used to study the paths of many droplets of water or pesticide moving and colliding on the surface.

Resilience in chronic disease : the relationships among risk factors, protective factors, adaptive outcomes, and the level of resilience in adults with diabetes

Background: There are innumerable diabetes studies that have investigated associations between risk factors, protective factors, and health outcomes; however, these individual predictors are part of a complex network of interacting forces. Moreover, there is little awareness about resilience or its importance in chronic disease in adulthood, especially diabetes. Thus, this is the first study to: (1) extensively investigate the relationships among a host of predictors and multiple adaptive outcomes; and (2) conceptualise a resilience model among people with diabetes. Methods: This cross-sectional study was divided into two research studies. Study One was to translate two diabetes-specific instruments (Problem Areas In Diabetes, PAID; Diabetes Coping Measure, DCM) into a Chinese version and to examine their psychometric properties for use in Study Two in a convenience sample of 205 outpatients with type 2 diabetes. In Study Two, an integrated theoretical model is developed and evaluated using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 345 people with type 2 diabetes from the endocrine outpatient departments of three hospitals in Taiwan. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a one-factor structure of the PAID-C which was similar to the original version of the PAID. Strong content validity of the PAID-C was demonstrated. The PAID-C was associated with HbA1c and diabetes self-care behaviours, confirming satisfactory criterion validity. There was a moderate relationship between the PAID-C and the Perceived Stress Scale, supporting satisfactory convergent validity. The PAID-C also demonstrated satisfactory stability and high internal consistency. A four-factor structure and strong content validity of the DCM-C was confirmed. Criterion validity demonstrated that the DCM-C was significantly associated with HbA1c and diabetes self-care behaviours. There was a statistical correlation between the DCM-C and the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist, suggesting satisfactory convergent validity. Test-retest reliability demonstrated satisfactory stability of the DCM-C. The total scale of the DCM-C showed adequate internal consistency. Age, duration of diabetes, diabetes symptoms, diabetes distress, physical activity, coping strategies, and social support were the most consistent factors associated with adaptive outcomes in adults with diabetes. Resilience was positively associated with coping strategies, social support, health-related quality of life, and diabetes self-care behaviours. Results of the structural equation modelling revealed protective factors had a significant direct effect on adaptive outcomes; however, the construct of risk factors was not significantly related to adaptive outcomes. Moreover, resilience can moderate the relationships among protective factors and adaptive outcomes, but there were no interaction effects of risk factors and resilience on adaptive outcomes. Conclusion: This study contributes to an understanding of how risk factors and protective factors work together to influence adaptive outcomes in blood sugar control, health-related quality of life, and diabetes self-care behaviours. Additionally, resilience is a positive personality characteristic and may be importantly involved in the adjustment process among people living with type 2 diabetes.

Anterior vertebral stapling for the fusionless correction of scoliosis

Fusionless scoliosis surgery is an emerging treatment for idiopathic scoliosis as it offers theoretical advantages over current forms of treatment. Currently the treatment options for idiopathic scoliosis are observation, bracing and fusion. While brace treatment is non-invasive, and preserves the growth, motion, and function of the spine, it does not correct deformity and is only modestly successful in preventing curve progression. In adolescents who fail brace treatment, surgical treatment with an instrumented spinal fusion usually results in better deformity correction but is associated with substantially greater risk. Furthermore in younger patients requiring surgical treatment, fusion procedures are known to adversely effect the future growth of the chest and spine. Fusionless treatments have been developed to allow effective surgical treatment of patients with idiopathic scoliosis who are too young for fusion procedures. Anterior vertebral stapling is one such fusionless treatment which aims to modulate the growth of vertebra to allow correction of scoliosis whilst maintaining normal spinal motion The Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Brisbane has begun to use anterior vertebral stapling to treat patients with idiopathic scoliosis who are too young for fusion procedures. Currently the only staple approved for clinical use is manufactured by Medtronic Sofamor Danek (Memphis, TN). This thesis explains the biomechanical and anatomical changes that occur following anterior vertebral staple insertion using in vitro experiments performed on an immature bovine model. Currently there is a paucity of published information about anterior vertebral stapling so it is hoped that this project will provide information that will aid in our understanding of the clinical effects of staple insertion. The aims of this experimental study were threefold. The first phase was designed to determine the changes in the bending stiffness of the spine following staple insertion. The second phase was designed to measure the forces experienced by the staple during spinal movements. The third and final phase of testing was designed to describe the structural changes that occur to a vertebra as a consequence of staple insertion. The first phase of testing utilised a displacement controlled testing robot to compare the change in stiffness of a single spinal motion segment following staple insertion for the three basic spinal motions of flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. For the second phase of testing strain gauges were attached to staples and used to measure staple forces during spinal movement. In the third and final phase the staples were removed and a testing specimen underwent micro-computed tomography (CT) scanning to describe the anatomical changes that occur following staple insertion. The displacement controlled testing showed that there was a significant decrease in bending stiffness in flexion, extension, lateral bending away from the staple, and axial rotation away from the staple following staple insertion. The strain gauge measurements showed that the greatest staple forces occurred in flexion and the least in extension. In addition, a reduction in the baseline staple compressive force was seen with successive loading cycles. Micro-CT scanning demonstrated that significant damage to the vertebral body and endplate occurred as a consequence of staple insertion. The clinical implications of this study are significant. Based on the findings of this project it is likely that the clinical effect of the anterior vertebral staple evaluated in this project is a consequence of growth plate damage (also called hemiepiphysiodesis) causing a partial growth arrest of the vertebra rather than simply compression of the growth plate. The surgical creation of a unilateral growth arrest is a well established treatment used in the management of congenital scoliosis but has not previously been considered for use in idiopathic scoliosis.

Thermal tweezers for manipulation of adatoms and nanoparticles on surfaces heated by interfering laser pulses

We conduct the detailed numerical investigation of a nanomanipulation and nanofabrication technique—thermal tweezers with dynamic evolution of surface temperature, caused by absorption of interfering laser pulses in a thin metalfilm or any other absorbing surface. This technique uses random Brownian forces in the presence of strong temperature modulation (surfacethermophoresis) for effective manipulation of particles/adatoms with nanoscale resolution. Substantial redistribution of particles on the surface is shown to occur with the typical size of the obtained pattern elements of ∼100 nm, which is significantly smaller than the wavelength of the incident pulses used (532 nm). It is also demonstrated that thermal tweezers based on surfacethermophoresis of particles/adatoms are much more effective in achieving permanent high maximum-to-minimum concentration ratios than bulk thermophoresis, which is explained by the interaction of diffusing particles with the periodic lattice potential on the surface. Typically required pulse regimes including pulse lengths and energies are also determined. The approach is applicable for reproducing any holographically achievable surfacepatterns, and can thus be used for engineering properties of surfaces including nanopatterning and design of surface metamaterials.

Microassembly fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds with customized design

Browse > Journals> Automation Science and Enginee ...> Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Microassembly Fabrication of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds With Customized Design 4468741 abstract Han Zhang; Burdet, E.; Poo, A.N.; Hutmacher, D.W.; GE Global Res. Center Ltd., Shanghai This paper appears in: Automation Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Issue Date: July 2008 Volume: 5 Issue:3 On page(s): 446 - 456 ISSN: 1545-5955 Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/TASE.2008.917011 Date of Current Version: 02 July 2008 Sponsored by: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Abstract This paper presents a novel technique to fabricate scaffold/cell constructs for tissue engineering by robotic assembly of microscopic building blocks (of volume 0.5$,times,$0.5$,times,$0.2 ${hbox{mm}}^{3}$ and 60 $mu {hbox{m}}$ thickness). In this way, it becomes possible to build scaffolds with freedom in the design of architecture, surface morphology, and chemistry. Biocompatible microparts with complex 3-D shapes were first designed and mass produced using MEMS techniques. Semi-automatic assembly was then realized using a robotic workstation with four degrees of freedom integrating a dedicated microgripper and two optical microscopes. Coarse movement of the gripper is determined by pattern matching in the microscopes images, while the operator controls fine positioning and accurate insertion of the microparts. Successful microassembly was demonstrated using SU-8 and acrylic resin microparts. Taking advantage of parts distortion and adhesion forces, which dominate at micro-level, the parts cleave together after assembly. In contrast to many current scaffold fabrication techniques, no heat, pressure, electrical effect, or toxic chemical reaction is involved, a critical condition for creating scaffolds with biological agents.

Apparatus for monitoring load bearing rehabilitation exercises of a transfemoral amputee fitted with an osseointegrated fixation : a proof-of-concept study

The purpose of this proof-of-concept study was to determine the relevance of direct measurements to monitor the load applied on the osseointegrated fixation of transfemoral amputees during static load bearing exercises. The objectives were (A) to introduce an apparatus using a three-dimensional load transducer, (B) to present a range of derived information relevant to clinicians, (C) to report on the outcomes of a pilot study and (D) to compare the measurements from the transducer with those from the current method using a weighing scale. One transfemoral amputee fitted with an osseointegrated implant was asked to apply 10 kg, 20 kg, 40 kg and 80 kg on the fixation, using self-monitoring with the weighing scale. The loading was directly measured with a portable kinetic system including a six-channel transducer, external interface circuitry and a laptop. As the load prescribed increased from 10 kg to 80 kg, the forces and moments applied on and around the antero-posterior axis increased by 4 fold anteriorly and 14 fold medially, respectively. The forces and moments applied on and around the medio-lateral axis increased by 9 fold laterally and 16 fold from anterior to posterior, respectively. The long axis of the fixation was overloaded and underloaded in 17 % and 83 % of the trials, respectively, by up to ±10 %. This proof-of-concept study presents an apparatus that can be used by clinicians facing the challenge of improving basic knowledge on osseointegration, for the design of equipment for load bearing exercises and for rehabilitation programs.

"Has Gothic cake and eats it too : dreaming of Amelia" by Jaclyn Moriarty

Dreaming of Amelia (2009) recounts a small group of HSC students’ final year of high school. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel focuses on shifting senses of self, maturity, and agency as the protagonists move from adolescence to adulthood. The central conflict of the novel results from two ‘bad kids from the bad crowd at bad Brookfield High’ (blurb) transferring to wealthy private school, Ashbury; Amelia and Riley are scholarship students who do not fit with Ashbury’s profile of 'normal student' as it is understood by the school’s students or staff, and their presence in the school community forces many people to reassess their understanding of individual value (or, at least, that’s what the novel claims happens). In the shifting of perceptions, allegiances, and relationships, each of the main characters achieves a stronger sense of their identity, and Dreaming of Amelia is thus firmly located within the tradition of Young Adult (YA) literature, with all its stereotypes of adolescence.

Population aging in a globalizing labour market: implications for older workers

Against a background of population aging, and with it, warnings about the sustainability of social welfare systems and problems associated with declining labour supply, there is an increasing policy emphasis on extending working lives of older workers among the industrialised nations (Hirsch, 2003; Keese, 2005; Taylor, 2006). However, recent commentaries have tended to focus on the relationship between population aging and the labour market, largely ignoring other critical factors that are affecting older workers’ relationship with the labour market. This contrasts with extensive research undertaken in the 1980s and 1990s when the forces acting upon older workers at that time were thoroughly elucidated (e.g. Kohli et al., 1991). The focus of this paper is on the labour supply challenges for employers and nations arising from demographic trends, in combination with social and technological changes and the wider forces of globalisation, how each is responding, and how these trends are affecting older workers’ trying to secure or maintain footholds in a labour market but facing, as Richard Sennett (2006) puts it, the ‘spectre of uselessness’ as jobs they could do have either migrated to other parts of the world or have been destroyed in the wake of industry failure.

Mathematical modelling of muscle recruitment and function in the lumbar spine

Low back pain is an increasing problem in industrialised countries and although it is a major socio-economic problem in terms of medical costs and lost productivity, relatively little is known about the processes underlying the development of the condition. This is in part due to the complex interactions between bone, muscle, nerves and other soft tissues of the spine, and the fact that direct observation and/or measurement of the human spine is not possible using non-invasive techniques. Biomechanical models have been used extensively to estimate the forces and moments experienced by the spine. These models provide a means of estimating the internal parameters which can not be measured directly. However, application of most of the models currently available is restricted to tasks resembling those for which the model was designed due to the simplified representation of the anatomy. The aim of this research was to develop a biomechanical model to investigate the changes in forces and moments which are induced by muscle injury. In order to accurately simulate muscle injuries a detailed quasi-static three dimensional model representing the anatomy of the lumbar spine was developed. This model includes the nine major force generating muscles of the region (erector spinae, comprising the longissimus thoracis and iliocostalis lumborum; multifidus; quadratus lumborum; latissimus dorsi; transverse abdominis; internal oblique and external oblique), as well as the thoracolumbar fascia through which the transverse abdominis and parts of the internal oblique and latissimus dorsi muscles attach to the spine. The muscles included in the model have been represented using 170 muscle fascicles each having their own force generating characteristics and lines of action. Particular attention has been paid to ensuring the muscle lines of action are anatomically realistic, particularly for muscles which have broad attachments (e.g. internal and external obliques), muscles which attach to the spine via the thoracolumbar fascia (e.g. transverse abdominis), and muscles whose paths are altered by bony constraints such as the rib cage (e.g. iliocostalis lumborum pars thoracis and parts of the longissimus thoracis pars thoracis). In this endeavour, a separate sub-model which accounts for the shape of the torso by modelling it as a series of ellipses has been developed to model the lines of action of the oblique muscles. Likewise, a separate sub-model of the thoracolumbar fascia has also been developed which accounts for the middle and posterior layers of the fascia, and ensures that the line of action of the posterior layer is related to the size and shape of the erector spinae muscle. Published muscle activation data are used to enable the model to predict the maximum forces and moments that may be generated by the muscles. These predictions are validated against published experimental studies reporting maximum isometric moments for a variety of exertions. The model performs well for fiexion, extension and lateral bend exertions, but underpredicts the axial twist moments that may be developed. This discrepancy is most likely the result of differences between the experimental methodology and the modelled task. The application of the model is illustrated using examples of muscle injuries created by surgical procedures. The three examples used represent a posterior surgical approach to the spine, an anterior approach to the spine and uni-lateral total hip replacement surgery. Although the three examples simulate different muscle injuries, all demonstrate the production of significant asymmetrical moments and/or reduced joint compression following surgical intervention. This result has implications for patient rehabilitation and the potential for further injury to the spine. The development and application of the model has highlighted a number of areas where current knowledge is deficient. These include muscle activation levels for tasks in postures other than upright standing, changes in spinal kinematics following surgical procedures such as spinal fusion or fixation, and a general lack of understanding of how the body adjusts to muscle injuries with respect to muscle activation patterns and levels, rate of recovery from temporary injuries and compensatory actions by other muscles. Thus the comprehensive and innovative anatomical model which has been developed not only provides a tool to predict the forces and moments experienced by the intervertebral joints of the spine, but also highlights areas where further clinical research is required.