Palaeo-geomorphological significance of miocene and pliocene euryhaline ostracoda in the Nepean 1 borehole, Port Phillip Basin, SE Australia

Ostracoda able to tolerate significant fluctuations in salinity occur as fossils in latest Late Miocene and earliest Late Pliocene strata of the Nepean 1 borehole within the Port Phillip Basin. The main euryhaline species present are Osticythere baragwanathi (Chapman & Crespin), Leptocythere hartmanni (McKenzie), Xestoleberis cedunaensis Hartmann and Tanella gracilis Kingma. Euryhaline ostracods occur in both high diversity, high abundance fossil ostracod assemblages and in low diversity, high abundance  assemblages. These latest Late Miocene and earliest Late Pliocene fossil ostracod assemblages accumulated close to the maximum point of flooding during respective marine transgressions onto the northern Bass Strait hinterland. The presence of euryhaline Ostracoda in these assemblages  is reminiscent of ostracod occurrences associated with modern day SE Australian barrier coastlines. Euryhaline ostracods are not common in earlier Cenozoic sediments of SE Australia and Osticythere baragwanathi makes its first appearance in the latest Late Miocene beds of the Nepean 1 borehole. This latter occurrence is interpreted to reflect the initial phase of development for the modern SE Australian barrier coastline and in particular, the initial formation of Port Phillip Bay as a coastal geomorphological feature.

Constructing the conditions of and environments for interdisciplinary research on perception and action

This paper suggests ways in which art processes may contribute to the interdisciplinary study of perception and action and the relationships between body, person, and environment. Artists-turned-architects Arakawa and Gins serve as the most advanced example of an interdisciplinary research project in terms of coordinating material processes with contemporary findings, methods, and orientations from across the arts, humanities, and hard and soft sciences. In the first section of the paper, I discuss Arakawa and Gins's Reversible Destiny Lofts at Mitaka as an example of their procedural approach to long-term sustainable experimental environments. In the second section, the tactics through which Arakawa and Gins have repositioned art for the nonart purposes and common research goals are posited. Finally, I briefly outline the disciplinary positions and research values needed in order to move toward a more inclusive and interdisciplinary research practice.

Understanding the conditions of trust in the ALT and AMT relationships in project alliancing

This research also aims to develop a robust trust framework which can improve the understanding of the theory to support trust in alliancing, in particular the ALT and AMT relationship to improve project success factors. Research in trust within the construction industry has not yet examined how the relational signals within the five situations in the normative framework identified by Siegwart Lindenberg affect the level of trustworthiness between partners. More research is necessary to explore potential frameworks that can be used as the basis for future research in trust. Data from previous research in the performance of alliance has been used to verify the proposed framework. The framework will be developed in the ALT and AMT relationship to improve project success factors within the alliance. The originality of this research is trying to understand trust in the context of project alliancing in Australia as there are an increasing number of construction projects using the alliancing procurement method. Additionally, this research is examining the conditions of trust from the ALT and AMT teams specifically formed for the collaboration of project alliancing.

Financial systems and mechanisms of growth in different conditions of country risk

This article uses panel data from 1976 to 2003 to investigate the ways in which banking and stock markets influence economic growth in situations of high and low country risk. The mean and Standard Deviation (SD) of country risk are adopted to classify 28 countries into Low Risk Low Volatility (LRLV) and High Risk High Volatility (HRHV) subgroups. Through the technique of error correction-based panel co-integration developed by Westerlund (2007), several results are obtained. First, LRLV countries can expand the capitalization of stock market to enhance long-term economic growth. Second, HRHV countries, on the other hand, use two distinct strategies to promote long-term economic growth. Initially they develop their equity markets, which promote economic growth directly. Strengthened equity markets, in turn, aid in the development of credit markets, which subsequently brings an economic boom. Finally, regardless of selected subgroups, the contribution of stock market capitalization to economic growth appears to be substantially larger than that of bank credit, highlighting the importance of stock markets.

On monotonic sufficient conditions of fuzzy inference systems and their applications

An important and difficult issue in designing a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) is the specification of fuzzy sets and fuzzy rules. In this paper, two useful qualitative properties of the FIS model, i.e., the monotonicity and sub-additivity properties, are studied. The monotonic sufficient conditions of the FIS model with Gaussian membership functions are further analyzed. The aim is to incorporate the sufficient conditions into the FIS modeling process, which serves as a simple (which can be easily understood by domain users), easy-to-use (which can be easily applied to or can be a part of the FIS model), and yet reliable (which has a sound mathematical foundation) method to preserve the monotonicity property of the FIS model. Another aim of this paper is to demonstrate how these additional qualitative information can be exploited and extended to be part of the FIS designing procedure (i.e., for fuzzy sets and fuzzy rules design) via the sufficient conditions (which act as a set of useful governing equations for designing the FIS model). The proposed approach is able to avoid the "trial and error" procedure in obtaining a monotonic FIS model. To assess the applicability of the proposed approach, two practical problems are examined. The first is an FIS-based model for water level control, while the second is an FIS-based Risk Priority Number (RPN) model in Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA). To further illustrate the importance of the sufficient conditions as the governing equations, an analysis on the consequences of violating the sufficient conditions of the FIS-based RPN model is presented.

The life conditions of Australian ex-prisoners : an analysis of intrapersonal, subsistence, and support conditions

Successful reintegration of ex-prisoners into the community is multifaceted. The life conditions of 36 adult Australian ex-prisoners (20 male and 16 female) were examined via a questionnaire administered at 1 to 4 weeks post release, and a subset of 19 of the original respondents were interviewed again at 3 to 4 months post release. Interviews focused on intrapersonal conditions (physical and psychological health and substance use), subsistence conditions (housing, employment, and finance), and support conditions (social support, support services/program participation, and criminal justice support). The majority of ex-prisoners self-reported chronic physical and mental health problems as well as a history of substance use and/or current substance use. Although the housing conditions of ex-prisoners were largely favourable and constant, the employment and financial conditions of this group were generally unfavourable. Level of social support was variable. Theoretical implications and practical applications of the present investigation for reintegration theory are discussed.

Fidelity to foraging sites, consistency of migration routes and habitat modulation of home range by sea turtles

Aim  Resources can shape patterns of habitat utilization. Recently a broad foraging dichotomy between oceanic and coastal sites has been revealed for loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). Since oceanic and coastal foraging sites differ in prey availability, we might expect a gross difference in home-range size across these habitats. We tested this hypothesis by equipping nine adult male loggerhead sea turtles with GPS tracking devices. Location  National Marine Park of Zakynthos (NMPZ) Greece, central and eastern Mediterranean (Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean seas). Methods  In 2007, 2008 and 2009, Fastloc GPS-Argos transmitters were attached to nine male loggerheads. In addition, a Sirtrack PTT unit was attached to one male in 2007. Four of the turtles were tracked on successive years. We filtered the GPS data to ensure comparable data volumes. Route consistency between breeding and foraging sites of the four re-tracked turtles was conducted. Foraging site home range areas and within site movement patterns were investigated by the fixed kernel density method. Results  Foraging home range size ranged between circa 10 km2 at neritic habitats (coastal and open-sea on the continental shelf) to circa 1000 km2 at oceanic sites (using 90% kernel estimates), the latter most probably reflecting sparsely distributed oceanic prey. Across different years individuals did not follow exactly the same migration routes, but did show fidelity to their previous foraging sites, whether oceanic or neritic, with accurate homing in the final stages of migration. Main conclusions  The broad distribution and diverse life-history strategies of this population could complicate the identification of priority marine protected areas beyond the core breeding site.

Sociospatial distribution of access to facilities for moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity in Scotland by different modes of transport

Background People living in neighbourhoods of lower socioeconomic status have been shown to have higher rates of obesity and a lower likelihood of meeting physical activity recommendations than their more affluent counterparts. This study examines the sociospatial distribution of access to facilities for moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity in Scotland and whether such access differs by the mode of transport available and by Urban Rural Classification. Methods A database of all fixed physical activity facilities was obtained from the national agency for sport in Scotland. Facilities were categorised into light, moderate and vigorous intensity activity groupings before being mapped. Transport networks were created to assess the number of each type of facility accessible from the population weighted centroid of each small area in Scotland on foot, by bicycle, by car and by bus. Multilevel modelling was used to investigate the distribution of the number of accessible facilities by small area deprivation within urban, small town and rural areas separately, adjusting for population size and local authority. Results Prior to adjustment for Urban Rural Classification and local authority, the median number of accessible facilities for moderate or vigorous intensity activity increased with increasing deprivation from the most affluent or second most affluent quintile to the most deprived for all modes of transport. However, after adjustment, the modelling results suggest that those in more affluent areas have significantly higher access to moderate and vigorous intensity facilities by car than those living in more deprived areas. Conclusions The sociospatial distributions of access to facilities for both moderate intensity and vigorous intensity physical activity were similar. However, the results suggest that those living in the most affluent neighbourhoods have poorer access to facilities of either type that can be reached on foot, by bicycle or by bus than those living in less affluent areas. This poorer access from the most affluent areas appears to be reversed for those with access to a car.

Leadership in higher education : The normative project of the common good in conditions of globalization, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and APEX in Malaysia

In this paper, the author discusses the reform agenda undertaken by UniversitiSains Malaysia (USM) to contextualise higher education reform within culturaland social theory. It is important to understand leadership in leading reformwithin a broader and more holistic fashion that takes into account localculture, politics and history. University Sains Malaysia is embarking on what isreferred to as the APEX agenda. The APEX strategy in Malaysia is an importantapproach towards achieving world-class status university institutions. The ApexUniversities will be the nation’s centres of academic distinction. Ensuring andbuilding upon the ethical authority that APEX gives USM, the challenge of leadership in USM is to engage in the forces of globalization and modernizationwhile at the same time take cognizance of the characteristics and demands ofMalaysian culture as central still to the successful mission of USM.

Incidental physical activity in Melbourne, Australia: health and economic impacts of mode of transport and suburban location.

Using the known health impacts of physical activity (PA), levels of incidental PA in Melbourne were analysed, and after determining key behavioural associations, economic modelling estimated potential long-term health and economic benefits of changes in active transport (AT) patterns.

Business strateBusiness strategies under conditions of uncertainty: The rise of mutual life insurers in colonial Australiagies under conditions of uncertainty

The early development of Australian life insurance was marked by the failure of stock companies to successfully establish a market presence. Mutual insurers emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in response to this gap in supply. The underlying rationale behind their establishment differed but the business model adopted proved remarkably successful. Mutual life insurers dominated the market for life insurance for nearly a century. This chapter investigates mutualism as a business strategy that addressed particular problems associated with doing business in a small and underdeveloped economy. Business and social networks were important facilitators of new business. In addition, most mutual life insurers had a social/philanthropic charter and they were able to utilize this to build business. An outcome of this mix was the emergence of a particular type of entrepreneurship that fostered innovative product development and cemented the role of mutual insurers as market leaders.. The Variety, Choice, Governance, and Regulation of Organizational Forms 2.

The role of thermomechanical routes on the distribution of grain boundary and interface plane orientations in transformed microstructures

In the current study, a series of thermomechanical routes were used to produce different microstructures (i.e., ferrite and martensite) in low-carbon low alloy steels. The five-parameter grain boundary character distribution was measured for all microstructures. The thermomechanical processing route altered the texture of the fully ferritic microstructure and significantly influenced the anisotropy of the grain boundary character distribution. Generally, the population of (111) planes increased with an increase in the γ-fiber texture for the ferritic microstructure, but it did not change the shape of the grain boundary plane distribution at specific misorientations. The most commonly observed boundaries in the fully ferritic structures produced through different routes were {112} symmetric tilt boundaries with the Σ3 = 60 deg/[111] misorientation; this boundary also had a low energy. However, the grain boundary plane distribution was significantly changed by the phase transformation path (i.e., ferrite vs martensite) for a given misorientation. In the martensitic steel, the most populous Σ3 boundary was the {110} symmetric tilt boundary. This results from the crystallographic constraints associated with the shear transformation (i.e., martensite) rather than the low-energy interface that dominates in the diffusional phase transformation (i.e., ferrite).