Severe plastic deformation processes with friction induced shear

Among the known severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques, there is a special group of processes involving friction-induced shear. One of the sample or work-piece dimensions used in such processes, namely the thickness, is much smaller than the other two dimensions. The well-known process of High Pressure Torsion (HPT) and the relatively new Cone-Cone (CC) method applied to thin conical samples fall into this category of SPD techniques. Wrought aluminium alloy 2124 was used to study the effect of CC processing on microstructure and mechanical properties. The influence of the processing parameters, including the rotation speed and thickness of the conical strip specimens on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the CC-processed material was investigated.

Gender blind? Australian immigration policy and practice, 1901-1930

This paper seeks to explore the nature of Australian immigration policies and practices, particularly their impact on women, from federation in 1901 to the cessation of large-scale assisted immigration to Australia brought about by the 1930s depression. The characteristics that influenced and affected female immigrants may have differentiated their experiences from those of male immigrants in the same period. Differential treatment of men and women has often been an unstated given in the formulation and implementation of immigration policies. It was as common to non-government organisations (of which there were, and still are, a great many associated with immigration and settlement), as to governments, both federal and state. Several inequities can be identified in the making and implementation of immigration and settlement policies, and in the access to government grants, concessions and services, not only in terms of race, ethnicity, class or occupation (which is well trodden ground in this field) but also in terms of gender.[1] Such differentiation is part of the broader framework of changing conceptions about the place and roles of women in Australian society and their expected contribution to the nation, but it has remained largely unexplicated in this period and field.

Auditing construction costs during building design : a case study of cost planning in action

Building cost planning was originally developed in the framework of traditional procurement methods with conventional documentation, tendering and administration processes. With the advent of alternative forms of procurement with more fluid approaches to design stages and documentation, the need for sound cost planning does not appear to diminish. As a process established on solid theoretical foundations, cost planning should be robust enough to adapt and flourish in a variety of procurement environments. However, little documentation and analysis of transformed and adapted forms of cost planning appear to have been made. This case study of a design-construct company in Melbourne, Australia, presents and explores a contemporary form of building cost planning integrated into a design cost management approach adopted by a construction company experienced in alternative forms of procurement. The article traces this process on a design-construct project from inception to the end of the design development stage and tender. Whilst the fundamental framework of cost planning remains intact, the focus and detail in each of the stages are guided by the company's priority for greater financial control over the cost and value implications of design and other decisions. This recently established working model of design cost management in this company has been designed to deliver added value to the client through a better balance of time, cost and quality in each project.

Bushfire incident management team decision making

Large scale bushfire (or wildfire) suppression activities are conducted under the control of an Incident Management Team (IMT) comprising four major functions: Command, Operations, Planning, and Logistics. Four methodologies were used to investigate processes determining the effectiveness of IMT decision making activities: (a) laboratory experiments using the Networked Fire Chief computer simulation program; (b) analyses of reports of significant fires; (c) structured interviews with experienced IMT staff; and, (d) cognitive ethnographic studies of IMTs. Three classes of team processes were found to be important determinants of IMT effectiveness: information sharing and management; matching of the four component function goals to overall IMT goals; and monitoring of the overall IMT situation to detect and correct task disruptive processes. Several non-rational processes with the potential for hindering IMT effectiveness were noted. Team metacognition emerged as a key process for understanding effective IMT decision making.

Learning in agriculture : building social capital in island communities

Social capital helps communities respond positively to change. Research in agricultural businesses and into managing change through learning in communities has highlighted the importance of relationships between people and the formal and informal infrastructure of communities to the quality of outcomes experienced by communities, businesses and individuals. Communities can be geographic communities - the data drawn on in this paper are from an island community, for example or communities-of-common-purpose, such as agricultural organisations. This paper reviews research into managing change through learning and social capital, presents a model of the simultaneous building and use of social capital and explores the ways in which learning as part of an agricultural community can be used to bring benefits to geographic communities such as islands. The model presented in this paper stems from studies of the informal learning process that builds resilient communities. It conceptualises the way in which social capital is used and built in interactions between individuals. There are two stages to the model. The first stage depicts social capital at the micro level of one-on-one interactions where it is built and used. The second stage of the model is about the interrelationship of micro-level social capital processes with the community and societal-level social capital resources.

Dynamic characteristics and efficiency of a fluidized bed heat treatment process

The dynamic characteristics of gas bubbles in fluidized beds are important to determine the heat and mass transfer rates at component surfaces and the treated profiles of components. They also have great impact on the components’ structural, mechanical and physical properties. However, it has been very difficult to monitor those characteristics dynamically. In this paper, a specifically designed fluidized bed was introduced to facilitate the capturing of its dynamic characteristics and a new video image processing and analysis algorithm was developed. The algorithm is robust and adaptive in terms of locating both bubbles and components in beds with a single or multiple components. It has many advantages in dynamic characterization of gas bubbles and monitoring component treatment. By using this algorithm, the properties of gas bubbles over any period of time can be accurately obtained. This technology will provide a potential on-line dynamic monitoring and quality control system for the chemical heat treatment processes with fluidized beds.

Programmer friendly and efficient distributed shared memory integrated into a distributed operating system

Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) provides programmers with a shared memory environment in systems where memory is not physically shared. Clusters of Workstations (COWs), an often untapped source of computing power, are characterised by a very low cost/performance ratio. The combination of Clusters of Workstations (COWs) with DSM provides an environment in which the programmer can use the well known approaches and methods of programming for physically shared memory systems and parallel processing can be carried out to make full use of the computing power and cost advantages of the COW. The aim of this research is to synthesise and develop a distributed shared memory system as an integral part of an operating system in order to provide application programmers with a convenient environment in which the development and execution of parallel applications can be done easily and efficiently, and which does this in a transparent manner. Furthermore, in order to satisfy our challenging design requirements we want to demonstrate that the operating system into which the DSM system is integrated should be a distributed operating system. In this thesis a study into the synthesis of a DSM system within a microkernel and client-server based distributed operating system which uses both strict and weak consistency models, with a write-invalidate and write-update based approach for consistency maintenance is reported. Furthermore a unique automatic initialisation system which allows the programmer to start the parallel execution of a group of processes with a single library call is reported. The number and location of these processes are determined by the operating system based on system load information. The DSM system proposed has a novel approach in that it provides programmers with a complete programming environment in which they are easily able to develop and run their code or indeed run existing shared memory code. A set of demanding DSM system design requirements are presented and the incentives for the placement of the DSM system with a distributed operating system and in particular in the memory management server have been reported. The new DSM system concentrated on an event-driven set of cooperating and distributed entities, and a detailed description of the events and reactions to these events that make up the operation of the DSM system is then presented. This is followed by a pseudocode form of the detailed design of the main modules and activities of the primitives used in the proposed DSM system. Quantitative results of performance tests and qualitative results showing the ease of programming and use of the RHODOS DSM system are reported. A study of five different application is given and the results of tests carried out on these applications together with a discussion of the results are given. A discussion of how RHODOS’ DSM allows programmers to write shared memory code in an easy to use and familiar environment and a comparative evaluation of RHODOS DSM with other DSM systems is presented. In particular, the ease of use and transparency of the DSM system have been demonstrated through the description of the ease with which a moderately inexperienced undergraduate programmer was able to convert, write and run applications for the testing of the DSM system. Furthermore, the description of the tests performed using physically shared memory shows that the latter is indistinguishable from distributed shared memory; this is further evidence that the DSM system is fully transparent. This study clearly demonstrates that the aim of the research has been achieved; it is possible to develop a programmer friendly and efficient DSM system fully integrated within a distributed operating system. It is clear from this research that client-server and microkernel based distributed operating system integrated DSM makes shared memory operations transparent and almost completely removes the involvement of the programmer beyond classical activities needed to deal with shared memory. The conclusion can be drawn that DSM, when implemented within a client-server and microkernel based distributed operating system, is one of the most encouraging approaches to parallel processing since it guarantees performance improvements with minimal programmer involvement.

The criteria of effective teaching in a changing higher education context

The criteria of effective teaching in higher education are understood to comprise particular skills and practices applied within particular contexts. Drawing on the literature and using Australia’s understanding of effective teaching, this paper examines the notion of effective teaching. The paper compares dimensions derived from robust research and psychometric processes with the Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s criteria for effective teaching and observes the criteria of effective teaching in higher education to have evolved. While the paper suggests some areas in which future considerations of the notion of effective teaching might usefully focus, it also argues that context is critical and that it is subject to continuous and multiple changes imposed by forces from within and outside universities. The paper maintains that our collective understanding of competent, professional and effective teaching must continually evolve in order that it accurately reflects and continually responds to the contexts in which learning and teaching is undertaken. The paper also calls for an ongoing agenda that continuously investigates and articulates the meaning of effective teaching in a changed, and changing, context.

Improving the communication between care providers of individuals who may require joint replacement surgery (JRS) a framework for referral

Aims & rationale/Objectives : The objective of the project was to specify the information required in referrals to public hospital orthopaedic outpatient departments in order to streamline the care and prioritisation of individuals who may require JRS. It was envisaged that an evidence-based GP-Orthopaedic derived referral system would assist in ensuring that the right person accessed the right care at the right time.

Methods : In collaboration with the RACGP and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, a national stakeholder working group was convened. A scoping document was prepared with input from key stakeholders. A review of primary research was undertaken as well as a review of relevant guidelines. Information on the implementation and evaluation of similar programs in Australia and overseas also informed the referral specification.

Principal findings : The initial scoping processes with key stakeholders provided clear information on core components of the referral. These were the use of standardised and respected assessment tools to determine the severity of arthritis, fitness for surgery and willingness of affected individuals to undergo surgery.

Discussion : About 20,000 JRS occur each year in public hospitals which emanate from 5 to 10 fold number of referrals. Arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases are a national health priority area reflecting the high burden of disease associated with these conditions. Various initiatives are being undertaken to address the quality of life of affected individuals. This project has revealed areas of potential improvement in the communication between care providers of individuals who may need JRS.

Implications : The project will result in the development of a standard referral form and guidelines to assist referring practitioners to communicate more effectively with the multidisciplinary care team, in particular orthopaedic care providers. The guidelines will be piloted in a large rural setting.

Technology and music in the early years of schooling

An investigation of junior primary school children's use of computer-based music technology found that, with active support from teachers, young children were able to participate effectively in relatively complex musical processes, with particular regard to listening, performing and composing, thus extending the traditional scope of young children's music education.

Virtual backbone content routing in wireless ad-hoc network

We developed a new content routing based on the virtual backbone structure, which groups wireless nodes and contents into a virtual architecture. Our approach is scalable, works with local information, and does not rely on address information. The naming system uses flat naming to identify nodes and contents, and organizes these identifiers together. Backbone nodes can be selected automatically or predefined to direct their associated normal nodes in a local area. The normal nodes are guided by the backbone nodes to full fill the searching and routing processes. With a virtual structure, the searching performance can be improved by using the DHT technique.

Experiments using ns2 simulator demonstrate that this virtual backbone routing architecture has the following significances: workable without being aware address in a mobile situation; scalable with the size of network; efficient in terms of the reduced hop counts and short end-to-end delay, and also resistant to the dead-end problem.

Gaussian vault geometry : digital design and fabrication of scaled prototypes

This paper reports on three approaches to the translation of Gaussian surface models into scaled physical prototype models. Using the geometry of Eladio Dieste's Gaussian Vaults, the paper reports on the aspects encountered in the process of digital to physical prototype fabrication. The primary focus of the paper is on exploring the design geometry, investigating methods for preparing the geometry for fabrication and constructing physical prototypes. Three different approaches in the translation from digital to physical models are investigated: rapid prototyping, two dimensional surface models in paper and structural component models using Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) fabrication. The three approaches identify a body of knowledge in the design and prototyping of Gaussian vaults. Finally the paper discusses the digital to. fabrication translation processes with regards to the characteristics, benefits and limitations of the three approaches of prototyping the ruled surface geometry of Gaussian Vaults.

Regenerating rural social space? Teacher education for rural-regional sustainability

The complex interconnection among issues affecting rural-regional sustainability requires an equally complex program of research to ensure the attraction and retention of high-quality teachers for rural children. The educational effects of the construction of the rural within a deficit discourse are highlighted. A concept of rural social space is modelled, bringing together social, economic and environmental dimensions of (rural-regional) sustainability. This framework combines quantitive definitional processes with more situated definitions of rural space based on demographic and other social data, across both geographic and cultural formations. The implications of the model are examined in terms of its importance for teacher education.

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.

Computation and construction of vault geometry prototypes

Physical models and scaled prototypes of architecture play an important role in design. They enable architects and designers to investigate the formal, functional, and material attributes of the design. Understanding digital processes of realizing scaled prototypes is a significant problem confronting design practice. This paper reports on three approaches to the translation of Gaussian surface models into scaled physical prototype models. Based on the geometry of Eladio Dieste’s Gaussian Vaults, the paper reports on the aspects encountered in the process of digital to physical construction using scaled prototypes. The primary focus of the paper is on computing the design geometry, investigating methods for preparing the geometry for fabrication and physical construction. Three different approaches in the translation from digital to physical models are investigated: rapid prototyping, two-dimensional surface models in paper and structural component models using CNC fabrication. The three approaches identify a body of knowledge in the design and prototyping of Gaussian vaults. Finally the paper discusses the digital to fabrication translation processes with regards to the characteristics, benefits and limitations of the three approaches of prototyping the ruled surface geometry of Gaussian Vaults. The results of each of three fabrication processes allowed for a better understanding of the digital to physical translation process. The use of rapid prototyping permits the production of form models that provide a representation of the physical characteristics such as size, shape and proportion of the Gaussian Vault.