International students in Australia: read ten thousand volumes of books and walk ten thousand miles

A number of international students, predominately from Asian countries, are present in universities in the UK, United States, and Australia. There is little research exploring their experiences as they negotiate the disciplinary requirements of their courses. This paper investigates students' agency as they write their first assignment for their Master's of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages course and the academics who teach them. Talk around texts and the positioning theory are used to analyse the data. It is argued that the students demonstrate strategic agency, which allows them to better understand the academic requirements of their disciplines. The analysis reveals the complexities involved in international students' adaptation to disciplinary discourse and the implications for teaching and learning in higher education.

Tales of mystery and the mundane: children’s books in 2013

Part of a commissioned series reviewing notable cultural productions of 2013

Burning books and burying scholars: on the policies of the short-lived Qin Dynasty in ancient China (221-207 BC)

In 221 BC, the battle-hardened warriors of the Qin state, the western frontier state and the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states, thus establishing the Qin dynasty, with itscapital in Xianyang, near the modern Xi’an. The Qin dynasty is customarily regarded by Chinese and Western scholars as the beginning of a new age – the Chinese empire – that lasted until 1911 AD. The dynasty lasted only fifteen years. This study examines the main policies of the Qin dynasty and seeks to address the question what brought the quick downfall of the Qin rule. This paper takes the cultural and political contexts carefully into consideration, and argues that the Qin annexation of its rival states might be better understood as an end of an old era as much as a beginning of a new epoch.

Evolution of telecommunications and mobile communications in India: a synthesis in the transition from electronic to mobile business

This books tackles issues of e-business with a vision to the future on how to bridge these gaps and close down the barriers between the different corners of the world"--Provided by publisher.

Visions of the virtual : the role of computers and artificial intelligence in a selection of Australian young adult fiction

Advances in computer technology over the last twenty years have resulted in a number of different visions of what it means to be real, and of what it means to be human. This paper will explore how computers and artificial intelligence are used as major themes in four Australian novels written for young adults: Gillian Rubinstein’s Space Demons trilogy — comprising Space Demons, Skymaze and Shinkei — and Michael Pryor’s The Mask of Caliban. In so doing, the paper will look at how these texts explore the relationship between increasingly developed technology and visions of a better world. By comparing a series of oppositions that occur in all four books, this paper will look at how the theme of technology is used to privilege particular values and to advocate particular beliefs.

Women's silence : in the space of words and images

My thesis is made up of words and images. This study investigates the way in which silence operates productively within and between the two modes of communication. I suggest that in the process of changing words into images or scripto-visual art-practice, the silence in women's lives can be articulated. I argue that women draw on the generative qualities of silence to create forms of speech that override the cultural constructions of gender which have placed them within the space of ‘mute’ silence. To gain an historical perspective of this practice by women, I consider the lives of medieval nuns within religious enclosure and their work with words and images in the illuminated manuscript. I make a comparative study of original illuminated manuscripts, focussing mainly on visual language and locating aspects of the work closest to my own art-practice: the visual treatment of the space and inter-textual components of the page or folio. This project does not include an examination of miniatures or historiated initials. Rather, its aim is to identify and compare the use of other aesthetic devices available to the medieval scribe/artist through which they might have interacted with the text. I suggest links between verbal and visual performances of language and the repetition, or copying of texts by medieval nuns, as a means of female embodiment of words and their spaces. From the outcomes of my studio investigations and my consideration of other contemporary feminist art practices, I demonstrate how women artists may ‘re-write’ the text and ‘speak’ their silence through visual language and the acts of writing, drawing and painting the words of others. Through my engagement with feminist critical theory, the work of medieval scholars, original illuminated manuscripts and my studio research, I propose that scripto-visual practice remains particularly significant for women despite the differences between the medieval period and our own. As a generative practice, it negotiates some of the societal constraints on women's speech and visibility, because its language is ‘silent and disembodied’ from the image of woman constructed by male discourse. It is a form of speech that acknowledges as it defies the social and cultural conditions that shaped its necessity, articulating an alternative voice of women in the space of words and images.

In situ photopolymerization of a gel ionic liquid electrolyte in the presence of iodine and its use in dye sensitized solar cells

We report for the first time an in situ photopolymerization of model co-monomers, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and tetra (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (TEGDA), in an IL electrolyte containing I₂ for DSSCs. TiO₂ nanoparticles were used as the photo-initiator and co-gelator in a charge transfer polymerization reaction. The gel-IL polymer obtained was characterized in terms of the diffusion properties of the electrolyte. Preliminary results from DSSCs assembled using the gel-IL electrolyte showed energy conversion efficiency of 3.9% at 1 sun (AM1.5) and 5.0% at 0.39 sun illumination.

Emotional connections to books and technological innovations : an e-book perspective

E-book devices are a technological innovation that has been mass marketed to consumers as a revolution in the way that books will be read and stored. This paper extends previous research on technology adoption behaviour of individuals by focusing on the role of emotional connections people have towards e-books. A number of technology adoption models can explain the adoption of e-book devices such as the technology acceptance model, theory of planned action, theory of reasoned action and social cognitive theory. Due to the increased importance of social learning on a person’s behaviour, social cognitive theory is identified in this paper as being the most appropriate theoretical lens to understand the emotional connections a person has towards e-books. The findings from this paper may help to fill the gaps in academic discussion about what theory best explains a person’s behavioural intention towards technological innovations and the impact of marketing on this behaviour. In addition, the paper has a number of managerial implications including identifying the importance of an emotional connection to a technological innovation that influences the adoption process. The emphasis on emotional connection as mediating the way a person receives information about e-book devices may help to influence future marketing efforts of new technologies.