Devil's in the detail : non-commercial business losses

When the theme for the 2008 Australasian Tax Teachers’ Conference was announced (The Devil’s in the Detail), the author immediately thought of the non-commercial losses provisions. These provisions are contained in Division 35 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) (‘ITAA 1997’) and restrict individuals from offsetting losses from non-commercial activities against other income.

Coming soon (to a theatre near you) : the temporality of global film distribution to Australia

This article explores the changing contexts of international film exhibition in Australia over a 20-year period (1989–2009) by examining in some empirical detail Australia’s position in the global flow of films during this time. It argues that, at the most abstract level, distributors are engaged in the management and mediation of time and space in the field of global communications. It is proposed that distributors, through the organisation of temporal differentiation, are explicitly active in the creation of both cultural and commodity value. This is particularly apparent as film distributors explore and engage new methodologies of film release, which emphasise overlapping, intersecting and contradictory temporalities in the cinema experience.

Performance differences between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial firms : extending the strategy-structure-performance paradigm

This paper extends the strategy-structure-performance paradigm to examine the performance differences between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial electrical distribution firms. The results indicate that both entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial electrical distributors with an optimal strategy-structure alignment tend to have a higher organizational performance than those entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial electrical distributors without such an alignment. The results are examined and conclusions are offered. Finally, the implications for future research are set out, as are the limitations of the present study.

Tribology of lubricated nitrocarburised and titanium carbonitride surfaces

In the current work, two different coatings, nitrocarburised (CN) and titanium carbonitride (TiCN) on M2 grade high speed tool steel, were prepared by commercial diffusion and physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques, respectively. Properties of the coating were characterised using a variety of techniques such as Glow-Discharge Optical Emission Spectrometry (GD-OES) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Three non-commercial, oil-based lubricants with simplified formulations were used for this study. A tribological test was developed in which two nominally geometrically-identical crossed cylinders slide over each other under selected test conditions. This test was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-applied lubricant film and a surface coating for various conditions of sliding wear. Engineered surface coatings can significantly improve wear resistance of the tool surface but their sliding wear performances strongly depend on the type of coating and lubricant combination used. These coating-lubricant interactions can also have a very strong effect on the useful life of the lubricant in a tribological system. Better performance of lubricants during the sliding wear testing was achieved hen used with the nitrocarburised (CN) coating. To understand the nature of the interactions and their possible effects on the coating-lubricant system, several surface analysis techniques were used. The molecular level investigation of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that oxidative degradation occurred in all used oil-based lubricants during the sliding wear test but the degradation behaviour of oil-based lubricants varied with the coating-lubricant system and the wear conditions. The main differences in the carbonyl oxidation region of the FTIR spectra (1900-1600 cm-1) between different coating-lubricant systems may relate to the effective lifetime of the lubricant during the sliding wear test. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling shows that the CN coating has the highest lubricant absorbability among the tested tool surfaces. Diffusion of chlorine (C1), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) into the surface of subsurface of the tool suggested that strong interactions occurred between lubricant and tool surface during the sliding wear test. The possible effects of the interactions on the performance of whole tribological system are also discussed. The study of Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) indicated that the envelope of hydrocarbons (CmHn) of oil lubricant in the positive TOF-SIMS spectra shifted to lower mass fragment after the sliding wear testing due to the breakage of long-chain hydrocarbons to short-chain ones during the degradation of lubricant. The shift of the mass fragment range of the hydrocarbon (CmHn) envelope caries with the type of both tool surface and lubricant, again confirming that variation in the performance of the tool-lubricant system relates to the changes in surface chemistry due to tribochemical interactions at the tool-lubricant interface under sliding wear conditions. The sliding wear conditions resulted in changes not only in topography of the tool surface due to mechanical interactions, as outlined in Chapter 5, but also in surface chemistry due to tribochemical interactions, as discussed in Chapters 6 and 7.

Anomaly detection in wireless sensor networks in a non-stationary environment

Anomaly detection in a WSN is an important aspect of data analysis in order to identify data items that significantly differ from normal data. A characteristic of the data generated by a WSN is that the data distribution may alter over the lifetime of the network due to the changing nature of the phenomenon being observed. Anomaly detection techniques must be able to adapt to a non-stationary data distribution in order to perform optimally. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive overview of approaches to anomaly detection in a WSN and their operation in a non-stationary environment.

The evidentiary strategies of Two Laws

This article examines the ways in which the documentary film Two Laws deploys a variety of strategies to represent the historical claim to land made in the early 1980s by the Borroloola people of Australia's Northern Territory. Cross-cultural collaboration between the indigenous people of Borroloola and two non-indigenous film-makers produced a film that combines a vigorous reflexivity with dramatic re-enactment and oral testimony. Importantly, the presentation of evidence in support of the land claim is achieved via a form communally devised by the Borroloola people based on their cultural needs and contingent on Borroloola social structure. In this way the so-called documentary truth claim and indigenous land claim intersect in Two Laws: for the Borroloola people, the filmic evidentiary truth claim functions in a direct way in support of their legal claim to their lands.

Television journalism : the cultural politics of contemporary current affairs interviewing

This thesis examined television current affairs interviewing to determine the influence of the cultural politics of Australian commercial and non-commercial networks. Marketplace pressures to rate highly was the major influence on commercial programs resulting in the use of shorter dramatic interviews, more celebrities, fewer politicians, hidden cameras and ambush interviews.

Recreational value of Southern Bluefin Tuna fishing

Southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus Maccoyii) is a global resource, which is critically endangered. The Committee for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna sets commercial quota levels for member nations, including Australia, each year. However, southern bluefin tuna is also a popular “trophy” fish with recreational anglers. The size of the total recreational catch, which is not included in the quota, is unknown but thought to be significant. This paper reports the findings of a study designed to estimate the recreational value of the non-commercial southern bluefin tuna catch at Portland, in southwest Victoria. The results indicate that the size of the recreational catch at Portland is considerable and therefore significant in terms of the management of the fishery. Furthermore, the non-market recreational values associated with the fishery are substantial with the on-site recreational use value (consumer surplus) per person per visit estimated to be between $33 and $132 and the on-site annual recreational use value of the fishery for one season is estimated to be between $449,533 and $1,325,124.

"The solution needs to be complex." Obese adults' attitudes about the effectiveness of individual and population based interventions for obesity

Background
Previous studies of public perceptions of obesity interventions have been quantitative and based on general population surveys. This study aims to explore the opinions and attitudes of obese individuals towards population and individual interventions for obesity in Australia.

Methods
Qualitative methods using in-depth semi-structured telephone interviews with a community sample of obese adults (Body Mass Index ≥30). Theoretical, purposive and strategic recruitment techniques were used to ensure a broad sample of obese individuals with different types of experiences with their obesity. Participants were asked about their attitudes towards three population based interventions (regulation, media campaigns, and public health initiatives) and three individual interventions (tailored fitness programs, commercial dieting, and gastric banding surgery), and the effectiveness of these interventions.

Results
One hundred and forty two individuals (19-75 years) were interviewed. Participants strongly supported non-commercial interventions that were focused on encouraging individuals to make healthy lifestyle changes (regulation, physical activity programs, and public health initiatives). There was less support for interventions perceived to be invasive or high risk (gastric band surgery), stigmatising (media campaigns), or commercially motivated and promoting weight loss techniques (commercial diets and gastric banding surgery).

Conclusion
Obese adults support non-commercial, non-stigmatising interventions which are designed to improve lifestyles, rather than promote weight loss.

Optimal sensor placement and measurement of wind for water quality studies in urban reservoirs

We collaborate with environmental scientists to study the hydrodynamics and water quality in an urban district, where the surface wind distribution is an essential input but undergoes high spatial and temporal variations due to the complex urban landform created by surrounding buildings. In this work, we study an optimal sensor placement scheme to measure the wind distribution over a large urban reservoir with a limited number of wind sensors. Unlike existing sensor placement solutions that assume Gaussian process of target phenomena, this study measures the wind which inherently exhibits strong non-Gaussian yearly distribution. By leveraging the local monsoon characteristics of wind, we segment a year into different monsoon seasons which follow a unique distribution respectively. We also use computational fluid dynamics to learn the spatial correlation of wind in the presence of surrounding buildings. The output of sensor placement is a set of the most informative locations to deploy the wind sensors, based on the readings of which we can accurately predict the wind over the entire reservoir surface in real time. 10 wind sensors are finally deployed around or on the water surface of an urban reservoir. The in-field measurement results of more than 3 months suggest that the proposed sensor placement and spatial prediction approach provides accurate wind measurement which outperforms the state-of-the-art Gaussian model based or interpolation based approaches.

Nanomedicine based nanoparticles for neurological disorders

Human health is severely hampered by a majority of the neurological disorders such as the brain tumors, degenerative Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and those involving inflammatory component. Owing to the stringent protection offered by the blood brain barrier, conventional therapeutics gain limited access and therefore, are therapeutically suboptimal. Hence, research has now focused to develop the novel drug delivery systems with a prime motto of maintaining therapeutic drug levels inside the brain, avoiding non-specific tissue distribution. The introduction of nanotechnology has addressed few of these objectives and opened up new avenues for even more improvization. To some extent, nanodelivery systems were successful in crossing the blood brain barrier and accessing the remote areas of the brain. They also have shown tremendous potential in delivering the therapeutic and diagnostic aids following systemic administration. What revolutionised the nano applications is the development of "smart" nanosystems, whose surface is tailor made for the effective theranostic delivery. However, a detailed understanding of the long term nanoformulation toxicities, along with the neuropathology, is the critical future question to be addressed. In this review, a brief introduction of the prominent neurological disorders and detailed applications of nanotechnology are discussed.

Sensor placement and measurement of wind for water quality studies in urban reservoirs

We study the water quality in an urban district, where the surface wind distribution is an essential input but undergoes high spatial and temporal variations due to the impact of surrounding buildings. In this work, we develop an optimal sensor placement scheme to measure the wind distribution over a large urban reservoir using a limited number of wind sensors. Unlike existing solutions that assume Gaussian process of target phenomena, this study measures the wind that inherently exhibits strong non-Gaussian yearly distribution. By leveraging the local monsoon characteristics of wind, we segment a year into different monsoon seasons that follow a unique distribution respectively. We also use computational fluid dynamics to learn the spatial correlation of wind. The output of sensor placement is a set of the most informative locations to deploy the wind sensors, based on the readings of which we can accurately predict the wind over the entire reservoir in real time. Ten wind sensors are deployed. The in-field measurement results of more than 3 months suggest that the proposed sensor placement and spatial prediction scheme provides accurate wind measurement that outperforms the state-of-the-art Gaussian model based on interpolation-based approaches.