Three flying saucers

Three Flying Saucers is wall mounted set of three works which parody the iconic kitsch set of three flying ducks which inhabit the walls of many houses from the 1950’s to today. The project proposes a time in the future where contact with alien intelligent life has been established and we have finally obtained proof that Flying Saucers were real and had been visiting our world for many decades. Now these mysterious celestial forms have been adopted as the new kitsch and adorn the homes of the future.

Being made redundant: from 'the writing on the wall' to 'a bolt from the blue' - 'being disposed of' as a human tragedy

This paper focuses on the experience of being made redundant. A qualitative study conducted in Australia involved phenomenological, in-depth interviews with middle- and senior-level executives. Ten respondents were interviewed about their experiences of being made redundant. What is evident from their stories is a clear passage of "being disposed of" differing only in whether their fate was evident prior to their disposal - "the writing on the wall" - or whether it was a complete shock - "a bolt from the blue". Ultimately, whether respondents knew what was coming or not, the process was often shocking, hurtful, humiliating, and harsh. Many respondents reported going through the process of being made redundant more than once. All believed it could have been handled better.

Three essays on financial markets

This thesis examines stock price behaviour on the New York Stock Exchange.  The thesis develops modelsto show that firms on the stock exchange are different with respect to volatility and changes in calender dates.  Moreover, the thesis shows that firm returns are affected differently by oil prices.

A disposable contact lens in independent practice : three years on

First introduced late in 1987 the Acuvue lens was originally launched as an extended-wear lens, though it soon became adapted to daily wear. It received an FDA licence for daily wear in the USA in 1990.

Three essays on stock returns and inflation - Australian evidence

Results of this thesis suggest that a significant negative relation between stock returns and inflation identified in Australia during ‘inflation targeting’ is mainly due to an incidence of ‘flight to safety’. Furthermore, the impact of inflation news on stock returns is industry-sector dependent. Specifically, in Australia rising inflation seems to be good news for Financials, but bad news for Materials.

Three essays on the intraday dynamics of the foreign exchange market

Containing three essays on the intraday dynamics of the foreign exchange market, the dissertation highlights the role of higher-moments in improving the forecasting ability of exchange rates models while contributing to the literature through the identification of new calendar anomalies in the currency market which has implications for regulators and investors.

Processing and mechanical properties of hollow sphere aluminum foams

Hollow sphere metallic foams are a new class of cellular material that possesses the attractive advantages of uniform cell size distribution and regular cell shape. These result in more predictable physical and mechanical properties than those of cellular materials with a random cell size distribution and irregular cell shapes. In the present study, single aluminum hollow spheres with three kinds of sphere wall thickness as 0.1 mm, 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm were processed by a new pressing method. Hollow sphere aluminum foam samples were prepared by bonding together single hollow spheres with simple cubic packing (SC) and body-centered cubic packing (BCC). Compressive tests were carried out to evaluate the deformation behaviors and mechanical properties of the hollow sphere aluminum foams. Effects of the sphere wall thickness and packing style on the mechanical properties were investigated.

Impact of bed rest on conduit artery remodeling: effect of exercise countermeasures

Physical inactivity is a potent stimulus for vascular remodeling, leading to a marked decrease in conduit artery diameter. However, little is known about the impact of physical inactivity on artery wall thickness or wall:lumen ratio or the potential of exercise countermeasures to modify artery wall thickness. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of 60 days of bed rest, with or without exercise countermeasures, on carotid and superficial femoral artery wall thickness. Eighteen men were assigned to bed rest (second Berlin Bed Rest Study) and randomly allocated to control, resistive exercise, or resistive vibration exercise. Both exercise countermeasures were applied 3 times per week while the subjects were in the supine position on the bed. Sonography was used to examine baseline diameter and wall thickness of the carotid and femoral arteries. Bed rest decreased diameter of the superficial femoral artery (P=0.001) but not the carotid artery (P=0.29). Bed rest induced a significant increase in carotid and superficial femoral artery wall thickness (P=0.007 and 0.03) and wall:lumen ratio (P=0.009 and 0.001). Exercise prevented the increase in wall thickness of the carotid artery. In addition, exercise partly prevented the increased wall:lumen ratio in the superficial femoral artery. In conclusion, 8 weeks of bed rest resulted in approximately 20% increase in conduit artery wall thickness. Exercise countermeasures completely (carotid artery) or partly (superficial femoral artery) abolished the increase in wall thickness. These findings suggest that conduit artery wall thickness, a vascular characteristic associated previously with atherosclerosis, can rapidly adapt to physical inactivity and exercise in humans.

Clinical performance of three silicone hydrogel daily disposable lenses

Purpose: To determine the clinical performance of DAILIES TOTAL1 (DT1), Clariti 1Day (C1D), and 1-DAY ACUVUE TruEye (AVTE) silicone hydrogel daily disposable contact lenses (SiHy DDCLs).

Methods: Eligible participants, subdivided into asymptomatic and symptomatic groups, wore each SiHy DDCLs for three consecutive days. Each participant attended three visits (on day 1 at 0 hours; on days 1 and 3 after 8 hours of wear) per lens type. The order of lens wear was randomized, with at least 1 day washout between lenses. Lens-related performance was evaluated by assessing lens surface deposits, wettability, pre-lens noninvasive tear breakup time, lens movement, and centration; ocular response assessments included conjunctival redness, corneal staining, and conjunctival staining and indentation.

Results: Fifty-one asymptomatic and 53 symptomatic participants completed the study. For all visits, the mean noninvasive tear breakup time was about 1 second longer with DT1 than with C1D and AVTE (p < 0.01). Overall, the wettability of all three lenses was good; however, DT1 was graded marginally better than the other lenses (both p < 0.01). On day 3, eyes wearing AVTE had significantly more dehydration-induced corneal staining compared with DT1 (AVTE, 24%; DT1, 11%; p < 0.01). After 8 hours, conjunctival staining was different between lenses (greatest with C1D and least with DT1; all p < 0.01). Conjunctival indentation was more prevalent with the C1D lenses (n = 70) compared with DT1 (n = 1; p < 0.01) and AVTE (n = 11; p < 0.01). There were no differences between asymptomatic and symptomatic lens wearers for any of the clinical parameters (all p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Each of the three SiHy DDCLs performed well. Noninvasive tear breakup time was longest and wettability was greater with DT1. C1D had the most conjunctival staining conjunctival indentation. There was no difference between asymptomatic and symptomatic wearers with regard to ocular response and contact lens–related parameters. These results suggest that SiHy DDCLs may be an excellent contact lens modality for the symptomatic patient

Can simple mobile phone applications provide reliable counts of respiratory rates in sick infants and children? An initial evaluation of three new applications

BACKGROUND: Respiratory rate is an important sign that is commonly either not recorded or recorded incorrectly. Mobile phone ownership is increasing even in resource-poor settings. Phone applications may improve the accuracy and ease of counting of respiratory rates. OBJECTIVES: The study assessed the reliability and initial users' impressions of four mobile phone respiratory timer approaches, compared to a 60-second count by the same participants. METHODS: Three mobile applications (applying four different counting approaches plus a standard 60-second count) were created using the Java Mobile Edition and tested on Nokia C1-01 phones. Apart from the 60-second timer application, the others included a counter based on the time for ten breaths, and three based on the time interval between breaths ('Once-per-Breath', in which the user presses for each breath and the application calculates the rate after 10 or 20 breaths, or after 60s). Nursing and physiotherapy students used the applications to count respiratory rates in a set of brief video recordings of children with different respiratory illnesses. Limits of agreement (compared to the same participant's standard 60-second count), intra-class correlation coefficients and standard errors of measurement were calculated to compare the reliability of the four approaches, and a usability questionnaire was completed by the participants. RESULTS: There was considerable variation in the counts, with large components of the variation related to the participants and the videos, as well as the methods. None of the methods was entirely reliable, with no limits of agreement better than -10 to +9 breaths/min. Some of the methods were superior to the others, with ICCs from 0.24 to 0.92. By ICC the Once-per-Breath 60-second count and the Once-per-Breath 20-breath count were the most consistent, better even than the 60-second count by the participants. The 10-breath approaches performed least well. Users' initial impressions were positive, with little difference between the applications found. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that applications running on simple phones can be used to count respiratory rates in children. The Once-per-Breath methods are the most reliable, outperforming the 60-second count. For children with raised respiratory rates the 20-breath version of the Once-per-Breath method is faster, so it is a more suitable option where health workers are under time pressure.

Per incuriam: the decision on the overtime claim in Leung Ka Lau v Hospital Authority

In Leung Ka Lau v Hospital Authority the plaintiffs were doctors who claimed compensation for, inter alia, enforced overtime extracted without pay from them by their employer, the defendants. The Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Final Appeal dismissed their overtime claims on purely the terms of their contracts of employment. This paper argues that the decisions of all three courts on the overtime claims were made per incuriam because their attention was not drawn to the applicable statutory provisions which would have invalidated the contractual provisions on which the courts rested their decisions. The paper sketches the socio-economic and ethical basis of overtime work and pay before proceeding to analyse the common law (contractual) basis of the judgments, traces the history as well as undertakes construction of the statutory provisions which, if taken into account, would have seen the plaintiffs succeeding.