Mapping land use in a large agricultural basin : a comparison between classification techniques

In order to facilitate the better management of river basin resources, the Glenelg-Hopkins region in south-east Australia required an accurate and up to date land use map. Land use has a major impact on Australia's natural resources including its soil, water, flora and fauna and plays a major role in determining basin health. Inappropriate land use and practices have contributed to extensive dryland salinity and water quality problems. Land use data is often required for environmental models and in most cases the reliability of model outputs is dependent on the spatial detail and accuracy of the land use mapping. This paper examines methods to obtain an up to date land use map and a detailed accuracy assessment using Landsat ETM+ data for a regional basin. A multi-source based approach allowed the collection of 4817 ground truth data points from the field investigation. This enabled researchers to (i) incorporate a full range of information into digital image analysis with significant improvements in accuracy and (ii) hold sufficient independent references for an accurate error assessment. Classification accuracy was significantly improved using a stratification design, in which the region is sub-divided into smaller homogenous areas as opposed to a full scene classification technique. The overall classification accuracy was 84% (KHAT= 0.833) for the stratified approach compared to 76% (KHAT= 0.743) for the full scene classification. Effective assessment, planning and management of basins are dependent on a sound knowledge of the distribution and variability of land use.

Late carboniferous to early permian brachiopod faunas from the Bachu and Kalpin areas, Tarim Basin, NW China

Late Carboniferous and Early Permian brachiopod faunas are described from the Xiaohaizi section of the Bachu area and the Shishichang section of the Kalpin area, the Tarim Basin, NW China. Biostratigraphic studies of brachiopods and associated microfossils indicate that the Xiaohaizi Formation is Moscovian (Late Carboniferous) and the Shishichang Formation is Kasimovian-Gzhelian (Late Carboniferous), whereas the Nanza and Kankarin Formations are Asselian to early Artinskian (Early Permian). Two new species proposed from the Nanza Formation are Kutorginella tarimensis and Phricodothyris? bachuensis.

The generation of new high-angle boundaries in aluminium during hot torsion

The crystallographic rotation field for deformation in torsion is such that it is possible for orientations close to stable orientations to rotate away from the stable orientation. A Taylor type model was used to demonstrate that this phenomenon has the potential to transform randomly generated low-angle boundaries into high-angle boundaries. After imposing an equivalent strain of 1.2, up to 40% of the simulated boundaries displayed a disorientation in excess of 15°. These high-angle boundaries were characterised by a disorientation axis close to parallel with the sample radial direction. A series of hot torsion tests was carried out on 1050 aluminium to seek evidence for boundaries formed by this mechanism. A number of deformation-induced high-angle boundaries were identified. Many of these boundaries showed disorientation axes and rotation senses similar to those seen in the simulations. Between 10% and 25% of all the high-angle boundary present in samples twisted to equivalent strains between 2 and 7 could be attributed to the present mechanism.

Early carboniferous athyridid brachiopods from the Qaidam Basin, Northwest China

Four new Early Carboniferous athyridid species in three genera, including one new genus, Bruntonathyris, are described from the Qaidam Basin, northwest China: Lamellosathyris qaidamensis, Bruntonathyris amunikeensis, Bruntonathyris? heijianshanensis, and Lochengia qinghaiensis. Based on the new material and also on published information, we also reviewed the taxonomic composition and the stratigraphic and paleogeographic distributions of the three genera. As a result, Lamellosathyris is considered to be indicative of late Famennian to Viséan age, originating in late Famennian in central North America and Armenia of Russia, respectively. Later, the genus appears to have two migratory directions: one branch rapidly dispersed over Mississippi Valley, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico of central North America in Tournaisian; alternatively, another branch from Armenia migrated westerly to Belgium, France, Spain, Britain, Ireland, via the Moscow Basin and Ural seaway, eastward to the Tienshan Mountains and Qaidam Basin of northwest China during the Tournaisian to Viséan, and easterly along the southern shelves of the Paleo-Tethys to Iran and western Yunnan of southwestern China in Tournaisian. Both Bruntonathyris and Lochengia are restrictedly Tournaisian to Viséan in age, and probably originated in the Qaidam Basin. Later, Bruntonathyris migrated easterly to South China and Japan, and westerly to Urals, Moscow Basin, Donetsk Basin and Britain; Lochengia migrated easterly to South China and westerly to the Urals seaway and the adjoined Russian Platform (i.e., both the Moscow and Donetsk Basins).

Organizing forms in change management: the role of structures, process and boundaries in a longitudinal case analysis

This paper examines change management at William Angliss Institute of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) against the three organizational dimensions of structures, processes and boundaries identified by the INNFORM Study. Its experience confirms that even when an organization adopts a systemic approach and implements change across each design dimension, optimal performance benefits depend on mutually reinforcing and complementary changes. Furthermore, improvement to processes, particularly communications and human resources practices, plays a pivotal role, as complementary change across all dimensions depends ultimately on the contribution and commitment of organization members. Case findings also highlight the need for ambidextrous forms of organizing that combine 'controllability' with 'responsiveness'. The conceptual notion of organizing dualities has been employed to provide a practical interpretation of the ostensibly competing imperatives implied by ambidexterity. This case explores the dualities that can be demonstrated for the INNFORM triumvirate of structures, processes and boundaries. The dualities interpretation emphasizes an acceptance of texture and the simultaneous presence of what are conventionally viewed as incompatible organizing forms. This was considered a useful conceptual vehicle in the analysis of a case study covering nearly ten years of serious change interventions, where one theoretical view can be misleading in understanding the subtleties and complexities of the actual changes that occurred.

The plasticity of professional boundaries: a case study of collaborative care in maternity services

A case study of twenty-nine midwives and nine obstetricians working in a regional, public sector Australian hospital demonstrates the plasticity of professional boundaries within a post-welfare state. Driven by new discourses of globalisation, marketisation, managerialism and consumerism, professional boundaries in health care are being blurred, reordered and reconstituted. Government policies that call for a new interdisciplinarity between maternity professionals may be seen as responses to the above pressures. However, there remain considerable barriers to achieving collaborative models including conflicting interpretations of risk, of women's bodies and of childbirth; the veto power of decision-making retained by obstetricians; questions of professional accountability; and diversity over appropriate styles of micro-interaction. Collaboration demands a new egalitarianism to eclipse the old vertical system of obstetric dominance and this means that midwives need to create a distinctive professional specialty, or new object of knowledge. Midwives' skill in 'emotion management' could provide this speciality in addition to their rational-technical knowledge and thus elevate midwifery to an equivalent professional status with obstetrics but as yet neither obstetrics nor midwifery have realised its professionalising potential

New forms of organising : changing structures, processes and boundaries in a public sector institution

Globalisation, deregulation, privatisation, and advances in communications technologies have intensified competition and impacted on the structures, processes and boundaries that define organisations. Increased competition at both the local and global level calls for increased responsiveness and flexibility, and continuous improvement and innovation. As organisations endeavour to become more attentive and responsive to environmental trends, and customer needs and expectations, they are experimenting with different forms of organising. This has included flattening structures, devolving decision-making responsibility and encouraging greater collaboration and knowledge transfer across functional areas.

The William Angliss Institute of TAFE operates in the post-secondary sector which has experienced significant changes over the past decade as a result of: wide-ranging public sector reforms imposed by successive governments; budgetary cutbacks; accountability and performance improvement pressures; increased national and international competition, industrial relations changes and more demanding, sophisticated customers. This paper draws on the INNFORM Study's three organisational design dimensions of structure, process, and boundaries to examine the nature and degree of change that has taken place at the Institute. Case study findings indicate that while William Angliss has implemetted changes across the three design dimensions, the depth and breadth of these vary and this has impacted on overall performance outcomes. Its experience suggests that even when an organisation adopts a systemic approach and implements changes simultaneously across structure, process and boundaries, optimal performance benefits will not accrue unless these elemental changes are mutually reinforcing and complementary. It also suggests that improvement to processes, particularly communications and human resources practices must be an overarching consideration, as complementary change across all three design dimensions depends ultimately on the contribution and commitment organisational members are prepared to make.

Soft-sediment deformation structures in the middle permian Wandrawandian siltstone, southern Sydney basin: implications for depositional environment and basin tectonics

The Middle Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone at Warden Head near Ulladulla in the southern Sydney Basin is dominated by fossiliferous siltstone and mudstone, with a large amount of dropstones (lonestones) and some pebbly sandstone beds. Two general types of deposits are recognised from the cliff succession in view of the timing and mechanism of their formation. One is represented by the background (or primary) deposits of offshore to slope environments with abundant dropstones of glacial marine origin. This facies occurs throughout the cliff sections at Warden Head. The second type is distinguished by secondary, soft-sediment deformational deposits and structures of the primary (background) deposits, and comprises three successive layers of sandy mudstone dikes. In the second type of deposit, metre scale, laterally extensive syn-depositional slump deformation structures occur extensively in the middle part of the Wandrawandian Siltstone. The deformation structures vary in morphology and pattern, including large-scale complex-type folds, flexural stratification, concave-up structures, small-magnitude -faults accompanied by folding and brecciation. The slumps and associated syn-depositional structures are herein attributed to penecontemporaneous deformations of soft sediments (mostly mud and silty mud), formed as a result of mass movement of unconsolidated and/or semi-consolidated substrate following earthquake events. The occurrence of the earthquake event deposits (or seismites) at Warden Head supports the current view that the Sydney Basin was located in a back-arc setting near the New England magmatic arc on an active continental margin during the Middle Permian, and the timing of the earthquake events is here interpreted to indicate the onset of the Hunter Bowen Orogeny in the southern Sydney Basin.