Die musikalischen Reisen des Herrn von Uffenbach : aus einem Reisetagebuch des Johann Friedrich A. von Uffenbach aus Frankfurt a.M. 1712 - 1716

Eberhard Preußner

Diseño de una guía para la auditoria de la clasificación de información que vela por el cumplimiento de la ley 1712.

41 p.

Indoor exposure to submicrometer particles and PM2.5 in residential houses in Brisbane, Australia

As part of a large study investigating indoor air in residential houses in Brisbane, Australia, the purpose of this work was to quantify indoor exposure to submicrometer particles and PM2.5 for the inhabitants of 14 houses. Particle concentrations were measured simultaneously for more than 48 hours in the kitchens of all the houses by using a condensation particle counter (CPC) and a photometer (DustTrak). The occupants of the houses were asked to fill in a diary, noting the time and duration of any activity occurring throughout the house during measurement, as well as their presence or absence from home. From the time series concentration data and the information about indoor activities, exposure to the inhabitants of the houses was calculated for the entire time they spent at home as well as during indoor activities resulting in particle generation. The results show that the highest median concentration level occurred during cooking periods for both particle number concentration (47.5´103 particles cm-3) and PM2.5 concentration (13.4 mg m-3). The highest residential exposure period was the sleeping period for both particle number exposure (31%) and PM2.5 exposure (45.6%). The percentage of the average residential particle exposure level in total 24h particle exposure level was approximating 70% for both particle number and PM2.5 exposure.

New particle formation and growth at a remote, sub-tropical coastal location

A month-long intensive measurement campaign was conducted in March/April 2007 at Agnes Water, a remote coastal site just south of the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast of Australia. Particle and ion size distributions were continuously measured during the campaign. Coastal nucleation events were observed in clean, marine air masses coming from the south-east on 65% of the days. The events usually began at ~10:00 local time and lasted for 1-4 hrs. They were characterised by the appearance of a nucleation mode with a peak diameter of ~10 nm. The freshly nucleated particles grew within 1-4 hrs up to sizes of 20-50 nm. The events occurred when solar intensity was high (~1000 W m-2) and RH was low (~60%). Interestingly, the events were not related to tide height. The volatile and hygroscopic properties of freshly nucleated particles (17-22.5 nm), simultaneously measured with a volatility-hygroscopicity-tandem differential mobility analyser (VH-TDMA), were used to infer chemical composition. The majority of the volume of these particles was attributed to internally mixed sulphate and organic components. After ruling out coagulation as a source of significant particle growth, we conclude that the condensation of sulphate and/or organic vapours was most likely responsible for driving particle growth during the nucleation events. We cannot make any direct conclusions regarding the chemical species that participated in the initial particle nucleation. However, we suggest that nucleation may have resulted from the photo-oxidation products of unknown sulphur or organic vapours emitted from the waters of Hervey Bay, or from the formation of DMS-derived sulphate clusters over the open ocean that were activated to observable particles by condensable vapours emitted from the nutrient rich waters around Fraser Island or Hervey Bay. Furthermore, a unique and particularly strong nucleation event was observed during northerly wind. The event began early one morning (08:00) and lasted almost the entire day resulting in the production of a large number of ~80 nm particles (average modal concentration during the event was 3200 cm-3). The Great Barrier Reef was the most likely source of precursor vapours responsible for this event.

Open City, Rossellini and neorealism : sixty years on

For Bakhtin, it is always important to know from where one speaks. The place from which I speak is that of a person who grew up in Italy during the economic miracle (pre-1968) in a working class family, watching film matinees on television during school holidays. All sort of films and genres were shown: from film noir to westerns, to Jean Renoir's films, German expressionism, Italian neorealism and Italian comedy. Cinema has come to represent over time a sort of memory extension that supplements lived memory of events, and one which, especially, mediates the intersection of many cultural discourses. When later in life I moved to Australia and started teaching in film studies, my choice of a film that was emblematic of neorealism went naturally to Roma città aperta (Open city hereafter) by Roberto Rossellini (1945), and not to Paisan or Sciuscà or Bicycle Thieves. My choice was certainly grounded in my personal memory - especially those aspects transmitted to me by my parents, who lived through the war and maintained that Open City had truly made them cry. With a mother who voted for the Christian Democratic Party and a father who was a unionist, I thought that this was normal in Italian families and society. In the early 1960s, the Resistance still offered a narrative of suffering and redemption, shared by Catholics or Communists. This construction of psychological realism is what I believe Open City continues to offer in time.

Quality-based benefit design in health insurance : the impact of a product benefit design change on the utilisation of oral health services by members of a private health insurance fund in regional and rural New South Wales, Australia

Objective: To examine the impact on dental utilisation following the introduction of a participating provider scheme (Regional and Rural Oral Health Program {RROHP)). In this model dentists receive higher third party payments from a private health insurance fund for delivering an agreed range of preventive and diagnostic benefits at no out-ofpocket cost to insured patients. Data source/Study setting: Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia (HCF) dental claims for all members resident in New South Wales over the six financial years from l99811999 to 200312004. Study design: This cohort study involves before and after analyses of dental claims experience over a six year period for approximately 81,000 individuals in the intervention group (HCF members resident in regional and rural New South Wales, Australia) and 267,000 in the control group (HCF members resident in the Sydney area). Only claims for individuals who were members of HCF at 31 December 1997 were included. The analysis groups claims into the three years prior to the establishment of the RROHP and the three years subsequent to implementation. Data collection/Extraction methods: The analysis is based on all claims submitted by users of services for visits between 1 July 1988 and 30 June 2004. In these data approximately 1,000,000 services were provided to the intervention group and approximately 4,900,000 in the control group. Principal findings: Using Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts, special cause variation was identified in total utilisation rate of private dental services in the intervention group post implementation. No such variation was present in the control group. On average in the three years after implementation of the program the utilisation rate of dental services by regional and rural residents of New South Wales who where members of HCF grew by 12.6%, over eight times the growth rate of 1.5% observed in the control group (HCF members who were Sydney residents). The differences were even more pronounced in the areas of service that were the focus of the program: diagnostic and preventive services. Conclusion: The implementation of a benefit design change, a participating provider scheme, that involved the removal of CO-payments on a defined range of preventive and diagnostic dental services combined with the establishment and promotion of a network of dentists, appears to have had a marked impact on HCF members' utilisation of dental services in regional and rural New South Wales, Australia.

Poverty in perception : a study of the twentieth-century prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand, as English-speaking nations with dominant white populations, present an ethnic anomaly not only in South East Asia, but also in the Southern Hemisphere. Colonised by predominantly workingclass British immigrants from the late eighteenth century, an ethnic and cultural connection grew between these two countries even though their indigenous populations and ecological environments were otherwise very different. Building a new life in Australia and New Zealand, the colonists shared similar historic perceptions of poverty – perceptions from their homelands that they did not want to see replicated in their new adopted countries. Dreams of a better life shaped their aspirations, self-identity and nationalistic outlook. By the twentieth century, national independence and self-government had replaced British colonial rule. The inveterate occurrence of poverty in Australia and New Zealand had created new local perspectives and different perceptions of, and about, poverty. This study analyses what relationship existed between the political directions adopted by the twentieth-century prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand and their perceptions of poverty. Using the existential phenomenological theory and methodology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the study adds to the body of knowledge about poverty in Australia and New Zealand by revealing the structure and origin of the poverty perceptions of the twentieth-century prime ministers.

How can entrepreneurial musicians use electronic social networks to diffuse their music

Principal Topic: ''In less than ten years music labels will not exist anymore.'' Michael Smelli, former Global COO Sony/BMG MCA/QUT IMP Business Lab Digital Music Think Thanks 9 May 2009, Brisbane Big music labels such as EMI, Sony BMG and UMG have been responsible for promoting and producing a myriad of stars in the music industry over the last decades. However, the industry structure is under enormous threat with the emergence of a new innovative era of digital music. Recent years have seen a dramatic shift in industry power with the emergence of Napster and other file sharing sites, iTunes and other online stores, iPod and the MP3 revolution. Myspace.com and other social networking sites are connecting entrepreneurial artists with fans and creating online music communities independent of music labels. In 2008 the digital music business internationally grew by around 25% to 3.7 Billion US-Dollar. Digital platforms now account for around 20% of recorded music sales, up from 15 % in 2007 (IFPI Digital music report 2009). CD sales have fallen by 40% since their peak levels. Global digital music sales totalled an estimated US$ 3 Billion in 2007, an increase of 40% on 2006 figures. Digital sales account for an estimated 15% of global market, up from 11% in 2006 and zero in 2003. The music industry is more advanced in terms of digital revenues than any other creative or entertainment industry (except games). Its digital share is more than twice that of newspapers (7%), films (35) or books (2%). All these shifts present new possibilities for music entrepreneurs to act entrepreneurially and promote their music independently of the major music labels. Diffusion of innovations has a long tradition in both sociology (e.g. Rogers 1962, 2003) and marketing (Bass 1969, Mahajan et al., 1990). The context of the current project is theoretically interesting in two respects. First, the role of online social networks replaces traditional face-to-face word of mouth communications. Second, as music is a hedonistic product, this strongly influences the nature of interpersonal communications and their diffusion patterns. Both of these have received very little attention in the diffusion literature to date, and no studies have investigated the influence of both simultaneously. This research project is concerned with the role of social networks in this new music industry landscape, and how this may be leveraged by musicians willing to act entrepreneurially. Our key research question we intend to address is: How do online social network communities impact the nature, pattern and speed that music diffuses? Methodology/Key Propositions : We expect the nature/ character of diffusion of popular, generic music genres to be different from specialized, niche music. To date, only Moe & Fader (2002) and Lee et al. (2003) investigated diffusion patterns of music and these focus on forecast weekly sales of music CDs based on the advance purchase orders before the launch, rather than taking a detailed look at diffusion patterns. Consequently, our first research questions are concerned with understanding the nature of online communications within the context of diffusion of music and artists. Hence, we have the following research questions: RQ1: What is the nature of fan-to-fan ''word of mouth'' online communications for music? Do these vary by type of artist and genre of music? RQ2: What is the nature of artist-to-fan online communications for music? Do these vary by type of artist and genre of music? What types of communication are effective? Two outcomes from research social network theory are particularly relevant to understanding how music might diffuse through social networks. Weak tie theory (Granovetter, 1973), argues that casual or infrequent contacts within a social network (or weak ties) act as a link to unique information which is not normally contained within an entrepreneurs inner circle (or strong tie) social network. A related argument, structural hole theory (Burt, 1992), posits that it is the absence of direct links (or structural holes) between members of a social network which offers similar informational benefits. Although these two theories argue for the information benefits of casual linkages, and diversity within a social network, others acknowledge that a balanced network which consists of a mix of strong ties, weak ties is perhaps more important overall (Uzzi, 1996). It is anticipated that the network structure of the fan base for different types of artists and genres of music will vary considerably. This leads to our third research question: RQ3: How does the network structure of online social network communities impact the pattern and speed that music diffuses? The current paper is best described as theory elaboration. It will report the first exploratory phase designed to develop and elaborate relevant theory (the second phase will be a quantitative study of network structure and diffusion). We intend to develop specific research propositions or hypotheses from the above research questions. To do so we will conduct three focus group discussions of independent musicians and three focus group discussions of fans active in online music communication on social network sites. We will also conduct five case studies of bands that have successfully built fan bases through social networking sites (e.g. myspace.com, facebook.com). The idea is to identify which communication channels they employ and the characteristics of the fan interactions for different genres of music. We intend to conduct interviews with each of the artists and analyse their online interaction with their fans. Results and Implications : At the current stage, we have just begun to conduct focus group discussions. An analysis of the themes from these focus groups will enable us to further refine our research questions into testable hypotheses. Ultimately, our research will provide a better understanding of how social networks promote the diffusion of music, and how this varies for different genres of music. Hence, some music entrepreneurs will be able to promote their music more effectively. The results may be further generalised to other industries where online peer-to-peer communication is common, such as other forms of entertainment and consumer technologies.

Defibrillator

Defibrillator is a 16’41” musical work for solo performer, laptop computer and electric guitar. The electric guitar is processed in real-time by digital signal processing network in software, with gestural control provided by a foot-operated pedal board. --------- The work is informed by a range of ideas from the genres of electroacoustic music, western art music, popular music and cinematic sound. It seeks to fluidly cross and hybridise musical practices from these diverse sonic traditions and to develop a compositional language that draws upon multiple genres, but at the same time resists the ability to be located within a singular genre. Musical structures and sonic markers which form genre are ruptured at strategic levels of the musical structure in order to allow for a cross flow of concepts between genres. The process of rupture is facilitated by the practical implementation of music and sound reception theories into the compositional process. -------- The piece exhibits the by-products of a composer born into a media saturated environment, drawing on a range of musical and sonic traditions, actively seeking to explore the liminal space in between these traditions. The project stems from the author's research interests in locating points of connection between traditions of experimentation in diverse musical and sonic traditions arising from the broad uptake of media technologies in the early 20th century.

Towards controlled growth of carbon nanotubes from germanium on nanoindented silicon substrates

In this paper, we report on a metal-catalyst-free synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a pre-patterned Si(001) surface. Arrays of triangular-shaped holes were created by nanoindentation in specific sites of the sample. After germanium deposition and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetylene, a few CNTs nucleated and grew from germanium nanoparticles. These results illustrate that it is possible to control the growth of CNTs without the use of any metal catalyst. By leading the assembly of Ge nanoparticles with a patterning technique, a precise control over the growth order is also attainable.

Research-led educational renewal and economic-cultural convergence

The 'Queensland Model' grew out of three convergent agendas: educational renewal, urban redevelopment, and the Queensland state government's 'Smart State' strategy.

A geometrical approach to the motion planning problem for a submerged rigid body

The main focus of this paper is the motion planning problem for a deeply submerged rigid body. The equations of motion are formulated and presented by use of the framework of differential geometry and these equations incorporate external dissipative and restoring forces. We consider a kinematic reduction of the affine connection control system for the rigid body submerged in an ideal fluid, and present an extension of this reduction to the forced affine connection control system for the rigid body submerged in a viscous fluid. The motion planning strategy is based on kinematic motions; the integral curves of rank one kinematic reductions. This method is of particular interest to autonomous underwater vehicles which can not directly control all six degrees of freedom (such as torpedo shaped AUVs) or in case of actuator failure (i.e., under-actuated scenario). A practical example is included to illustrate our technique.

Engineered silk fibroin protein 3D matrices for in vitro tumor model

3D in vitro model systems that are able to mimic the in vivo microenvironment are now highly sought after in cancer research. Antheraea mylitta silk fibroin protein matrices were investigated as potential biomaterial for in vitro tumor modeling. We compared the characteristics of MDA-MB-231 cells on A. mylitta, Bombyx mori silk matrices, Matrigel, and tissue culture plates. The attachment and morphology of the MDA-MB-231 cell line on A. mylitta silk matrices was found to be better than on B. mori matrices and comparable to Matrigel and tissue culture plates. The cells grown in all 3D cultures showed more MMP-9 activity, indicating a more invasive potential. In comparison to B. mori fibroin, A. mylitta fibroin not only provided better cell adhesion, but also improved cell viability and proliferation. Yield coefficient of glucose consumed to lactate produced by cells on 3D A. mylitta fibroin was found to be similar to that of cancer cells in vivo. LNCaP prostate cancer cells were also cultured on 3D A. mylitta fibroin and they grew as clumps in long term culture. The results indicate that A. mylitta fibroin scaffold can provide an easily manipulated microenvironment system to investigate individual factors such as growth factors and signaling peptides, as well as evaluation of anticancer drugs.

Age and gender differences in ambulance utilisation in Queensland

Introduction Queensland has the highest ambulance utilisation (150 per 1000 population) in Australia and growing 4.4% annually. However, the impact of gender and age on utilisation is unknown. Methods & Materials Data on ambulance utilisation from Queensland Ambulance Service for the period 2002-2009 were analysed. Results Between 2002 and 2009, the number of ambulance patients per 1000 population increased overall by 17% (females) and 18% (males). The utilisation rate remained highest among the elderly but grew differently across age groups. For females, the rates were 55% (0-14yo), 73% (15-29yo), 38% (30-44yo), 22% (45-59yo), -9% (60-74yo) and -6% (75,+ yo); for males they were 48%, 59%, 38%, 17%, -13% and -2% respectively. Within the same age groups and period, the population adjusted number of males per 100 females (M:F ratio) changed from 134 to 128 (-5% growth), 98 to 91 (-8%), 101 to 100 (-0.4%), 115 to 111 (-3%), 114 to 108 (-5%) and 106 to 111 (4%). Conclusion Understanding the impact of patients’ demographic profiles on service utilisation and broader effects on the emergency health system is imperative for policy-making, demand management, designing public health campaigns and health promotions. Gender and age characteristics of ambulance users in Queensland appear to be changing most noticeably in the youngest and oldest groups. Physical and mental health, attitudinal, lifestyle, parenting, financial and socio-cultural reasons may account for these trends, but little evidence exists. A theoretical framework will be discussed to contextualise the findings.

Death by Drowning : Gary Bryson's Turtle [A Review]

Accused of being autobiographical, as many debut novels often are, Turtle, upon first reading and further prying, does read as a story wrenched out of Gary Bryson’s own life. In a recent interview with Mandy Sayer, however, he was quick to deny all sorts of archetypal allegations. “Any resemblance to turtles living or dead”, Bryson explained, “is entirely coincidental”. Regardless of the many parallels that align author with protagonist—both were born and raised in a grey-skied Glasgow, both grew up in self-described dysfunctional families, and both returned to the colourless city to attend their mothers’ funerals—the narrative combines bruising black comedy with moments of magic realism. The result is an unlikely but often surprising concoction of twists and turns, each of which mixes the fallibility of memory with the slippery nature of truth. This playfulness between the material world and its metaphorical counterpart raises questions, not only about the curse that poisons its characters, but about the ethical implications of blurring fact and fiction...