A new dimension of sister city relationships in the 21st century : a pilot study in Australia

Sister City agreements have historically provided a goodwill platform for countries 10 undertake activities for the enhancement of peaceful and cooperative relations. They have also become instruments for cities 10 develop their own form of internationalization and to provide for specific activities of cullural,
educational or other similar cooperative exchanges between cities generally in different nations. Sisler City Relationships are broadly-based, officially approved, long-IeI'm partnership between two communities in two countries. Using on-line questionnaires distributed through the membership of Australian Sisler City Association (ASCA), this pilot study confirmed that the existing relationships are mainly focused on cultural exchange, education and council exchange. An overwhelming majority of the local governments, however, are ready for the
extension of the Sister City Relationship by developing business and economic related activities. in fact the pilot study confirms this research is timely and necessaty especially in developing policy guidelines and operation
frameworks.

Peak modeling approach to accurate assignment of first-dimension retention times in comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography

Modeling of first-dimension retention of peaks based on modulation phase and period allows reliable prediction of the modulated peak distributions generated in the comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography experiment. By application of the inverse process, it is also possible to use the profile of the modulated peaks (their heights or areas) to predict the shape and parameters of the original input chromatographic band (retention time, standard deviation, area) for the primary column dimension. This allows an accurate derivation of the firstdimension retention time (RSD 0.02%) which is equal to that for the non-modulated experiment, rather than relying upon the retention time of the major modulated peak generated by the modulation process (RSD 0.16%). The latter metric can produce a retention time that differs by at least the modulation period employed in the experiment, which displays a discontinuity in the retention time vs modulation phase plot at the point of the 180° out-ofphase modulation. In contrast, the new procedure proposed here gives a result that is essentially independent of modulation phase and period. This permits an accurate value to be assigned to the first-dimension retention. The proposed metric accounts for the time on the seconddimension, the phase of the distribution, and the holdup time that the sampled solute is retained in the modulating interface. The approach may also be based on the largest three modulated peaks, rather than all modulated peaks. This simplifies the task of assigning the retention time with little loss of precision in band standard deviation or retention time, provided that these peaks are not all overloaded in the first or second dimension.

Mechanisms for multimodality : taking fiction to another dimension

We present methods for automatically constructing representations of fiction books in a range of modalities: audibly, graphically and as 3D virtual environments. The correspondence between the sequential ordering of events against the order of events presented in the text is used to correctly resolve the dynamic interactions for each representation. Synthesised audio created from the fiction text is used to calibrate the base time-line against which the other forms of media are correctly aligned. The audio stream is based on speech synthesis using the text of the book, and is enhanced using distinct voices for the different characters in a book. Sound effects are included automatically. The graphical representation represents the text (as subtitles), identifies active characters and provides visual feedback of the content of the story. Dynamic virtual environments conform to the constraints implied by the story, and are used as a source of further visual content. These representations are all aligned to a common time-line, and combined using sequencing facilities to provide a multimodal version of the original text.

Large versus small wood in streams : the effect of wood dimension on macroinvertebrate communities

Conventionally, most research and restoration involving in-stream wood focuses on large wood (>0.1 m diameter), excluding any smaller pieces. However, this may neglect a major component of in-stream habitat, as small wood can constitute the majority of pieces, particularly in small streams. The ecological benefit of large wood is well established, but corresponding benefits associated with small wood (0.05-0.1 m diameter) have not been demonstrated. To test the effect of wood dimension on macroinvertebrate community composition, we compared the fauna occupying large wood habitats with that occupying small wood at eight streams in south-eastern Australia. The relationships between wood dimensions and its macroinvertebrate fauna were complex. Community composition did not vary with wood dimension, and no significant correlations were found between other macroinvertebrate attributes (including family richness and evenness) and wood dimension, including diameter. However, analysis of covariance suggested that large wood supported a greater diversity and abundance of macroinvertebrates, indicating that the method of analysis could influence the result. Adjustment for differences in sample dimension using rarefaction determined that these findings were likely to be a result of the surface area and volumes sampled varying with the dimension of the wood. Per unit surface area, and per unit volume, small wood supported a similar number of families to large wood. Thus we conclude that, relative to the available surface area, small and large wood can be equivalent in their contribution to the available habitat in a stream. Therefore, the potential value of small wood as a habitat resource warrants its explicit consideration for inclusion in ecological and rehabilitation studies.

A fast kernel dimension reduction algorithm with applications to face recognition

This paper presents a novel dimensionality reduction algorithm for kernel based classification. In the feature space, the proposed algorithm maximizes the ratio of the squared between-class distance and the sum of the within-class variances of the training samples for a given reduced dimension. This algorithm has lower complexity than the recently reported kernel dimension reduction(KDR) for supervised learning. We conducted several simulations with large training datasets, which demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has similar performance or is marginally better compared with KDR whilst having the advantage of computational efficiency. Further, we applied the proposed dimension reduction algorithm to face recognition in which the number of training samples is very small. This proposed face recognition approach based on the new algorithm outperforms the eigenface approach based on the principle component analysis (PCA), when the training data is complete, that is, representative of the whole dataset.

M-Dimension : multi-characteristics based routing protocol in human associated delay-tolerant networks with improved performance over one dimensional classic models

Human associated delay-tolerant network (HDTN) is a new delay-tolerant network where mobile devices are associated with humans. It can be viewed from both their geographic and social dimensions. The combination of these different dimensions can enable us to more accurately comprehend a delay-tolerant network and consequently use this multi-dimensional information to improve overall network efficiency. Alongside the geographic dimension of the network which is concerned with geographic topology of routing, social dimensions such as social hierarchy can be used to guide the routing message to improve not only the routing efficiency for individual nodes, but also efficiency for the entire network.

We propose a multi-dimensional routing protocol (M-Dimension) for the human associated delay-tolerant network which uses the local information derived from multiple dimensions to identify a mobile node more accurately. Each dimension has a weight factor and is organized by the Distance Function to select an intermediary and applies multi-cast routing. We compare M-Dimension to existing benchmark routing protocols using the MIT Reality Dataset, a well-known benchmark dataset based on a human associated mobile network trace file. The results of our simulations show that M-Dimension has a significant increase in the average success ratio and is very competitive when End-to-End Delay of packet delivery is used in comparison to other multi-cast DTN routing protocols.

Our natives and wild blacks : enumeration as a statistical dimension of sovereignty in colonial Western Australia

This paper investigates the Western Australian colonial authorities' attempts at defining and categorising a "politically relevant" Aboriginal population from first settlement in 1829 until 1850. Studies of colonial enumeration allow us to understand how colonial authorities viewed the spaces and boundaries of settlement and beyond, and who would be included as part of the community inhabiting that space. Enumeration of Aboriginal people in this period mirrored the Western Australian colonial authorities' conception of their sovereignty: the territory which they could effectively control was not the entire western third of the continent, as the map dictated, but rather the surveyed country, within the "limits of settlement." While other studies of colonial census making reveal enumeration as an instrument of control, this paper identifies colonial census making about Indigenous Western Australians in this period as an instance of state incapacity to govern and control. While "control" was the colonial authorities' key objective in their enumerations, the census reports reveal their inability to know the Aboriginal population.

Incorporating the aesthetic dimension into pedagogy

One of the dimensions of learning experiences, which is not often given much attention outside of the creative arts, is the aesthetic dimension. In this paper we report on a study we conducted which explores the importance of learning through aesthetic experiences as identified by Dewey. While there is literature available which engages with the significance of such experiences (Hinchliffe, 2011; Nakamura, 2009) there is little which explores the nexus between this and specific practices in classrooms. Through examining pedagogical practices and beliefs of some exemplary teachers (as identified by their community), our study uncovered some approaches which offer alternate considerations for pedagogy. These have the potential to further enrich the sometimes static nature of the ‘official’ curriculum (Apple, 2000) as often assumed by pre-service teachers who attempt to deliver it through experiences.