Waterfall : Nature and Culture

Many people take pleasure in visiting waterfalls and much has been written on the subject. Numerous accounts of Niagara Falls were published after Hennepin's late seventeenth-centure descriptions, particularly from the early nineteenth century, but is was only later that other waterfalls became the subject of books. George Holley's Niagara and Other Famous Cataracts of the World, published in 1883, and John Gibson's Great Waterfalls, Cataracts and Geysers, published in 1887, are early examples of global accounts of major falls. Most books about waterfalls are guides to the falls of a particular country, state or region. Apart from a few slim illustrated volumes, few books have been puslished on the world's waterfalls since Edward Rashleigh's Among the Waterfalls (1935). Most of these are slim pictorial volumes, some aimed at the children's market. Geologist Richard Maxwell Pearl published a series of waterfall articles in his journal Earth Science between 1973 and 1975, apparently with the intention of turning them into a book, but this never materialized. My book, the culmination of more than a decade of waterfalls research, is comprehensive in its approach, but is not intended to describe as many of the world's waterfalls as possible. This is far from my aim, and readers may be disappointed at my omission of falls they feel deserved mention. What I have attempted to do is celebrate the delights of these beautiful wonders of nature by considering them from many points of view, emphasizing the roles that they play in the human experience. To be as representative as possible, I draw on examples of waterfalls from all over the world, some famous, many not. North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania and, with recent global warming, the Earth's polar regions, all feature in the discussion. Even though there are already enough books and articles about Niagara Falls to fill a large library, it has been impossible to avoid making frequent reference to this great cataract, which has been so important in the history of travel and tourism, power generation, urban development and art. Amoung the issues that I consider is the human impact on waterfalls, particularly the effects of hydropower schemes and tourism development. Also considered are artificial waterfalls, which have long been features of the designed landscape. Their contemporay role is poignantly exemplified in the design of the National September 11 Memorial, in which the footprints of the Twin Towers are traced by walls of waterfalls. A geographer and urban and regional planner by training, I have ventured into many other fields of knowledge that are outside my areas of expertise. I apologize for any errors that I may have made in my book and invite correction.

The benefits of tree-based models for stock selection

The identification of the primary drivers of stock returns has been of great interest to both financial practitioners and academics alike for many decades. Influenced by classical financial theories such as the CAPM (Sharp, 1964; Lintner, 1965) and APT (Ross, 1976), a linear relationship is conventionally assumed between company characteristics as derived from their financial accounts and forward returns. Whilst this assumption may be a fair approximation to the underlying structural relationship, it is often adopted for the purpose of convenience. It is actually quite rare that the assumptions of distributional normality and a linear relationship are explicitly assessed in advance even though this information would help to inform the appropriate choice of modelling technique. Non-linear models have nevertheless been applied successfully to the task of stock selection in the past (Sorensen et al, 2000). However, their take-up by the investment community has been limited despite the fact that researchers in other fields have found them to be a useful way to express knowledge and aid decision-making...

A hybrid approach to combining CART and logistic regression for stock ranking

The benefits of applying tree-based methods to the purpose of modelling financial assets as opposed to linear factor analysis are increasingly being understood by market practitioners. Tree-based models such as CART (classification and regression trees) are particularly well suited to analysing stock market data which is noisy and often contains non-linear relationships and high-order interactions. CART was originally developed in the 1980s by medical researchers disheartened by the stringent assumptions applied by traditional regression analysis (Brieman et al. [1984]). In the intervening years, CART has been successfully applied to many areas of finance such as the classification of financial distress of firms (see Frydman, Altman and Kao [1985]), asset allocation (see Sorensen, Mezrich and Miller [1996]), equity style timing (see Kao and Shumaker [1999]) and stock selection (see Sorensen, Miller and Ooi [2000])...

Cultural relativity as exchange : J.W. Lindt’s 'bush character and Aboriginal' from 'The Grafton Album', circa 1872

J.W.Lindt’s Colonial man and Aborigine image from the GRAFTON ALBUM: “On chemistry and optics all does not depend, art must with these in triple union blend” (text from J.W. Lindt’s photographic backing card) In this paper, I follow an argument that Lindt held a position in his particular colonial environment where he was simultaneously both an insider and an outsider and that such a position may be considered prerequisite in stimulating exchange. A study of the transition of J.W. Lindt in Grafton, N.S.W. in the 1860s from a traveller to a migrant and subsequently to a professional photographer, as well as Lindt’s photographic career, which evolved through strategic action and technical approaches to photography, bears witness to his cultural relativity. One untitled photograph from this period of work constructs a unique commentary of Australian colonial life that illustrates a non-hegemonic position, particularly as it was included in one of the first albums of photographs of Aborigines that Lindt gifted to an illustrious person (in this case the Mayor of Grafton). As in his other studio constructions, props and backdrops were arranged and sitters were positioned with care, but this photograph is the only one in the album that includes a non-Aborigine in a relationship to an Aborigine. An analysis of the props, technical details of the album and the image suggests a reconciliatory aspect that thwarts the predominant attitudes towards Aborigines in the area at that time.

A fork in the Australian road? Ownership of patented employee inventions

Employee ownership of inventions is a complex matter in modern R&D involving multiple parties with diverse interests. Presently, Australian courts are struggling to reach equitable results in light of precedent. This article examines recent Australian, American and English decisions that attempt to balance the variables equitably for insights into potential Australian reform.

Multicomponent charge transport in electrolyte solutions

The work presented in this thesis investigates the mathematical modelling of charge transport in electrolyte solutions, within the nanoporous structures of electrochemical devices. We compare two approaches found in the literature, by developing onedimensional transport models based on the Nernst-Planck and Maxwell-Stefan equations. The development of the Nernst-Planck equations relies on the assumption that the solution is infinitely dilute. However, this is typically not the case for the electrolyte solutions found within electrochemical devices. Furthermore, ionic concentrations much higher than those of the bulk concentrations can be obtained near the electrode/electrolyte interfaces due to the development of an electric double layer. Hence, multicomponent interactions which are neglected by the Nernst-Planck equations may become important. The Maxwell-Stefan equations account for these multicomponent interactions, and thus they should provide a more accurate representation of transport in electrolyte solutions. To allow for the effects of the electric double layer in both the Nernst-Planck and Maxwell-Stefan equations, we do not assume local electroneutrality in the solution. Instead, we model the electrostatic potential as a continuously varying function, by way of Poisson’s equation. Importantly, we show that for a ternary electrolyte solution at high interfacial concentrations, the Maxwell-Stefan equations predict behaviour that is not recovered from the Nernst-Planck equations. The main difficulty in the application of the Maxwell-Stefan equations to charge transport in electrolyte solutions is knowledge of the transport parameters. In this work, we apply molecular dynamics simulations to obtain the required diffusivities, and thus we are able to incorporate microscopic behaviour into a continuum scale model. This is important due to the small size scales we are concerned with, as we are still able to retain the computational efficiency of continuum modelling. This approach provides an avenue by which the microscopic behaviour may ultimately be incorporated into a full device-scale model. The one-dimensional Maxwell-Stefan model is extended to two dimensions, representing an important first step for developing a fully-coupled interfacial charge transport model for electrochemical devices. It allows us to begin investigation into ambipolar diffusion effects, where the motion of the ions in the electrolyte is affected by the transport of electrons in the electrode. As we do not consider modelling in the solid phase in this work, this is simulated by applying a time-varying potential to one interface of our two-dimensional computational domain, thus allowing a flow field to develop in the electrolyte. Our model facilitates the observation of the transport of ions near the electrode/electrolyte interface. For the simulations considered in this work, we show that while there is some motion in the direction parallel to the interface, the interfacial coupling is not sufficient for the ions in solution to be "dragged" along the interface for long distances.

Fresh frozen cadavers as a tool to educate student paramedics in procedural skills

Objectives – To describe the development of an educational workshop to develop procedural skills in undergraduate Paramedic students using fresh frozen cadavers and to report the student’s assessment of the program. Methods – A six-hour anatomy based workshop was developed using fresh frozen cadavers to teach a range of airway and invasive procedural skills to second year undergraduate paramedic students. Embedded QUAN (qual) methodology will be utilised to evaluate the student’s satisfaction, perception and quality of teaching as compared to other existing clinical teaching techniques such as high fidelity simulation. Students will be asked to complete an anonymous validated survey (10 questions formulated on a 5 point Likert scale) and provide a qualitative feedback pre and post the six-hour workshop. Results – This is a prospective study planned for September 2013. Low-risk human research ethics are being sought. Teaching evaluation results from the inaugural 2012 workshop (undergraduate and postgraduate Paramedic students) and interim results for 2013 will be presented. Conclusions – Clinical teaching using fresh frozen cadavers thus far has predominately been used in the education of medical and surgical trainees. A number of studies have found them to be effective and in some cases superior to traditional high fidelity simulation teaching strategies. Fresh frozen cadavers are said to provide perfect anatomy, normal tissue consistency and a realistic operative training experience (Lloyd, Maxwell-Armstrong et al. 2011). The authors believe that this study will show that the use of fresh frozen cadavers offers a safe and effective mode to teach procedural skills to student paramedics that will help bridge the skills gap and increase confidence prior to students undertaking such interventions on living patients. A modified training program may be formulated for general practitioners undertaking Emergency Medicine Advanced Rural Skills.

The Limited Benefit of Prison in Controlling Crime : On the Threshold of a Political Shift

In 2012 the New Zealand government spent $3.4 billion, or nearly $800 per person, on responses to crime via the justice system. Research shows that much of this spending does little to reduce the changes of re-offending. Relatively little money is spent on victims, the rehabilitation of offenders or to support the families of offenders. This book is based on papers presented at the Costs of Crime forum held by the Institute of Policy Studies in February 2011. It presents lessons from what is happening in Australia, Britain and the United States and focuses on how best to manage crime, respond to victims, and reduce offending in a cost-effective manner in a New Zealand context. It is clear that strategies are needed that are based on better research and a more informed approach to policy development. Such strategies must assist victims constructively while also reducing offending. Using public resources to lock as many people in our prisons as possible cannot be justified by the evidence and is fiscally unsustainable; nor does such an approach make society safer. To reduce the costs of crime we need to reinvest resources in effective strategies to build positive futures for those at risk and the communities needed to sustain them.

Third harmonic generation of the surface wave in the semiconductor-metal slowing-down structure

A nonlinear process is considered of the surface wave third harmonics generation in a slowing-down semiconductor-metal structure. The process is conditioned by non-parabolicity of the charge carrier dispersion law. It is shown that in narrow-gap semiconducting materials it is necessary to account for the process together with the surface wave second harmonics generation conditioned by nonlinearity of quasi-hydrodynamics and the Maxwell equations. The conclusion is made that the third harmonies amplitude in narrow-gap semiconductors may exceed substantially the signal amplitude at the 3w frequency in a gas plasma and be of the same order with the surface waves second harmonies amplitude.

Designing schools as effective 21st C learning spaces : a review

The Queensland Centre for Social Science Innovation was formed in 2012 to develop collaborations among the Queensland Government and five Queensland universities—The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook University and Central Queensland University. Three priorities for initial projects were established by the Queensland Government with response by the participating universities. This project addressed the identified priority area: factors affecting educational achievement and investigation of the link between school design, refurbishment and educational outcomes. The proposal for this project indicated that a Review of research literature would be undertaken that linked school and classroom design with educational outcomes for learners in the 21st century. Further, research would be examined for impact of technology on staff and students, as well as learning spaces that addressed the diversity of student learners. Specific investigation of research on effective design to enhance learning outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students was to be undertaken. The project therefore consists of a Review of research literature to provide an evidence base on the impact of school and classroom on educational outcomes. The original proposal indicated that indicators of successful school and classroom design would be student learning outcomes on a range of variables, with input, the specific architectural design elements. The review was undertaken during the period July 2012 to June 2013. A search was undertaken of journals, databases, and websources to identify relevant material. These were examined for evidence-based statements and design of learning spaces to enhance learning. The Review is comprehensive, and representative of issues raised in research, and conceptualisations and debates informing modern educational design. Initial findings indicated two key findings central to reading this Review. The first key finding is that the predominant focus of modern design of learning space is on process and the engagement of stakeholders. Schools are social institutions and development of a school as a learning space to suit 21st century learning needs necessarily involves the staff, students and other members of the community as key participants. The concept of social aspects of design is threaded throughout the Review. The second key finding is that little research explicitly examined the relationship between the design of learning spaces and educational outcomes. While some research does exist, the most explicitly-focused research uses narrow test-based achievement as the learning outcomes. These are not sympathetic to the overall framings of the research on 21st century learning, future schooling and the needs of the new generation of learners and society.

The rise of englightened shareholder primacy and its impact on US corporate self-regulation

Enlightened shareholder primacy (“ESP”) is a new approach in the corporate governance (“CG”) framework. The emergence of this approach is important owing to its role in answering a vital question: is the company really a private organisation to be seen only through the economic prism of contract? Or is it public and about a wider group of interests and underwritten by communitarian concern about social responsibility? Apart from answering this question, ESP explains the changes in corporate directors’ roles and self-regulation strategies of companies.

Uneducated : play becomes artwork, artwork becomes play

Over the past twenty years the contemporary art world has seen a significant shift in the modes and structures of connection between work and its audiences. This shift is termed by Irit Rogoff, amongst others, as an ‘educational turn’. The turn has been described as the eruption of discussions and investigations, inside and outside of institutions, that interrupt the presumed power hierarchies and bureaucratised systems of both art and education. This essay was written to accompany artist/curator Kym Maxwell's exhibition project, 'Uneducated', exploring these ideas. It was held at the Counihan Gallery in Melbourne, 2014.