The practice of adaptation : turning fact and fiction into theatre

Adaptation of novels and other source texts into theatre has proven to be a recurring and popular form of writing through the ages. This study argues that as the theoretical discourse has moved on from outmoded notions of fidelity to original sources, the practice of adaptation is a method of re-invigorating theatre forms and inventing new ones. This practice-led research employed a tripartite methodology comprised of the writing of two play adaptations, participation by the author/researcher in their productions, and exegetical components focused on the development and deployment of analytical tools. These tools were derived from theoretical literature and a creative practice based on acquired professional artistry "learnt by doing" over a longstanding professional career as actor, director and writer. A suite of analytical tools was developed through the three phases of the first project, the adaptation of Nick Earls’ novel Perfect Skin. The tools draw on Cardwell’s "comparative analysis", which encompasses close consideration of generic context, authorial context and medium-specific context; and on Stam’s "mechanics of narrative": order, duration, frequency, the narrator and point of view. A third analytical lens was developed from an awareness of the significance of the commissioning brief and ethical considerations and obligations to the source text and its author and audience. The tripartite methodology provided an adaptation template that was applied to the writing and production of the second play Red Cap, which used factual and anecdotal sources. The second play’s exegesis (Chapter 10) analyses the effectiveness of the suite of analytical tools and the reception of the production in order to conclude the study with a workable model for use in the practice of adapting existing texts, both factual and fictional, for the theatre.

Factors associated with common mental disorders during the transition to adulthood : do emerging adults and ‘early starters’ differ? Findings from an Australian birth cohort study

Background: Despite increasing diversity in pathways to adulthood, choices available to young people are influenced by environmental, familial and individual factors, namely access to socioeconomic resources, family support and mental and physical health status. Young people from families with higher socioeconomic position (SEP) are more likely to pursue tertiary education and delay entry to adulthood, whereas those from low socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to attain higher education or training, and more likely to partner and become parents early. The first group are commonly termed ‘emerging adults’ and the latter group ‘early starters’. Mental health disorders during this transition can seriously disrupt psychological, social and academic development as well as employment prospects. Depression, anxiety and most substance use disorders have early onset during adolescence and early adulthood with approximately three quarters of lifetime psychiatric disorders having emerged by 24 years of age. Aims: This thesis aimed to explore the relationships between mental health, sociodemographic factors and family functioning during the transition to adulthood. Four areas were investigated: 1) The key differences between emerging adults and ‘early starters’, were examined and focused on a series of social, economic, and demographic factors as well as DSM-IV diagnoses; 2) Methodological issues associated with the measurement of depression and anxiety in young adults were explored by comparing a quantitative measure of symptoms of anxiety and depression (Achenbach’s YSR and YASR internalising scales) with DSM-IV diagnosed depression and anxiety. 3) The association between family SEP and DSM-IV depression and anxiety was examined in relation to the different pathways to adulthood. 4) Finally, the association between pregnancy loss, abortion and miscarriage, and DSM-IV diagnoses of common psychiatric disorders was assessed in young women who reported early parenting, experiencing a pregnancy loss, or who had never been pregnant. Methods: Data were taken from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), a large birth cohort started in 1981 in Brisbane, Australia. 7223 mothers and their children were assessed five times, at 6 months, 5, 14 and 21 years after birth. Over 3700 young adults, aged 18 to 23 years, were interviewed at the 21-year phase. Respondents completed an extensive series of self-reported questionnaires and a computerised structured psychiatric interview. Three outcomes were assessed at the 21-year phase. Mental health disorders diagnosed by a computerised structured psychiatric interview (CIDI-Auto), the prevalence of DSM-IV depression, anxiety and substance use disorders within the previous 12-month, during the transition (between ages of 18 and 23 years) or lifetime were examined. The primary outcome “current stage in the transition to adulthood” was developed using a measure conceptually constructed from the literature. The measure was based on important demographic markers, and these defined four independent groups: emerging adults (single with no children and living with parents), and three categories of ‘early starter’, singles (with no children or partner, living independently), those with a partner (married or cohabitating but without children) and parents. Early pregnancy loss was assessed using a measure that also defined four independent groups and was based on pregnancy outcomes in the young women This categorised the young women into those who were never pregnant, women who gave birth to a live child, and women who reported some form of pregnancy loss, either an abortion or a spontaneous miscarriage. A series of analyses were undertaken to test the study aims. Potential confounding and mediating factors were prospectively measured between the child’s birth and the 21-year phase. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the risk of relevant outcomes, and the associations were reported as odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Key findings: The thesis makes a number of important contributions to our understanding of the transition to adulthood, particularly in relation to the mental health consequences associated with different pathways. Firstly, findings from the thesis clearly showed that young people who parented or partnered early fared worse across most of the economic and social factors as well as the common mental disorders when compared to emerging adults. That is, young people who became early parents were also more likely to experience recent anxiety (OR=2.0, 95%CI 1.5-2.8) and depression (OR=1.7, 95%CI 1.1-2.7) than were emerging adults after taking into account a range of confounding factors. Singles and those partnering early also had higher rates of lifetime anxiety and depression than emerging adults. Young people who partnered early, but were without children, had decreased odds of recent depression; this may be due to the protective effect of early marriage against depression. It was also found that young people who form families early had an increased risk of cigarette smoking (parents OR=3.7, 95%CI 2.9-4.8) compared to emerging adults, but not heavy alcohol (parents OR=0.4, 95%CI 0.3-0.6) or recent illicit drug use. The high rates of cigarette smoking and tobacco use disorders in ‘early starters’ were explained by common risk factors related to early adversity and lower SEP. Having a child and early marriage may well function as a ‘turning point’ for some young people, it is not clear whether this is due to a conscious decision to disengage from a previous ‘substance using’ lifestyle or simply that they no longer have the time to devote to such activities because of child caring. In relation to the methodological issues associated with assessing common mental disorders in young adults, it was found that although the Achenbach empirical internalising scales successfully predicted both later DSM-IV depression (YSR OR=2.3, 95%CI 1.7-3.1) and concurrently diagnosed depression (YASR OR=6.9, 95%CI 5.0- 9.5) and anxiety (YASR OR=5.1, 95%CI 3.8- 6.7), the scales discriminated poorly between young people with or without DSM-IV diagnosed mood disorder. Sensitivity values (the proportion of true positives) for the internalising scales were surprisingly low. Only a third of young people with current DSM-IV depression (range for each of the scales was between 34% to 42%) were correctly identified as cases by the YASR internalising scales, and only a quarter with current anxiety disorder (range of 23% to 31%) were correctly identified. Also, use of the DSM-oriented scales increased sensitivity only marginally (for depression between 2-8%, and anxiety between 2-6%) above the standard Achenbach scales. This is despite the fact that the DSM-oriented scales were originally developed to overcome the poor prediction of DSM-IV diagnoses by the Achenbach scales. The internalising scales, both standard and DSM-oriented, were much more effective at identifying young people with comorbid depression and anxiety, with OR’s 10.1 to 21.7 depending on the internalising scale used. SEP is an important predictor of both an early transition to adulthood and the experience of anxiety during that time Family income during adolescence was a strong predictor of early parenting and partnering before age 24 but not early independent living. Compared to families in the upper quintile, young people from families with low income were nearly twice as likely to live with a partner and four times more likely to become parents (OR ranged from 2.6 to 4.0). This association remained after adjusting for current employment and education level. Children raised in low income families were 30% more likely to have an anxiety disorder (OR=1.3, 95%CI 0.9-1.9), but not depression, as young adults when compared to children from wealthier families. Emerging adults and ‘early starters’ from low income families did not differ in their likelihood of having a later anxiety disorder. Young women reporting a pregnancy loss had nearly three times the odds of experiencing a lifetime illicit drug disorder (excluding cannabis) [abortion OR=3.6, 95%CI 2.0-6.7 and miscarriage OR=2.6, 95%CI 1.2-5.4]. Abortion was associated with alcohol use disorder (OR=2.1, 95%CI 1.3- 3.5) and 12-month depression (OR=1.9, 95%CI 1.1- 3.1). These finding suggest that the association identified by Fergusson et al between abortion and later psychiatric disorders in young women may be due to pregnancy loss and not to abortion, per se. Conclusion: Findings from this thesis support the view that young people who parent or partner early have a greater burden of depression and anxiety when compared to emerging adults. As well, young women experiencing pregnancy loss, from either abortion or miscarriage, are more likely to experience depression and anxiety than are those who give birth to a live infant or who have never been pregnant. Depression, anxiety and substance use disorders often go unrecognised and untreated in young people; this is especially true in young people from lower SEP. Early identification of these common mental health disorders is important, as depression and anxiety experienced during the transition to adulthood have been found to seriously disrupt an individual’s social, educational and economic prospects in later life.

Election fact check : does Murdoch own 70% of newspapers in Australia?

"One of the more spirited discussions of the first week of this federal election campaign has concerned whether News Corp Australia, as our largest print media company, has a vested interest in the election outcome..."--publisher website

Too early to proclaim the end of the war on childhood obesity

Parents winning childhood war on obesity, Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals, screamed the headline. Sounds like a good news story to make every parent breathe a sigh of relief, but is it really true? The article in question quoted obesity expert and University of South Australia Professor Tim Olds, who argued that “the media and public health authorities are getting carried away” about childhood obesity. He pointed to the fact that recent ABS data showed rates of overweight and obesity in children plateaued between 2007/08 and between 2011/12. But that still means one in four Australian children is overweight or obese; it’s clear we still have a lot of work to do. As a nutritionist working with parents every day (both in practical obesity programs and in research into reducing this considerable health risk), I was concerned that the article could be taken at face value. Because there’s more, much more, to this story.

Mainstream monsters : the otherness of humans in Twilight, the Vampire Diaries and True Blood

The representation of vampires in horror movies and television programmes has changed considerably over the last two decades. No longer is the vampire portrayed simply as a monster or representation of death. Now, the vampire on our screen such as True Blood’s Bill Compton, or Twilight’s Edward Cullen, passes as human, chooses to make morally sound decisions, becomes an upstanding assimilated citizen, works in the community, and aspires to be a husband to mortal women. The success of recent series such as The Twilight Saga (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), The Vampire Diaries (2009 - ) and True Blood (2008 - ) has popularised the idea of vampires who cling to remnants of their humanity (or memories of what it means to be human) and attempt to live as human, which builds upon similar – albeit embryonic – themes which emerged from the vampire sub-genre in the 1990s. Within these narratives, representations of the other have shifted from the traditional idea of the monster, to alternative and surprising loci. As this chapter argues, humans themselves, and the concept of the human body, now represent, in many instances, both abject and other. The chapter begins by considering the nature of the abject and otherness in relation to representations of classical vampires and how they have traditionally embodied the other. This provides a backdrop against which to examine the characteristics of the contemporary mainstreaming vampire ‘monster’. An examination of the broad thematic and representational shifts from other to mainstream vampire demonstrates how mainstream monsters are increasingly assimilating into mortal lifestyles with trappings that many viewers may find appealing. The same shifts in theme and representation also reveal that humans are frequently cast as mundane and unappealing in contemporary vampire narratives.

The science behind the “stain”

It has been almost fi ve years since I fi rst published the article entitled “Much Ado About Staining” in Review of Optometry, which explored what we really knew in 2006 about the relationship between “corneal staining” and contact lens multipurpose solutions (MPS). This was published just prior to the controversial “staining grid.” While the Grid showed MPS-associated hyperfl uorescence under the slitlamp at two hours, it did not explain the “what” or “why” behind it; even so, many proponents of the Grid continue to suggest that it shows us which solution/lens combinations are “biocompatible” and which are not. New evidence suggests that the preservative-associated transient hyperfl uorescence (or PATH) observed at two hours after lens insertion is a benign phenomenon due to an interaction between fl uorescein, MPS preservatives, and corneal cell membranes. The misinterpretation of PATH as “real” corneal staining, like that observed in pathological conditions, may be due in part to the fact that there is not a lot of teaching regarding the true properties of fl uorescein and what is actually occurring when we see either PATH or corneal staining. To discuss the science of fl uorescein, corneal staining, and PATH, I have asked some of the preeminent research experts in the study of fl uorescence spectroscopy and corneal staining from around the world to share their new research and personal opinions on these topics...

Modelling after-the-fact leakage for key exchange

Security models for two-party authenticated key exchange (AKE) protocols have developed over time to prove the security of AKE protocols even when the adversary learns certain secret values. In this work, we address more granular leakage: partial leakage of long-term secrets of protocol principals, even after the session key is established. We introduce a generic key exchange security model, which can be instantiated allowing bounded or continuous leakage, even when the adversary learns certain ephemeral secrets or session keys. Our model is the strongest known partial-leakage-based security model for key exchange protocols. We propose a generic construction of a two-pass leakage-resilient key exchange protocol that is secure in the proposed model, by introducing a new concept: the leakage-resilient NAXOS trick. We identify a special property for public-key cryptosystems: pair generation indistinguishability, and show how to obtain the leakage-resilient NAXOS trick from a pair generation indistinguishable leakage-resilient public-key cryptosystem.

Church officials believed claims were true

FORMER Anglican church officials have admitted they believed a former school headmaster had abused children at a north Queensland boarding school, despite telling a victim during mediation over a compensation payout that his allegations were not proven. For more than six years, Anglican officials dismissed the allegations of Queensland pensioner Bim Atkinson that he had been sexually abused between 1964 and 1968 by the Reverend Robert Waddington, the former headmaster of St Barnabas boarding school in Ravenshoe, on the Atherton Tablelands. In documents and letters obtained by The Weekend Australian, senior church officials in England and Australia told Mr Atkinson, now 59, that Waddington had denied the allegations and his claims were "not proven", despite an internal investigation. Mr Atkinson made his first complaint in 1999 -- when Waddington was living in retirement in York -- but dropped the case after being told the former school principal was near death after surgery for throat cancer. Waddington did not die until 2007. In 2004, Mr Atkinson refiled his complaint, with church officials telling him the allegations were "not proven" and did not warrant another investigation.

Continuous after-the-fact leakage-resilient key exchange

Security models for two-party authenticated key exchange (AKE) protocols have developed over time to provide security even when the adversary learns certain secret keys. In this work, we advance the modelling of AKE protocols by considering more granular, continuous leakage of long-term secrets of protocol participants: the adversary can adaptively request arbitrary leakage of long-term secrets even after the test session is activated, with limits on the amount of leakage per query but no bounds on the total leakage. We present a security model supporting continuous leakage even when the adversary learns certain ephemeral secrets or session keys, and give a generic construction of a two-pass leakage-resilient key exchange protocol that is secure in the model; our protocol achieves continuous, after-the-fact leakage resilience with not much more cost than a previous protocol with only bounded, non-after-the-fact leakage.

Admissions of law or fact?

In Pollock v Thiess Pty Ltd, McMeekin J considered two applications for the withdrawal of deemed admissions. The judgment provides important guidance on pleadings and deemed admissions under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld).

Cryptanalysis of block ciphers with overdefined systems of equations

Several recently proposed ciphers, for example Rijndael and Serpent, are built with layers of small S-boxes interconnected by linear key-dependent layers. Their security relies on the fact, that the classical methods of cryptanalysis (e.g. linear or differential attacks) are based on probabilistic characteristics, which makes their security grow exponentially with the number of rounds N r r. In this paper we study the security of such ciphers under an additional hypothesis: the S-box can be described by an overdefined system of algebraic equations (true with probability 1). We show that this is true for both Serpent (due to a small size of S-boxes) and Rijndael (due to unexpected algebraic properties). We study general methods known for solving overdefined systems of equations, such as XL from Eurocrypt’00, and show their inefficiency. Then we introduce a new method called XSL that uses the sparsity of the equations and their specific structure. The XSL attack uses only relations true with probability 1, and thus the security does not have to grow exponentially in the number of rounds. XSL has a parameter P, and from our estimations is seems that P should be a constant or grow very slowly with the number of rounds. The XSL attack would then be polynomial (or subexponential) in N r> , with a huge constant that is double-exponential in the size of the S-box. The exact complexity of such attacks is not known due to the redundant equations. Though the presented version of the XSL attack always gives always more than the exhaustive search for Rijndael, it seems to (marginally) break 256-bit Serpent. We suggest a new criterion for design of S-boxes in block ciphers: they should not be describable by a system of polynomial equations that is too small or too overdefined.

Feeling a little Blue? : Boofheads, bodies, and beaches

Pat Grant’s graphic novel Blue (2012) tells two stories about the impact of a newly migrant group on a small coastal Australian town. The wider story explores the wholesale effects of a previously unknown population joining an existing, culturally homogenous community. These broad social images are used to contextualise the more immediate story of three youths who are disenfranchised within the pre-existing community, but who can claim social enfranchisement by alienating the new members of the community. That the migrant population is depicted literally as aliens emphasises Blue’s participation in a wider conversation about citizenship and empathy. However, Blue does not necessarily seek to provoke a particular emotional response in its readers. Rather, in following three characters who lack what Nussbaum calls “narrative imagination” in their pursuit of good surfing or visceral entertainment—of beaches or bodies—Blue explores the means and consequences of refusing intersubjective affect. This is most powerfully rendered by the main characters’ ultimate avoidance of, and fictions about, a dead body they have wagged school to see. At the very moment of a person becoming a true object—a corpse—the meaning of objectifying people is revealed; the young protagonists seem to recognise this fact, and thus retreat from the affective scene which nonetheless informs Blue as a whole.

The True Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Analysis of 1,000 Global Companies

This study elucidated the shadow price of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 1,024 international companies worldwide that were surveyed from 15 industries in 37 major countries. Our results indicate that the shadow price of GHG at the firm level is much higher than indicated in previous studies. The higher shadow price was found in this study as a result of the use of Scope 3 GHG emissions data. The results of this research indicate that a firm would carry a high cost of GHG emissions if Scope 3 GHG emissions were the focus of the discussion of corporate social responsibility. In addition, such shadow prices were determined to differ substantially among countries, among sectors, and within sectors. Although a number of studies have calculated the shadow price of GHG emissions, these studies have employed country-level or industry-level data or a small sample of firm-level data in one country. This new data from a worldwide firm analysis of the shadow price of GHG emissions can play an important role in developing climate policy and promoting sustainable development.

The Not for Profit Sector in Australia : Fact Sheet

This fact sheet outlines aspects of the nonprofit sector in Australia, under the following headings: size; economic contribution; employment; volunteering; income; expenses; and philanthropy; and provides international comparisons on aspects including size, growth, economic contribution, giving, and workforce.