The identity of the empire : the Italian colonial experience in the design of places

The Italian Colonial Experience in the design of the built environment is analysed as a case study of State image promotion.

An Italian legal case note

The present paper intends to enlighten a particular aspect of charitable organizations which is their registration in the regional lists for voluntary organizations. The aforementioned decision ruled that these organizations are entitled to adopt the form of cooperative society and consequently, when all the other legal requirements are complete, charitable organizations are to be enrolled. The registration has been subject to many criticisms and it is necessary to bring some light on a topic that hides behind it many legal and cultural repercussions concerning the role and the activities of nonprofit organizations in the Italian context.

A comparison of submicrometer particle dose between Australian and Italian people

Alveolar and tracheobronchial-deposited submicrometer particle number and surface area data received by different age groups in Australia are shown. Activity patterns were combined with microenvironmental data through a Monte-Carlo method. Particle number distributions for the most significant microenvironments were obtained from our measurement survey data and people activity pattern data from the Australian Human Activity Pattern Survey were used. Daily alveolar particle number (surface area) dose received by all age groups was equal to 3.0×1010 particles (4.5×102 mm2), varying slightly between males and females. In contrast to gender, the lifestyle was found to significantly affect the daily dose, with highest depositions characterizing adults. The main contribution was due to indoor microenvironments. Finally a comparison between Italian and Australian people in terms of received particle dose was reported; it shows that different cooking styles can affect dose levels: higher doses were received by Italians, mainly due to their particular cooking activity.

Jogging alongside or bumping off? oral history and fiction in dialogue

This paper emerges from my practice-led PhD thesis investigating the ways fiction writers can enter a dialogue with the project of oral history in Australia. In this paper, I survey the current literature in order to identify the status of fiction within the practice of oral history in Australia. I argue that oral historians and fiction writers are, among other things, both concerned with understanding subjectivity. I consider how one of the specific qualities of fiction, that of character, can provide a space to explore subjectivity, and rely on my own writing practice in order to demonstrate how oral history theory can enrich fictive writings. This paper, while positioned in the field of oral history, exists within a wider debate around how the past can legitimately be represented; I argue oral historians and fiction writers can enter a dialogue around shared concerns.

Individual dose and exposure of Italian children to ultrafine particles

Time-activity patterns and the airborne pollutant concentrations encountered by children each day are an important determinant of individual exposure to airborne particles. This is demonstrated in this work by using hand-held devices to measure the real-time individual exposure of more than 100 children aged 8-11 years to particle number concentrations and average particle diameter, as well as alveolar and tracheobronchial deposited surface area concentration. A GPS-logger and activity diaries were also used to give explanation to the measurement results. Children were divided in three sample groups: two groups comprised of urban schools (school time from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm) with lunch and dinner at home, and the third group of a rural school with only dinner at home. The mean individual exposure to particle number concentration was found to differ between the three groups, ranging from 6.2×104 part. cm-3 for children attending one urban school to 1.6×104 part. cm-3 for the rural school. The corresponding daily alveolar deposited surface area dose varied from about 1.7×103 mm2 for urban schools to 6.0×102 mm2 for the rural school. For all of the children monitored, the lowest particle number concentrations are found during sleeping time and the highest were found during eating time. With regard to alveolar deposited surface area dose, a child's home was the major contributor (about 70%), with school contributing about 17% for urban schools and 27% for the rural school. An important contribution arises from the cooking/eating time spent at home, which accounted for approximately 20% of overall exposure, corresponding to more than 200 mm2. These activities represent the highest dose received per time unit, with very high values also encountered by children with a fireplace at home, as well as those that spend considerable time stuck in traffic jams.

Marking out the pitch : Defining the soccer fiction genre

The fiction of football, or soccer as it is commonly known in both the US and Australia, has a long and deep history. Despite this, there is still academic uncertainty as to whether it qualifies description as a distinct fictive genre. This paper seeks to address this question. It brings a genre analysis approach to the football fiction canon. Starting with definitions of what constitutes football fiction and genre, the paper goes on to distinguish and aggregate common trends, tensions and divergences and identify emerging and popular movements within football fiction. The paper will then assess football fiction’s status as a discrete genre.

The lost boys : creating appealing and engaging fiction for adolescent male reluctant readers & Duende a young adult novella

Reading plays an important role in establishing lifelong learning and providing the reader with an avenue to new experiences and a language with which to express their ideas and feelings (Owen 2003; Hamston & Love 2005). In particular adolescents need a language that allows them to 'play with their identities in a safe and controlled manner to explore who they want to be in this ever changing world' (Koss & Teale 2009, 569). Block (1995) advances that there is a distinct correlation between what we read and how we live in the world, and argues 'if what we read influences our identity in the world, the ways we are able to imagine and live in the world, then there is some responsibility to address these various texts, their readers and possible reading experiences' (Koss & Teale 2009, 569). Within my research I attempt to take on this responsibility by establishing a connection between reluctant adolescent male readers, and their reading experiences and by using their opinions to create a novella that seeks to more fully engage them. Centred within the larger debate about boys and books are two central discussions: why don't boys read and what should boys read? While a number of reasons why adolescent boys don't read are mentioned in this paper and it might not be possible to fully account for why many are reluctant readers, it is possible to argue that specific forms of literature addressing certain themes and topics relevant to the age group might appeal to reluctant readers. The conceptual framework for this research was structured using a mixed-method approach consisting of four phases. In positioning my research for determining literature that reluctant readers may want to read I draw on a variety of material which tends to support the longevity of S.E Hinton's (1967) argument that 'teenagers today, want to read about teenagers today' (cited in Smith & Wilhelm 2002, 6). My practice-based research was conducted within a high school in Brisbane, Australia. Six participants were selected and required to read three recently published Australian Young Adult novels, and opinion was collected via semi-structured interviews on these case studies. Grounded Theory (Charmaz 2003; Charmaz 2006; Glaser & Strauss 2011) informed the design of the questions, and the process of concurrent interviews and analysis of opinion. This analysis led to construction of my theory: adolescent male reluctant readers want to read about female relationships and family conflict within a story that consists of an adventure that, although unlikely to happen, could happen. From this study there are two main contributions, which have theoretical and practical implications for stakeholders with a vested interest in the discussion regarding boys and books. First, this study, through the research methodology, presents key findings that indicate that reluctant readers are interested in realistic texts addressing themes that will help with the construction of, and understanding of, their own lives. Secondly, the grounded theory derived from these findings is applied to my own praxis and my creative artefact (Duende) is included with this exegesis as a text intended to create a connection between engaging texts and adolescent male reluctant readers.

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.

The artful life story : the oral history interview as fiction

This practice-led PhD project consists of two parts. The first is an exegesis documenting how a fiction writer can enter a dialogue with the oral history project in Australia. I identify two philosophical mandates of the oral history project in Australia that have shaped my creative practice: an emphasis on the analysis of the interviewee’s subjective experience as a means of understanding the past, and the desire to engage a wide audience in order to promote empathy towards the subject. The discussion around fiction in the oral history project is in its infancy. In order to deepen the debate, I draw on the more mature discussion in ethnographic fiction. I rely on literary theorists Steven Greenblatt, Dorrit Cohn and Gerard Genette to develop a clear understanding of the distinct narrative qualities of fiction, in order to explore how fiction can re-present and explore an interviewee’s subjective experience, and engage a wide readership. I document my own methodology for producing a work of fiction that is enriched by oral history methodology and theory, and responds to the mandates of the project. I demonstrate the means by which fiction and the oral history project can enter a dialogue in the truest sense of the word: a two-way conversation that enriches and augments practice in both fields. The second part of the PhD is a novel, set in Brisbane and based on oral history interviews and archival material I gathered over the course of the project. The novel centres on Brisbane artist Evelyn, who has been given an impossible task: a derelict old house is about to be demolished, and she must capture its history in a sculpture that will be built on the site. Evelyn struggles to come up with ideas and create the sculpture, realising that she has no way to discover who inhabited the house. What follows is a series of stories, each set in a different era in Brisbane’s history, which take the reader backwards through the house’s history. Hidden Objects is a novel about the impossibility of grasping the past and the powerful pull of storytelling. The novel is an experiment in a hybrid form and is accompanied by an appendix that identifies the historically accurate sources informing the fiction. The decisions about the aesthetics of the novel were a direct result of my engagement with the mandates of the oral history project in Australia. The novel was shortlisted in the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards, unpublished manuscript category.

Fragrance of night and the hybridisation of Indonesian crime fiction

The novel manuscript Fragrance of Night is a crime novel set in Indonesia. Raymond Chan, struggling to deal with the death of his Australian wife, returns to his country of birth, Indonesia. Ostensibly he returns to attend his cousin Lee’s wedding but he is also in search of some meaning in his life. He is drawn into a local murder mystery, and with the help of a young, Javanese policeman, he is soon investigating suspects and motives. Raymond finds himself becoming increasingly enamoured with the main suspect, Lani, but ultimately, once the murder mystery is solved, Raymond loses her. The exegesis examines crime fiction as a genre, in particular Indonesian crime fiction and notions of postcolonialism and hybridisation. Within this broader context, it analyses works by Indonesian crime fiction writer S Mara Gd, postcolonial crime fiction and novels written in English but set in ‘exotic’ locale. The formulation of my novel Fragrance of Night was informed by the examination of the machinations of hybridised crime fiction and the more general rules of the crime fiction genre.

Science fiction

Few science fiction films have been made in Australia by Australians for Australian audiences, with most of the handful of locally-produced films made since the mid-1990s. Yet there has always been a solid Australian audience for non-Australian science fiction films and a strong international niche audience for the genre. While Australia has provided below-the-line crews and heads of departments (cinematographers, production designers, and so on) for many non-Australian science fiction films produced domestically, few Australian film directors have specialised in the genre. This is somewhat surprising considering that Alex Proyas achieved a degree of international success for his gothic science fiction film Dark City (1998), and George Miller achieved international fame following the worldwide success of Mad Max II (1981). Although the science fiction element of Mad Max II is tenuous – and even more so in the case of the original Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) – Miller is credited with creating a new (sub)genre which incorporates science fiction elements and has been widely imitated internationally: the dystopian, post-apocalyptic movie. Nevertheless, Australia has only produced a small number of science fiction movies. In addition to the above films, key titles include: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller, 1985), Shirley Thompson versus the Aliens (Jim Sharman, 1972), The Time Guardian (Brian Hannant, 1987), The Chain Reaction (Ian Barry, 1980) and, more recently, Knowing (Alex Proyas, 2009), Daybreakers (Michael and Peter Spierig, 2009), and Iron Sky (Timo Vuorensola, 2012).

Marking out the pitch : a historiography and taxonomy of football fiction

Football, or soccer as it is more commonly referred to in Australia and the US, is arguably the world’s most popular sport. It generates a proportionate volume of related writing. Within this landscape, works of novel-length fiction are seemingly rare. This paper establishes and maps a substantial body of football fiction works, explores elements and qualities exhibited individually and collectively. In bringing together current, limited surveys of the field, it presents the first rigorous definition of football fiction and captures the first historiography of the corpus. Drawing on distant reading methods developed in conjunction with closer textual analyses, the historiography and subsequent taxonomy represent the first articulation of relationships across the body of work, identify growth areas and establish a number of movements and trends. In advancing the understanding of football fiction as a collective body, the paper lays foundations for further research and consideration of the works in generic terms.

Alveolar dose comparison of ultrafine particles for Australian and Italian children

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with several adverse health effects. Recently, interest has focused on ultrafine particles (UFPs, diameter ≤ 100 nm), due to the adverse health effects caused by their ability to induce inflammation and deposit in secondary organs [1]. These effects are much more pronounced in children because they inhale a higher dose of UFPs relative to both lung size (when compared with adults) [2] and increased breathing rates, since they are generally more physically active than adults ...