The return of manhood suffrage to Queensland, 1863-1872

In 1859, Queensland was separated from New South Wales as an independent colony. At this time the new Governor conspired to ensure the citizens did not inherit the old colonies system of full male suffrage. This was not returned until the Elections Act of 1872. However, the extended franchise was not a result of either democratic values or other ideological intentions. This article will analyse parliamentary debates to show that the revision to full suffrage was a result of administrative expediency driven by an inability to prevent abuse of the limited franchise.

Chemical functionalities of high and low sulfur Australian coals : a case study using micro attenuated total reflectance���fourier transform infrared (ATR���FTIR) spectrometry

The macerals in bituminous coals with varying organic sulfur content from the Early Permian Greta Coal Measures at three locations (Southland Colliery, Drayton Colliery and the Cranky Corner Basin), in and around the Sydney Basin (Australia), have been studied using light-element electron microprobe (EMP) analysis and micro-ATR���FTIR. Electron microprobe analysis of individual macerals reveals that the vitrinite in both the Cranky Corner Basin and Drayton Colliery (Puxtrees seam) samples have similar carbon contents (ca. 78% C in telocollinite), suggesting that they are of equivalent rank. However, the Cranky Corner coals have anomalously low vitrinite reflectance (down to 0.45%) vs. the Drayton materials (ca. 0.7%). They also have very high organic S content (3���6.5%) and lower O content (ca. 10%) than the equivalent macerals in the Drayton sample (0.7% S and 15.6% O). A study was carried out to investigate the impacts of the high organic S on the functional groups of the macerals in these two otherwise iso-rank, stratigraphically-equivalent seams. An iso-rank low-S coal from the overlying Wittingham Coal Measures near Muswellbrook and coals of slightly higher rank from the Greta Coal Measures at Southland Colliery near Cessnock were also evaluated using the same techniques to extend the data set. Although the telocollinite in the Drayton and Cranky Corner coals have very similar carbon content (ca.78% C), the ATR���FTIR spectra of the vitrinite and inertinite macerals in these respectively low S and high S coals show some distinct differences in IR absorbance from various aliphatic and aromatic functional groups. The differences in absorbance of the aliphatic stretching bands (2800���3000 cm���1) and the aromatic carbon (CC) peak at 1606 cm���1 are very obvious. Compared to that of the Drayton sample (0.7% S and 15% O), the telocollinite of the Cranky Corner coal (6% S and 10% O) clearly shows: (i) less absorbance from OH groups, represented by a broad region around 3553 cm���1, (ii) much stronger aliphatic C���H absorbance (stretching modes around 3000���2800 cm���1 and bending modes around 1442 cm���1) and (iii) less absorbance from aromatic carbon functional groups (peaking at 1606 cm���1). Evaluation of the iso-rank Drayton and Cranky Corner coals shows that: (i) the aliphatic C���H absorbances decrease with increasing oxygen content but increase with increasing organic S content and (ii) the aromatic H to aliphatic H ratio (Har/Hali) for the telocollinite increases with (organic) O%, but decreases progressively with increasing organic S. The high organic S content in the maceral appears to be accompanied by a greater proportion of aliphatic functional groups, possibly as a result of some of the O within maceral ring structures in the high S coal samples being replaced.

Audio visual automatic speech recognition in vehicles

Acoustically, car cabins are extremely noisy and as a consequence, existing audio-only speech recognition systems, for voice-based control of vehicle functions such as the GPS based navigator, perform poorly. Audio-only speech recognition systems fail to make use of the visual modality of speech (eg: lip movements). As the visual modality is immune to acoustic noise, utilising this visual information in conjunction with an audio only speech recognition system has the potential to improve the accuracy of the system. The field of recognising speech using both auditory and visual inputs is known as Audio Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR). Continuous research in AVASR field has been ongoing for the past twenty-five years with notable progress being made. However, the practical deployment of AVASR systems for use in a variety of real-world applications has not yet emerged. The main reason is due to most research to date neglecting to address variabilities in the visual domain such as illumination and viewpoint in the design of the visual front-end of the AVSR system. In this paper we present an AVASR system in a real-world car environment using the AVICAR database [1], which is publicly available in-car database and we show that the use of visual speech conjunction with the audio modality is a better approach to improve the robustness and effectiveness of voice-only recognition systems in car cabin environments.

Sphingosine-1-phosphate mediates proliferation maintaining the multipotency of human adult bone marrow and adipose tissue-derived stem cells

High renewal and maintenance of multipotency of human adult stem cells (hSCs), are a prerequisite for experimental analysis as well as for potential clinical usages. The most widely used strategy for hSC culture and proliferation is using serum. However, serum is poorly defined and has a considerable degree of inter-batch variation, which makes it difficult for large-scale mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) expansion in homogeneous culture conditions. Moreover, it is often observed that cells grown in serum-containing media spontaneously differentiate into unknown and/or undesired phenotypes. Another way of maintaining hSC development is using cytokines and/or tissue-specific growth factors; this is a very expensive approach and can lead to early unwanted differentiation. In order to circumvent these issues, we investigated the role of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), in the growth and multipotency maintenance of human bone marrow and adipose tissue-derived MSCs. We show that S1P induces growth, and in combination with reduced serum, or with the growth factors FGF and platelet-derived growth factor-AB, S1P has an enhancing effect on growth. We also show that the MSCs cultured in S1P-supplemented media are able to maintain their differentiation potential for at least as long as that for cells grown in the usual serum-containing media. This is shown by the ability of cells grown in S1P-containing media to be able to undergo osteogenic as well as adipogenic differentiation. This is of interest, since S1P is a relatively inexpensive natural product, which can be obtained in homogeneous high-purity batches: this will minimize costs and potentially reduce the unwanted side effects observed with serum. Taken together, S1P is able to induce proliferation while maintaining the multipotency of different human stem cells, suggesting a potential for S1P in developing serum-free or serum-reduced defined medium for adult stem cell cultures.

Elliptic curves, group law, and efficient computation

This thesis is about the derivation of the addition law on an arbitrary elliptic curve and efficiently adding points on this elliptic curve using the derived addition law. The outcomes of this research guarantee practical speedups in higher level operations which depend on point additions. In particular, the contributions immediately find applications in cryptology. Mastered by the 19th century mathematicians, the study of the theory of elliptic curves has been active for decades. Elliptic curves over finite fields made their way into public key cryptography in late 1980���s with independent proposals by Miller [Mil86] and Koblitz [Kob87]. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), following Miller���s and Koblitz���s proposals, employs the group of rational points on an elliptic curve in building discrete logarithm based public key cryptosystems. Starting from late 1990���s, the emergence of the ECC market has boosted the research in computational aspects of elliptic curves. This thesis falls into this same area of research where the main aim is to speed up the additions of rational points on an arbitrary elliptic curve (over a field of large characteristic). The outcomes of this work can be used to speed up applications which are based on elliptic curves, including cryptographic applications in ECC. The aforementioned goals of this thesis are achieved in five main steps. As the first step, this thesis brings together several algebraic tools in order to derive the unique group law of an elliptic curve. This step also includes an investigation of recent computer algebra packages relating to their capabilities. Although the group law is unique, its evaluation can be performed using abundant (in fact infinitely many) formulae. As the second step, this thesis progresses the finding of the best formulae for efficient addition of points. In the third step, the group law is stated explicitly by handling all possible summands. The fourth step presents the algorithms to be used for efficient point additions. In the fifth and final step, optimized software implementations of the proposed algorithms are presented in order to show that theoretical speedups of step four can be practically obtained. In each of the five steps, this thesis focuses on five forms of elliptic curves over finite fields of large characteristic. A list of these forms and their defining equations are given as follows: (a) Short Weierstrass form, y2 = x3 + ax + b, (b) Extended Jacobi quartic form, y2 = dx4 + 2ax2 + 1, (c) Twisted Hessian form, ax3 + y3 + 1 = dxy, (d) Twisted Edwards form, ax2 + y2 = 1 + dx2y2, (e) Twisted Jacobi intersection form, bs2 + c2 = 1, as2 + d2 = 1, These forms are the most promising candidates for efficient computations and thus considered in this work. Nevertheless, the methods employed in this thesis are capable of handling arbitrary elliptic curves. From a high level point of view, the following outcomes are achieved in this thesis. - Related literature results are brought together and further revisited. For most of the cases several missed formulae, algorithms, and efficient point representations are discovered. - Analogies are made among all studied forms. For instance, it is shown that two sets of affine addition formulae are sufficient to cover all possible affine inputs as long as the output is also an affine point in any of these forms. In the literature, many special cases, especially interactions with points at infinity were omitted from discussion. This thesis handles all of the possibilities. - Several new point doubling/addition formulae and algorithms are introduced, which are more efficient than the existing alternatives in the literature. Most notably, the speed of extended Jacobi quartic, twisted Edwards, and Jacobi intersection forms are improved. New unified addition formulae are proposed for short Weierstrass form. New coordinate systems are studied for the first time. - An optimized implementation is developed using a combination of generic x86-64 assembly instructions and the plain C language. The practical advantages of the proposed algorithms are supported by computer experiments. - All formulae, presented in the body of this thesis, are checked for correctness using computer algebra scripts together with details on register allocations.

Are SC-FDE systems robust to CFO?

This paper investigates the impact of carrier frequency offset (CFO) on Single Carrier wireless communication systems with Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE). We show that CFO in SC-FDE systems causes irrecoverable channel estimation error, which leads to inter-symbol-interference (ISI). The impact of CFO on SC-FDE and OFDM is compared in the presence of CFO and channel estimation errors. Closed form expressions of signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) are derived for both systems, and verified by simulation results. We find that when channel estimation errors are considered, SC-FDE is similarly or even more sensitive to CFO, compared to OFDM. In particular, in SC-FDE systems, CFO mainly deteriorates the system performance via degrading the channel estimation. Both analytical and simulation results highlight the importance of accurate CFO estimation in SC-FDE systems.

Morphologic and genomic characterisation of the koala Chlamydia pneumoniae strain

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a common human and animal pathogen associated with a wide range of upper and lower respiratory tract infections. In more recent years there has been increasing evidence to suggest a link between C. pneumoniae and chronic diseases in humans, including atherosclerosis, stroke and Alzheimer���s disease. C. pneumoniae human strains show little genetic variation, indicating that the human-derived strain originated from a common ancestor in the recent past. Despite extensive information on the genetics and morphology processes of the human strain, knowledge concerning many other hosts (including marsupials, amphibians, reptiles and equines) remains virtually unexplored. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is a native Australian marsupial under threat due to habitat loss, predation and disease. Koalas are very susceptible to chlamydial infections, most commonly affecting the conjunctiva, urogenital tract and/or respiratory tract. To address this gap in the literature, the present study (i) provides a detailed description of the morphologic and genomic architecture of the C. pneumoniae koala (and human) strain, and shows that the koala strain is microscopically, developmentally and genetically distinct from the C. pneumoniae human strain, and (ii) examines the genetic relationship of geographically diverse C. pneumoniae isolates from human, marsupial, amphibian, reptilian and equine hosts, and identifies two distinct lineages that have arisen from animal-to-human cross species transmissions. Chapter One of this thesis explores the scientific problem and aims of this study, while Chapter Two provides a detailed literature review of the background in this field of work. Chapter Three, the first results chapter, describes the morphology and developmental stages of C. pneumoniae koala isolate LPCoLN, as revealed by fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy. The profile of this isolate, when cultured in HEp-2 human epithelial cells, was quite different to the human AR39 isolate. Koala LPCoLN inclusions were larger; the elementary bodies did not have the characteristic pear-shaped appearance, and the developmental cycle was completed within a shorter period of time (as confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR). These in vitro findings might reflect biological differences between koala LPCoLN and human AR39 in vivo. Chapter Four describes the complete genome sequence of the koala respiratory pathogen, C. pneumoniae LPCoLN. This is the first animal isolate of C. pneumoniae to be fully-sequenced. The genome sequence provides new insights into genomic ���plasticity��� (organisation), evolution and biology of koala LPCoLN, relative to four complete C. pneumoniae human genomes (AR39, CWL029, J138 and TW183). Koala LPCoLN contains a plasmid that is not shared with any of the human isolates, there is evidence of gene loss in nucleotide salvage pathways, and there are 10 hot spot genomic regions of variation that were previously not identified in the C. pneumoniae human genomes. Sequence (partial-length) from a second, independent, wild koala isolate (EBB) at several gene loci confirmed that the koala LPCoLN isolate was representative of a koala C. pneumoniae strain. The combined sequence data provides evidence that the C. pneumoniae animal (koala LPCoLN) genome is ancestral to the C. pneumoniae human genomes and that human infections may have originated from zoonotic infections. Chapter Five examines key genome components of the five C. pneumoniae genomes in more detail. This analysis reveals genomic features that are shared by and/or contribute to the broad ecological adaptability and evolution of C. pneumoniae. This analysis resulted in the identification of 65 gene sequences for further analysis of intraspecific variation, and revealed some interesting differences, including fragmentation, truncation and gene decay (loss of redundant ancestral traits). This study provides valuable insights into metabolic diversity, adaptation and evolution of C. pneumoniae. Chapter Six utilises a subset of 23 target genes identified from the previous genomic comparisons and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of genetic variability among C. pneumoniae human (11) and animal (6 amphibian, 5 reptilian, 1 equine and 7 marsupial hosts) isolates. It has been shown that the animal isolates are genetically diverse, unlike the human isolates that are virtually clonal. More convincing evidence that C. pneumoniae originated in animals and recently (in the last few hundred thousand years) crossed host species to infect humans is provided in this study. It is proposed that two animal-to-human cross species events have occurred in the context of the results, one evident by the nearly clonal human genotype circulating in the world today, and the other by a more animal-like genotype apparent in Indigenous Australians. Taken together, these data indicate that the C. pneumoniae koala LPCoLN isolate has morphologic and genomic characteristics that are distinct from the human isolates. These differences may affect the survival and activity of the C. pneumoniae koala pathogen in its natural host, in vivo. This study, by utilising the genetic diversity of C. pneumoniae, identified new genetic markers for distinguishing human and animal isolates. However, not all C. pneumoniae isolates were genetically diverse; in fact, several isolates were highly conserved, if not identical in sequence (i.e. Australian marsupials) emphasising that at some stage in the evolution of this pathogen, there has been an adaptation/s to a particular host, providing some stability in the genome. The outcomes of this study by experimental and bioinformatic approaches have significantly enhanced our knowledge of the biology of this pathogen and will advance opportunities for the investigation of novel vaccine targets, antimicrobial therapy, or blocking of pathogenic pathways.

Role of farm real estate in a globally diversified asset portfolio

Purpose - The paper examines the benefits of further diversifying a global portfolio of financial assets with New Zealand farm real estate (FRE). ---------- Design/methodology/approach - We compare efficient sets generated with and without farm real estate using portfolio theory. ---------- Findings - The results show that given the predominantly negative correlation between FRE and financial assets, the risk-return tradeoffs of portfolios of financial assets can be improved significantly. The diversification benefits measured in terms of risk reduction, return enhancement, and improvement in the Sharpe performance ratios are robust under a number of FRE risk-return scenarios as well as under high and low inflationary periods. Using 5- and 10-year rolling periods we also find that FRE is a consistent part of risk efficient portfolios. Consistent with the results reported in Lee and Stevenson (2006) for UK real estate the risk reduction benefits of diversifying with FRE are larger than the risk enhancement benefits. ---------- Practical implication - The results suggest that FRE takes on a consistent role of risk-reducer rather than a return-enhancer in a globally diversified portfolio. FRE appears to deserve more serious consideration by investment practitioners that it has been accorded in the past. Originality/value ��� The study examines the role of direct real estate in a globally diversified portfolio of financial assets.

Public awareness of ���green��� and ���energy efficient��� residential property : an empirical survey based on data from New Zealand

Purpose ��� The purpose of this paper is to examine the buyer awareness and acceptance of environmental and energy efficiency measures in the New Zealand residential property markets. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of consumer behaviour in the residential property market in relation to green housing issues ---------- Design/methodology/approach ��� The paper is based on an extensive survey of Christchurch real estate offices and was designed to gather data on the factors that were considered important by buyers in the residential property market. The survey was designed to allow these factors to be analysed on a socio-economic basis and to compare buyer behaviour based on property values. ---------- Findings ��� The results show that regardless of income levels, buyers still consider that the most important factor in the house purchase decision is the location of the property and price. Although the awareness of green housing issues and energy efficiency in housing is growing in the residential property market, it is only a major consideration for young and older buyers in the high income brackets and is only of some importance for all other buyer sectors of the residential property market. Many of the voluntary measures introduced by Governments to improve the energy efficiency of residential housing are still not considered important by buyers, indicating that a more mandatory approach may have to be undertaken to improve energy efficiency in the established housing market, as these measures are not valued by the buyer. ---------- Originality/value ��� The paper confirms the variations in real estate buyer behaviour across the full range of residential property markets and the acceptance and awareness of green housing issues and measures. These results would be applicable to most established and transparent residential property markets.

Water sensitive urban design in landscape projects in Shijiazhuang and Yueyang in China [��������������������� (WSUD) ��������������������������������� (������������������������������)]

With the rapid urbanization progress, water resources protection and water pollution control have become key problems of human environment construction and social sustainable development. Many countries, especially Australia, have mature experiences. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is one of the successful strategies that is put forward under this global situation and helps releasing heavy environmental pressure from urbanization. The paper discussed main principles of WSUD and then took Shijiazhuang, Heibei and Yueng, Hunan for examples trying to apply WSUD in river landscape projects in China's new urban area, thus doing contributions to more sustainable water management in new urban areas in China.

Thermogravimetric analysis-mass spectrometry (TG-MS) of selected Chinese kaolinites

Thermogravimetric analysis-mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize eight kaolinite samples from China. The results show that the thermal decomposition occurs in three main steps (a) desorption of water below 100 ��C, (b) dehydration at about 225 ��C, (c) well defined dehydroxylation at around 450 ��C. It is also found that decarbonization took place at 710 ��C due to the decomposition of calcite impurity in kaolin. The temperature of dehydroxylation of kaolinite is found to be influenced by the degree of disorder of the kaolinite structure and the gases evolved in the decomposition process can be various because of the different amount and kinds of impurities. It is evident by the mass spectra that the interlayer carbonate from impurity of calcite and organic carbon is released as CO2 around 225, 350 and 710 ��C in the kaolinite samples.

Fixed argument pairings

A common scenario in many pairing-based cryptographic protocols is that one argument in the pairing is fixed as a long term secret key or a constant parameter in the system. In these situations, the runtime of Miller's algorithm can be significantly reduced by storing precomputed values that depend on the fixed argument, prior to the input or existence of the second argument. In light of recent developments in pairing computation, we show that the computation of the Miller loop can be sped up by up to 37 if precomputation is employed, with our method being up to 19.5 faster than the previous precomputation techniques.

Spherical image-based visual servo and structure estimation

This paper presents a formulation of image-based visual servoing (IBVS) for a spherical camera where coordinates are parameterized in terms of colatitude and longitude: IBVSSph. The image Jacobian is derived and simulation results are presented for canonical rotational, translational as well as general motion. Problems with large rotations that affect the planar perspective form of IBVS are not present on the sphere, whereas the desirable robustness properties of IBVS are shown to be retained. We also describe a structure from motion (SfM) system based on camera-centric spherical coordinates and show how a recursive estimator can be used to recover structure. The spherical formulations for IBVS and SfM are particularly suitable for platforms, such as aerial and underwater robots, that move in SE(3).

Towards trusted wireless sensor networks

This article presents the design and implementation of a trusted sensor node that provides Internet-grade security at low system cost. We describe trustedFleck, which uses a commodity Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip to extend the capabilities of a standard wireless sensor node to provide security services such as message integrity, confidentiality, authenticity, and system integrity based on RSA public-key and XTEA-based symmetric-key cryptography. In addition trustedFleck provides secure storage of private keys and provides platform configuration registers (PCRs) to store system configurations and detect code tampering. We analyze system performance using metrics that are important for WSN applications such as computation time, memory size, energy consumption and cost. Our results show that trustedFleck significantly outperforms previous approaches (e.g., TinyECC) in terms of these metrics while providing stronger security levels. Finally, we describe a number of examples, built on trustedFleck, of symmetric key management, secure RPC, secure software update, and remote attestation.

Virtual force feedback teleoperation of the InsectBot using optical flow

This paper proposes the use of optical flow from a moving robot to provide force feedback to an operator���s joystick to facilitate collision free teleoperation. Optical flow is measured by a pair of wide angle cameras on board the vehicle and used to generate a virtual environmental force that is reflected to the user through the joystick, as well as feeding back into the control of the vehicle. We show that the proposed control is dissipative and prevents the vehicle colliding with the environment as well as providing the operator with a natural feel for the remote environment. Experimental results are provided on the InsectBot holonomic vehicle platform.