Agentive motility meets structural viscosity: Australian families relocating in educational markets

This paper will develop and illustrate a concept of institutional viscosity to balance the more agentive concept of motility with a theoretical account of structural conditions. The argument articulates with two bodies of work: Archer’s (2007, 2012) broad social theory of reflexivity as negotiating agency and social structures; and Urry’s (2007) sociology of mobility and mobility systems. It then illustrates the concept of viscosity as a variable (low to high viscosity) through two empirical studies conducted in the sociology of education that help demonstrate how degrees of viscosity interact with degrees of motility, and how this interaction can impact on motility over time. The first study explored how Australian Defence Force families cope with their children’s disrupted education given frequent forced relocations. The other study explored how middle class professionals relate to career and educational opportunities in rural and remote Queensland. These two life conditions have produced very different institutional practices to make relocations thinkable and doable, by variously constraining or enabling mobility. In turn, the degrees of viscosity mobile individuals meet with over time can erode or elevate their motility.

Knowledge unlatched : encouraging innovation in academic publishing through collective action and Open Access licensing

This case study examines the way in which Knowledge Unlatched is combining collective action and open access licenses to encourage innovation in markets for specialist academic books. Knowledge Unlatched is a not for profit organisation that has been established to help a global community of libraries coordinate their book purchasing activities more effectively and, in so doing, to ensure that books librarians select for their own collections become available for free for anyone in the world to read. The Knowledge Unlatched model is an attempt to re-coordinate a market in order to facilitate a transition to digitally appropriate publishing models that include open access. It offers librarians an opportunity to facilitate the open access publication of books that their own readers would value access to. It provides publishers with a stable income stream on titles selected by libraries, as well as an ability to continue selling books to a wider market on their own terms. Knowledge Unlatched provides a rich case study for researchers and practitioners interested in understanding how innovations in procurement practices can be used to stimulate more effective, equitable markets for socially valuable products.

The Empty City (production)

This creative work is the production of the live and animated performance of The Empty City. With a significant period of creative development and script work behind it, the team engaged in a range of innovative performance-making practices in order to realise the work onstage as a non-verbal live and animated theatre work. This intermedial process was often led by music, and involved the creation and convergence of non-verbal action, virtual performers, performing objects and two simultaneous projections of animated images. The production opened at the Brisbane Powerhouse on June 27 2013, with a subsequent tour to Perth’s Awesome Festival in October 2013. Its technical achievements were noted in the critical responses. "The story is told on a striking set of two huge screens, the front one transparent, upon which still and moving images are projected, and between which Oliver performs and occasional “real” objects are placed. The effect is startling, and creates a cartoon three dimensionality like those old Viewmaster slide shows. The live action��� and soundscape sync perfectly with the projected imagery to complete a dense, intricately devised and technically brilliant whole." (The West Australian 14.10.13)

A toothless chihuahua? : the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, neoliberalism and supermarket power in Australia

During the Senate Inquiry into 'milk price wars' in 2011, Senator Nick Xenophon accused the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of being 'less effective than a toothless Chihuahua'. This follows the ACCC's lack of action regarding the reported abuse of market power of Australia's supermarket duopoly, where an extensive inquiry into the competitiveness of retail prices in 2008 found grocery retailing to be 'workably competitive' despite numerous claims to the contrary. How can farmers' submissions to the inquiry that cite market abuse be reconciled with the ACCC's finding that all is well in the food supply chain? Following an in-depth examination of 53 farmer submissions to the inquiry, we conclude that the findings of the ACCC are commensurate with the neoliberal economisation of the political sphere, where commercial entities 'legitimately' govern beyond their corporate boundaries, often using disciplinary measures that were once exclusive to governments. We argue that such clear structural inequalities between farmers and major corporations is reason to re-regulate markets and reinsert a stronger role for government to 'level the playing field'.

Food security in Australia in an era of neoliberalism, productivism and climate change

For over 150 years Australia has exported bulk, undifferentiated, commodities such as wool, wheat, meat and sugar to the UK and more recently to Japan, Korea, and the Middle East. It is estimated that, each year, Australia's farming system feeds a domestic population of some 22 million people, while exporting enough food to feed another 40 million. With the Australian population expected to double in the next 40 years, and with the anticipated growth in the world's population to reach a level of some 9 billion (from its present level of 7 billion) in the same period, there are strong incentives for an expansion of food production in Australia. Neoliberal settings are encouraging this expansion at the same time as they are facilitating importation of foods, higher levels of foreign direct investment and the commoditisation of resources (such as water). Yet, expansion in food production – and in an era of climate change – will continue to compromise the environment. After discussing Australia's neoliberal framework and its relation to farming, this paper outlines how Australia is attempting to address the issue of food security. It argues that productivist farming approaches that are favoured by both industry and government are proving incapable of bringing about long-term production outcomes that will guarantee national food security.

Diporphyrins linked by two-atom bridges synthestic, structural and theoretical studies

The syntheses, properties and electronic structures of a series of porphyrin dimers connected by two-atom bridges were compared. The study found that an azo linker results in the most efficient electronic communication between the two porphyrin rings, and is the superior connector for dimers, trimers and oligomers in the design of nonlinear optical materials. This has implications for the design of molecular probes and sensors, photodynamic therapy, microfabrication, and three-dimensional optical data storage. The research led to the synthesis of a number of new porphyrin monomers and dimers, which were characterised using structural, spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques.

Carbon nanotube composite sensor for structural health monitoring of bridge structures

Bridges are important infrastructures of all nations and are required for transportation of goods as well as human. A catastrophic failure can result in loss of lives and enormous financial hardship to the nation. Although various kinds of sensors are now available to monitor the health of the structures due to corrosion, they do not provide permanent and long term measurements. This paper investigates the fabrication of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) based composite sensors for corrosion detection of structures. Multi-wall CNT (MWCNT)/Nafion composite sensors were fabricated to evaluate their electrical properties for corrosion detection. The test specimens were subjected to real life corrosion experimental tests and the results confirm that the electrical resistance of the sensor electrode was dramatically changed due to corrosion.

Cryptography in the cloud : advances and challenges

Cloud computing is a currently developing revolution in information technology that is disturbing the way that individuals and corporate entities operate while enabling new distributed services that have not existed before. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged infrastructure and shared services. Security is often said to be a major concern of users considering migration to cloud computing. This article examines some of these security concerns and surveys recent research efforts in cryptography to provide new technical mechanisms suitable for the new scenarios of cloud computing. We consider techniques such as homomorphic encryption, searchable encryption, proofs of storage, and proofs of location. These techniques allow cloud computing users to benefit from cloud server processing capabilities while keeping their data encrypted; and to check independently the integrity and location of their data. Overall we are interested in how users may be able to maintain and verify their own security without having to rely on the trust of the cloud provider.

UV Photodissociation Action Spectroscopy of Haloanilinium Ions in a Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer

UV-vis photodissociation action spectroscopy is becoming increasingly prevalent because of advances in, and commercial availability of, ion trapping technologies and tunable laser sources. This study outlines in detail an instrumental arrangement, combining a commercial ion-trap mass spectrometer and tunable nanosecond pulsed laser source, for performing fully automated photodissociation action spectroscopy on gas-phase ions. The components of the instrumentation are outlined, including the optical and electronic interfacing, in addition to the control software for automating the experiment and performing online analysis of the spectra. To demonstrate the utility of this ensemble, the photodissociation action spectra of 4-chloroanilinium, 4-bromoanilinium, and 4-iodoanilinium cations are presented and discussed. Multiple photoproducts are detected in each case and the photoproduct yields are followed as a function of laser wavelength. It is shown that the wavelength-dependent partitioning of the halide loss, H loss, and NH3 loss channels can be broadly rationalized in terms of the relative carbon-halide bond dissociation energies and processes of energy redistribution. The photodissociation action spectrum of (phenyl)Ag-2 (+) is compared with a literature spectrum as a further benchmark.

Ultraviolet Photodissociation of the N-Methylpyridinium Ion: Action Spectroscopy and Product Characterization

The ultraviolet photodissociation of gas-phase N-methylpyridinium ions is studied at room temperature using laser photodissociation mass spectrometry and structurally diagnostic ion-molecule reaction kinetics. The C5H5N-CH3+ (m/z 94), C5H5N-CD3+ (m/z 97), and C5D5N-CH3+(m/z 99) isotopologues are investigated, and it is shown that the N-methylpyridinium ion photodissociates by the loss of methane in the 36 000 - 43 000 cm(-1) (280 - 230 nm) region. The dissociation likely occurs on the ground state surface following internal conversion from the SI state. For each isotopologue, by monitoring the photofragmentation yield as a function of photon wavenumber, a broad vibronically featured band is recorded with origin (0-0) transitions assigned at 38 130, 38 140 and 38 320 cm(-1) for C5H5N-CH3+ C5H5N-CD3+ and C5D5N-CH3+, respectively. With the aid of quantum chemical calculations (CASSCF(6,6)/aug-cc-pVDZ), most of the observed vibronic detail is assigned to two in-plane ring deformation modes. Finally, using ion-molecule reactions, the methane coproduct at m/z 78 is confirmed as a 2-pyridinylium ion.

Does Addition of NO2 to Carbon-Centered Radicals Yield RONO or RNO2? An Investigation Using Distonic Radical Ions

Nitrogen dioxide is used as a "radical scavenger" to probe the position of carbon-centered radicals within complex radical ions in the gas phase. As with analogous neutral radical reactions, this addition results in formation of an \[M + NO2](+) adduct, but the structural identity of this species remains ambiguous. Specifically, the question remains: do such adducts have a nitro-(RNO2) or nitrosoxy-(RONO) moiety, or are both isomers present in the adduct population? In order to elucidate the products of such reactions, we have prepared and isolated three distonic phenyl radical cations and observed their reactions with nitrogen dioxide in the gas phase by ion-trap mass spectrometry. In each case, stabilized \[M + NO2](+) adduct ions are observed and isolated. The structure of these adducts is probed by collision-induced dissociation and ultraviolet photodissociation action spectroscopy and a comparison made to the analogous spectra of authentic nitro-and nitrosoxy-benzenes. We demonstrate unequivocally that for the phenyl radical cations studied here, all stabilized \[M + NO2](+) adducts are exclusively nitrobenzenes. Electronic structure calculations support these mass spectrometric observations and suggest that, under low-pressure conditions, the nitrosoxy-isomer is unlikely to be isolated from the reaction of an alkyl or aryl radical with NO2. The combined experimental and theoretical results lead to the prediction that stabilization of the nitrosoxy-isomer will only be possible for systems wherein the energy required for dissociation of the RO-NO bond (or other low energy fragmentation channels) rises close to, or above, the energy of the separated reactants.

Photodissociation of TEMPO-modified peptides: New approaches to radical-directed dissociation of biomolecules

Radical-directed dissociation of gas phase ions is emerging as a powerful and complementary alternative to traditional tandem mass spectrometric techniques for biomolecular structural analysis. Previous studies have identified that coupling of 2-[(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl)methyl] benzoic acid (TEMPO-Bz) to the N-terminus of a peptide introduces a labile oxygen-carbon bond that can be selectively activated upon collisional activation to produce a radical ion. Here we demonstrate that structurally-defined peptide radical ions can also be generated upon UV laser photodissociation of the same TEMPO-Bz derivatives in a linear ion-trap mass spectrometer. When subjected to further mass spectrometric analyses, the radical ions formed by a single laser pulse undergo identical dissociations as those formed by collisional activation of the same precursor ion, and can thus be used to derive molecular structure. Mapping the initial radical formation process as a function of photon energy by photodissociation action spectroscopy reveals that photoproduct formation is selective but occurs only in modest yield across the wavelength range (300-220 nm), with the photoproduct yield maximised between 235 and 225 nm. Based on the analysis of a set of model compounds, structural modifications to the TEMPO-Bz derivative are suggested to optimise radical photoproduct yield. Future development of such probes offers the advantage of increased sensitivity and selectivity for radical-directed dissociation. © 2014 the Owner Societies.

Structural characterization of glycerophospholipids by combinations of ozone- and collision-induced dissociation mass spectrometry: The next step towards "top-down" lipidomics

The complete structural elucidation of complex lipids, including glycerophospholipids, using only mass spectrometry represents a major challenge to contemporary analytical technologies. Here, we demonstrate that product ions arising from the collision-induced dissociation (CID) of the [M + Na] + adduct ions of phospholipids can be isolated and subjected to subsequent gas-phase ozonolysis-known as ozone-induced dissociation (OzID)-in a linear ion-trap mass spectrometer. The resulting CID/OzID experiment yields abundant product ions that are characteristic of the acyl substitution on the glycerol backbone (i.e., sn-position). This approach is shown to differentiate sn-positional isomers, such as the regioisomeric phosphatidylcholine pair of PC 16:0/18:1 and PC 18:1/16:0. Importantly, CID/OzID provides a sensitive diagnostic for the existence of an isomeric mixture in a given sample. This is of very high value for the analysis of tissue extracts since CID/OzID analyses can reveal changes in the relative abundance of isomeric constituents even within different tissues from the same animal. Finally, we demonstrate the ability to assign carbon-carbon double bond positions to individual acyl chains at specific backbone positions by adding subsequent CID and/or OzID steps to the workflow and that this can be achieved in a single step using a hybrid triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometer. This unique approach represents the most complete and specific structural analysis of lipids by mass spectrometry demonstrated to date and is a significant step towards comprehensive top-down lipidomics. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2014. Grant Number ARC/DP0986628, ARC/FT110100249, ARC/LP110200648

Structural and material characterisation of insulated rail joints

Insulated rail joints are designed in a similar way to butt jointed steel structural systems, the difference being a purpose made gap between the main rail members to maintain electrical insulation for the proper functioning of the track circuitry at all times of train operation. When loaded wheels pass the gap, they induce an impact loading with the corresponding strains in the railhead edges exceeding the plastic limit significantly, which lead to metal flow across the gap thereby increasing the risk of short circuiting and impeding the proper functioning of the signalling and broken rail identification circuitries, of which the joints are a critical part. The performance of insulated rail joints under the passage of the wheel loading is complex due to the presence of a number of interacting components and hence is not well understood. This paper presents a dynamic wheel-rail contact-impact modelling method for the determination of the impact loading; a brief description of a field experiment to capture strain signatures for validating the predicted impact loading is also presented. The process and the results of the characterisation of the materials from virgin, in-service and damaged insulated rail joints using neutron diffraction method are also discussed.