Sequential injection and liquid chromatography for chemiluminescent detection of opiates

This thesis encompasses the development of analytical instrumentation, software and chemical methodologies for the rapid determination of pharmaceuticals in process extracts. Sensitive detection of morphine, codeine, oripavine and thebaine was achieved by measuring the quantity of light emitted as a result of their reactions with potassium permanganate and tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(III).

Measuring credit spreads of emerging markets

This study found, in the trading of bonds from emerging economies, the international market does not differentiate distinctions between international bonds that were issued by government or corporations. While domestic political and economic issues affect the trading of Malaysian bonds, over the longer term, international economic events leave more significant impact.

Measuring dairy farm performance

To fully consider production impacts, this thesis adopts a systems perspective and uses a biophysical model, DairyMod, to measure the interactions between system components and gauge the environmental impact of dairy farming arising from nitrogen use. Performance from the perspective of both the individual farmer and society is examined.

Development of a contact probe incorporating a bragg grating strain sensor for nano coordinate measuring machines

This paper presents a novel optical fibre based micro contact probe system with high sensitivity and repeatability. In this optical fibre probe with a fused spherical tip, a fibre Bragg grating has been utilized as a strain sensor in the probe stem. When the probe tip contacts the surface of the part, a strain will be induced along the probe stem and will produce a Bragg wavelength shift. The contact signal can be issued once the wavelength shift signal is produced and demodulated. With the fibre grating sensor element integrated into the probe directly, the probe system shows a high sensitivity. In this work, the strain distributions along the probe stem with the probe under axial and lateral load are analysed. A simulation of the strain distribution was performed using the finite element package ANSYS 11. Performance tests using a piezoelectric transducer stage with a displacement resolution of 1.5 nm yielded a measurement resolution of 60 nm under axial loading.

Measuring non-economic well-being achievement

Income per capita and most widely reported, non- or non-exclusively income based human well-being indicators are highly correlated among countries. Yet many countries exhibit higher achievement in the latter than predicted by the former. The reverse is true for many other countries. This paper commences by extracting the inter-country variation in a composite of various widely-reported, non-income-based well-being indices not accounted for by variations in income pre capita. This extraction is interpreted inter alia as a measure of non-economic well-being. The paper then looks at correlations between this extraction and a number of new or less widely-used well-being measures, in an attempt to find the measure that best captures these achievements. A number of indicators are examined, including measures of poverty, inequality, health status, education status, gender bias, empowerment, governance and subjective well-being.

Measuring the vulnerability of sub-national regions in South Africa

A small but growing literature has been concerned about the economic (and
environmental) vulnerability on the level of countries. Less attention is paid to the economic vulnerability of different regions within countries. By focusing on the vulnerability of subnational regions, this paper contributes to the small literature on the “vulnerability of place”. They authors see the vulnerability of place as being due to vulnerability in various domains, such as economic vulnerability, vulnerability of environment, and governance, demographic and health fragilities. They use a subnational data set on 354 magisterial districts from South Africa, recognize the potential relevance of measuring vulnerability on a subnational level, and construct a Local Vulnerability Index for the various districts. They condition this index on district per capita income and term this a Vulnerability Intervention Index, interpreting this as an indicator of where higher income per capita, often seen in the literature as a measure of resilience, will in itself be unlikely to reduce vulnerability.

Measuring vulnerability : an overview and introduction

This paper provides an introduction to this special issue of Oxford Development Studies. It starts by contextualizing the measurement of vulnerability, pointing to the need to take risks on the level of households, regions and countries into account in designing poverty-reduction strategies. It then summarizes the papers in this special issue, highlighting the ways in which they advance the conceptualization and measurement of vulnerability, and noting directions for future research.

Measuring public infrastructure construction impacts on economic growth

The results identify the long-run equilibrium relationships among economic variables in Australia. This study can provide policy makers with information on a one standard error shock to each variable and insights into what percentages of the forecast error variance of a variable are explained by the innovations of each variable.

Measuring student engagement : using 'flow' theory to guide question development

In December 2009 the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) issued a discussion paper, ‘An Indicator Framework for Higher Education Performance Funding’, with the purpose of contributing to the development of indicators for guiding ‘compact’ negotiations between Australian universities and the government. The discussion paper makes it clear that ‘student experience’ will be an important part of the indicators and discusses the possibility that the Government will develop a new
questionnaire to investigate the engagement and satisfaction of students in their first year of study. This paper contributes ideas to assist the development of such an instrument, particularly for the measurement of student engagement. We discuss problems with the predictive validity of existing instruments and argue that predictive validity may be improved by a focus on highly engaging ‘flow-type’ activities. Specifically, we
investigate flow activities in the context of online learning. Our findings suggest that some of the current questions from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) do appear to capture flow activities. We also identify gaps in the AUSSE. Finally, we make recommendations about the inclusion of additional items that capture highly engaging, flow activities for either the AUSSE or the Government’s proposed new instrument.