Evangeline Series : An interpretation of Classic Gothic Lolita

This series comprises three artefacts described below: Evangeline: Classic Gothic Lolita [3 piece garment]. Evangeline 2: Classic Gothic Lolita Pullip Doll Costume [2 piece garment]. Evangeline 3: Classic Gothic Lolita Mini Pullip Doll Costume [3 piece garment]. The series was part of an exhibition curated by Kathryn Hardy Bernal entitled: "Loli-Pop: A downtown Auckland view on Japanese street fashion". The exhibition explored the connections between gothic lolita fashion and popular culture. This work reflects on the aspect of collections in respect of the work of Hardy Bernal in relation to the connection between the japanese classic gothic lolita and the doll culture surrounding the movement. The pieces are interconnected and intended to communicate these aspects through a doll like dress worn by a model (Evangeline 1], carrying a doll wearing the same dress [Evangeline 2], carrying a smaller doll again wearing the same dress [Evangeline 3]. The artefacts appeared appeared as a central piece in the exhibition which was held at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland, New Zealand (15 September - 25 November 2007).

Machine prognostics based on health state probability estimation

The ability to accurately predict the remaining useful life of machine components is critical for machine continuous operation and can also improve productivity and enhance system’s safety. In condition-based maintenance (CBM), maintenance is performed based on information collected through condition monitoring and assessment of the machine health. Effective diagnostics and prognostics are important aspects of CBM for maintenance engineers to schedule a repair and to acquire replacement components before the components actually fail. Although a variety of prognostic methodologies have been reported recently, their application in industry is still relatively new and mostly focused on the prediction of specific component degradations. Furthermore, they required significant and sufficient number of fault indicators to accurately prognose the component faults. Hence, sufficient usage of health indicators in prognostics for the effective interpretation of machine degradation process is still required. Major challenges for accurate longterm prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) still remain to be addressed. Therefore, continuous development and improvement of a machine health management system and accurate long-term prediction of machine remnant life is required in real industry application. This thesis presents an integrated diagnostics and prognostics framework based on health state probability estimation for accurate and long-term prediction of machine remnant life. In the proposed model, prior empirical (historical) knowledge is embedded in the integrated diagnostics and prognostics system for classification of impending faults in machine system and accurate probability estimation of discrete degradation stages (health states). The methodology assumes that machine degradation consists of a series of degraded states (health states) which effectively represent the dynamic and stochastic process of machine failure. The estimation of discrete health state probability for the prediction of machine remnant life is performed using the ability of classification algorithms. To employ the appropriate classifier for health state probability estimation in the proposed model, comparative intelligent diagnostic tests were conducted using five different classifiers applied to the progressive fault data of three different faults in a high pressure liquefied natural gas (HP-LNG) pump. As a result of this comparison study, SVMs were employed in heath state probability estimation for the prediction of machine failure in this research. The proposed prognostic methodology has been successfully tested and validated using a number of case studies from simulation tests to real industry applications. The results from two actual failure case studies using simulations and experiments indicate that accurate estimation of health states is achievable and the proposed method provides accurate long-term prediction of machine remnant life. In addition, the results of experimental tests show that the proposed model has the capability of providing early warning of abnormal machine operating conditions by identifying the transitional states of machine fault conditions. Finally, the proposed prognostic model is validated through two industrial case studies. The optimal number of health states which can minimise the model training error without significant decrease of prediction accuracy was also examined through several health states of bearing failure. The results were very encouraging and show that the proposed prognostic model based on health state probability estimation has the potential to be used as a generic and scalable asset health estimation tool in industrial machinery.

Use of 3D visualisation to enhance groundwater stable isotope data and its interpretation, Lockyer Valley, southeast Queensland

The use of stable isotope ratios δ18O and δ2H are well established in assessment of groundwater systems and their hydrology. The conventional approach is based on x/y plots and relation to various MWL’s, and plots of either ratio against parameters such as Clor EC. An extension of interpretation is the use of 2D maps and contour plots, and 2D hydrogeological vertical sections. An enhancement of presentation and interpretation is the production of “isoscapes”, usually as 2.5D surface projections. We have applied groundwater isotopic data to a 3D visualisation, using the alluvial aquifer system of the Lockyer Valley. The 3D framework is produced in GVS (Groundwater Visualisation System). This format enables enhanced presentation by displaying the spatial relationships and allowing interpolation between “data points” i.e. borehole screened zones where groundwater enters. The relative variations in the δ18O and δ2H values are similar in these ambient temperature systems. However, δ2H better reflects hydrological processes, whereas δ18O also reflects aquifer/groundwater exchange reactions. The 3D model has the advantage that it displays borehole relations to spatial features, enabling isotopic ratios and their values to be associated with, for example, bedrock groundwater mixing, interaction between aquifers, relation to stream recharge, and to near-surface and return irrigation water evaporation. Some specific features are also shown, such as zones of leakage of deeper groundwater (in this case with a GAB signature). Variations in source of recharging water at a catchment scale can be displayed. Interpolation between bores is not always possible depending on numbers and spacing, and by elongate configuration of the alluvium. In these cases, the visualisation uses discs around the screens that can be manually expanded to test extent or intersections. Separate displays are used for each of δ18O and δ2H and colour coding for isotope values.

Designing and using historical vignettes in science teaching : a personal account

Historical vignettes are interesting short stories which encapsulate a brief period of scientific history. They can be useful tools for teaching the nature of science, demonstrating the practices of science and making science fun. Historical vignettes illustrate the role of people and social processes in science. In this paper I describe my experience with writing and presenting an historical vignette during a Biology unit. Included is a copy of the vignette and I have identified some possible improvements that might lead to better outcomes. This may be helpful for other teachers who wish to try this strategy for themselves.

On the computation and interpretation of auto- and cross-trispectra

This paper discusses the principal domains of auto- and cross-trispectra. It is shown that the cumulant and moment based trispectra are identical except on certain planes in trifrequency space. If these planes are avoided, their principal domains can be derived by considering the regions of symmetry of the fourth order spectral moment. The fourth order averaged periodogram will then serve as an estimate for both cumulant and moment trispectra. Statistics of estimates of normalised trispectra or tricoherence are also discussed.

Evaluating educational software : a historical overview and the challenges ahead

Teachers are under increasing pressure from government and school management to incorporate technology into lessons. They need to consider which technologies can most effectively enhance subject learning, encourage higher order thinking skills and support the performance of authentic tasks. This chapter reviews the practical and theoretical tools that have been developed to aid teachers in selecting software and reviews the software assessment methodologies from the 1980s to the present day. It concludes that teachers need guidance to structure the evaluation of technology, to consider its educational affordances, its usability, its suitability for the students and the classroom environment and its fit to the teachers’ preferred pedagogies.

A communitarian theory of the education rights of students with disabilities

There is a lack of writing on the issue of the education rights of people with disabilities by authors of any theoretical persuasion. While the deficiency of theory may be explained by a variety of historical, philosophical and practical considerations, it is a deficiency which must be addressed. Otherwise, any statement of rights rings out as hollow rhetoric unsupported by sound reason and moral rectitude. This paper attempts to address this deficiency in education rights theory by postulating a communitarian theory of the education rights of people with disabilities. The theory is developed from communitarian writings on the role of education in democratic society. The communitarian school, like the community within which it nests, is inclusive. Schools both reflect and model the shape of communitarian society and have primary responsibility for teaching the knowledge and virtues which will allow citizens to belong to and function within society. Communitarians emphasise responsibilities, however, as the corollary of rights and require the individual good to yield to community good when the hard cases arise. The article not only explains the basis of the right to an inclusive education, therefore, but also engages with the difficult issue of when such a right may not be enforceable.

The role of gender and framing in shaping community activists' perceptions of environmental risks

campaign to oppose projects proposed in their local community. The social constructionist perspective advocates that these motivations are driven by activists’ interpretation of reality, such that activists will assign multiple meanings to and frame environmental issues in a way that reflects their view of reality. Past research suggest that these are also influenced by patterns of shared meaning and interpretation that develop over time in protest movements that shape activists’ perceptions of the environmental risks and impacts associated with construction activity. This paper explores the role of gender distinctions in shaping perceptions of environmental risk and how this affects their framing of the environmental, social, cultural/ historical impacts associated with a construction project. Using Snow and Benford’s (1988) 3-prong analytical tool for framing: diagnostic framing, prognostic framing and motivational framing, this paper presents findings from the content analysis of in-depth interviews of 24 activists protesting against a highly controversial housing project in the greater Sydney metropolitan area. The research adopts a single case study approach, and is particularly significant as it investigates an extensive and on-going community-based protest campaign (dating back almost 20 years) that has generated the longest standing 24-hour community picket in Australia.

Abduction : the writing of a historical novel

This is a practice-led project consisting of a historical novel Abduction and related exegesis. The novel is a third person intimate narrative set in the mid-nineteenth century and is based on actual events and persons caught up in, or furthering, the mass dispossession of small farmers in Scotland known as the ‘Clearances’. The narrative focuses on the situation in the Outer Hebrides and northern Scotland. It is based on documented facts leading up to a controversial trial in 1850 that arose because a twenty year old woman of the period (the central protagonist, Jess Mackenzie) eloped with a young farmer to escape her parent’s pressure to marry a rival suitor, himself a powerful lawyer and ‘factor’ at the centre of many of the Clearances. The young woman’s independent ideas were ahead of her time, and the decisions she made under great pressure were crucial in some dramatic events that unfolded in Scotland and later in the colony of Victoria, to which she and her new husband emigrated soon after the trial. The exegesis is composed of two unequal parts. It briefly considers the development of the literary historical fiction genre in the nineteenth century with Walter Scott in particular, a genre found useful in representing women’s issues of the Victorian era by Victorian and contemporary authors. The exegesis also briefly considers the appropriateness of the fiction genre (as opposed to creative nonfiction) in creating the lived experience in a fact-based work. The major part of the exegesis is a detailed, reflective analysis of the problem-solving process involved in writing the novel, structured by reference to Kate Grenville’s Searching for the Secret River – a work of metawriting that explains her creative process in researching and writing historical fiction based on fact.