The height of approaching humans does not affect flight-initiation distance

Capsule Responses of animals to anthropogenic disturbances are often quantified using flight-initiation distance, the distance at which an animal flees a stimulus such as a person. We showed that the height of 20 researchers, selected to represent a diversity of heights, did not affect estimates of flight-initiation distance of Black Swans Cygnus atratus, suggesting that the height of humans used to test hypotheses of flight-initiation distances is not a confounding variable.

Challenges within the annual cycle of long-distance migratory waders along the East Asian-Australasian flyway

 The thesis focuses on the conservation of migratory shorebirds, particularly in this part of the world. Loss of habitats is one of the greatest threats and prioritizing the conservation of these habitats is of great importance to the future of these species.

Life-context interactions and their contributions to postgraduate distance learning

 This thesis explores the learning contributions of interactions between distance learners and other people in their lives about the academic content of their studies. It proposes new ways of conceptualising learning and learner interaction modes in distance education, and a new approach to distance education program design.

Comparison of laboratory-scale and industrial-scale equal channel angular pressing of commercial purity titanium

This study contrasts the extent to which laboratory and industrial scale variants of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) impart desirable microstructures and mechanical properties in Grades 2 and 4 titanium. Industrial-scale ECAP-Conform (ECAP-C) with post-ECAP thermo-mechanical processing (TMP) enhanced performance levels beyond those achieved with the same material processed in the laboratory by ECAP only. ECAP-C processed titanium demonstrated exceptional tensile properties and fatigue strength, superior even to conventional Ti-6Al-4V.

Effect of heat treatment on diffusion, internal friction, microstructure and mechanical properties of ultra-fine-grained nickel severely deformed by equal-channel angular pressing

Severe plastic deformation via equal-channel angular pressing was shown to induce characteristic ultra-fast diffusion paths in Ni (Divinski et al., 2011). The effect of heat treatment on these paths, which were found to be represented by deformation-modified general high-angle grain boundaries (GBs), is investigated by accurate radiotracer self-diffusion measurements applying the 63Ni isotope. Redistribution of free volume and segregation of residual impurities caused by the heat treatment triggers relaxation of the diffusion paths. A correlation between the GB diffusion kinetics, internal friction, microstructure evolution and microhardness changes is established and analyzed in detail. A phenomenological model of diffusion enhancement in deformation-modified GBs is proposed.