Matilda's last dance: death, gender, sexuality and Australian adolescent literature

This thesis examines representations of death in a selection of contemporary texts for Australian adolescent audiences. It demonstrates that, although death is a complex subject, a characteristically Australian 'way of death' is identifiable in these fictions and it is invariably associated with issues of sexuality, gender and power.

Feminist perspectives on gender ideology in recent young adult literature

This study of gender in young adult literature examined a range of recently published texts in both the fantasy and realist genres and determined that narrative discourse contests the dominant patriarchal paradigm most sucessfully when female protagonists enact a trickster role.

Renegade judgement : a study of madness in medicine and literature

Explores socio-historical understandings and treatments of madness, examining literary works alongside contemporary medical texts. Incorporating notions of scientific objectivity, individual subjectivity and social totality, the thesis shows conceptual overlaps between art and science, identifying continuities and conflicts between fictional, clinical and cultural investigations into madness.

Literature and environmental ethics

This thesis contends that literature which reflects, and is informed by (whether consciously or not), reconstructive postmodern ecology is not a static literature but by representing and confronting the underpinning causes that have led humanity to violence, literature generates new engagements and the potential to reconstruct - ethically, cognitively, perceptually- alternative ways of being-in-the-world for political ends.

Multicentric carpal-tarsal osteolysis with nephropathy treated successfully with cyclosporine A : a case report and literature review

Multicentric carpal-tarsal osteolysis is a rare skeletal disorder characterized by osteolysis of the metacarpal, carpal, and tarsal bones and leading to crippling joint deformities. Progressive nephropathy occurs in more than half the cases. All previously reported series with renal biopsies showed only end-stage renal disease on histological examination because of the late presentation to nephrologists. Accurate diagnosis of the underlying renal pathological state therefore has not been possible. We report the first case in which early and sequential renal biopsies were performed. These show the renal lesion to be focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis, which was treated successfully with cyclosporine A.

Parents' knowledge, attitudes and practices about preventing child sexual abuse: a literature review

Increased concern about high rates of child sexual abuse has led to the demand for more prevention programmes, particularly those aimed at parents. Research on how parents manage and reduce the risk of child sexual abuse can help plan programmes. This literature review explores published research on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of parents on the risk and prevention of child sexual abuse and identifies gaps and needs for further research. The majority of studies reviewed originated in North America and Asia, were quantitative, surveyed mainly mothers and were more than ten years old. Recommendations are made for more current and country specific research, further research to gain a deeper understanding of how parents manage the risk of child sexual abuse, more comprehensive research covering a range of knowledge, attitude and practice variables, and greater inclusion of fathers in research.

How to write an unsuccessful entrepreneurial business plan : content analysis of the normative literature reveals a flawed paradigm

The study's aim was to investigate whether an Entrepreneurial Business Planning (EBP) paradigm could be discovered as a body of core, common maxims within the normative EBP literature (works of the 'how-to-write-a-successful-new-venture-business-plan' genre). It employed content analysis techniques adapted mainly from the methodological prescriptions of Krippendorf (1980) and Carney (1972). The textual investigation produced a comprehensive, quantitative data base capable of sufficient interpretative richness to discover that an established Entrepreneurial Business Planning paradigm does exist. Its major elements embrace two key assumptions, four strong mandates and four weaker mandates.

The discovery is significant for two main reasons. First, it provides a formally-researched, explicitly-articulated EBP paradigm. This can replace the anecdotal, unarticulated assumption (implicit in most of the normative EBP literature) that an EBP paradigm 'probably exists'. Second, the research redresses some of the imbalance between entrepreneurship teaching- where Entrepreneurial Business Planning is at the core of international curricula - and entrepreneurship research which has virtually ignored EBP as a topic worthy of serious scrutiny. A firm basis for critical, scholarly exploration of the neglected EBP field is now established. This takes the theory and practice of EBP into a new era beginning with recognition that the discovered EBP paradigm is badly flawed and likely, if blindly applied, to lead to the writing of unsuccessful business plans.