Visual and proprioceptive representations in spatial memory

It has been shown that spatial information can be acquired from both visual and nonvisual modalities. The present study explored how spatial information from vision and proprioception was represented in memory, investigating orientation dependence of spatial memories acquired through visual and proprioceptive spatial learning. Experiment 1 examined whether visual learning alone and proprioceptive learning alone yielded orientation-dependent spatial memory. Results showed that spatial memories from both types of learning were orientation dependent. Experiment 2 explored how different orientations of the same environment were represented when they were learned visually and proprioceptively. Results showed that both visually and proprioceptively learned orientations were represented in spatial memory, suggesting that participants established two different reference systems based on each type of learning experience and interpreted the environment in terms of these two reference systems. The results provide some initial clues to how different modalities make unique contributions to spatial representations.

Plasma-assisted self-sharpening of platelet-structured single-crystalline carbon nanocones

A mechanism and model for the vertical growth of platelet-structured vertically aligned single-crystalline carbon nanostructures by the formation of graphene layers on a flat top surface are proposed and verified experimentally. It is demonstrated that plasma-related effects lead to self-sharpening of tapered nanocones to form needlelike nanostructures, in a good agreement with the predicted dependence of the radius of a nanocone's flat top on the incoming ion flux and surface temperature. The growth mechanism is relevant to a broad class of nanostructures including nanotips, nanoneedles, and nanowires and can be used to improve the predictability of nanofabrication processes. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Low-frequency surface waves in a structured magnetized dusty plasma

It is shown that charged dust particles carrying a considerable proportion of the negative charge of a structured magnetized plasma can lead to low-frequency electromagnetic surface waves which otherwise do not exist. The waves are Alfvén-like and propagate across the stationary external magnetic field with a frequency below the ion cyclotron but much above the dust cyclotron frequency. The dispersion characteristics of the modes are obtained and applications to space plasmas discussed. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.

Document clustering algorithms, representations and evaluation for information retrieval

This thesis presents new methods for classification and thematic grouping of billions of web pages, at scales previously not achievable. This process is also known as document clustering, where similar documents are automatically associated with clusters that represent various distinct topic. These automatically discovered topics are in turn used to improve search engine performance by only searching the topics that are deemed relevant to particular user queries.

Book Review : "The Media Gaze: Representations of Diversities in Canada by Augie Fleras". Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2011.

The Media Gaze effectively shatters the assumption that Canada, in all its political correctness, is a cultural mosaic free of discrimination and prejudice. While great strides have been made to reduce blatant racism and sexism in Canadian media, Fleras illustrates how discriminatory and oppressive discourses are still very present in news, television, and film.He brings to light the structural, institutional, and practice-oriented means by which the media is systemically biased toward privileging mainstream audiences while misrepresenting minority groups in the public eye...

ANZAC Day media representations of women in Perth, 1960 – 2012

The annual Anzac Day observance is a focus for articulating popular notions of Australian national identity. Early Anzac Day observations were characterised by a diversity of observational modes, many distinctly masculine and militarist in character; including sports, competitions and marches. It was from the late 1920s that the now characteristic structure of the day (dawn service - march -follow-on - afternoon celebrations including eating, drinking and playing of the gambling game two-up, illegal on every other day of the year} became the dominant form. 1 Widely believed to have experienced an extended nadir in the 1960s and 1970s, since the 1980s Anzac Day has arguably become the single most important national event in the Australian calendar, involving probably the largest-numbers of Australians, many of them young, in the same temporal observance in a multitude of locations across the country and around the world.2 To date, there is a rich literature around Anzac Day observations and meanings focussing on its cultural I folkioric role'; the production of (masculinised) national identity;pilgrimage;' popular memory I history;' and the contemporary reshaping of the Anzac myth by and for indigenous participants.'

To see and be seen : cinematic constructions of gender and spectatorship in contemporary screen-based art

To See and Be Seen: Cinematic Constructions of Gender and Spectatorship in Contemporary Screen-Based Art addresses how gendered representation can be structured within visual art practice through a series of creative moving-image works. Using the aesthetic language of French New Wave cinema as its primary point of departure, this research project investigates how gendered representations are constructed by cinematic language. In doing this, it proposes latent possibilities present within the dominant gaze created by patriarchal relations of power. This project, in a series of creative works, demonstrates how the 'masculine' authorial gaze is learnt culturally, and by examining the gendered syntax of film, reveals how this can be recontextualised by the female artist.

Improving national hospice/palliative care service symptom outcomes systematically through point-of-care data collection, structured feedback and benchmarking

PURPOSE Every health care sector including hospice/palliative care needs to systematically improve services using patient-defined outcomes. Data from the national Australian Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration aims to define whether hospice/palliative care patients' outcomes and the consistency of these outcomes have improved in the last 3 years. METHODS Data were analysed by clinical phase (stable, unstable, deteriorating, terminal). Patient-level data included the Symptom Assessment Scale and the Palliative Care Problem Severity Score. Nationally collected point-of-care data were anchored for the period July-December 2008 and subsequently compared to this baseline in six 6-month reporting cycles for all services that submitted data in every time period (n = 30) using individual longitudinal multi-level random coefficient models. RESULTS Data were analysed for 19,747 patients (46 % female; 85 % cancer; 27,928 episodes of care; 65,463 phases). There were significant improvements across all domains (symptom control, family care, psychological and spiritual care) except pain. Simultaneously, the interquartile ranges decreased, jointly indicating that better and more consistent patient outcomes were being achieved. CONCLUSION These are the first national hospice/palliative care symptom control performance data to demonstrate improvements in clinical outcomes at a service level as a result of routine data collection and systematic feedback.

Creating a common approach to safety management through structured training development

The successful management of workplace safety has many benefits for employees, employers and the community. Similar to other areas of job performance, safety performance can be enhanced through appropriate and well-designed training. The foundation of the development of effective training is a thorough training needs analysis (TNA). Currently, the application of psychometrically valid TNA practices for the management of workplace safety is an under-researched topic and limited guidance is available for implementing appropriate strategies. To address this gap in the literature, this chapter will provide an overview of TNA practices, including the purpose and benefits associated with implementing the systematic procedure. A case study will then be presented to illustrate how the TNA process was successfully applied to investigate the training needs of Australasian rail incident investigators to achieve an industry-approved national training package. Recommendations will be made to assist practitioners with implementing TNA practices with the goal of enhancing workplace safety management through targeted workforce development.

Exploring cognitive style and task-specific preferences for process representations

Process models describe someone’s understanding of processes. Processes can be described using unstructured, semi-formal or diagrammatic representation forms. These representations are used in a variety of task settings, ranging from understanding processes to executing or improving processes, with the implicit assumption that the chosen representation form will be appropriate for all task settings. We explore the validity of this assumption by examining empirically the preference for different process representation forms depending on the task setting and cognitive style of the user. Based on data collected from 120 business school students, we show that preferences for process representation formats vary dependent on application purpose and cognitive styles of the participants. However, users consistently prefer diagrams over other representation formats. Our research informs a broader research agenda on task-specific applications of process modeling. We offer several recommendations for further research in this area.

Language change in socially structured populations

Language contact is a significant external social factor that impacts on the change in natural languages over time. In some circumstances this corresponds to language competition, in which individuals in a population choose one language over another based on their social interactions. We investigated the dynamics of language change in two initially separate populations of agents that were then mixed with levels of influence determined by the social classes of the two populations, with 16 different combinations tested. As expected, the study found that how the communities interact with each other impacts on the communal language developed. However, it was also found that the acquisition of new words was substantial even with limited interaction between populations and low levels of influence, and that comprehension could be well established across language groups even when production of words from the other language group was low.

Structuring representations of continuous data through investigations in grade 1

The study of data modelling with elementary students involves the analysis of a developmental process beginning with children’s investigations of meaningful contexts: visualising, structuring, and representing data and displaying data in simple graphs (English, 2012; Lehrer & Schauble, 2005; Makar, Bakker, & Ben-Zvi, 2011). A 3-year longitudinal study investigated young children’s data modelling, integrating mathematical and scientific investigations. One aspect of this study involved a researcher-led teaching experiment with 21 mathematically able Grade 1 students. The study aimed to describe explicit developmental features of students’ representations of continuous data...

How do Australian print media representations of child abuse and neglect inform the public and system reform?

The print media play a vital role in informing the public about child abuse and neglect. This information helps build broad support for laws and system developments that enable the state to intervene into private family lives and ensure that children are protected from maltreatment. Print media coverage usually sets the daily media agenda. It therefore influences public understandings of child abuse and neglect and what people believe should be done about it. Media impact on policy agendas should not be underestimated. This article outlines the results of a study of all major Australian newspaper stories covering abuse and neglect matters during an 18-month period in 2008–2009. A range of issues are identified concerning how well these stories inform the public about the nature of the problem and the current national reform agenda for protective systems that promotes early intervention and prevention...

Searching for semantic person queries using channel representations

It is not uncommon to hear a person of interest described by their height, build, and clothing (i.e. type and colour). These semantic descriptions are commonly used by people to describe others, as they are quick to relate and easy to understand. However such queries are not easily utilised within intelligent surveillance systems as they are difficult to transform into a representation that can be searched for automatically in large camera networks. In this paper we propose a novel approach that transforms such a semantic query into an avatar that is searchable within a video stream, and demonstrate state-of-the-art performance for locating a subject in video based on a description.