Marine flatworms are important mobile predators on hard substrate, however little is known about their life history. I recorded seven species of flatworms in Botany Bay and described a new species of flatworm Imogine lateotentare sp. nov. It is distinguished from other species in the same genus by having small, transparent and inconspicuous tentacles and continuous bands of numerous frontal and cerebral eyes. This new flatworm species was found closely associated with the barnacle Balanus variegatus (Darwin, 1854) on which it fed. Marine flatworms provide elaborate parental care to their offspring but its significance has not been experimentally confirmed. I provided quantitative measurements of the significance of parental care behaviour in Echinoplana celerrima and Stylochus pygmaeus under controlled laboratory conditions. I also examined the changes in reproductive behaviour of E. celerrima and the hatching success of their eggs when exposed to three putative flatworm egg predators. Brooding behaviour of neither species of flatworm enhanced the hatching success of their eggs and exposure of E. celerrima to the potential egg predators did not affect the timing of hatching or hatching success of its eggs. However, E. celerrima spent more time guarding their eggs when exposed to the potential egg predators. Brooding may be an innate behaviour in marine flatworms but it is not essential to their reproductive success. Marine flatworms are closely associated with sessile organisms and these assemblages are common in bays and estuaries which are subject to anthropogenic inputs from various sources. Impacts of pollutants are known for many flatworm prey species but little is known about the effects on the flatworm themselves. I examined the influence of sublethal concentrations of copper ranging from 0 to 50 ??g L-1 on the predatory and reproductive behaviour of Stylochus pygmaeus. These worms were more sensitive to low levels of copper pollution than their barnacle preys. Response of flatworms to physical stimulation, number of egg batches laid and hatching success were greatly reduced at higher copper concentrations. In areas polluted by heavy metals, flatworm populations will be affected at lower concentrations than their barnacle prey and which may alter sessile invertebrate community structure.

The absence of information that identifies desirable learning outcomes for students who attend Australian special schools and the absence of data that demonstrate the levels of mastery students have attained during their scholastic years, leave special education service provision vulnerable. This study, the first of its kind in Australia, developed a four phased evaluation process designed to assist special schools to ascertain desirable learning outcomes for students of school leaving age and to measure those outcomes. The process incorporated principles of the Outcome- Based Education approach as well as current philosophical trends in the provision of special education. The process was applied in three special education settings in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales. Despite acknowledged limitations, the study provided an informative insight into the learning abilities of students in three Australian special schools. Strategic practices for future application of the process are identified. / Doctor of Education (D. Ed.)

This study analyses overlaps in naturally occurring multi-party conversations among Japanese long-term residents of Australia, to investigate how Australian culture influences their Japanese communication style. One of the study???s interests is how their gendered communication styles appear in Australian English culture. Japanese gendered communication styles have been discussed in the literature, for example that males interrupt females more than vice versa; active participation by males versus passive participation by females in mixed-gender conversations; self-oriented topic initiation by males versus other-oriented topic initiation by females etc. These styles were assumed to be rarely observed in their L1 communication styles in Australia, where English, in which gendered language is less distinctive than Japanese, is spoken, and gender-free society has been more emphasised and practiced than in Japan. Among conversations recorded by the two informants, three multi-party conversations per informant (i.e. six in total) were selected, in which over 2000 overlaps are observed. The study first established a framework of functional overlap classification in terms of the ownership of the conversational floor. Then, based on this frame, all overlaps were classified into a number of functional categories, and were analysed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results showed little differences in the Japanese communication styles of the long-term residents of Australia from the Japanese communication styles which have been discussed in the literature, such as frequent use of aizuchi and other cooperative overlaps at and other than at Transition Relevance Places. As for gendered communication style, at least socio-cultural norms between traditional Japanese husband and wife are observed in the informants??? communication style. Although a number of variables that surround the informants need to be considered, the results may suggest that Japanese socio-cultural norms are, at this stage, more stable and they maintain the communication style of the Japanese long-term residents of foreign culture in their first language communication more strongly than was expected. However, different trends may be observed in future.

This study seeks to attain understanding of attempted suicide in young women from non-English speaking backgrounds, constructing meaning(s) of attempted suicide and eliciting information about sociocultural influences and guided by philosophical hermeneutics and narrative inquiry using life story methods. Thematic analysis was used to explicate from the text 30 sub-themes, five themes (being in a gap between cultures and creating space for themselves, being traumatised and diminished by abuse, surviving dangerous relationships, suffering psychic pain, expressing the self by attempting suicide), and a meta-theme (paradoxically asserting the indefinite self). Interpretation was predicated on the belief that life stories are statements about self-identity, and represent coming into being through the interaction of coherence (the ability to establish connections between events, unifying themes, frames of reference and goal states), continuity (a longitudinal and sequential perspective on life) and connectedness (intrapersonal, interpersonal and transpersonal relationships). The paradox is that being unable to overcome the uncertainties of incoherence, discontinuity and problematic connectedness, participants were predisposed to act against self as a means of asserting agency. This understanding of attempted suicide represents a hermeneutic narrative reconceptualisation of the phenomenon, which places it outside discourses that sanction the language of psychopathology and provides a basis for developing alternative nursing theory and informing education and practice / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The problem being investigated is the historical situation relating to two independent MPs holding the balance of power in the Australian House of Representatives in 1940 and 1941. The two MPs, Arthur Coles and Alex Wilson, supported the conservative Menzies and Fadden governments before shifting their support (on October 3 1941) to the Labor Party led by Curtin. The procedure followed is the examination, in the form of a historical narrative, of primary evidence in private papers (such as Coles???s), analysis of Hansard (CPD), local and metropolitan newspapers. Also examined are references to the two independents in secondary literature. The key focus of interest will be the idea that chance or serendipity played a major role in achieving all the key outcomes which many Australians (and historians like Hasluck) often otherwise depict as the triumph of good sense within a supposedly non-problematic twoparty political system which self-selected the best possible leadership during time of war. Coles took over the seat of a popular Cabinet minister who had died in an air disaster. Coles???s and Wilson???s holding the balance of power was another extreme aberration, as no House of Representatives from 1906 to 1940, and none since, has not had either of the two party blocs (Labor and anti-Labor) without a majority. Hasluck, the most influential historian of Australian politics during the 1939-1945 war, viewed the fact of Coles???s and Wilson???s serendipity as evidence, in itself, of their wider historical, ideological and political irrelevance. The general results obtained by pursuing a critical historical narrative approach is that a strong counter-argument has been developed that suggests that Hasluck (and wider historical memory) has insufficiently valued as historical factors Coles???s and Wilson???s ideological aims. Coles was a representative of business progressivism and Wilson of agrarian socialism. The major conclusion reached is that Coles???s and Wilson???s wider aims led them to adopt the tactic of timing their shift to Labor so as to maximize their ideological influence on the Labor administration that would result whenever they decided to exercise their entirely serendipitously attained balance of power.

Margaret Ada Sutherland (1897-1984) is respected as one of the leading musicians in Australia in the twentieth century. She is widely recognised as having made significant contributions to the development of Australian musical composition and contemporary creative life. While a significant body of scholarly work has been completed on Sutherland and while it is varied in scope and purpose, to date, no study has been undertaken with a strong focus on the identification and examination of primary sources relating to Sutherland. Research on Sutherland and her creative life has been consistently hampered by problems such as numerous lacunae in the composer???s corpus of works and the transmission of errors from one study to the next. It is the thesis of this study that these problems can be addressed by a reevaluation of all previously-used primary documents as well as the study of newlyfound primary source material: returning to primary sources has uncovered a considerable amount of material, both by and about the composer, which has remained previously unexplored. In order to address omissions in Sutherland???s work list, the starting point for the current study is the compilation of a thorough catalogue of works which incorporates all known compositions by Sutherland. This catalogue is derived from the collation of comprehensive primary source material. Further to this, the close examination of extensive primary sources relating to Sutherland???s life and music provides insights into aspects of the contemporary musical network in which she worked and also into the particular problems she encountered as a female composer in a geographically isolated country. The diversity of her achievements is also illuminated. The resources used in this thesis provide the material which will enhance, augment, and sometimes offer new perspectives relating to the current understanding of Sutherland???s creative life. Thus, Sutherland???s contribution to Australian music can be more deeply understood.

Three species of the carnivorous bladderwort Utricularia (U. uliginosa, U. uniflora and U. gibba) were studied in the field to determine the fauna content or prey, within their bladder-traps. The immediate soil/water environment was also sampled to determine the fauna present, in order to enable comparison between the prey fauna and the surrounding fauna. Comparison of the trap fauna with the soil/water fauna revealed evidence of selectivity in trapping: the trap fauna were not simply a random sample of the soil/water fauna. A glasshouse experiment was designed to determine whether the terrestrial bladderwort species U. uliginosa gained any growth advantage from carnivory. Three organism treatments were factorially combined with three Nitrogen levels. The advantage to plants of trapping meiofauna was apparent at the two lower N-levels, but not at the highest N-level. The nitrogen treatments did not confer any significant advantage on plant growth for leaf and trap numbers or stolon length. Nitrogen level did however have a significant effect on leaf area at harvest 2, with plants in the middle nitrogen level having more leaf area than plants in the lower and higher nitrogen levels / Master of Science (Hons)

This thesis contributes to the issue of why corporations manage risk with insurance and financial derivative contracts. Two different empirical studies are done with data sets from Australian companies: 1) one study on reinsurance demand; and 2) one study on interest-rate-risk hedging demand from non-banking companies listed at the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Both studies use panel data models. A Monte Carlo simulation replicates the basic characteristics of the original data sets and allows a performance comparison among different panel data models. This thesis provides the first empirical work on insurer demand for reinsurance using Australian data. A panel-data set (1996-2001) is used, which provides 543 observations. The study finds strong evidence that larger insurers, insurers member of a group of companies, reinsurers, and captive insurers reinsure more. The impacts of leverage, taxes, and return on investments are not statistically significant. The second empirical study analyses the interest-rate-risk hedging demand with two panel data sets from 1998 to 2003 (1134 and 465 observations, respectively). Detailed information about interest-rate-risk exposures was available after manual data collection from financial reports, which was only possible due to specific reporting requirements in Australian accounting standards. A probit regression analysis confirms previous empirical results that company size is important to the decision to hedge interest rate risk in Australia. However, in relation to the analysis of the extent of hedging, the proper measurement of interest-rate-risk exposures generates some significant results different from those found in previous studies. For example, this study shows that total leverage (total debt ratio) is not significantly important to interest-rate-risk hedging demand and that, instead, this demand is related to the specific risk exposure in the interest bearing part of debt. This study finds significant relations of interest-rate-risk hedging to company size, floating-interest-rate debt ratio, annual log returns, and company industry type.

This thesis describes what counts as evidence and what constitutes an evidence-informed approach to health policy development, particularly policy with an equity focus. While health policy is increasingly aiming to be ???evidence-based???, a narrow conceptualisation of this can neglect the importance of the powerful and dynamic context of public policy-making. An evidence-informed approach recognises and works with a broader range of contextual influences. The aim of this thesis was to extend and deepen understanding of how evidence informs policy that promotes health equity, through a tracer study of policy development in Australia. The objectives of the research were to examine influential types of evidence, their role and function; to investigate the context, processes and relationships that contributed to evidence informed health policy, and to gain a deeper understanding of how health equity, and evidence on equity, was conceptualised and considered in the policy process. Two Australian state government policy initiatives in the area of early childhood intervention were investigated through interviews with key policy actors in both states, and media, political and policy documentary analyses. A theory-informed framework was developed from the literature to guide this research. This thesis has led to the development of a number of theoretical models, insights and working principles to guide evidence-informed policy development. The models emerge from a conceptual framework that describes how clusters of information (contextual, expert opinion, scientific studies, policy audit, and economic) combine with a number of policy conditions (necessity, opportunity, capacity, relationships, actors and processes) to become a ???case for policy???. What follows seems to be several primary insights to the types of evidence that inform health policy; the identification of an ???adopt, adapt, apply??? phase in policy-making; and the existence of an ???equity policy gap??? ??? exposing the rare translation of equity principles into policy action. Findings from this study call for recognition of research as only one information source in policy development. The successful integration of research and policy is more likely if research evidence is seen within, and as a part of, a more complex policy development system.

This thesis examines the politics of twenty-first century ???guerrilla??? performance. It historicises site-specific, political performance by examining ???guerrilla??? art forms from the 1960s to the present. It argues that recent community-based, site-specific performance events can be seen as a ???new??? type of guerrilla work, as they utilise techniques which challenge public space, authorship and control without resorting to traditional guerrilla forms of didactic street protest. The author establishes two main political tactics of the community-based guerrilla artist. The first is the utilisation of a problematised definition of ???community??? and the second is an understanding of physical, conceptual and experiential ???space??? as open to intervention. Community-based performance and site-specific art practices are investigated and space and community are placed into critical theoretical frameworks using post-structural and spatiality theory. The author then argues that post-structured communities which are based on an ethics of difference can trouble and create site, conceptual space and place (site/concept/place) through contemporary guerrilla performance events. Three examples of community-based guerrilla performance in Australia are examined. The first case study explores Western Sydney based Urban Theatre Projects and their 1997 performance event TrackWork. The second focuses on community-based hip-hop artist Morganics and his facilitation of two hip-hop tracks Down River and The Block in 2001. The third considers US theatre director Peter Sellars??? problematic curation of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. In all three case studies, guerrilla artists are shown working with post-structured communities to challenge and trouble site/concept/place in order to improve the lives of their participants and audiences. This thesis proposes new post-structural frameworks for the powerful presence of community and site in performance events, thus contributing to performance and cultural studies and to the emerging field of community-based performance scholarship.