This is a study against essentialist generalisations. Empirically, the study has been conducted to understand the food related practices among the Bengali-Muslim migrants in Sydney based on the dichotomy of Halal (permitted in Islam) and Haram (prohibited in Islam). Instead of evaluating Islam and Muslim communities as monolithic and undifferentiated this study reveals the localised actualisation of Islam which serves as a conditioning factor for these Bengali-Muslim migrants. Adopting a naturalistic methodological approach a number of ethnographic tools have been used to reveal the complex multifaceted processes through which Sydney???s Bengali-Muslim migrants negotiate the situational convergence and divergence between their ethnic identity as Bengali and their religious identity as Muslim. As a significant site of this interplay this study discovers from their food related practices that the Bengali-Muslim migrants in Sydney construct the notion of Halal-Haram food rules and regulations through the dialectics of their Bengali-informed Islam. The Bengali version of Islam poses considerable challenge to the modernist opposition between secularism and religion which is quite inadequate to understand the way the Bengali-Muslims historically negotiate both of these in the form of overlapping consensus. The findings of the study exhibit that this situationally shifting emphasis on their secular Bengali identity at one point of time and on their religious Muslim identity at another determines their decisive practices regarding food consumption in a Western cultural milieu. The Bengali-Muslim migrant participants of this study tend to perceive the notion of Halal-Haram in multiple ways so as to fit the pragmatic realities of their migrant life, which eventually leads them to reconstruct, renegotiate or even discard the scriptural/theological/authoritative discourse. Such underlying properties of food practices vindicate the argument that any stereotypically standardised notion of ???Islam??? is inadequate to understand varied Muslim migrant communities across the globe. Rather specific Muslim migrant community should be studied along with a profound understanding of their very contextual nature and historical formations.

Using written and studio research, the above research question is interrogated through a body of practical work, that evolved into a static exhibition titled Second skin: new knitting at The Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia, in January/February 2008. This thesis examines knitting as a form of constructed textile in an historical and contemporary context and explores the integral relationship it has with fashion and textiles, as well as questioning the significance of interplay between fashion and art. The primary aim of this research is to explore contemporary knitwear designers working in the high-fashion’ area of design and investigate how they are challenging traditionally established rules and perceptions, and potentially blur the boundaries of what is considered fashion design, into art. While conceptual fashion design has always been a debateable issue among fashion scholars as to whether it can be viewed as fashion, antifashion or possibly art, this thesis examines the influences of modernity and deconstruction in relation to knitting, to establish a conclusion regarding the contemporary position and understanding of knitting in society at present. Through gathering both primary and secondary research nationally and internationally, knitting has been examined in relation to the ways in which contemporary designers working in the realm of knitting are unravelling these traditionally based preconceptions, and analysing what they are accomplishing through the use of mixed media applications, post-knitting treatments, yarn and stitch manipulation, and challenging sculptural form to create a new visual language through artisanal production. The body of work presented explores the concepts established in the written research relative to perception and deconstruction, and provokes questions which challenge the notion of knitting as fashion, art or both. Through hand and machine knitting techniques, Second skin: new knitting examines body scarification in the form of tribal markings, which allows each pieces to transform into a second skin that convey interpretive narratives and visual messages. The predominant medium utilised is 100% Australian wool and in conjunction, incorporates mixed media materials such as silk organza and semi precious stones, and technological processes include laser cutting and etching of Tasmanian oak veneer and leather.

This thesis adopts post-colonial theory as a reading strategy to address both fiction and interdisciplinary critical writing on the subject of tourism. The introduction argues for the viability of this methodology, highlighting similarities between the ideological underpinnings of tourism and imperialism, especially in relation to the power of the gaze. The first chapter draws on analyses of early exploration and travel writing to advance the argument that as the ideology of empire was encoded in travel writing, so contemporary tourist culture, in so far as it has inherited this discourse, continues to operate within it. I suggest that in much the same way as the explorer???s gaze was a form of creating knowledge disseminated through writing, fiction constitutes a cultural production that contests the power of the gaze. The second chapter focuses on the ambivalent effects of the commodification of culture caused by the tourist industry. I argue that cultural tourism, centred on heritage and history, has constituted a platform from which to review conventional representations of Australian history in a way that demonstrates the relevance of heritage to contemporary national narratives. The third and final chapter examines the relationship between cultural performances in tourism and subject formation, contending that the repetitive nature of performance offers an ideal opportunity to interpolate transformative views of both locals and tourists into the conventional tourist discourse.

The quality of visual perception with epiretinal electric stimulation strongly depends on the configuration of electrode arrays. Such arrays at the surface of the retina should excite only cells within a local area, but in practice, they exhibit some cross-talk, possibly leading to a smearing of focal activation of the retina. In this study, a passive model of extracellular voltage distribution arising from epiretinal stimulation is solved using the method of finite differences, in order to explore the voltage and current distributions of a hexagonal electrode array configuration. Results of this study suggest that the hexagonal electrode arrangement is effective in providing targeted focal activation of retinal tissue. Cross-talk between hexagonal clusters may be minimized by stimulus paradigms which utilize six return (or guard) electrodes around each stimulus electrode.

In this thesis I examine the ways in which the modern state addresses sex. I want to ascertain by what considerations the state is informed in its relationship to sex. What is behind the state???s regulation of sexual practices? What is its interest in regard to sex? To answer these questions I examine fundamental artefacts of the modern state, especially the law (but also the bureaucracy), as directed by the 1993 English court case of Brown. Brown involves the search for the sexual subject; The Lords in Brown were at a loss for how to conceptualise the subject before them. Their search is my own: who is the sexual subject? What is his relationship to the state? To answer these questions, Brown directs me for authority to two widely separated moments of supposed classic ???discontinuity???: the 1957 Wolfenden Report, and the late-Victorian Queen???s Bench. These two moments in government - the 1960s and the 1880s - are usually depicted as ideologically different, indicating discontinuity, difference, change and perhaps even revolution between the relative approaches of the state to sex. And yet, in Brown, both are upheld as appropriate contemporary authorities on sex, the individual and the state. Here I take my cue from the Lords and interrogate the artefacts of these two periods in government to ascertain the story of the 20th century state???s relationship to sex. My thesis is a political analysis that incorporates genealogy in its focus on law as indicative of the state. It incorporates a detailed study of primary artefacts of the state: detailed analyses of seemingly discontinuous moments including individual court cases, individual Committees, individual treatises and opinions and political memoirs. I conclude by drawing together my overall argument, that during the 20th century there has been no radical change of the modern state in regard to sex, and that the success of the permissive mythology has generally blinded us to this fact. Not only have we mistaken the nature of the permissive state as concerned with evolution, we have erroneously been persuaded of the blanket repression of the Victorian state. The big break, the discontinuity of the 1960s, that often is described as ???revolutionary??? (and inevitable in the teleology of progress), is a re-configuration of the same object as the Victorian state. The permissive state enacts the latest stage in the great Victorian project of embodying the sexual subject ??? a subject at once embodied and created as an object of control.

The use of stem cells to augment the healing of bone defects represents an exciting new frontier in many surgical disciplines. This thesis verified the in vitro osteogenic capability of ovine Adipose Derived Stromal Stem Cells (ADSCs) and Bone Marrow Derived Stem Cells (BMSCs), examined the in vivo osteogenic potential of the ovine ADSCs population and compared it to the in vivo osteogenic potential of ovine BMSCs. The pilot study used both cell populations, expanded and osteogenically stimulated ex vivo and mixed with resorbable porous hydroxyapatite-calcium carbonate bone graft substitute (ProOsteon 200R, Interpore Cross International, Irvine, CA). This study demonstrated the preferred length of time in ex vivo osteogenic stimulation of the ADSCs and BMSCs populations to promote the bone formation in vivo to be 7 days. In the main ovine study which employed 48 wethers, ADSCs and BMSCs were expanded, stimulated osteogenically for 7 days, mixed with ProOsteon 200R and deposited in an autologous manner into a bilateral medial femoral condyle confined cancellous defect. In vivo performance of 7 treatment groups was examined: 1. ???Bone autograft/ADSCs???, 2. ???Bone autograft/BMSCs???, 3. ???ProOsteon 200R/ADSCs???, 4. ???ProOsteon 200R/BMSCs???, 5. ???Bone autograft???, 6. ???ProOsteon 200R??? and 7. ???Empty defect???. The time-points were: 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. The analysis of the harvested specimens used the following methods: computerized tomography, histological assessment, histomorphometry and immunohistochemistry. There was a progressive and time dependant increase in woven bone in the defects treated with ADSCs and BMSCs across all time points. The amount of woven bone in the defects treated with the combination of ADSCs and ProOsteon 200R was comparable with the defects treated with the combination of BMSCs and ProOsteon 200R. In addition, the combination of ADSCs or BMSCs and ProOsteon 200R demonstrated no more bone than ProOsteon 200R alone. However, the ???Autograft/BMSCs??? and ???Autograft/ADSCs??? groups demonstrated a remarkable increase in the amount of woven bone formed in the defects across all time points when compared with all other groups. In addition, the amounts of bone formed in the ???Autograft/BMSCs??? and the ???Autograft/ADSCs??? group were comparable across all timepoints. The results of these studies support the hypothesis that ovine ADSCs and BMSCs populations in combination with the bone autograft can increase the formation of woven bone in the autologous orthotopic environment in a comparable manner.

Purpose: To document the distribution of macular, retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness and optic disc parameters, as measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in a population-based sample of young persons and to examine the relationship of these measurements to ocular variables (spherical equivalent refraction [SER] and axial length) and systemic variables (age, gender, anthropometry, ethnicity and birth parameters). Methods: A stratified random cluster sample of 6- and 12-year-old school students from across the Sydney metropolitan region were surveyed and examined using non-contact methods (including biometric measurements with the IOL Master and Canon RK-F1) to determine axial length and SER. The 3rd generation Optical Coherence Tomography instrument (Zeiss Stratus OCT, Dublin, CA, USA) was used to measure macular and RNFL thickness and major optic disc parameters in this sample. Ethnicity and birth parameters were derived using questionnaires. Anthropometric parameters, such as height and weight, were measured using standard methods. Results: The thickness of the foveal, central, inner macular, outer macular and macular volume parameters was normally distributed in both age cohorts. The temporal quadrant was thinner than all other quadrants at both the inner and outer macular regions. The central and inner macula was significantly thicker in boys than in girls, and in Caucasian than in East Asian children. The inner and outer macular regions were slightly, but significantly, thinner with increasing axial length, or myopic refraction. On the other hand, these corresponding regions were significantly thicker with more hyperopic SER. RNFL thickness and RNFLestimated integral were normally distributed in both age groups. RNFL thickness was thinnest for the temporal quadrant, followed by the nasal, inferior, and superior quadrants. RNFL average thickness was marginally greater in boys than in girls and in East Asian than in Caucasian children. The RNFL was thinner with both greater axial length and less hyperopic refractions. Optic disc, optic cup and neural rim parameters were also normally distributed in this young population. In analyses that adjusted for potential confounders, optic disc area increased significantly with axial length and refraction. Neural rim area increased with axial length. There were minimal gender differences in the two age groups. Most optic disc and optic cup dimensions were significantly larger in East Asian than in Caucasian and Middle Eastern children. The foveal minimum and overall RNFL thickness were similar in both age cohorts, while other retinal regions and optic disc size were slightly larger in the 12- than the 6-year-old children. Amblyopic eyes had greater foveal minimum thickness than the normal fellow eye of individual children and the right eyes of non-amblyopic children. Birth weight and head circumference were positively correlated with both RNFL and macular thickness. Conclusions: Macular thickness, RNFL thickness and optic disc parameters were normally distributed in these two age groups of children. Axial length and refraction were important ocular biometric determinants of macular thickness and RNFL thickness. Significant ethnic differences were also demonstrated. RNFL average thickness was also positively associated with optic disc area. Central macular thickness increased in amblyopia. These findings have implications for the interpretation of OCT measurements in research and clinical practice in both children and adult.

This thesis constructs, principally from primary sources, a long term time series for house and land prices for Sydney and Melbourne, and house price and rental yield series for Australia. These new series span the period 1880-1965 and give an historical perspective beyond the period from 1970 for which existing house price time series begin for Australia and for most of the world. The price series indicates that the modern experience (i.e. since the 1970s) of a significant upward trend in real prices differs markedly from the experience in the first half of the 20th century when house prices moved very little. The thesis then takes several approaches to explaining the apparent shift in direction in the mid 20th century. The first approach examines house prices in terms of demand and supply variables. Urban theory says that demographic and income factors are critical. However, assessed over this long time span, these demand factors do not offer a satisfactory explanation. Additionally, it is found that there is no cointegrating relationship between prices and income. Rather, it appears that supply factors have probably been the pivotal influence in explaining the shift in direction, consistent with a growing literature which focuses on the role of regulation and other constraints on supply. In Australia???s case, government policies imposing capital contributions on the cost of land appear to be a major factor. The second approach taken is to view housing in terms of asset pricing as more typically applied to the equity market by Campbell and Shiller (1988) and others. A central debate is whether or not there has been a structural fall in the equity yield and given the parallel fall in the house yield, this question is posed for housing. The thesis finds that tax and other factors can explain a structural decline in the housing yield. The house rental yield appears to be a better predictor of future rental growth and a negative predictor of future returns.

This study investigates the relationship between learning approaches and the development of clinical reasoning ability. The main questions for the study were: Is there a statistically significant relationship between students??? learning approaches and development of clinical reasoning ability? If there is a relationship between approaches to learning and development of clinical reasoning ability, which students develop this ability faster? And How does learning approach change relate to the development of reasoning ability? The Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) was used in order to evaluate participants??? learning approaches and Diagnostic Thinking Inventory (DTI) to measure participants??? diagnostic thinking ability. In order to determine changes of learning approaches, the same students were invited to fill out the same questionnaires one year later. This quantitative study was followed by a qualitative inquiry including in-depth interviews aimed at exploring the association of a change in learning approach score with the development of clinical reasoning ability. These interviews also explored the factors influencing learning approaches of these students. Those students with the greatest change in R-SPQ-2F scores between the two surveys were selected for interview. Analysis of the findings of both the quantitative and qualitative phases of this research leads the researcher to conclude that; - there is a correlation between ongoing learning approaches and the development of clinical reasoning ability; this correlation is positive if the approach is deep and it is negative if the approach is surface, - progress towards either end of the learning approach continuum is associated with observation of experts, reasoning practice and/or feedback from experts, and - progress towards either end of the learning approach continuum seems an earlier and better indicator of developing reasoning ability than categorization of learning approach because both learning approach change and the factor causing this change were associated with the development of clinical reasoning ability. This study contributes to understanding of the importance of ongoing learning approaches and the development of clinical reasoning ability by encouraging deep learning approach characteristics. Factors affecting learning approaches are also associated with the development of clinical reasoning ability. Their effect is more than expected.

Flatness, levelness and plastic shrinkage cracks are three important parameters in the evaluation of the performance of concrete floor surfaces. The rapidly developing concrete floor industry overseas has resulted in a great deal of improvement in the methods for evaluation of surface flatness and levelness. This research encompasses a review of the development and evolution of codes in other countries, an evaluation of the current status in Australia, and reliable evaluation methods for concrete floors. The end result aims to present a comparison of the varying degrees of reliability of the different methods of measurement theoretically and demonstrates the feasibility of specified tolerance through the analysis of field data from actual projects. It also analyses the general assumption that concrete slabs exposed to hot weather conditions soon after casting is prone to plastic shrinkage cracking and its implications. Identifying factors influencing flatness, levelness and plastic shrinkage cracking of concrete slab surface and investigation of their effects are included in this research. Through statistical analysis, significant factors, such as the construction method, environmental conditions and the method of measurement are identified. In addition, sunlight intensity and capacity of concrete bleeding were factors investigated with regard to concrete surface evaporation rate. The monitoring of plastic shrinkage crack initiation and development is an important task in the research of concrete slabs. The research on plastic shrinkage cracking of the slab surface resulted in the development of a digital image analysis method. This method focuses on mapping cracks (MC) and measuring crack width (MCW). Other information such as crack growth over time can also be obtained based on MC and MCW. An accurate method for the measurement of crack width has been developed based on sliced crack image data. Therefore, this method can determine the location of the maximum crack width and measure it with a desired precision.