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Suburbs in Melbourne present to us a unique context with which a new approach towards urban form can be devised using the existing conditions and opportunities found with infrastructural developments. This thesis contains the investigations on the various 'pathologies' of the urban fabric specifically on the potential use of 'Spaces Left-Over After Planning' as by-product to infrastructural development in relation to the reinvigoration of Melbourne suburbs under the influence of current and future metropolitan growth pressures. The contents of the research aims to demonstrate the potentials for urban diversification followed by densification using the already inherent characteristics of the selected suburbs (Oakleigh, Waverley and Broadmeadows) to facilitate the metropolitan expansion of Melbourne with the intention of encouraging ways in which suburban fabric can reach its maturity along with new infrastructural developments to foster community engagement.

This thesis draws upon anarchist communist theory in order to provide a historical account of the New Left and the anarchist movement in New Zealand from 1956 to the early 1980s. This account explains, describes and evaluates critically these movements. The praxis of the New Left and the anarchist movement can be explained by a variety of social, economic, political, cultural and psychological factors. However, overall, it is argued that these movements were largely shaped by the underlying antagonisms of global capitalism. Because the New Left emerged during a lull in working-class self-activity, the politics of the early New Left and the anarchist movement from 1956 to the late 1960s were generally reformist and quietist. The later New Left emerged during a global resurgence in class-struggle from 1968 to the early to mid 1970s. Consequently, the demeanour of the later New Left and anarchism during this period was boisterous and ebullient. The New Left in New Zealand was unique in that, compared with the New Left overseas, its major organisations were neither campus-based nor dominated by students. It consisted of young workers and students who jointly established numerous small affinity groups. The early New Left was less action-oriented than the later New Left. It was formed by dissidents from the Old Left and was closely associated with anti-nuclear protest. The later New Left issued from the more confrontational wing of the anti-Vietnam War and anti-apartheid movements, and then dispersed into various new social movements from the early 1970s onwards. The anarchist movement of the 1960s and 1970s was intimately interrelated with the New Left, and hence shared most of its characteristics. This work employs anarchist communism as a theoretical tool to evaluate critically the innovations and limitations of the New Left and the anarchist movement. In particular, the class-based "non-market" anarchist communist theory of Peter Kropotkin is utilised. The main criterion used for judging the New Left and anarchist movement is their emancipatory capacity to spark a process whereby the underlying social relations of capitalism are fundamentally transformed. The key strengths of the New Left and the anarchist movement were their sweepingly broad anti-authoritarianism, their festive politics and their focus upon everyday life. The primary weakness of these movements was their isolation from the working-class. The New Left concentrated on supporting nationalist struggles overseas and mostly overlooked domestic class-struggle. Numerous New Leftists and anarchists championed self-management yet did not question the market and the wage-system. This thesis highlights the complexities of the New Left. For instance, the later New Left was genuinely anti-disciplinarian yet often supported totalitarian Stalinist regimes overseas. As a result, it is argued that the New Left was paradoxically both anti-authoritarian and authoritarian. It is claimed that an updated anarchist communism, integrating the best qualities of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s with classical anarchist communism, is highly relevant today because of the rise of neo-liberalism and the anti-capitalist movement, and the demise of Stalinism and social democracy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-134). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The Objectives of this thesis are: 1) To study possible atrial interaction in patients with right and left ventricular outflow tract obstruction due to significant pulmonary (PS) and aortic valve stenosis (AS), respectively. 2) To assess left atrial (LA) intrinsic myocardial function and its relationship to indirect measures of left ventricular (LV) filling pressures in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). 3) To test the hypothesis that the LA function is affected in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). 4) To test the hypothesis that raised LA pressure as shown by pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) correlates with severity of LA intrinsic systolic function. We conducted 4 studies to achieve the objective sabove. Study I Methods: We studied 41 PS patients (age 36±10 year) and 41 AS patients (age 35 ± 12 year) and compared them with 27 controls (age 30 ± 7 year). RV and LV filling were recorded by conventional PW Doppler. Biventricular segmental function was studied using the PW tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and M mode techniques. Results: The 2 patient groups had similar degree of ventricular outflow tract obstruction. In the pressureoverloaded ventricle, global systolic function was preserved but long axis function was impaired.Patients had higher peak late filling (Awave)and TDI late diastolic (a’) velocities recorded in the disease free ventricles despite having similar peak early filling velocities (E wave), E wave deceleration time and E/e’ ratios were not different from controls (p>0.05 for all). The accentuation of atrial activity (A wave) was moderately correlated with the degree of contra lateral ventricular outflow tract obstruction (p<0.001 for both). Conclusion: In the pressure overloaded ventricle long axis function is more sensitive than global function in revealing myocardial dysfunction. The increased contra lateral atrial systolic activity suggests an evidence for atrial interaction in the form of ‘Cross Talk’. Study II Methods: Twentyfive PAF patients (age 68±7 year, 10 males) with Doppler signs of raised filling pressures were studied using speckle tracking echocardiography and compared with 21 controls. LA segmental longitudinal strain (S), strain rate (SR) and myocardial velocities during atrial systole were measured as were LA longitudinal and transverse diameters. Markers of LV filling pressures were E/A andE/e’. Results: LA longitudinal diameter was larger in patients (5.5±0.6 vs. 4.8±0.6cm,p<0.01) and global LAS and SR were reduced (p<0.05 for both) and correlated with E/A (r=0.52 and r=0.43, p<0.05 for both). LA segmental S and SR were uniformly reduced compared with controls (p<0.05 for all) and also correlated with E/A (p<0.05 for all). LA myocardial velocities (TDI) were highest at the annular level and lowest at the rear in both patients and controls (p<0.01 for all), with the absolute values at each level not different between groups. Myocardial velocities negatively correlated with E/A at the annular level only in patients (septal: r=0.52; lateral: r=0.62, p<0.01 for both). Conclusion: In PAF patients, LA systolic function is suppressed and is directly related to the raised filling pressures. While intrinsic global and segmental function can reproducibly be studied by S and SR, myocardial velocities reflect only regional motion. These findings provide a sound explanation to the known beneficial effect of vasodilators in PAF patients. Study III Methods: We studied LA size and reservoir function in 35 patients (age 63 ± 15 years, 16 male) with idiopathic PAH using speckle tracking echocardiography who also underwent right heart catheterization simultaneously to assess pulmonary artery systolic pressure, and compared them with 27 age and gender normal controls. Results: In PAH patients, LA longitudinal diameter was not different from controls but transverse diameter was reduced (3.0 ± 0.6 vs. 3.7 ± 0.5cm, p<0.001). LA lateral wall strain rate (SR) during LV systole (atrial reservoir function was reduced at annular (p<0.001) and mid cavity (p<0.01) levels as were septal segments (p<0.03, for both) compared to controls. Opposite to controls, the two LA walls responded differently to right heart pressures. Lateral SR inversely correlated with pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) (annular: r=0.45, p<0.005 and midcavity: r=0.43, p<0.01), but not with right atrial pressure (RAP). In contrast, septal SR inversely correlated with RAP (annular: r=0.39, p=0.02 and midcavity: r=0.38, p=0.03) but not with PASP. Conclusion: In patients with PAH, LA reservoir function is significantly impaired showing reduced myocardial strain rate properties. In addition,segmental function differs in their response to raised right heart pressures with the septal wall related to right atrial pressure and lateral wall related to the PASP. These findings suggest an evidence for atrial interaction in PAH, which is likely to have significant impact on LV performance. Study IV Methods: We studied 46 patients, mean age 61 ± 13 years, 17 males, of various etiologies with exertional breathlessness who underwent right heart catheterization and simultaneous transthoracic Doppler echocardiography using spectral, tissue Doppler and speckle tracking echocardiography techniques for assessing LA structure and function. Results: PCWP correlated with direct measurements of LA structure and function: LA volume (r= 0.43, p<0.01), LA global systolic strain rate (r=0.79, p<0.001) and to a lesser extent with LA systolic filling fraction (r=0.52, p<0.001). PCWP also correlated with indirect measures of LA pressure: LV E/A (r=0.66, p<0.001), E wave deceleration time (r=0.54, p<0.001), lateral E/e’ (r=0.49, p<0.001) and LV isovolumic relaxation time (r=0.36, p<0.01). LA strain rate was 78% sensitive and 84% specific in identifying patients with PCWP>15 mmHg, having accurately predicted PCWP in 63% of the cases. Conclusion: PCWP correlates with LA intrinsic systolic function and to a much lesser degree with indirect Doppler measures of raised LV filling pressures. These findings should have significant clinical implications in identifying breathless patients with raised LA pressure.

Left ventricular pumping performance may be described by intraventricular pressure and volume variables, usually presented as a pressure-volume plot. However, on-line monitoring of left ventricular pressure and volume with high temporal resolution requires the use of an invasive catheter technique such as, for example, the conductance catheter method. On the other hand, the very invasiveness and complexity of this approach makes it less suitable for clinical use. It is then not surprising that there has been long-felt need to make the conductance method less invasive and attempts have been made to adjust the method to clinical demands and routine in order to extract more information from pressure-volume interplay and possibly translate relevant data to their non-invasive estimates. In the present studies, a standard five segmental conductance catheter was used in animal (pig) experiments. Segmental conductances were compared to global conductance. Since the mid-ventricular segment was shown to reflect global volume, which was also shown on theoretical basis, it was concluded that a single segmental catheter most probably could be used to estimate global left ventricular volume. Subsequently, a thin and flexible single segmental conductance catheter was constructed and applied to an animal (pig) experimental model. Results were reproducible and very few arrythmias were detected. At the next stage, left ventricular isovolumic phases were investigated using the standard conductance catheter method, as well as echocardiographically derived tissue velocity doppler. Conductance was shown to decrease during isovolumic contraction, and an adjustment method was proposed in order to account for the subsequent decrease in pressure-volume loop area. In separate experiments, the left ventricular pressure wave form during left ventricular systole was examined, and an algorithm was proposed to discriminate between the changes in afterload, preload and contractility. Results showed clearly discernible patterns of the respective load and contractility alternation. Finally, the left ventricular continuous area was monitored continuously during the entire cardiac cycle as a measure of left ventricular volume dynamics in normal subjects and three patients with left ventricular abnormalities using echocardiographic automatic boundary detection. The left ventricular area thus obtained was plotted against its first derivative, to form a flow-volume estimates loop, in accordance with the flow-volume examinations used in respiratory physiology. Data obtained from the abnormal ventricles were presented as flow-volume estimates loops, exemplifying the possible use of the method. / QC 20100922

This Masters thesis conducts an ideological critique of the way 'the global' is constructed conceptually, particularly by transformative politics and the anti/alter global left. In addition it attempts to foreground the importance of ontological inquiry as an essential component of effective ideological critique. It has four chapters(plus an intro and conclusion); The first chapter looks at the ways that globality is currently constructed conceptually, both as an object of study by academia, and as an object of intervention by the global left. The analysis and critique in this chapter will establish the need for an ontologically informed approach to globality. The second chapter explores the precise meaning of the term 'ontology' as well as some of its common misuses by social science. It will focus on examining the ways that ontology is inherently political, and can be infiltrated by ideology. The third chapter draws heavily from the work of Zizek to develop a theoretical model for understanding the ontological production of globality, and how ideology is implicated. The fourth chapter attempts to take the conclusions from the theoretical model and use them to suggest alternative approaches to globality which might better the prospects for an effective transformative `global` politics. In particular this chapter draws heavily upon the Deleuzean notion of Immanence.

This Masters thesis conducts an ideological critique of the way 'the global' is constructed conceptually, particularly by transformative politics and the anti/alter global left. In addition it attempts to foreground the importance of ontological inquiry as an essential component of effective ideological critique. It has four chapters(plus an intro and conclusion); The first chapter looks at the ways that globality is currently constructed conceptually, both as an object of study by academia, and as an object of intervention by the global left. The analysis and critique in this chapter will establish the need for an ontologically informed approach to globality. The second chapter explores the precise meaning of the term 'ontology' as well as some of its common misuses by social science. It will focus on examining the ways that ontology is inherently political, and can be infiltrated by ideology. The third chapter draws heavily from the work of Zizek to develop a theoretical model for understanding the ontological production of globality, and how ideology is implicated. The fourth chapter attempts to take the conclusions from the theoretical model and use them to suggest alternative approaches to globality which might better the prospects for an effective transformative `global` politics. In particular this chapter draws heavily upon the Deleuzean notion of Immanence.

Historical research about the so-called New Left was until the late 1990s an entirely newacademic field in Swedish academia. However, a large part of this research still deals withquestions concerning “who did what” and perhaps more notably “who was right”.This thesis is an attempt to move away from such inquiries and instead look towardshow one albeit small but very important part of this so-called New Left discussed andused the term America and things American. Formed largely around the Anti-WarMovement, the Marxist-Leninist – or “Maoist” – Left naturally opposed US worldpolicies; but perhaps more interesting a significant part of the ideas about America andthe Vietnam War seemed to stem from USA itself – such as naming your anti-war folkgroup “Freedom Singers” after the US civil rights group “The Freedom Singers”.Analyzing three Swedish Marxist-Leninist magazines the study thus complements theresearch on not only the Swedish New Left but also the study of anti-Americanisms;firstly, by examining what the Marxist-Leninist left considered particularly American;secondly, by studying in what context these particular Americanism was discussed; and,thirdly, by observing if these notions changed over time, and why. The aim is thereforenot to paint a “complete” picture of the image of America in the Swedish New Left butto analyze how things considered American was used, and why.By discussing the term narrative (berättelse) against the term image (bild) the study amongother things shows that the terms America and things conceivably American was used toexpress a number of things, such as a demonization of the Soviet Union. Moreover, a lotof motivation not only came from China – the natural utopia for European Maoist – butfrom American black-power leaders such as Malcolm X; that is, the image of America inthe Swedish New Left was not only more complex than previously thought of, butindeed took inspiration and ideas, albeit sometimes anti-American ideas, from the UnitedStates itself – or rather, “the other America” inside the United States of America.

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