This thesis reports on the modification of the "Safecode" computer-program to monitor the safety of radio-isotope laboratories, and its application to 24 compliance audits in NSW during the period 1999 to 2006. Additionally, an attempt was made to predict the level of risk to persons working within those laboratories. Based on the current NSW radiation control legislation and the relevant Australian Standards a comprehensive audit checklist was developed for this project. Each safety requirement in those documents was used to develop a question, resulting in 187 questions in the checklist. The questions were grouped into the following seven Topic Elements: Licensing and Registration; Radiation Safety Administration; Personal and Area Monitoring; Dose Limit Compliance; Documentation/Records; RSO/RSC Qualifications and Duties; and Facilities. A novel feature was the allocation of "weighting factors" to individual questions and Elements. The computer program facilitated analysis of data and provided output in spreadsheet and graphical form. .The on-site physical audits were conducted using the project check-list, and were supplemented by discussions with the client's representative. The results showed significant variation between sites with overall compliance scores ranging from 37% to 94%. The reasons for this large variation stem from differences in local management regime; the appointment of an RSO at one site; variation in the extent of adoption of relevant codes of practice; and legislative weaknesses. Further analysis of the data presented legal, advisory and combined scores for each Element for each site; and variations over time. The graphic displays of the results were appreciated by client management. The formula developed to predict risk, based on the physical parameters alone, showed little relationship to the total audit scores. Statistical analysis of the two data groups by correlation coefficient confirmed this general finding. Development of the formula however served to indicate deficiencies in the Question Set, and the importance of human factors in achieving a high degree of safety.

This thesis discusses the impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the late 20thcentury through the work of the Sydney Underground Film group, Ubu. This group, active between 1965 -1970, was a significant part of an underground counter culture, to which many young Australians subscribed. As a group, Ubu was more than a rat bag assemblage of University students. It was an antipodean aspect of an ongoing artistic and political movement that began with the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century and that radically transformed artistic conventions in theatre, painting, literature, photography and film. Three purposes underpin this thesis: firstly to track the art historical links between a European avant-garde heritage and Ubu. Experimental film is a genre that is informed by cross art form interrelations between theatre, painting, literature, photography and film and the major modernist aesthetic philosophies of the last century. Ubu's revolutionary aesthetic approaches included political resistance and the involvement of audiences in the production of art. Their creative wellspring drew from: Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Conceptual and Pop art. This cross fertilization between the arts is critical to understanding not only the Australian experimental movement but the history of contemporary image making. The second purpose is to fill a current void of research about early Australian Experimental film. This is a significant gap given it was a national movement with many international connections. The counterculture movement also contains many major figures in Australian art history. These individuals played their parts in the Sydney Push, Oz magazine and the activities of the Yellow House and have since become important multi arts practitioners and commentators. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to evaluate Ubu's political and social agenda for the democratization of film appreciation through their objectives of: production, exhibition, distribution and debate of experimental film both nationally and internationally. Ultimately the group would succeed in these objectives and in winning the war on repressive censorship laws. Their influence has informed the practice of many of Australia's current film heavy weights. Two key films have been selected for analysis, It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain (1963) and Newsfront (1978). The first looks forward to Ubu's contemporary practices and political agenda while the second demonstrates their longer term influences on mainstream cinema.

Microfiche and maps (numbered 1-7) in pocket / Includes bibliography (6 unnumbered leaves) / 109, [84] leaves (some folded) : ill., maps (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economic Geology, 1984

Bibliograpy : leaves 267-288. / xi, 288 leaves : ill. (some col.), maps ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Botany, 1994?

Two experiments were conducted in the semi-arid (400 millimeter annual rainfall) Macquarie region of New South Wales, Australia, at the Trangie Agricultural Research Station (31° 59'S; 147° S7'E), to examine (a) the way botanical parameters can be used to separate grazing and climatic impacts on range vegetation, and (b) how this delineation affects application of range science tenets (site, condition and trend) to different pasture types. Two range sites were studied: Site 1, a light soil type, was dominated by annual grasses, legumes and forbs, whereas perennial grasses (mainly Chloris acieularis and Chloris truncata) dominated the heavy soils of Site 2. Although designed to determine carrying capacity of these sites grazed at 2.5, 3.7 and 4.9 sheep per hectare, botanical data (plant cover by species, and density, diameter and basal area of Chlorisgrasses) collected during a seven year (1967 to 1974) grazing trial provided botanical inputs for Experiment 1 which was designed to: (1) determine range condition in 1967 and 1974 using two methods (Quantitative Climax Method - Method 1, and Christie's Method - Method 2); (2) determine if range condition and sheep production are positively correlated; (3) distinguish the roles of grazing and climate in community change; and (4) determine the value of demographic parameters in defining processes of community change. For Objective 1, the efficacy of Method 1 was hindered by inadequate reference areas, climate-induced variability in plant cover, and uncertainty in classifying perennial grasses as "increasers" or "invaders". Method 2 was superior because slower response of basal cover to weather enabled it to detect grazing-induced changes. Rated by Method 2, grazing treatments improved condition over the seven years, although moderate grazing was most successful, and Site 2 was in better range condition than Site 1. Contrary to the expected pattern for Objective 2, "poor" condition Site 1 produced more wool and higher sheep liveweight than Site 2. This occurred because invading annuals are more palatable, nutritious and productive than native perennial grasses. For Objective 3, simple climatic models showed that quantity and composition of pastures on both sites are determined first by timing and effectiveness of autumn rainfall, and subsequently modified by grazing intensity and plant competition. Two important demographic results were observed for Objective 4. First, population size of important Chloris grasses was regulated by density-dependent mechanisms when average density exceeded 10 plants per meter square for Chloris aciaularis (the dominant grass) and 1.6 for Chloris truncata, a weak perennial. Spatial distribution explains the differential between species. Second, constant death risk in cohorts and long life-span produce mixed-age Chloris acicularis populations which are stable to changing climate and grazing. For Chloris truncata, short life-span and exponential death risk in cohorts renders it unstable to climate and grazing. The management implications of these results are discussed. Community stability was examined further in Experiment 2 by observing regeneration of perennial grasses on both sites at the three stocking rates following five months of grazing at 25 sheep per hectare. The results confirmed Experiment 1: on neither site did Chloris aciaularis density decline significantly under abusive grazing. The reasons for the tenacity of the species are discussed in terms of physiological adaptations. In contrast, Chloris truncata populations. were decimated by abusive grazing, but produced enormous cohorts in the post-perturbation period suggesting that the species exercises a r-strategy for survival. It is concluded that while plant cover and basal area describe functional stability of vegetation to grazing and climate, they cannot detect structural changes in communities. Using plant size, age and density, demography can fulfill this function. Suggested applications of demography to practical situations are given and the implications discussed.

This study investigates the role of regional networks for economic development (RENEDs) in regions suffering from industrial dislocation. It proposes that RENEDs significantly affect regional development. It also investigates the aspects of RENEDs that promote interorganisational collaboration on projects, and examines how RENEDs foster and manage them. The research uses a case study approach, and presents two regions suffering from the decline of their main economic source. These regions are the Hunter region of New South Wales (Australia) and the Le??n province of Castilla Y Le??n (Spain). A pilot study and a survey were conducted in both regions. Three types of analysis were applied: network, statistical and qualitative. The research method makes it possible to replicate research and develop a theory of regional networks for economic development. The results show that success of RENEDs is determined by capital investment generated by the projects, their influence in changing the economic bases of the regions, and the improvement to regional network capital. This study found that frequency of communication is a structural element that significantly affects the production of projects. However, other variables affect projects, such as external pressures from globalisation, government policies and ideologies, and internal constraints from the public, private and civic sectors. This thesis concludes that RENEDs have an important role in regional planning through the formulation of specific projects that target economic disparity. RENEDs represent a system of relationship that enrich the network capital of the regions as an important asset for their future.

Implementation of physically distributed catchment modelling systems reshapes the fundamental philosophy of traditional calibration approaches by supporting the concept of equifinality. Arising from the concept of equifinality, alternative behavioural parameter sets within a given catchment modelling system structure can generate similar levels of simulation performance. This concept is motivated by the existence of a variety of uncertainties associated with a complex catchment modelling system, such as an imperfect model structure, measurement errors in both the input data and the recorded flows, and unknown, or poorly defined, interactions among parameters. However, the difficulty of searching for behavioural parameter sets increases as the complexity of the catchment modelling systems increases. This study undertook an investigation on the feasibility and robustness of a real-value coding genetic algorithm (GA) for calibrating the physically distributed Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) using the Centennial Park catchment in Sydney as a case study. It was found that a real-value coding GA was a robust technique suitable to search for behavioural parameter sets and, in particular, it was found that this approach was capable of identifying the promising range of values for spatially variable parameters. Moreover, the widespread use of physically distributed catchment modelling systems has highlighted the importance of estimating the uncertainty in the parameter values and in the predictions obtained from a complex catchment modelling system as well as in catchment averaged, or lumped, systems that have been the focus of many previous studies. Bayesian inference has been shown to be a tool suitable for parameter uncertainty estimation in catchment modelling. However, the application of Bayesian inference faces difficulties in complex high-dimensional systems where there is little if any a priori knowledge about the proposal distribution of the parameters. In this study, a real-value coding GA was used to undertake uncertainty estimation on spatially variable control parameters with little a priori knowledge about the proposal distribution of parameters. After 50,000 evaluations, the marginal posterior distributions of spatially variable parameters which are associated with behavioural parameter sets were identified. The performance of a behavioural parameter set under a range of hydrological conditions was evaluated. Updating of the marginal distributions of these control parameters was implemented by adding additional calibration data. Interactions among the spatially variable control parameters were investigated also. Results based on the Pearson Correlation method indicate no clear relationship between any two control parameters. However, a methodology to detect relationships among groups of parameters was developed. Application of this methodology suggests that the simulation performance of SWMM was influenced by combinations of parameter values rather than values of the individual parameters. Finally, the predictive uncertainty associated with the existence of behavioural parameter sets was considered. A number of alternative strategies were used to evaluate the predictive performance. Consideration of the results suggests that use of a small number of parameter sets randomly selected from the large number of behavioural parameter sets was the best strategy in terms of efficiently obtaining predictive performance.

Background: The South Western Sydney Area Health Service (SWSAHS) contains many areas of socio-economic disadvantage and ethnic diversity. It has a high incidence of lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths. The aims of this study were to document lung cancer patterns of care (POC) for SWSAHS residents, compare POC before and after the opening of an oncology centre in SWSAHS and compare POC with other areas in NSW. Methods: The study population consisted of SWSAHS residents diagnosed with lung cancer in 1993 and 1996. A clinical audit of medical records was performed to extract details on patient demographics, management of lung cancer and outcomes. Collaborating investigators performed identical studies in the Northern Sydney Area Health Service (NSAHS) and the Hunter Area Health Service (HAHS) for lung cancers diagnosed in 1996. Results: The SWSAHS study population comprised 527 patients. Nine percent did not have a pathological diagnosis. Twelve percent did not see a lung cancer specialist. Twenty-eight percent did not receive any treatment throughout the course of their illness. The median survival was 6.7 months and five-year actuarial survival was 8% (95% CI 6%-10%). Increasing age and poorer performance status were associated with a lower likelihood of obtaining a pathological diagnosis, specialist referral and treatment. Socio-economic factors did not influence POC. The establishment of an oncology center resulted in more referrals to medical oncologists and palliative care services. Other aspects of POC and survival were similar. Variability in POC was noted between SWSAHS, NSAHS and HAHS. HAHS residents were almost twice as likely not to have pathological confirmation of diagnosis or treatment. Despite this survival was not significantly different. Conclusions: This study has identified deficiencies in the management of lung cancer. To improve outcomes, referral to specialists and utilisation of treatment, particularly radiotherapy and chemotherapy, needs to be increased. Ageist and nihilistic attitudes need to be overcome. Prospective data collection is necessary to ensure quality of patient care. The formation of national guidelines for the management of lung cancer will play an important role in achieving better outcomes.

Master of Arts / This work is the history of a particularly singular and strong human enterprise. Until the advent of several more recent interpretative works, Australian transport historiography has heavily emphasised engineering and operational development without examining the contextual social and economic forces. The Manly Ferry, with its unique contribution to the history of Sydney's development as a suburban city, provides a distinctive microcosmic example with which to illustrate the evolution of an urban society - with its emphasis on mobility - in the wake of the industrial revolution.

Rainfall is a natural process, which has a high degree of variability in both space and time. Information on the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall plays an important role in the process of surface runoff generation. Hence it is important for a variety of applications in hydrology and water resources management. The spatial variability of rainfall can be substantial even for very small catchments and an important factor in the reliability of rainfall-runoff simulations. Catchments in urban areas usually are small, and the management problems often require the numerical simulation of catchment processes and hence the need to consider the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall. A need exists, therefore, to analyse the sensitivity of rainfall-runoff behaviour of catchment modelling systems (CMS) to imperfect knowledge of rainfall input, in order to judge whether or not they are reliable and robust, especially if they are to be used for operational purposes. Development of a methodology for identification of storm events according to the degree of heterogeneity in space and time and thence development of a detailed spatial and temporal rainfall model within a hydroinformatic environment utilising real-time data has been the focus of this project. The improvement in runoff prediction accuracy and hence the importance of the rainfall input model in runoff prediction is then demonstrated through the application of a CMS for differing variability of real storm events to catchments with differing orders of scale. The study identified both spatial and temporal semi-variograms, which were produced by plotting the semi-variance of gauge records in space and time against distance and time respectively. These semi-variograms were utilised in introducing estimators to measure the degree of heterogeneity of each individual storm events in their space and time scale. Also, the proposed estimators use ground based gauge records of the real storm events and do not rely on delicate meteorological interpretations. As the results of the investigation on the developed semi-variogram approach, real storm events were categorised as being High Spatial-High Temporal (HS-HT); High Spatial-Low Temporal; (HS-LT); Low Spatial-High Temporal (LS-HT); and Low Spatial-Low Temporal variability.A comparatively detailed rainfall distribution model in space and time was developed within the Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The enhanced rainfall representation in both space and time scale is made feasible in the study by the aid of the powerful spatial analytic capability of GIS. The basis of this rainfall model is an extension of the rainfall model developed by Luk and Ball (1998) through a temporal discretisation of the storm event. From this model, improved estimates of the spatially distributed with smaller time steps hyetographs suited for especially the urban catchments could be obtained. The importance of the detailed space-time rainfall model in improving the robustness of runoff prediction of CMS was investigated by comparing error parameters for predictions from CMS using alternate rainfall models, for various degrees of spatiotemporal heterogeneity events. Also it is appropriate to investigate whether the degree of this improvement to be dependent on the variability of the storm event which is assessed by the adopted semi-variogram approach. From the investigations made, it was found that the spline surface rainfall model, which considered the spatial and temporal variability of the rainfall in greater detail than the Thiessen rainfall model resulted in predicted hydrographs that more closely duplicated the recorded hydrograph for the same parameter set. The degree of this improvement in the predicted hydrograph was found to be dependent on the spatial and temporal variability of the storm event as measured by the proposed semi-variogram approach for assessing this feature of a storm event. The analysis is based on forty real events recorded from the Centennial Park Catchment (1.3km2) and the Upper Parramatta River Catchment (110km2) in Sydney, Australia. These two case study catchments were selected to ensure that catchment scale effects were incorporated in the conclusions developed during the study.