This paper attempts to isolate some implications for secondary and adult education emerging from an exploratory study of perceived effective interactional communication in a religious organisation. Leaders of the local parishes of the Catholic Church in Australia are in the process of moving from the traditional basic communication structure of an hierarchical model to the lateral and collaborative interaction of a more participative model of management. This descriptive study records the perceptions of a sample of parish workers in the Church throughout Australia as they describe some of the problems they experienced in communication processes and attempted to identify the reason why these problems emerged. In doing so, they also identified the more effective communication processes emerging in this new form of pastoral ministry. They listed a number of attitudes which they believed would lead to greater communication effectiveness and without which genuine constructive communication usually does not take place (Carl Rogers 1957 in Bolton, 1983 p. 259). The media and written communication are not explored, except in their relation to effective meeting procedures. Verbal and non-verbal communication amongst people interacting with one another in the interpersonal organisational setting is the focus of this work. The findings of this study point in the short term, to the need for empowering people engaged in pastoral work with the necessary skills of effective communication processes. In the long term, the paper proposes the need for continuing educational emphasis on communication skills especially in secondary schools when students move towards a more personalised form of self-assertion.

Abstract Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary scientific and engineering enterprise investigating the fundamental properties of living systems through the simulation and synthesis of life-like processes in artificial media. One of the avenues of investigation is autonomous robots and agents. Mimicking of the growth and adaptation of a biological neural circuit in an artificial medium is a challenging task owing to our limited knowledge of the complex process taking place in a living organism. By combining several developmental mechanisms, including the chemical, mechanical, genetic, and electrical, researchers have succeeded in developing networks with interesting topology, morphology, and function within Artificial Computational Chemistry. However, most of these approaches still fail to create neural circuits able to solve real problems in perception and robot control. In this thesis a phenomenological developmental model called a Stochastic Evolutionary Neuron Migration Process (SENMP) is proposed. Employing a spatial encoding scheme with lateral interaction of neurons for artificial neural networks, which represent candidate solutions within a neural network ensemble, neurons of the ensemble form problem-specific spatial patterns with the desired dynamics as they migrate under the selective pressure. The approach is applied to gain new insights into development, adaptation and plasticity in neural networks and to evolve purposeful behaviors for mobile robots. In addition, the approach is used to study the relationship of spatial patterns, composed of interacting entities, and their dynamics. The feasibility and advantages of the approach are demonstrated by evolving neural controllers for solving a non-Markovian double pole balancing problem and by evolving controllers that exhibit navigation behavior for simulated and real mobile robots in complex environments. Preliminary results regarding the behavior of the adapting neural network ensemble are also shown and, particularly, a phenomenon exhibiting Hebbian-like dynamics. This thesis is a step toward a long range goal that aims to create an intelligent robot that is capable of learning complex skills and adapts rapidly to environmental changes.

This work aimed at the utilization of chemical principles for stabilization of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of carboranethiol derivatives on a flat gold surface. Ideas employing surface confined coordination complex formation and dipole-dipole intermolecular interactions were outlined and the respective literature survey was compiled. Preliminary experiments were carried out to test for their feasibility and surfaces modified with self assembled monolayers proved very sensitive to reaction conditions ordinarily used for bulk synthesis. The chemical sensitivity of the studied surfaces, the necessity of using appropriate surface-sensitive analytical techniques and the depth of the problem initially defined made this task both advanced and challenging. The formation of intermolecular coordination complexes with ω-carboxylated SAMs of meta-carborane-9-thiol was chosen to answer those issues, extending the previous work of the author on carboxylated carboranethiol isomers presented in his bachelor thesis. Concepts different of those based on coordination chemistry are briefly discussed as well, but more as prospects for future work and to present this work in a broader context to which it belongs. Characterization of molecules assembled on a surface in a single layer requires surface sensitive...