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Micrometazoans are animals smaller than 2 mm. Their biogeography is poorly understood, and tardigrades provide a tractable phylum for exploring distribution patterns at a variety of scales. Polylepis forest habitat offers considerable advantages for making tardigrade comparisons across a wide range of scales in the Andes. This thesis aims to improve identifications of tardigrades with a character matrix approach, to assess the relative importance of habitat and bryophyte host on tardigrades, to describe the fine-scale spatial structure of tardigrade assemblages, and to estimate the sampling effort required for a reliable estimate of tardigrade diversity within Polylepis forest. Samples of bryophytes and lichens were collected from Polylepis forest and neighbouring habitats, and the tardigrades extracted and identified, mostly to operational taxonomic units. Some new species were discovered during the course of this work; one is described here. Abundance, diversity and composition of tardigrade samples were compared quantitatively. The thesis presents the first example of a character matrix for a tardigrade genus, bringing together information for the genus Isohypsibius from many different sources and describing suites of characters for each species. It will facilitate identification within the genus in future. Tardigrade assemblage data were highly variable within the samples, with empty samples dominating one study. Analysis of one forest site indicated that at least 50 samples would be needed to characterise the tardigrade diversity there. Although both were important, habitat-scale effects were more influential on tardigrade abundance, diversity and composition than host-scale effects. In both cases, microenvironmental and resource filters are the likely mechanisms driving these differences. Based on the results, recommendations are made for expanding such research into broader geographical scales: standardising sample volume, replicate sampling across hosts on the forest floor, recognising the importance of habitat-scale effects when selecting study sites, and the development of character matrices for tardigrade genera.

The spatial spread of populations is one of the most visible and fundamental processes in population and community ecology. Due to the potential negative impacts of spatial spread of invasive populations, there has been intensive research into understanding the drivers of ecological spread, predicting spatial dynamics, and finding management strategies that best constrain or control population expansion. However, understanding the spread of populations has proved to be a formidable task and our ability to accurately predict the spread of these populations has to date been limited. Microbial populations, during their spread across agar plate environments, can exhibit a wide array of spatial patterns, ranging from relatively circular patterns to highly irregular, fractal-like patterns. Work analysing these patterns of spread has mainly focused on the underlying mechanistic processes responsible for these patterns, with relatively little investigation into the ecological and evolutionary drivers of these patterns. With the increased recognition of the links between microbial and macrobial species, it is possible that many of the ecological/evolutionary mechanisms responsible for these patterns of spread at a microbial level extrapolate to the spatial spread of populations in general. Through an interdisciplinary approach, combining empirical, computational and analytical methods, the principal aim of this thesis was to investigate the ecological and evolutionary basis of microbial spatial dynamics. The first section of this thesis utilises the Pseudomonas microbial model system to show that the rate of microbial spatial spread across agar plate surfaces is affected by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, thereby causing the exhibited rates of spread to deviate from the predictions made by the classical models in spatial ecology. We then show the spatial dynamics of microbial spread depends on important environmental factors, specifically environmental viscosity and food availability and that these spatial dynamics (particularly the shape of spread) has conflicting impacts on individual- and group-level fitness. From this, we used a geometric framework representing the frontier of a population, combined with an individual based model, to illustrate how individual-level competition along the leading edge of the population, driven by geometric factors and combined with simple life-history rules, can lead to patterns of population spread reminiscent of those produced by natural biofilms. The thesis finishes by establishing that the spatial pattern of spread is not seemingly amenable to artificial selection, although based on other results in this thesis, we believe it remains likely that the patterns of spatial spread and the strategies responsible for them have evolved over time and will continue to evolve. Combined, the results of this thesis show that the array of evolutionary factors not accounted for by the simple ecological models used to help manage invasive species will often cause these models to fail when attempting to accurately predict spatial spread.

Cyberlink:Brainfingers is a human computer user interface that supports hands free computer access. This is especially valuable technology for disabled individuals who lack the motor skills necessary to use a keyboard and mouse easily. Over the course of two months, four students with cerebral palsy, a motor disorder, used Brainfingers to play a variety of spatial software. The primary aims were to see if use of Brainfingers with spatial software could improve the spatial motor abilities of students with cerebral palsy, as well as to assess any apparent behavioral changes. Two of the students showed a large increase in spatial abilities when assessed, and all students displayed improvement or no change in positive behavioral attributes. All students improved their control of Brainfingers over time, and expressed their desire to use Brainfingers in the future over other methods of accessing a computer. The implications of these results are discussed, as well as issues for further study.

This experiment examined the relationship between a subject's ability to manipulate spatial relationships and utilize mental practice in the mirror drawing ability of 45 naive volunteer college students, using a six-pointed star track. The spatial manipulation abilities of all subjects were assessed with the Minnesota Paper Form Board Test, after which the subjects were divided into three treatment groups (no practice, mental practice, and physical practice) of 15 subjects using a blocked random design based upon their MPFBT scores. All three groups were trained in the mirror drawing task and given three physical practice pre-trials for familiarization. The physical practice group (PP) was given six, 80-second physical practice trials with a 40-second interpolated rest/reading period during which they read from a standardized poetry text. The mental practice group (MP) was given six, 80-second mental practice trials with the same 40- second interpolated rest/reading period, and the no practice group (NP) was allowed to read from the standardized text for an equal amount of time. Following administration of the treatment conditions, all subjects were given three physical practice post-trials in the mirror drawing task. The mean of pre-trials two and three were subtracted from the mean of the three post-trials to obtain an improvement score. The subjects' scores on the MPFBT were compared to their improvement scores using the Spearman Rank-Order Correlation (rho) test, but there was no significant correlation between the two abilities.

Context is an important driver in decision-making processes and problem-solving. It provides opportunities and constraints that must be considered when decisions are made. However, context is also difficult to define due to limits to knowledge and understanding of previous, current and future conditions. Context is dynamic, emergent, subjective and specific to individuals or groups at a particular place and time. However, context is often relegated to static representations of environmental properties with little consideration for the relationships between an actor (or actors), their task and the environments in which they are situated. This research introduces a new perspective for context in spatial decision-making in Geographical Information Science (GIScience). In addition, this research contributes to GIScience by 1) introducing a theoretical definition of context, 2) the development of methods to bound context into relevant and non-relevent categories, 3) introducing graph-based context models to capture and store relevant context, and 4) demonstrating how context models can be used in spatial decision-support systems.

Nutrient inputs from productive marine environments have been shown to directly and indirectly subsidise primary producers and consumers in terrestrial ecosystems (e.g. Polis and Hurd 1995; 1996; Anderson and Polis 1998; 1999). But does this theory hold true on islands surrounded by oligotrophic waters, which account for a significant proportion of the marine environment? The aim of the present study was to examine the applicability of the spatial subsidisation hypotheses proposed by Polis and his co-authors to an oligotrophic system in south-western region of Western Australia. These aims were achieved by comparing soil and plant nutrients, and the nitrogen stable isotope signatures of soil, plants, detritus and invertebrates in areas with (islands) and without (mainland sites) inputs from seabirds. In addition, the responses of plant nutrients and vegetation assemblages to guano additions were examined in a controlled field experiment.

Master of Visual Arts / Studio work The Postgraduate Degree Show is held from 6PthP December 2005 to 17PthP December 2005 and my work is installed in the Sculpture Studio (as a gallery space) at Building 29 of Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney. There are three installations of work, each with a series of paintings and object-models. The media I am using are oil on canvas for the paintings and wood for the models. The titles of my exhibition pieces are Project Studio (Stairs), Project Rented Room (Chair), Project Rented Room (Bed), and Project Object. Together they are entitled Project: Spanning the Space of Dislocation. The project explores the perception of space and its representation through painting and installation. The starting point is the image of familiar architectural objects to which I displace the experience of it from one site (my painting studio) to another (the gallery space) through painting as index. I use the technique of ambiguous linear forms in painting and the reflexive reading of orthogonal projective planes in installation to further extend the viewer’s perception of space and objects. The aim is to show that space has a meaningful relationship to objects and bring about a renewed awareness of habitual practice in seeing and representing space. UResearch paperU I have divided my research paper in two chapters. Chapter one explores the issue of spatial representation through ambiguity of simple linear forms and painting as index. My concern is on space being less important to objects in the distinction between space as ground and object as figure. Within this chapter I argue for an extended and a reflexive mode of seeing and representing space and objects instead of for a ground-figure contrast. By mapping my experience on a usual working site and displacing it to another space, I show that my perception of space is extended such that the boundary between the familiar and foreign (that is, space-object distinction) is blurred. Chapter two explores the method of presentation through painting and installation in a gallery and addresses the viewer’s space of perception with the work. I also discuss possible reflexive readings on the projective planes of the work which further extend the perception of it.

The initial concept of my project started from my experience in China. The domestic increase of productivity, heavier workloads and longer working hours have provoked an urgent desire for an increased quality of leisure, which has triggered an enormous basic demand for comfortable houses with gardens in Chinese societies. But most Chinese people do not have a backyard or a garden to themselves due to the high population density. Public open space has to compensate for this demand. Meanwhile, with the quickening tempo of modern life and prolonged working hours, most people have to enjoy their entertainment and social activities after daytime. Therefore, these public open spaces are even more highly used than during the day, people use them as their backyard and for social gatherings. How these open spaces operate at night has had an enormous impact on nightlife and its importance has been gradually recognized. The Chinese government is spending large amounts of money constructing and upgrading the lighting in open space. But most of these projects do not address key issues associated with lighting. For example, what the government considers 'good lighting' many people consider to be over-lighting or functional lighting and even some lighting projects leave many functions of the space unlit, For instance, pathways or sidewalks are not lit but the plazas and squares are. Those types of issues occur in many open spaces due to a traditional approach to the lighting design process which tends to occur separately to the design process. Obviously most lighting projects do not really consider the relation of light, space and people's use. When I came to Melbourne I found out that the City of Melbourne has a specific lighting strategy, which is more about electricity saving and technical requirements rather than spatiality. In addition, many lighting companies deal with lighting effect on surrounding landscape and architecture but are also not about spatiality. So in order to understand the spatial qualities of lighting, my original research questions were: 1. Instead of traditional building materials how lighting can be used to transform space and spatial quality in open space? 2. How does lighting spatially bridge between site and street, site and building, site and context, eventually site and city? 3. I also wanted to consider the site's identity at various scales.

<p>The objective of this study is to develop a multiple linear regression model that measures the relationship between the church services supply and the attendance to the services in the Uppsala diocese, Church of Sweden. By reviewing previous models and examining the nature of data available, two research questions were introduced, namely, the problem of omitted variables and the problem of spatial autocorrelation. For the first question, two methods were compared, namely, the Y-lag method and the first-differenced equation. Statistical tests then showed that the latter was more preferable for this study. For the second question, geographically weighted regression was used to examine the spatial variations in relationships estimated by above modeling strategies. However, no significant spatial variation was found for them. In conclusion, by using the ordinary least square estimation for the first-differenced equation the most suitable regression model was obtained. The data showed no need to consider the issue of spatial non-stationarity.</p>