[Truncated abstract] Malaria is the most important parasitic disease of man. Of the five species known to infect humans, Plasmodium falciparum causes most deaths and illness, especially when it affects children and pregnant women living in highly endemic areas of the rural tropics. Pharmacological therapies for malaria must be optimised for these groups and must be practical for administration in critically ill patients in remote settings. The clinical studies in this thesis evaluated the clinical pharmacology of modern antimalarial treatments in a Melanesian population exposed to highly endemic malaria. The clinical studies were conducted between March 2001 and June 2007, with final data analysis completed by mid-2008. They aimed to evaluate key pharmacokinetic, parasitological, host genetic and socio-cultural determinants of treatment effectiveness in children with uncomplicated and severe malaria and in pregnant women. A multi-centre study of children with uncomplicated malaria evaluated the efficacy of four treatment regimens, including three artemisinin combination treatments. PCR corrected recrudescence rates by day 42 were 81.5%, 85.4%, 88.0% and 95.2% for chloroquine + sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, artesunate + sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQ) and artemether-lumefantrine (AL), respectively. Determinants of efficacy in the DHA-PQ group included day 7 piperaquine (PQ) levels and baseline parasitaemia. Therefore, the worse than expected efficacy in this group may have been partly due to the high parasitaemias commonly seen in this population. ... Preliminary data suggested a protective effect of the erythrocyte polymorphism caused by the glycophorin C mutation against cerebral malaria. These studies also evaluated key pharmacokinetic, host genetic and socio-cultural determinants of the likely effectiveness of a novel pharmaceutical approach using artesunate suppositories for severe malaria. These demonstrated favourable absorption characteristics, clinical efficacy, safety and patient/community acceptability. Contrary to previous data, no evidence was found to suggest that the pharmacokinetic profiles or efficacy of artemisinin derivatives are likely to be compromised by a high prevalence of thalassaemia in this population. However, their highly variable bioavailability raises questions regarding the consistency of therapeutic response. Given the favourable efficacy and socio-cultural acceptability of rectal artesunate demonstrated in these studies, the PNG Ministry of Health has decided to add artesunate suppositories to its national pharmacopoeia and incorporate them into standard treatment recommendations. A final study compared the pharmacokinetics of chloroquine, sulphadoxine and pyrimethamine in pregnant, versus non-pregnant women. This demonstrated significantly lower concentrations of all three drugs and active metabolites in the pregnant group, due to a combination of effects on either volume of distribution, clearance and elimination half-life. It suggests that significant dosage alterations are necessary to optimise therapy in pregnant women.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Faculty verified from student enrolment details (SMP) as no information on thesis title page. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 282-316.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, December 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 1970. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-114).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, Department of Anthropology, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75).

Bibliography: leaves 359-381.

The past stability of vegetation patterns in the Markham Valley (6°30’S, 146°30’E), a lowland grassland area of Papua New Guinea, is investigated by pollen analysis of lake deposits and related palaeoecological techniques.¶ The predominantly organic sediments of Lake Wanum (alt. 35 m) span the last 9600 years. A 14C chronology supports the calculation of annual pollen deposition, sediment accumulation, and carbonised particle influx rates. At Yanamugi lake (alt. 170 m), 14C assays of the calcareous muds are influenced by variable ‘hard- water error’. A tentative chronology is based on palaeomagnetic and tephra correlations.¶ Pollen trapping reveals very high contemporary annual deposition rates within forest, but low values over the central lake area. Surface pollen assemblages from different habitats indicate the localised nature of pollen dispersal, although a relatively ‘long-distance component’ from higher altitudes is also recognised.¶ Analysis of floristic data from the herbaceous swamp vegetation of Lake Wanum suggests the existence of two free floating root-mat associations and two or three rooted associations. Water depth appears the primary control on their distribution.¶ Holocene swamp communities analogous with extant associations may be identified in the palynological record of Lake Wanum. Swamp marginal conditions prevail from 9500 BP until 8200 BP when permanent shallow water becomes established. Rooted vegetation associations then predominate until about 5000 BP. Floating vegetation associations first become important at this time, and subsequently (3000 BP to 2000 BP) come to dominate the site. A general trend towards increased water depth is indicated throughout the sequence.¶ Increased representation of dry-land non-forest pollen occurs from 8550 BP, and grassland taxa become more frequent from about 5350 BP. Synchronous trends in carbonised particle influx identify fire as a probable agent of vegetation change.¶ Little change in dry-land vegetation is recorded in the pollen sequence from Yanamugi, although recent encroachment by swamp vegetation occurs. The large proportion of ‘montane’ pollen and spore taxa in the earlier sediments is attributed to variable fluvial influx. ¶ Conditions at Lake Wanum until 8200 BP may reflect the early Holocene aridity widespread in equatorial areas, although the indirect hydrologic effects of rising sea level cannot be discounted. Human impact appears the main determinant of dry-land vegetation change during much of the Holocene.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, School of History, Philosophy, and Politics, Centre for Conflict Resolution, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references and appendices. / This thesis presents the findings of a participatory action research project conducted in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. -- The advantages and disadvantages of participatory action research in Conflict Resolution are discussed, with special reference to their common basis in a contemporary philosophy of cognition and learning. The practical and ethical issues of cross-cultural training in Conflict Resolution are reviewed. The research process is described and particular research methods evaluated. Comparison with the methods and findings of earlier research is also presented. The issues are illustrated by means of case studies drawn from a period of field work (March 1992-April 1993, December 1993-February 1994, and August 1994). -- The research involved the analysis and evaluation of both traditional and modern means of conflict resolution used by Enga people or by other agencies within Enga Province during the period of research. The outcome of resolved conflict is gutpela sindaun ("good sitting") a Tok Pisin (Melanesian Pidgin) phrase that translates the Enga phrases auu pyoo katenge and auu pyoo petenge ("being or staying well," conceived from a masculine "standing" [katenge] or feminine "sitting" [petenge] perspective). These phrases are frequently used to describe peaceful intergroup relations. In considering how this state might be brought about, special attention is paid to the preferred methods of the people themselves (cross-cutting alliances, exchange relationships, and violent self-help), government (the Village Court System, economic development, and punitive measures), and churches and religious movements (conversion, forgiveness, and reconciliation). -- The special role of new religious movements as social movements for peace is highlighted. A comprehensive policy proposal is presented for further discussion by interested parties. -- This information, its interpretation, application, and implementation are presently part of an ongoing participatory action research process sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Wabag (Enga Province). This thesis therefore forms a summary of the data as of December 1994, which must in turn be evaluated by those whose practice it is intended to inform. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xxii, [3], 413 leaves ill. (some col.)

This dissertation examines the ways in which a Papua New Guinean people, the Maisin of Collingwood Bay in Oro Province, have over the years responded to and appropriated a version of Christianity brought to them by Anglican missionaries. The Maisin treat Christianity not as a foreign imposition, but as an integral part of their total religious conceptions, activities and experiences. Almost a century of documented Maisin history reveals a consistency related to what is here called a "social ideology": a complex formed by idioms of asymmetry between senior and junior kin and allies, equivalence in exchanges between a range of social categories of persons, and complementarity between the sexes. Extensions of the social ideology to the developments of the post-contact society are explored in the contexts of a growing dependence on money and commodities, unequal access to education and jobs, large-scale out-migration, the material requirements of the local church, and church regulations concerning social behaviour. The social ideology is also extended to sorcerers, ancestral ghosts, bush spirits, and Christian divinities. The analysis shows that Maisin experience indigenous and Christian elements as realities that exist within a single religious field. Working from the premise that religion is an aspect of the people's total experience and not a separate cultural institution or sub-system, the thesis explores the modes by which the Maisin create and discover coherence between the various elements within the religious field. The most important points and occasions of religious coherence are those in which the moral precepts of the social ideology are joined with conceptions of spiritual entities towards the explanation and resolution of problems. Three "religious precipitates", as these moments of coherence are termed, are analysed: the village church, healing practices, and death rites. A major finding of this study is that Maisin articulate their assumptions about local sorcerers, ghosts, and spirits within idioms of conflict between kin and affinal groupings, but speak of God, Christ and the church as symbols of community solidarity. The village church is analysed as a point of convergence of the social ideology, economic aspirations, memories of past interactions with missionaries, and Christian teachings and forms. The primary religious importance of the church is as a condensed symbol of communitas that transcends the inherited divisions of the social order and the contradictions of present political and economic conditions. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This study used qualitative (interviews) and quantitative methods (questionnaires) to investigate and describe (a) Papua New Guinea (PNG) village elders' traditional ideas and beliefs on natural phenomena, (b) PNG secondary school student's traditional science beliefs, (c) the sources of PNG secondary school students' explanations of natural phenomena, (d) the types of explanations PNG secondary school students provide to describe natural phenomena, and the views of science teachers and curriculum officers on the inclusion of traditional knowledge in the science curriculum.. Analysis of data included interviews with eight village elders and completed questionnaires from approximately 200 secondary school students in one rural provincial high school in the Gulf Province. Village elders' beliefs were analysed and categorised into (a) spirits, magic spells and sorcery, (b) Christianity, (c) personal experience, and (d) modern science. Secondary school students' sources of explanations were based on what they have heard at (a) home, (b) in the family and village, (c) in church and (d) from school. Approximately half of the secondary school students strongly hold on to traditional beliefs while learning formal school science and these were related to spirits, magic spells and sorcery that were similar to those of the village elders. Students also used scientific explanations of natural phenomena based on their learning in school and from their own personal experiences and interactions with the physical world. / Interviews with science teachers and curriculum officers supported the need to include traditional knowledge in the science curricula. The study identified students holding both traditional and scientific explanations of natural phenomena. There is both a need and value for traditional knowledge being incorporated in science education programs that harmonise with school science. The thesis concludes with six recommendations to bring these ideas to fruition.