Venous thromboembolism (VTE), comprising deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a common and preventable cause of morbidity among individuals and hospital in-patient mortality. Further, it imposes a substantial burden upon the community and its health care system and economy. Studies performed in Western societies suggest that the annual incidence of DVT is about 0.8 to 1.2 per 1,000, PE about 0.3 to 0.6 per 1,000, and VTE about 1.0 to 1.8 per 1,000. However, it is not known if these estimates can be generalised to the Australian population because of differences in ethnic composition and other risk factors for VTE among the different populations. In this thesis, I undertook a prospective, community-based cohort study over a 13-month period in 2003 – 2004 to determine the incidence and crude event rate of symptomatic, objectively verified VTE in north-east metropolitan Perth. The study population was broadly representative of the national Australian population in terms of age, sex and ethnic distribution. Cases were identified through multiple overlapping sources. The incidence of DVT, PE and VTE in the community were 0.52 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.41 – 0.63), 0.31 (95% CI: 0.22 – 0.40) and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.69 – 0.97) per 1000 per year, respectively. The annual incidence of DVT, adjusted to the World Standard population, was 0.35 (95% CI: 0.26 – 0.44) per 1000, PE 0.21 (95% CI: 0.14 – 0.28) per 1000 and VTE 0.57 (95% CI: 0.47 – 0.67) per 1000. The crude event rate for VTE was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.71 – 0.99) per 1000 per year. These findings suggest that the incidence of DVT, PE and VTE are lower than in other Western societies studied. Possible reasons include a lower prevalence of exposure to causal risk factors (genetic and environmental) and incomplete case ascertainment. Knowledge of the local incidence and event rate allows health planners to allocate appropriate resources and evaluate cost-effective preventive measures.

The Sakmarian (Cisuralian, Permian) Fossil Cliff Member of the Holmwood Shale is situated in the northern Perth Basin, Western Australia, and consists of alternating beds of shale and silty calcarenite forming three parasequences. Within this member a diverse fauna of ostracodes and foraminifera are present. During the Cisuralian the northern Perth Basin formed part of the Gondwanan supercontinent and was linked to Greater India via an epeiric sea that opened to the north. The ostracode fauna is restricted to the calcareous beds of the member and consists of a diverse benthic fauna comprising 31 new species and 13 previously recorded species. Species from the Healdioidea, Bairdioidea, Youngielloidea, and Thlipsuroidea dominate the assemblage and suggest a normal-marine environment during the period represented by the calcareous beds, with an overall shallowing trend up the sequence. The fauna shows some similarity to faunas from the Tethyan deposits of North America and the Boreal deposits of Russia during the Late Carboniferous and Cisuralian. Twenty-eight species of foraminifera were recorded from the Fossil Cliff Member and underlying Holmwood Shale and comprise two distinct faunas, an agglutinated benthic foraminiferal fauna found within the shale beds and a calcareous benthic foraminiferal fauna present in the calcarenite units. The agglutinated foraminifera are inferred to represent deposition in dysoxic to suboxic (0.1-1.5 mL/LO2;), poorly circulated bottom waters below wave base. The calcareous foraminifera are inferred to represent deposition in normal-marine conditions. Both foraminiferal assemblages show a shallowing trend in their distribution that matches the trend identified in the ostracode fauna. Based upon the palaeoecology of the ostracode and foraminiferal faunas, the depositional environment for the Fossil Cliff Member is inferred to have been within shallow water in an epeiric basin during an overall marine regression that is overprinted by eustatic and isostatic oscillations resulting from deglaciation that occurred during the early Sakmarian (Cisuralian). These sea-level oscillations raised and lowered the oxic surface waters of the epeiric sea above and below the substrate resulting in a sparse agglutinated foraminiferal fauna or an abundant and diverse ostracode and calcareous foraminiferal fauna respectively.

This thesis establishes the concept of affective form as a means of examining urban design – being the intersection of architecture, planning and landscape – in relation to techniques of governance. Affective form broadly describes a built environment where people are encouraged to amend, or govern, their actions according to particular socio–political ideas. Exploration of the concept’s application as a theoretical tool is undertaken here in order to generate a means of discussing the ethical function of urban design. The emergence of notions of affective form will be located in the eighteenth century, alongside the growing confidence in the ability for humankind to effect social and cultural progress. In a series of examples, stretching throughout the twentieth century, the implicit relation of planning, architectural and landscape form to social effect is discussed. The language, and design models, used to delineate affective form are described, alongside discussion of the level of intentionality apparent in the conceptions of urban form’s social effect. Critique through affective form allows an analysis that brings together the underlying utopian elements of projects – the traces of ideology and sociological theories – with an evaluation of the formal concepts projected. As the second area of investigation, the city of Perth in Western Australia provides a contextual focus for the examination of concepts of affective form. Through a series of appropriations of urban design models a suburban archetype emerged in Perth of a planned, homogenous field of low–rise, single–family, detached dwellings within a gardenesque landscape. The process of appropriation is described as a continuing negotiation between local expectations and the implicit conceptions of affective form within the imported models. Connecting the two primary concerns of the thesis, the ability of form to influence social change and the evolution of Perth’s garden suburb ideal, is the association of that developing garden suburb model with notions of affective form. The associations are outlined through three case studies. The first is an account of the planning of the City of Perth Endowment Lands Project during the 1920s. The second describes the planning and architecture of the athlete’s village built for the VIIIth British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Perth in 1962. The third study details the development in the 1990s of Joondalup, a satellite city in the Perth metropolitan region. The account of Perth’s garden suburb ideal is intertwined with the consideration of the varying ways in which the conceptualization of affective form has been expressed. Each case study is contextualized by a preceding chapter that discusses the particular conceptions of affective form used in its examination. Thus the main body of the thesis comprises three parts – each associated with a case study, each containing two linked chapters

[Truncated abstract] This thesis describes the epidemiology and outcome of acute asthma managed by ambulance paramedics, in the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia, for the period of 1990 to 2001. The primary aim of this thesis was to determine demographic, socio-economic and clinical trends for ambulance transported patients with asthma, their outcomes and how they have changed over time. The Perth metropolitan area, located in the south-western corner of Western Australia (WA), accounts for 72% of the state’s population, which was approximately 1.3 million people at Census 2001. This thesis was structured around the analysis of twelve years of St John Ambulance (WA) data. Ambulance data was linked using probabilistic matching techniques to the Western Australian Data Linkage System, custodian of links to thirty five years of morbidity and mortality data of the state’s population . . . Unique geography, a monopolistic ambulance service and access to extensive linked data provided ideal conditions for this population-based epidemiological study of patients with asthma who were transported by ambulance. Observed trends in age and gender characteristics of patients, ambulance codes and temporal variables appear to be consistent over time. Monitoring trends in the use of ventilation procedures recorded in hospital data provided useful indicators for describing the epidemiology of severe, lifethreatening asthma in the prehospital setting. Findings from this study were found to be consistent with published literature.

[Truncated abstract] Air pollution is increasingly perceived to be a serious intangible threat to humanity, with air quality continuing to deteriorate in most urban areas. The main sources of inner city pollution are motor vehicles, which generate emissions from the tail pipe as well as by evaporation. These contain toxic gaseous components which have adverse health effects. The major components are carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric oxide (NO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), particulates (PM10), and volatile organic compounds (VOC). CO and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are major emissions from cars. This study focuses on pollutant concentration in Perth city and has sought to develop measures to improve air quality. To estimate concentrations, the study develops air pollution models for CO and NOx; on the basis of the model estimates, effective policy is devised to improve the air quality by managing travel to the city. Two peaks, due to traffic, are observed in hourly CO and NOx concentrations. Unlike traffic, however, the morning peak does not reach the level of the afternoon peak. The reasons for this divergence are assessed and quantified. Separate causal models of hourly concentrations of CO and NOx explain their fluctuations accurately. They take account of the complex effects of the urban street canyon and winds in the city. The angle of incidence of the wind has significant impact on pollution level; a wind flow from the south-west increases pollution and wind from the north-east decreases it. The models have been shown to be equivalent to engineering and scientific models in estimating emission rate in the context of street canyons. However the study models are much more precise in the Perth context. ... The models are used to calculate the marginal effects for all attributes and elasticity for fuel price. In almost all attributes the non-work group is more responsive than the work group. Finally, the SP model results are integrated into an econometric model for the purpose of prediction. The travel behaviour prediction is used to estimate the policy impact on air quality. The benefit from the air quality improvement is reported in terms of life saved. The estimated relationships between probability of death and air pollution determines the number of lives that could be saved under various policy scenarios. A ratio of benefits to the financial and perceived sacrifices by drivers is calculated to compare the effectiveness of the suggested policies. A car size charge policy was found to be the most cost effective measure to ameliorate the environmental impact of cars in Perth, with a morning peak entry time charge being almost as cost effective. The study demonstrates the need for appropriate modelling of air pollution and travel behaviour. It brings together analytical methods at three levels of causality, vehicle to air pollution, charge to travel response, and air pollution to health.

In Australia, the employment destinations of new graduates are surveyed annually and descriptions of successful employment have become an indicator of quality within the higher education sector. The expectations that employers hold for graduate generic skills are of interest, therefore, to graduates and the institutions they attended. Communication and thinking are recognised widely as the most important generic skills, however the application of these skills will occur in the workplace where academic skills may not be totally appropriate. In addition, many graduates of Australian institutions; e.g., international students, are likely to be employed by foreign organisations. Therefore, not only is the workplace a very different environment to academia but graduates could be expected to satisfy the expectations of employers working in culturally different environments.This investigation describes the expectations participating Singaporean and Perth employers held for recently graduated business graduates with particular attention given to graduate communication and thinking. The exploratory research used interviews and surveys to assemble contextual descriptions of employer expectations. The interview data was used to construct a questionnaire that was administered across a larger sample of employers to see whether the surveys corroborated the interview findings. Contextual descriptions of the communication and thinking capabilities that the Singaporean and Perth employers expected recent business graduates to possess are provided by this study. Gaps between employer expectations and perceptions of graduate ability are discussed, together with useful graduate characteristics. During data analysis five themes were noted and they have been used to propose a model of employer expectations. Finally, seven recommendations for professional practitioners have been suggested ++ / and a list of employer concerns is provided.

The form I have chosen for this dissertation is fiction-of a certain kind- that incorporates historical detail, family history, and popular mythology of the Western Australian community. Through the details of family and social history, I aim to tell another version of settlement of Perth from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. This story belongs to my family, starting with great-grandparents who travelled from London to Australia in the 185Os: one as a convict, one a free settler; both were Jewish, and the convict was Polish.The writing is textured with forgotten voices, is self-reflexive, and tackles the paradoxes involved in telling stories from within the family I belong to, one that resists telling its own stories because of shame and the lack of an authoritative, or socially given, voice. From family history to social history, my interest is in the material that sits on the margins: the unspoken and generally unwritten histories of people on the edges of this society. This material, which is not recorded or spoken, nonetheless "speaks" a shame that shapes the ever-developing identity of a family and a community.The work is informed by feminist ideas about voice and the hierarchy which licenses select people in our society to speak. Relying on the varied materials that sit between historical writing and personal memories, it follows evidence, both written and oral, recognising how malleable memory can be. One of my purposes is to explore ideas about memory, from the individual act of memory to its transmutation into collective memory-to recover, recuperate, and explore what is involved in forgetting and remembering, and do this through a layering of stories, of voices, of form.

Constructed Isolation investigates the development of a collection of architectural devices and operations that respond to and have evolved from the specific nature of residential suburban Perth, Western Australia. These devices explore the potential for ambiguity to create space that transforms the occupant from being a passive observer into a dynamic participant. It collates a collection of projects by iredale pedersen hook architects and examines the devices under the thematic concerns of geometry, place, time and craft. The Masters Thesis identifies the potential for Perth's geographic isolation to manifest as a positive construct, developing a unique architecture that opportunistically reinterprets past traditions to create individual environments. 'Constructed Isolation' is an ambitious idea where identity may begin with the individual dwelling and collectively evolve to create a constellation of considerable influence. It demonstrates how these devices may result in new propositions for suburbia, how big ideas with small-scale projects and a little irrational joyousness may contribute to or at least aspire to create change. These small projects will be viewed as a continuation of Perth's 'Heroic Period of Modernism', the fertile and ambitious but incomplete project from the 1950s and '60s. This will also focus on the development and change that occurred as a result of the reflective practice process, while identifying potential opportunities for the future.

The Roe’s abalone (Haliotis roei) fishery near Perth, Western Australia, is uniquely accessible, and highly vulnerable to overexploitation. The sustainability of this intensively utilized fishery requires robust assessment. To facilitate an assessment, this research aimed to provide rigorous and detailed biological information with appropriate interpretation. Four critical aspects of the species’ biology and population dynamics were investigated: (1) the stock structure; (2) the recreational catch; (3) an appropriate growth curve and description of size at age; and (4) abundance measures against which to assess the impact of fishing mortality. Allozyme electrophoresis was used to investigate stock structure across the species’ distribution. Standardized variance in allelic frequencies between 10 sites in south-western Australia indicated high levels of gene flow across the 3000 km sampled (mean FST = 0.009). An isolation-by-distance was evident when pairwise measures of GST were related to geographic distance (r=0.45, P<0.001). The area of complete genetic mixing was estimated from samples within the Perth fishery to be less than the distance between the two nearest sites, or 13 km. Consequently, the Perth fishery comprises numerous discrete stocks, each requiring independent assessment. A possible mechanism for this population structure is the retention of larvae in the wind driven currents oscillating in the near-shore lagoons, with rare pulses of long distance dispersal via the southerly Leeuwin current, running further offshore. The presumed impact of intensive recreational fishing, combined with substantial commercial quotas for the Perth fishery, had led to tight restrictions on fishing effort, without any quantitative measure of the recreational catch. A stratified creel survey was adapted to estimate the effort, catch rate and mean weight of abalone harvested by the recreational sector. Catches were estimated for reef complexes, or stocks, of less than 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) of coast. Between 1997 and 2000 the recreational catch varied from 30 to 45 tonnes whole weight, approximately equivalent to the commercial quota of 36 tonnes. On average 88% of the recreational catch came from two stocks, while 98% of the commercial catch came from these two, and one additional, stocks. The incidental mortality from recreational fishing, measured as the number of abalone left dead on the reef as a proportion of the estimated catch, was approximately 7% and 20% at two sites surveyed. Spatial and temporal patterns of growth were examined on the west coast of Western Australia. Growth increments were measured for abalone larger than about 30 mm from tagging studies at five sites in the Perth fishery, a site at the northern extent of the species’ distribution and a site in the southwest. Mean annual growth increments of the 0+ year class were obtained by fitting components to length frequencies from five sites in the Perth fishery, and combined with growth increments from each Perth tag site for model fitting. A von Bertalanffy growth curve provided a slightly better fit to the tag data, but a Gompertz growth curve was a much better fit when the mean increment from the 0+ to 1+ cohort was included, with the inflection occurring at about 40 mm, the size at sexual maturity. There was no difference in annual growth between the two years studied. There was significant variation in growth between the reef platform and adjacent sub-tidal reef, but this variation was site specific and faster growth rates were not consistently associated with either habitat. There was no latitudinal trend in growth rate. Growth at the Perth sites was the fastest and similar at all five sites with growth increments greater in summer than in winter. Size and abundance of abalone were measured using fixed transects and quadrats. Abalone densities were highest on the outer edge of the platform, intermediate in the middle of the reef platform, and lowest on both the inner platform and the sub-tidal reef. The pattern of mean lengths of abalone was the inverse of the density. Mean length and abundance were driven by the presence of post-settlement juveniles on the outer and middle reef habitats. There was a high spatial variation in abundance, with densities varying between transects at the same site, but the trend between years for each transect at a site was not significantly different. Abalone abundances, by size class, were examined from sites sampled between 1996 and 2002. A low density of post-settlement juveniles at all sites in 1997 was reflected in low densities of the 1+ and 2+ year classes in subsequent years. Abalone abundances at an unfished site were steady over the seven years. Two sites were located within each of the main stocks utilised by the recreational fishery. Abundance was stable or increasing in one stock, corresponding to a stable total catch. In the second stock the total catch increased over time and abundances declined. Perth is the focus of the Roe’s abalone fishery, with recreational and commercial fishers take about equal shares of the annual catch. Stocks are highly subdivided, with most of this catch coming from only 3 stocks occupying about 20 nautical miles of coast. Growth rates were found to be lower than previous estimates, and more similar to other commercial species of abalone. All life history stages are highly habitat specific, particularly the recruits, and the distribution and abundance through time indicate that the main stocks are near, or slightly over, the limit of sustainable fishing.

This research investigated a number of issues regarding hepatitis B virus (HBV) in the silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch). Due to the relatively recent discovery of the virus in nonhuman primate populations, specific knowledge of the biological behaviour of the virus is presently lacking, with current information largely extrapolated from the behaviour of HBV in human infections. In order to manage the captive and wild populations of this critically endangered species, information regarding the behaviour of the virus in gibbons and the likely impact of the viral infection is essential. The research was performed at Perth Zoo, with the study population consisting of the current and historical members of the zoo’s silvery gibbon colony. Because this gibbon species is critically endangered, the study was conducted with minimal intervention to the population with samples collected largely on an opportunistic basis from a small study population. Review of the history of the virus within the Perth Zoo colony provided epidemiological evidence to indicate vertical transmission in three gibbons (Hecla, Uban and Jury). It would appear that vertical transmission is the primary mode of transmission leading to dispersal of the virus through the captive population of silvery gibbons. Elevated concentrations of the liver enzymes alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were found in three gibbons (Perth 2, Uban and Jury), and may suggest a pathogenic role of the virus in this species. Histological examination of the livers of Uban and Perth 2 failed to demonstrate definitive evidence of cirrhosis, however mild fibrosis was seen in both cases and may represent an early stage of liver pathology associated with chronic hepatitis B infection. The vaccination protocol developed at Perth Zoo was successful in preventing neonatal transmission of the virus from a high infectivity carrier mother in at least two individuals, and was also successful in producing a protective level of immunity against the virus in all three of the individuals tested. Sequencing of the complete hepatitis B genome from one gibbon (Hecla) revealed that she was infected with GiHV (Gibbon hepatitis B virus), an indigenous strain of HBV previously identified in a number of gibbon species, but not previously confirmed in the silvery gibbon. Hecla's strain of HBV was shown to be more closely related to other nonhuman primate strains of HBV than to any of the human strains of HBV. 100% nucleotide similarity to two of Hecla’s siblings indicates that infection in all three animals was the result of vertical transmission from their mother. Partial sequencing of the virus from a second gibbon (Uban) identified another strain of GiHBV which supports the results of the epidemiological study. Neither gibbon showed a high sequence similarity to the virus sequenced from Ivan, the father of the third carrier gibbon (Jury), although only limited sequence data was available from Ivan. Consequently it is likely that at least three different strains of GiHBV are present within the silvery gibbon population. The information contained in this thesis will assist in the understanding and management of hepatitis B infection in silvery gibbons, as well as the numerous other species of nonhuman primates now shown to be susceptible to this virus.