No description available.

No description available.

This thesis describes the research undertaken for a degree of Master of Science in a retrospective study of airborne remotely sensed data registered in 1990 and 1993, and field captured data of aquatic humus concentrations for ~ 45 lakes in Tasmania. The aim was to investigate and describe the relationship between the remotely sensed data and the field data and to test the hypothesis that the remotely sensed data would establish further evidence of a limnological corridor of change running north-west to south- east. The airborne remotely sensed data consisted of data captured by the CSIRO Ocean Colour Scanner (OCS) and a newly developed Canadian scanner, a compact airborne spectrographic imager (CASI). The thesis investigates the relationship between the two kinds of data sources. The remotely sensed data was collected with the OCS scanner in 1990 (during one day) and with both the OCS and the CASI in 1993 (during three days). The OCS scanner registers data in 9 wavelength bands between 380 nm and 960 nm with a 10-20 nm bandwidth, and the CASI in 288 wavelength bands between 379.57 nm and 893.5 nm (ie. spectral mode) with a spectral resolution of 2.5 nm. The remotely sensed data were extracted from the original tapes with the help of the CSIRO and supplied software and digital sample areas (band value means) for each lake were subsequently extracted for data manipulation and statistical analysis. Field data was captured concurrently with the remotely sensed data in 1993 by lake hopping using a light aircraft with floats. The field data used for analysis with the remotely sensed data were the laboratory determined g440 values from the 1993 water samples collated with g440 values determined from earlier years. No spectro-radiometric data of the lakes, data of incoming irradiance or ancillary climatic data were captured during the remote sensing missions. The sections of the background chapter in the thesis provide a background to the research both in regards to remote sensing of water quality and the relationship between remotely sensed spectral data and water quality parameters, as well as a description of the Tasmanian lakes flown. The lakes were divided into four groups based on results from previous studies and optical parameters, especially aquatic humus concentrations as measured from field captured data. The four groups consist of the ‘green” clear water lakes mostly situated on the Central Plateau, the ‘brown” highly dystrophic lakes in western Tasmania, the ‘corridor” lakes situated along a corridor of change lying approximately between the two lines denoting the Jurassic edge and 1200 mm isohyet, and the ‘eastern, turbid” lakes make up the fourth group. The analytical part of the research work was mostly concerned with manipulating and analysing the CASI data because of its higher spectral resolution. The research explores methods to apply corrections to this data to reduce the disturbing effects of varying illumination and atmospheric conditions. Three different methods were attempted. In the first method two different standardisation formulas are applied to the data as well as ‘day correction” factors calculated from data from one of the lakes, Lake Rolleston, which had data captured for all three days of the remote sensing operations. The standardisation formulas were also applied to the OCS data. In second method an attempt to reduce the effects of the atmosphere was performed using spectro-radiometric captured in 1988 for one of the lakes flown, Great Lake. All the lake sample data were time normalised using general irradiance data obtained from the University of Tasmania and the sky portion as calculated from Great Lake upwelling irradiance data was then subtracted. The last method involved using two different band ratios to eliminate atmospheric effects. Statistical analysis was applied to the data resulting from the three methods to try to describe the relationship between the remotely sensed data and the field captured data. Discriminant analysis, cluster analysis and factor analysis using principal component analysis (pea) were applied to the remotely sensed data and the field data. The factor scores resulting from the pca were regressed against the field collated data of g440 as were the values resulting from last method. The results from the statistical analysis of the data from the first method show that the lakes group well (100%) against the predetermined groups using discriminant analysis applied to the remotely sensed CASI data. Most variance in the data are contained in the first factor resulting from pca regardless of data manipulation method. Regression of the factor scores against g440 field data show a strong non- linear relationship and a one-sided linear regression test is therefore considered an inappropriate analysis method to describe the dataset relationships. The research has shown that with the available data, correction and analysis methods, and within the scope of the Masters study, it was not possible to establish the relationships between the remotely sensed data and the field measured parameters as hoped. The main reason for this was the failure to retrieve remotely sensed lake signatures adequately corrected for atmospheric noise for comparison with the field data. This in turn is a result of the lack of detailed ancillary information needed to apply available established methods for noise reduction - to apply these methods we require field spectroradiometric measurements and environmental information of the varying conditions both within the study area and within the time frame of capture of the remotely sensed data.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Murdoch University, 2006. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Health Sciences. Bibliography: leaves 97-101.

Since 1996 a mysterious epidemic has been sweeping across the island of Tasmania, threatening the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) with extinction. The species is endemic to the island which is part of Australia and lies south of Melbourne. Being endemic to the island the devils are of particular risk of extinction. Not only has the risk of losing the world’s largest extant carnivorous marsupial aroused great interest, but also the disease itself, has received much attention from the world of oncology due to its unusual trait of being a contagious cancer.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Tasmania, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (PhD.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2002. / "A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. March 2002; August 2003" Includes bibliography.

The nineteenth century discourse of extinction – a consensus of thought primarily based upon the assumption that ‘savage’ races would be displaced by the arrival of European civilisation – provided the intellectual foundation for policies which resulted in Aboriginal dispossession, internment, and death in Tasmania. For a long time, the Aboriginal Tasmanians were thought to have been annihilated. However, this claim is now understood to be fanciful. Aboriginality is no longer defined as a racial category but rather as an identity that has its basis in community. Nevertheless, extinction discourse continues to shape the features of modern literature about Tasmania. The first chapter of this dissertation will examine how extinction discourse was imagined in the nineteenth century and will trace the parallels that contemporary fiction about contact history shares with it. The novels examined include Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World by Mudrooroo, The Savage Crows by Robert Drewe, Manganinnie by Beth Roberts, and Wanting by Richard Flanagan. The extinctionist elements in these novels include a tendency to euglogise about the ‘lost race’ and a reliance on the trope of the last man or woman. The second chapter of the dissertation will examine novels that attempt to construct a representation of Aboriginality without reference to extinction. These texts subvert and ironise extinction discourse as a way of breaking the discursive continuities with colonialism and establishing a more nuanced view of Aboriginal identity in a post-colonial context. Novels analysed here include Drift by Brian Castro, Elysium by Robert Edric, and English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. / However, in attempting to arrive at new understandings about Aboriginality, non-Aboriginal authors are hindered by the epistemological difficulties of knowing and representing the Other. In particular, they seem unable to extricate themselves from the binaries of colonialism.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The northern Central Highlands region of Tasmania extending north from Cradle Mountain to the Middlesex Plains shows evidence of three glacial stages, with the final stage consisting of several ice advance phases. From oldest to youngest these have been named the Middlesex Glaciation, the Sunshine Glaciation and the Cradle Glaciation. Cosmogenic exposure-age dating of boulders and ice-abraded bedrock, radiocarbon dating of post-glacial organic deposits, and relative dating techniques have resulted in assignment of the following ages for the events: Middlesex Glaciation, MIS 10; Sunshine Glaciation, MIS 6 and the Cradle Glaciation having MIS 3 and MIS 2 phases. The Cradle Glaciation correlates with the global Last Glaciation. Exposure-age dating of three of the Cradle Glaciation ice advance phases indicates that the Pencil Pine Phase predates 38.9±4.0 ka, the Dove Phase occurred ca. 29.2±1.4 ka, and the Cradle Valley Phase occurred between >19.7±1.1 – 17.6±1.0 ka. At least two undated retreat/readvance phases followed the Cradle Valley Phase. Deglaciation of the area was probably complete considerably before 11.2 ka. The recognised glacial events decreased in areal extent in each successive advance. Using the 0°C summer mean isotherm as the base for the altitude of the equilibrium line altitude, the regional snowline, regional snowline depression and temperature depression for each of the events were: Middlesex Glaciation, 942 m/1616 m/10.5°C; Sunshine Glaciation, 984 m/1574 m/10.23°C; Pencil Pine Phase, 1010 m/1548 m/10.06°C; Dove Phase, 1050 m/1508 m/9.8°C; and the Cradle Valley Phase, 1060 m/1498 m/9.74°C. The geomorphic evidence and dating of several phases of the Cradle Glaciation indicates a complex history of ice advances for Tasmania during the Last Glaciation.

The pathology of a disfiguring and debilitating fatal disease affecting a high proportion of the wild population of Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) that was discovered is described. The disease, named devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), has been identified in devils found across 60% of the Tasmanian landscape. The prevalence of this disease was extremely variable, possibly reflecting seasonal trapping success. Between 2001 and 2004, 91 DFTD cases were obtained for pathological description. Grossly, the tumours presented as large, solid, soft tissue masses usually with flattened, centrally ulcerated and exudative surfaces. They were typically multi-centric, appearing first in the oral, face or neck regions. Histologically, the tumours were composed of circumscribed to infiltrative nodular aggregates of round to spindle-shaped cells often within a pseudocapsule and divided into lobules by delicate fibrous septae. They were locally aggressive and metastasised in 65% of cases. There was minimal cytological differentiation amongst the tumour cell population under light and electron microscopy. The diagnostic values of a number of immunohistochemical stains were employed to further characterise up to 50 representative cases. They were negative for cytokeratin, epithelial membrane antigen, von Willebrand factor, desmin, glial fibrillary acid protein, CD16, CD57, CD3 and LSP1. DFTD cells were positive for vimentin, S-100, melan A, neuron specific enolase, chromogranin A and synaptophysin. In conclusion, the morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics together with the primary distribution of the neoplasms indicate that DFTD is an undifferentiated neoplasm of neuroendocrine histogenesis.