This thesis is a comparative study of the pre-trial procedures of England and Wales and Saudi Arabia. Its aim is to show how the pre-trial procedures of Saudi Arabia could be re-designed in order to conform to both the standards set by international human rights and the norms of Shari'ah law and argues that there is much common ground between the two. It addresses the human rights relevant to pre-trial procedures and explores in-depth how these are expressed in international human rights legislation and in the current legislation of England and Wales with particular reference to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984). They are contrasted with the relevant articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure 2001 (CCP) of Saudi Arabia. Individual rights such as the right to liberty, the right silence, the right to privacy, the right to bail and the right to an effective remedy are examined in depth and relevant case law is cited throughout. The history of pre-trial procedures and regulations in England and Wales and Saudi Arabia is explored in order to understand how these have developed into what exists today. The former is traced from the Norman period to the present day and the latter from the pre-Islamic era of the Arabian Peninsula. The actual practice of these procedures is explored comparatively through a fieldwork project involving semi-structured interviews with police officers and lawyers in England and police officers, police officers, prosecutors and lawyers in Saudi Arabia. The thesis ends with a thorough examination of how pre-trial procedures in Saudi Arabia could be regulated and monitored so as to bring them in line with the standards required by international human rights legislation and international practice and with the demands of Islamic law.

Assisted Reproductive Technology has, in the last 40 years, raised numerous ethical questions. One of these ethical questions has been whether or not children born as a result of Assisted Reproductive Technology treatments may be harmed as a consequence of being brought into existence in this way. Harm caused to children is quite rightly a serious concern for society and society expects the State to intervene to protect children from parents who pose a significant risk to their children. Towards this end section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 requires licensed infertility treatment clinics to ‘take into account the welfare of the child who may be born as a result of treatment’ when considering whether or not to provide a woman with treatment services. This thesis will argue that section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 should be amended as it is acts as nothing more than an arbitrary and unjustified infringement on an individual’s right to reproductive liberty; is an ineffectual means of promoting the welfare of the child who may be born as a result of treatment; is philosophically incoherent; and is inconsistent with the law as applied in so-called ‘wrongful life’ cases. The argument that section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 should be amended will be grounded upon the contention that an individual’s right to reproductive liberty should be accorded particular respect. This thesis will argue for a right to reproductive liberty which encompasses a negative right of the individual to be free from unjustified interference by the State when making reproductive choices. The pervasive influence of the child welfare principle as applied in the context of decisions directly impacting upon them has, it will be argued, played a significant part in the inclusion and retention of section 13(5) within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. This thesis will examine the way in which the child welfare principle as applied to children has grown in influence and how an unquestioning adherence to this worthy principle has led to an incongruous version of it being applied at the pre-conception stage. While the State have a solid mandate to protect the welfare of children this thesis will argue that that mandate cannot realistically be extended to apply to future children, when to refuse an individual access to Assisted Reproductive Technology has the effect of preventing the child whose welfare is to be taken into account from being brought into existence in the first place.

This thesis aims to better understand how to effectively assess and manage the risks posed by online IIOC users. First, it presents an introduction to the topic with a commentary on the increasing prevalence of this form of offending. Second, a systematic review of literature is conducted regarding the proportion of online IIOC users also found to perpetrate contact sexual offences. A qualitative synthesis of data revealed 10% of IIOC offenders had an official criminal record for a contact offence. This increased to approximately 40%, when analysing data from interview studies. Third, the thesis presents a thematic analysis of the accounts of 10 online IIOC-only offenders regarding their reasons for accessing IIOC. Here, a number of themes consistent with known pathways of contact sexual offending were identified, characterised by the unique role of general problematic Internet use. The findings are used to construct a cyclical model of IIOC offending, viewed within the context of a maladaptive emotion regulation loop. Fourth, the thesis critically evaluates the validity and reliability of a psychometric tool, the Emotion Control Questionnaire, Second Edition (ECQ2), used to measure emotion dysregulation amongst IIOC users. Fifth, a small-scale exploratory quantitative study is conducted of a mindfulness-based intervention package, aimed at reducing emotion control deficits amongst IIOC-only offenders. This found no clinically significant change in offenders’ scores, pre- to post-treatment, or when compared to a non-treatment control group. The null finding is attributed to a sampling artefact. The thesis concludes with an overall discussion of the work.

Abstract not available

Studies were undertaken for estuarine stocking of mulloway Argyrosomus japonicus to develop efficient marking techniques; to identify key habitats and migratory patterns of stocked fish; to evaluate the diet and growth of stocked fish and recruitment to commercial fisheries; and to develop a numerical model to estimate optimal stocking density from the predatory impact of stocked fish. The 10-step responsible approach to marine stock enhancement (Blankenship and Leber 1995) was reviewed for four Australian species, and Argyrosomus japonicus and Lates calcarifer were found to be the best candidates for stocking in Australia. Immersion of mulloway in an oxytetracycline-undiluted seawater solution produced poor quality marks, whilst oxytetracycline-diluted seawater solutions and alizarin complexone-seawater solutions produced high quality marks in otoliths and fin spines. These techniques were applied to produce double marks, and in batch mode at fish densities of 30 kg m-3. Key habitats for mulloway were identified as discrete holes or basins up to 20 m deep. Hatchery-reared fish initially had significantly greater movements (greater than 10 km in 3 d) when released in shallow water, compared to hatchery-reared fish released directly over deep holes. Such targeted release strategies could revolutionise stocking of depleted fisheries in estuarine and aquatic habitats, and even oceans. Stomach content analysis of mulloway captured from a coastal lagoon and riverine estuary revealed ontogenetic changes in major prey of mysid shrimp, prawns and forage fish. Comparison between benthic resources and dietary composition in these two estuaries revealed that mulloway consume prey resources in proportion to those in the environment, and do not actively select prey. Simulations of a novel Predatory Impact Model were run for part of the Georges River Recreational Fishing Haven, Sydney, to evaluate appropriate stocking density and associated predatory impact. The 15 km stretch of the Georges River contained c. 361,000 m2 of key mulloway habitat, and 10% of mysid shrimp production within this habitat was assigned to support stocked fish. Given these values, this section of river could support c. 4,000 stocked 8 cm mulloway. Over the 4 y during which mulloway are resident in the estuary, these fish will have a maximum yearly predatory impact of 6.7 t y-1 forage fish, 1.8 t y-1 school prawns and 2.2 t y-1 cephalopods, which represents 48%, 17% and 127% of former commercial fishery in the Georges River respectively.

This study explored the experience of what it is to be a gay man and to live in a rural community. It sought to understand why gay men would want to live in places that are said to have a reputation for hostility towards them. The empirical data from the semi-structured interviews with twenty-one gay men living in fifteen small-town locations across New South Wales, Australia, was analysed using a qualitative method derived from phenomenology, ethnography and modified grounded theory. The distinctive findings of this thesis centre on these men???s desire and determination to stay in the bush. They chose to stay in rural locations and effectively employed a diverse range of strategies to both combat the difficulties of rural life and enhance its advantages. The bush was the place in which these men could find themselves, be themselves and also find others like themselves. The space and the isolation of the bush gave them the latitude and the scope to live gay lives. This is why they stayed. By staying, they were also able to live out both the homosexual and rural components of their personal and social identity. Building on a brief look at the Australian rural past, the conceptual framework utilises notions of ???the stranger??? and draws on resilience, agency and resistance theory to understand these men???s ability to live in an unwelcoming place. Resilience allowed these men to cope and deal with the difficulties they faced. Human agency, the individual's capacity to exert autonomy over his life, is used to restore prominence to resistance theory. Agency is the catalyst to resistance and resistance fuels an individual???s, and sometimes a collective, opposition to the dominant social forces that inhibits one???s agency. These men???s desire to live in a rural place can be understood through theoretical considerations of place, the freedom of place and queer theory. Their satisfaction with life can be theorised through the application of a concept new to theory in gay literature - thriving. This thesis documents a largely unreported aptitude and proficiency by rural gay men to live in the bush. It suggests that their close affinity with place gives them a sense of belonging that, when combined with their concept of a gay lifestyle, effectively queers the places in which they live. That gay men can live fulfilled lives in the very places they are said to have fled evokes an innovative perspective together with an appreciation of what it is to be gay in the bush.

This thesis examines the political economy of working class women in contemporary Campbelltown (NSW). A broad political economic approach is employed that considers relevant social structures, their effects, and working class women’s responses to them. It includes investigation of material and non-material, subjective and objective, aspects of this dialectical relationship. This study argues the political agency of Australian working class women has rarely been acknowledged, let alone understood. The thesis focuses on working class women in the suburbs and their politics of everyday life. Though these women rarely attract political investigation, they are too often assumed to be passive, apathetic, unenlightened or conservative bearers of oppression. These stereotypes persist despite the variability in historical portrayals of working class women, suggesting working class women’s politics only makes sense in the context of their conditions of existence in specific times and places. The thesis makes a contribution towards the field of applied feminist political economy research. It employs a historical materialist approach to demystify working class women’s politics. The empirical heart of the project draws on in-depth interviews with local working class women about their experiences and views of family, community, politics, work, unemployment and social institutions. This qualitative material is set against a detailed local political economic analysis of contemporary Campbelltown. The interconnections of capitalist and non-capitalist modes of production in which working class women labour, survive and resist are explored. The thesis questions what part capitalism and socialism play in their pursuit of self and social emancipation. Understanding the political economy of working class women is fundamental to social and ecological health and sustainability. Questions of class power and conflict, and gendered distributions of work and poverty locate working class women at the core of these pressing concerns. The central hypothesis of this study is that working class women are engaged in a wealth of political strategies stemming from their everyday bid for survival. Their (often contradictory) collective and self-activity coalesces around a politics antithetical to the logic of capitalism because it depends on their exploitation and immiseration for its viability. Working class women practice and reproduce a politics of survival and hope that informs their hidden worlds of resistance. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study represents an attempt by a distance educator at CB Alexander Agricultural College to find ways of improving the quality of its farm management distance education program. It describes an action research project in which the Principal Investigator and his co-researchers - a group of students enrolled in the Farm Management Certificate Course - simulate a distance education process as a springboard into collaborative and critical reflection. The study describes the present operations of the NSW Agriculture Farm Management Certificate Course and gives a critical overview of the current approach to course development. It draws on relevant professional literature to provide a theoretical basis for its critique of the curriculum. It asks whether inclusion of an epistemological development variable in course design could help the College more closely meet the needs of its clients. Rising out of this critique of existing practice, the thesis charts a quest by co-researchers for growth in understanding, by critical self-reflection, through dialogue. It proposes a theory of open system inquiry as a tool to help curriculum developers, distance educators and all aspiring open system learners to develop a personal praxis of open system inquiry in their vocations and in their lives. / Master of Science (Hons)

This mailed survey of nurses in all (111) New South Wales aged care facilities with Huntingdon Disease affected residents, used a custom designed questionnaire in a triangulated exploratory design. It was undertaken by an HD specialist nurse into the previously un-researched field of the nursing challenges in that setting. Knowledge was sought, through descriptive and correlational analysis of fixed choice and open-ended questions, of the facts of the affected resident profile (N=63). Similarly, nursing opinions were obtained on the following unsatisfactory aspects of care provision, the impact of internal resources and the HD nursing role and its support. Results are discussed in some detail. Overt evidence of stigmatisation was not evident. Approximately 32 additional long stay HD beds are needed plus more equipment and education for the aged care facilities. The outreach model of support was strongly endorsed. / Master of Nursing (Hons)

Emergent spatial signals which may be interpreted in the context of fluvial sediment transport processes are detected through the use of reflectance spectroscopy in the sand-sized sediments of the Towamba River, southeastern New South Wales. Reflectance spectroscopy of sufficiently fine spectral resolution represents a technique for mineral composition analysis which is complementary to X-ray diffraction, with advantages in terms of ease of sample preparation and rapidity of measurement. Instrumentation is available allowing high-quality spectrum acquisition in the field and from airborne and satellite-borne instruments. The former allows mineral analyses to more easily be incorporated into sediment tracing studies as an additional variable. The latter offers large scale, repeatable areal coverage of a dynamic system in which sediments are exposed to the sky. The Towamba River drains a catchment of c. 1000 km [square] in extensively altered granitic terrain along the south coast of New South Wales, and carries significant quantities of sand-sized sediment through much of the system. Pervasive but spatially variable chlorite, epidote, and sericite have been described in local and neighbouring terrain. These are spectrally active in the SWIR wavelength region in which the PIMA portable spectrometer operates. The airborne HyMap instrument is sensitive through this range as well as through the visible and near-infrared regions. Conventionally such channel sediments would represent a single class in the context of the broader landscape, and comparatively they represent a domain of restricted variance. In this study of samples of sediment were collected for analysis with the PIMA, the results of which supported the efficacy of such an exercise in a conventional tracing context and supported analysis of HyMap imagery. Although issues related to reduction of HyMap-detected radiance to reflectance prevented effective analysis of the shorter wavelengths sensitive to the presence of ferrous and ferric iron, the consideration of absorption feature depths and the application of a matched filtering operator revealed gross-scale spatial patterns which were interpreted as two populations of sand in the main channel. This interpretation is consistent with bank erosion occurring during two very large magnitude flow events in the 1970s, with minor ongoing perturbation of the sediment signal in the main channel by the contribution of sediment from tributaries. The presence of a definite spatial signal having been established, routes for further investigation are suggested. A noisy signal hypothesised on the basis of imagery may be used to better direct a field sampling program for a conventional sediment tracing study. The signal to noise ratio may be improved for example through calibration of radiance to reflectance and removal of atmospheric interference and improved field sampling schemes, after which more rigorous, quantitative exercises such as geostatistical ???field??? trial or spatial series analysis may be performed. Connections to process through sediment transport models are enabled through the use of GIS.