What's On at UWA

The workshop examines the fundamentals of Australian oil and gas law. Topics covered may include:

* the legal nature and protection of oil and gas exploration and production rights, both generally and in Australia * the Australian regulatory and licensing regime * control of operations * operating and other agreements * infrastructure issues * regulation of downstream operations including gas codes * fiscal arrangements.

The workshop will be accessible not only to lawyers entering the field, but also to those already concerned with oil and gas issues, government officials, resource company personnel, and others who seek an understanding of the legal context in which issues arise.

The workshop will be led by Professor Terence Daintith, The Centre for Mining, Energy and Natural Resources Law. Other participants will include:

* Members of the Resources and Energy Law Association (AMPLA) * Members of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) Australia/Asia chapter * Other leading specialists in oil and gas law drawn from private practice and in-house counsel.

A full set of reading materials will be distributed. Plenary sessions, in the form of lectures interspersed with class discussion, will be supplemented by small-group sessions examining in greater detail concrete or topical problems in the framing or application of the law.

Continuing Professional Points (CPD)

7 points (Competency Areas 1 and 3) - see brochure for further information

Enquiries The Centre for Mining, Energy and Natural Resources Law Co-Director Professor John Chandler (08) 6488 1907

Administrative Officer Jennifer Rhodes (08) 6488 2995

Visit the Centre's webpage for the full list of 2014 CPD activities and the latest news.

In the week beginning 24 March 2014, iVEC will offer the following short courses on supercomputing topics:

Introduction to iVEC: 1:00 – 2:00pm Mon 24th March

Introduction to Linux: 3:00 – 4:00pm Mon 24th March

Introduction to Supercomputing: 10:00am – 4:00pm Tues 25th March

Developing with MPI and OpenMP: 10:00am – 4:00pm Wed 26th March

Debugging with DDT: 10am – 12:00 noon Thurs 27th March

Introduction to Optimisation and Profiling: 1:00 – 4:00pm Thurs 27 March

Courses are delivered in a face to face classroom style. Attendees are encouraged to bring and work on their own laptops. Staff from the Supercomputing Team will be facilitating so you can meet and chat with them.

Free parking available on-site.

Courses are free of charge and open to all, however places are limited.

Light refreshments and lunch will be provided on each day (no lunch on Monday).

Register online at http://www.ivec.org/ai1ec_event/ivec-supercomputing-training-february-2014-2/?instance_id=

A public lecture by Denis Weaire, Emeritus Professor, School of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin and 2014 UWA Gledden Visiting Fellow.

The study of liquid foams has a long and fascinating history, involving for example the blind Belgian physicist JAF Plateau and the inspiring figure of Lord Kelvin in the 19th century. It remains a lively and wide research topic, and has spilled over into art and architecture, as well as many applications in industry. Professor Weaire will present a personal overview of the subject, ranging from basic mathematical questions to tomographic analysis of foam structures, which should interest a wide range of scientists and engineers, and be accessible to a wider audience as well.

Knowledge about the morphology and chemical composition of heterogeneous materials on a sub-micrometer scale is crucial for the development of new material properties for highly specified applications. However, each analytical measuring technique has limitations, which may be overcome by their combination. Confocal microscopy has been used to reconstruct three-dimensional images of micro-objects by using a spatial pinhole to eliminate out-of focus light in specimens thicker than the focal plane. Raman spectroscopy on the other hand is able to determine the chemical compositions of materials. The confocal Raman microscope combines Raman spectroscopy with high resolution confocal microscopy. The discrimination of out of focus information used in confocal microscopy is particularly beneficial for confocal Raman imaging since it reduces the volume from which the Raman spectrum is collected. Due to the confocal principle, depth information from transparent materials can be easily obtained, leading to full three dimensional chemical reconstructions of the material’s composition. The combination of confocal Raman microscopy with SPM and true surface microscopy permits characterization of materials at submicron resolution, as well as on mm-rough surfaces across large areas. Examples from various fields of applications will be presented.

Come and find out about UWA’s undergraduate and postgraduate courses, scholarship opportunities, outstanding career options and explore our community programs and facilities.

This year there will be campus tram tours, hands-on activities, live music and entertainment, as well as plenty of fun activities for the whole family to enjoy.

Join us for Open Day 2014 from 10.00am to 4.00pm on Sunday 10 August.

Surface science underpins all modern technology from Gore-Tex to the iPhone. We need to think about surfaces for catalysis, corrosion, coatings, growth of thin films, chemical/biological functionalization and nanotechnology just to name a few. Over the last few months Curtin has established a surface analysis facility based around a brand new x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) system. Using XPS one can determine the elemental and chemical composition of the first few nanometres of a sample surface. The XPS can also take images for chemical mapping and has a number of other electron, ion and photon-based techniques for surface analysis. The lab was established in partnership with UWA and can be accessed by all UWA researchers.

This talk will introduce the techniques available with a focus on XPS, and give some examples of how they can be used for materials science. The surface analysis facility is now available for users and a brief explanation will be given on how people can get training and access.

St George's College will throw open its doors for everyone to visit, explore and discover what life is like in the 'castle'! In conjunction with Open Gardens Australia the day will feature building and garden tours, a variety of musical performances, extensive art exhibition (including works by Jarrad Seng and John Ogburn), poetry readings, recitals of Randolph Stow works, food and beverages also available for purchase.

A live broadcast will also be held at the College of the 720 ABC James Lush program and the "Roots and Shoots" segment with Sabrina Hahn. Everyone is welcome to attend the broadcast from 8.30 am until 10.00 am.

An entry fee will be applicable from 10.00 am onwards of $8.00 per person (under 18 are free of charge). The monies raised will go towards our Scholarship Fund.

Come along and enjoy the beautiful spring day at St George's College.

A public lecture by Professor Pere Masqué, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and 2014 UWA Gledden Visiting Fellow.

The accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 caused the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean. The magnitude of the disaster raised the alarm on the potential impact in marine ecosystems, aside from the obvious concern on the implications for human health via seafood consumption. Several monitoring programs were implemented soon after the accident, evidencing the relevance of the emissions of Iodine-131, Cesium-134 and Cesium-137: the concentrations of these radionuclides in seawater offshore the coast of Japan were enhanced by several orders of magnitude relative to background levels derived from the global fallout during the 20th century. Efforts on evaluating other potentially significant radionuclides, such as Iodine-129, Strontium-90 or Plutonium isotopes, were scarcer, largely because of the complexity of the required analysis. Here we will examine the already substantial amount of data and information accumulated over these last two years, and see how well we understand the impact of the accident in the marine environment.

Cost: Free, but RSVP required via http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/masque

Missed out on the Postgrad & Honours Expo? Come along to the Business School foyer between 1pm and 2pm to meet staff from faculties across UWA. Have your questions about postgraduate studies answered and grab some free pizza!

FREE PIZZA! Missed out on the Postgrad & Honours Expo? Don't worry. 9 faculties come together in a mini expo in the Business School foyer to promote postgraduate and honours courses. We're here to answer any questions you may have.

Presenter: Associate Professor Peter McEvoy

Associate Professor Peter McEvoy completed his masters in clinical psychology and PhD in the School of Psychology at UWA in 2004, after which he worked as a clinical psychologist and service co-ordinator at the Anxiety Disorders Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney for four years. After he returned to Perth in 2008 he worked as a senior clinical psychologist and research co-ordinator in the anxiety and depression program at the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) for six years. Over the last decade he has personally run around 80 therapeutic groups for various anxiety and affective disorders whilst maintaining an individual caseload and squeezing in research projects where possible. In February 2014 Peter commenced a teaching and research position in the School of Psychology and Speech Pathology at Curtin University, although he maintains an ongoing consultancy with CCI. Peter teaches the adult psychopathology and psychotherapy units in the clinical Masters program, he has published around 50 journal articles and book chapters in the areas of mental disorders and their treatment, and he has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders since 2008.

Title: Targeting transdiagnostic processes and using imagery to optimise clinical outcomes from cognitive behaviour group therapy for anxiety disorders

Abstract

Cognitive behavioural interventions are highly efficacious and effective for emotional disorders, and yet a significant proportion of patients fail to achieve full remission of their symptoms after gold-standard treatments. A significant minority of patients in clinical practice also find exposure-based techniques highly distressing, leading to high attrition rates in real world practice. Evidence-based clinical innovations are required to further improve engagement with, and the potency of, existing treatments. This presentation will describe two parallel programs of research being conducted at the Centre for Clinical Interventions to meet these aims. The first research program involves an intervention targeting a key transdiagnostic factor known to contribute to multiple emotional disorders, namely, repetitive negative thinking (RNT). A 6-week, transdiagnostic metacognitive group treatment for RNT will be described and initial outcomes will be reported. The second research program involves modifying the mode within which cognitive therapy is applied to potentiate greater emotional change. A new, innovative imagery-enhanced 12-week group program for social anxiety disorder will be described and outcomes will be reported. Both of these programs have demonstrated high retention rates, huge effect sizes (ds >2.0), and an improvement compared to gold standard treatments reported in the literature in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Critical aspects of structure and function of the cell nucleus are often inaccessible to wide field and confocal imaging. Higher order chromatin structures, subnuclear bodies, repair foci etc., cannot be imaged in detail without applying 'super-resolution' techniques. A new approach to imaging chromatin in situ has become possible by exploiting photoconversion of UV-excited DNA dyes Hoechst 33258, DAPI, and Vybrant® DyeCycle™ Violet. Single Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM) is based on using two wavelengths of light - one for regeneration of the pool of the blinking form of the dye, and the other for excitation, or just one high intensity excitation light to transfer the dye between the emitting and non-emitting states. SMLM enables optical isolation and localization of high numbers of DNA-bound molecules, usually in excess of 106 in one cell nucleus. This approach yields images of DNA density with the resolution several times better than conventional optical microscopy, reaching 40 - 50 nm in the specimen plane, and offers several important advantages over the previously described imaging methods, including an ability to record images using a single wavelength excitation of a relatively low intensity, and a higher density of single molecule signals than in previous studies. High resolution images (SMLM, dSTORM, SIM) of chromatin based on phototonversion of UV-excited DNA dyes were combined with images representing scheduled and unscheduled DNA replication (EdU, click reaction), histone H2AX phosphorylation (marking DNA double strand breaks), and XRCC1 repair factor (single strand breaks) in order to study the mechanisms of induction of DNA damage and repair.

UWA Staff Sports Fun Day is a day on campus for staff and postgraduate students to get together and participate in sport and activity. This year's theme is Brazil - be loud, be colourful and join in - up to 1000 participants expected throughout the day.

Get Involved: Contact your Team Coordinator now!

Contacts: Phone: 6488 2281 Web: uwa.edu.au/sportsday Email: [email protected]

Michael Giudici (UWA)

will speak on

Commuting graphs

at 3pm Friday 7 November in Mathematics Lecture Room 1.

Abstract:

Given a group G, the commuting graph of G is the graph with vertices the noncentral elements of G, and two vertices are adjacent if and only if they commute. Commuting graphs of other algebraic structures can be defined similarly. Commuting graphs of groups have received a lot of attention in recent years. I will discuss some recent results about the structure of such graphs, and in particular their diameter and which graphs can be the commuting graphs of groups and other algebraic structures.

The ECM Safety Launch forms part of a greater initiative which has been running over the last 12 months and aims to raise awareness of new and changing government regulations within the WA Work and Health Safety Act.

Meet our three new key safety members who will be involved in facilitating the safety policy changes.

All ECM Researchers, Academics, HDR students and Professional members of staff are encouraged to attend to hear our Dean, John Dell launch this initiative.

Morning Tea will be served from 10:00 am

Eric Swartz (UWA)

will speak on

Antiflag-transitive generalized quadrangles

at 3pm Friday 14 November in Mathematics Lecture Room 1.

Abstract:

A generalized quadrangle is a point-line incidence geometry Q such that (1) any two points lie on at most one line, and (2) given a line l and a point P not incident with l, P is collinear with a unique point of l. An antiflag of a generalized quadrangle is a non-incident point-line pair (P, l), and we say that the generalized quadrangle Q is antiflag-transitive if the group of collineations (automorphisms that send points to points and lines to lines) is transitive on the set of all antiflags. We prove that if a finite, thick generalized quadrangle Q is antiflag-transitive, then Q is one of the following: the unique generalized quadrangle of order (3,5), a classical generalized quadrangle, or a dual of one of these. This is joint work with John Bamberg and Cai-Heng Li.

Alice Devillers (UWA)

will speak on

Tits' buildings as combinatorial objects

at 3pm Friday 28 November in Mathematics Lecture Room 1.

Abstract:

Buildings were invented in the 1960s by the Belgian-French mathematician Jacques Tits. They are a useful tool to "visualise" algebraic groups (such as classical and exceptional Lie groups). The simplest examples are the projective spaces. Other examples include polar spaces, generalised polygons, infinite trees. I will give a general introduction to the concept of buildings, from several points of view, with special emphasis on the chamber system point of view, which is very combinatorial. I will then illustrate how that combinatorial structure can be used to show results that apply to many different types of buildings at once.

Considerable effort has been focused on the development of high entropy alloys (HEA) or alternatively, compositionally complex alloys (CCA). These alloys are usually made up of four or more elements, all with similar, or at least significant, elemental compositions. Some of these CCAs exhibit microstructures that are single phase, but most have two or more constituent phases. In the case of these latter alloys, often the microstructure consists of a disordered bcc phase and an ordered B2 compound (i.e., the ordered bcc CsCl crystal structure). The first part of the talk describes the application of STEM/XEDS tomography to 3D characterization of the microstructure. To develop an understanding of the behavior of these alloys, it is necessary to understand the ordering scheme of the B2 phase, e.g., how are the alloying elements distributed over the two sub-lattices, and to what degree is the phase ordered (i.e., what is the value of its long-range ordering parameter). The second part of the talk describes the application of x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy in an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope to determine the actual compositions of the individual sub-lattices. This task requires measurements of elemental compositions on the atomic scale, i.e., atomically resolved XEDS.

Prof. Tim St Pierre will give his final 2014 IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture on Monday 15 December, 5:30 pm, at Webb Lecture Theatre, Geology & Geography Building. In his lecture, "Magnetic Materials in Medicine: Applications in Diagnosis, Management, and Treatment of Disease," Prof. St Pierre will discuss biomagnetics and its biomedical applications. This event is suitable for a general science-literate audience.

Alice Niemeyer (UWA)

will speak on

Symmetric p-groups

at 11am in Weatherburn LT

(The time will be finalised on Wed evening. There may be the need for a change of time to 1:30pm.)

Abstract: In 1978 R.M. Bryant and L.G. Kov acs showed that for every subgroup H of GL(d,p) for a prime p there is a finite p-group P such that the automorphism group of P induces a subgroup on the Frattini quotient P/ hi(P) which is isomorphic to H. Their proof demonstrates the existence of such a p-group by considering sufficiently large quotients to terms of the exponent-p lower central series of the free group F on d generators.

In joint work with J. Bamberg, S. Glasby and L. Morgan we consider maximal subgroups of GL(d,p) for odd primes p and d at least 4 and show that in many cases we only need to consider the exponent-p lower central series of F of class 3 to find such a p-group.