What's On at UWA

Child Care in Australia: This presentation looks at the relationship between female labour supply and child care in Australia. We examine a variety of different questions relating to the relationship between child care availability, quality and cost of child care and women’s labour supply. We examine a variety of modelling strategies including reduced form labour supply equations, linear labour supply models where child care is treated only as a cost of working, and a complete structural model where labour supply and child care are jointly modelled, the relationship between constraints on hours of work and child care are fully accounted for, and child care is allowed to be an input into the production of child quality as well as a cost of working. We provide elasticity estimates for Australia and apply the model to a recent government reform to child care in Australia.

In this presentation, I will discuss how the Chinese household registration system (the hukou system) affects graduates’ transition experiences. As a background, I start with an introduction of the Chinese household system and the resident card system in Shanghai. The resident card system was introduced by the Shanghai government to deal with the flooding migration without challenging the existing hukou system. I will then discuss what a local hukou means for graduates in the job market in Shanghai as well as the effects of not having a local hukou on outsider graduates’ transition experiences and their struggles on whether to stay in or to leave Shanghai for a better life. The hierarchical structure in population management has led to citizenship stratification, for university graduates in the job market, not owning a Shanghai local hukou has a great negative effect on their job hunting experiences. I argue in this presentation that the existing hukou system creates a dual form of citizenship between local and outsider graduates. The inequality in access to job opportunities and resources between local and outsider graduates creates discrimination and exclusion, which has a passive effect on the outsider-graduates’ transition experiences and their later life chances.

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Michael Giudici (UWA)

will speak on

Commuting graphs of groups

at 1pm Tuesday 9th of October in MLR2

Abstract: The commuting graph of a group G is the graph whose vertices are the noncentral elements of G and two vertices are adjacent if and only if they commute. Iranmanesh and Jafarzadeh conjectured that the commuting graph of a finite group is either disconnected or has diameter bounded above by some constant. I will discuss recent joint work with Chris Parker on this conjecture.

The World Muscle Society is the world’s premier Society devoted to the research, diagnosis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders

In 2012, the Society’s Annual Congress is being held in Perth, Western Australia from Tuesday the 9th to Saturday 13th October: the first time that the Congress has been held in Australia.

The webpage for the Congress is: http://www.wms2012.com

The 2012 Congress is likely to be a watershed Congress in relation to the application of next generation sequencing technologies to neuromuscular disorders both in diagnosis and research and for therapies for neuromuscular disorders, which until now have largely been incurable diseases.

Bilateral relations between Pakistan and the US have never been easy at best of times. However, in recent times these have become tense and difficult. Given Pakistan’s critical role in the lead up to 2014, when the Coalition forces will be leaving Afghanistan, what sort of bilateral Pakistan-US relationship can we expect until then and beyond?

A lecture by Romit Dasgupta, Assistant Professor, Asian Studies, UWA.

This public lecture looks at the tremendous social, cultural, and economic changes Japan has undergone over the six decades since the end of World War Two, not through conventional frameworks, but through a lens of gender, specifically masculinity. It draws upon Dr Dasgupta’s recently published book, 'Re-reading the Salaryman in Japan: Crafting Masculinity' (Routledge, 2012) to look at the ways in which the salaryman came to embody Japanese national identity from the 1950s until the 1990s, and how, even in the recessionary post-1990s context, the discourse of salaryman masculinity continues to be a visible presence on the social landscape.

Book a seat online (unreserved):http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/dasgupta

Huge range of fiction, general, reference and children’s books plus gift items at bargain prices.

Co-op Members receive extra 10% discount off Sale prices.

Sale runs until Wednesday October 31st and New titles are added daily.

Our group is interested in developing highly active water oxidation catalysts for incorporation into (photo)-electrochemical water splitting devices. Inspired by the only water oxidation catalyst known to be active in vivo, the Mn4Ca1O5 cluster found in Photosystem II (PSII), we initially imbedded tetranuclear Mn complexes into Nafion films and demonstrated sustained water oxidation catalysis in vitro on illumination with visible light and application of a bias.1 By combining these photoanodes with a ruthenium(II) sensitiser into a photo-electrochemical cell water oxidation was achieved using visible light as the only energy source, as occurs in PSII.2 Examination of the fate of the Mn cluster during catalysis using X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) revealed that it dissociates in Nafion forming MnII species which, on application of a bias, are oxidized to MnOx nanoparticles (detected by TEM). These are reduced on illumination and O2 is concurrently released.3 Recent EPR studies support the catalytic cycle proposed from the XAS studies. Thus, water oxidation catalysis does not involve the original cluster. The observed cycling between photo-reduced MnII species and the Mn-oxide parallels the well-known biogeochemistry of Mn where MnIII/IV oxides, formed by oxidative processes, are photoreduced to Mn2+ in sunlight. Given that catalysis did not involve the original Mn4O4 cluster, catalytic activity was expected to be independent of the Mn precursor. To our surprise, however, an examination of a series of Mn complexes found that the size, crystallinity and catalytic activity of the MnOx nanoparticles varied with precursor used to generate them. The presentation will also cover our recent research exploring various approaches for the deposition of catalytically active metal oxide films, including the application of ionic liquids.

Professor Gail Risbridger is an NH&MRC Research Fellow, career academic and researcher who has > 20 years experience in Prostate Cancer research and Men’s Health. She graduated from, and taught at Monash University, until becoming a founding member of the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR). Currently she heads the Prostate and Breast Cancer Research Group in the Department of Anatomy & Developmental Biology at Monash University leading an internationally recognised research team of scientists and clinicians working on prostate cancer and Andrology related projects. She currently holds the positions of Deputy Dean, Strategic Projects, Research Director of Monash Comprehensive Cancer Consortium (MCCC) and Chair, Faculty Research Centres & Institutes Committee as well as advisory roles in Andrology Australia and the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health. She is one of Australia’s leading prostate cancer researchers, has authored over >190 publications, and has received more than $22.9 million in National and International grant funding since 2003. Her awards include an International Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, British Endocrine Society Asia-Oceania Medal and Honorary Life Member of Endocrine Society of Australia.

Physical processes in lakes are the result of a large number of different mechanisms occurring over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales affecting ecosystem function in a variety of ways. Hence, a deep understanding of the lake hydrodynamics and its variability is essential in understanding lake ecosystem function and in managing water quality.

In this talk I will present a detailed analysis of the annual thermal regime of Lake Kinneret based on high-resolution thermistor chain and meteorological data collected by CWR during the period April 2007 - April 2008. Periods taking along the yearly cycle will be used to discuss the main physical aspects of the lake hydrodynamics and their effects on ecological processes.

Part of the material to be presented in this seminar constitutes a book chapter entitled “The seasonal hydrodynamic habitat of Lake Kinneret” by Imberger, J. and Marti, C. L., contained within the book “Lake Kinneret - Ecology and Management” to be published in 2013.

Bio,

Clelia is a field-oriented Physical Limnologist and provides scientific leadership to real time field investigation in aquatic environments. Her research interests lie in transport and mixing processes in lakes, rivers, estuaries and coastal seas.

She has made substantial contribution to the understanding of the benthic boundary layer in stratified lakes and its central role in setting up a volume flux that is responsible for transporting nutrient rich water from the deepest part of the lake into the thermocline where it becomes available for primary production in the surface layer.

Clelia performs basic and applied research and has been involved in several projects that have a problem oriented and interdisciplinary focus. She has conducted field work in a number of sites around the world including Lake Kinneret (Israel), Thomson Reservoir (Australia), Cockburn Sound (Australia), Lake Valle de Bravo (Mexico), Setubal Lagoon (Argentina), Parana River (Argentina), Lake Coeur d'Alene (USA), and Lake Constance (Germany).

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****

A public lecture by Robyn Eckersley, Professor of Political Science, University of Melbourne.

Who should take responsibility for climate change? ‘Weather of mass destruction’ is no less catastrophic a risk than ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or terrorism, but it has not produced the same sense of political responsibility for all those made vulnerable because we cannot pin down responsibility.

In this public lecture, Robyn Eckersley will show why climate change does not fit comfortably into the dominant liberal moral grammar of responsibility, which is rooted in notions of individual agency, direct causation and culpability. This grammar of responsibility obscures the structural character of climate change risks, which are becoming increasingly complex, incalculable and uninsurable.

She will defend an alternative account of political responsibility that connects historical responsibility for causing climate change with the present capacity to prevent and/or reduce the risks of dangerous climate change and protect the most vulnerable.

This lecture is a part of the Institute of Advanced Studies 2012 lecture series ‘Global Transformation and Public Ethics’.

Cost: Free, RSVP your attendance via http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/eckersley

Come along and find out about the interesting and diverse range of Arts broadening units you can study as part of your degree.

You can learn a language (there are nine to choose from), gain an understanding of the politics of the Asian region, enhance your creative writing, revel in your favourite part of history or play in a musical ensemble. All this can be done as part of your degree!

Enhance your study and career prospects and study an Arts broadening unit.

Be transported away from the everyday with our exciting line-up of Thursday 1.10pm, free lunchtime concerts. This year's revamped Lunchtime Concert series features the best of our students in solo and small ensemble performance.

Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) refers to the techniques used by autonomous robots to build a map within an unknown environment while at the same time keeping track of their current locations. This problem requires an appropriate mathematical representation of the vehicle's surroundings (the map) in the presence of sensing/feature detection uncertainties such as false positives, missed detections and spatial errors. Significant research activity now exists in representing both measurements and the map as spatial point patterns rather than the conventional vector representation. This is not merely a triviality of representation, but is fundamental from an estimation view point. Recent research has also shown that a spatial point process (or random finite set) formulation can eliminate the necessity of fragile map management and feature association algorithms. This talk provides an introduction to SLAM and the spatial point process framework for solving the problem.

About the speaker: Ba-Ngu Vo received his Bachelor degrees jointly in Science and Electrical Engineering with first class honours from UWA in 1994, and PhD from Curtin in 1997. He had held various research positions before joining the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2000. He joined UWA in 2010 and is currently with Curtin University. Ba-Ngu is a recipient of the Australian Research Council’s inaugural Future Fellowship and the 2010 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in support of Defense or National Security. His research interests are signal processing, systems theory and stochastic geometry with emphasis on target tracking, robotics and computer vision.

Beach morphology is the result of complex interactions between sand transport, mean sea level, wind, surface gravity waves, and currents, all of which act over a range of temporal and spatial scales. Interactions with rocky landforms add another level of complexity to the mechanisms of beach variability and change. At Yanchep Lagoon in south-western Australia, the sandy beaches are perched on Quaternary limestone reefs. Sand transport at Yanchep Lagoon varies over a wide range of temporal scales and is strongly modified by interactions with the topographically-complex reefs. To better understand how sand transport is affected by the reefs, a suite of numerical models that covered a cascade of spatial scales from the ocean to the beach was used.

First, the wave climate and variability of the southern Indian Ocean was hindcast from 1970 to 2009 using the WAVEWATCH III ® model validated with data around the WA coastline. There was a significant positive trend in annual mean wave height which appeared to be due to an increase in intensity of the storm belt in the Southern Ocean. The hindcast of offshore wave conditions were then used in a regional scale model (SWAN), where the nearshore transformation of the largest wave event on record was simulated. Shallow limestone reefs on the inner-shelf efficiently dissipated 70 to 80% of the wave energy. At the beach, waves breaking on nearshore reefs generated strong, complex currents. Simulations of beach morphology, using XBeach_gpu indicated that the nearshore reefs and resulting currents affect the beach morphology not only in the lee of the reef but also along the adjacent beaches to the north. The evolution ofperched beaches under climate change and sea level rise can be predicted using a better understanding of how rocky landforms influence beach morphology; and of the down-scaling of larger scale processes from the ocean to the beach.

The Weld Range presents an ideal landscape in which to examine the varied importance and use of abundant and diverse stone resources. This seminar will describe my proposed Masters research on this topic. Heritage consultancy data collected by Wajarri Traditional Owners and Eureka Archaeological Research and Consulting, UWA will be used to investigate the process of and motivations for selecting material suitable for stone tool manufacture and the strategies employed by Wajarri people in the past to manage resource availability. This study, in addition to elucidating tool-selection processes at a local level, aims to provide a theoretical and methodological model for investigating resource management elsewhere in the Murchison.

The Callaway Lecture is one of the most prestigious events on the School of Music calendar. Over the last two decades, a host of distinguished speakers have taken the podium to deliver their thoughts on subjects as broad ranging as the effects of music on the mind, and the place of music in the arts.

In 2012 the lecture will be presented by Artistic Director of The Academy of Ancient Music.

Richard Egarr

HIP: The Next Generation

After 60 years of the most recent movement in music scholarship and performance concerned with Historically Informed Performance (HIP), this talk explores where has such research brought us and where is it going? The continuing mission seems to be to seek out new sources, new information: 'to boldly go' where no HIP has gone before. In order to trace these achievements, an exploration of early sound recordings perhaps offers us some insights?

The evening is co-sponsored by ARC Centre for the History of Emotions.

To reserve your seat: Email: [email protected] Telephone: 08 6488 7836

Assessment has always been a practice that is central to all teaching institutions. It happens, often, so instinctively that little thought goes into whether it is as good as it could be.

Questions such as the following are often not examined:

What is the difference between an exceptionally good piece of assessment and a poor piece of assessment?

Over and above testing what students have learnt and retained, what should assessment offer the students?

How often and in what form should assessment take place?

What is the relationship between feedback and assessment?

When and how often should formative and summative assessment be utilised?

What role does well designed assessment have in minimising the potential for plagiarism?

These and other crucial elements of good assessment will be examined in this workshop. For purposes of critiquing (for better or worse) actual assessment items, participants are encouraged to bring copies of assessment items, together with the outline of the unit to which is belongs.

Lunch time talk: What Matters to me and why (with Aviva Freilich)

When: Friday 20 October 2012, 12pm-1.30pm

Where: Science Library – 3rd Floor Seminar Room

'What Matters to me and why' is a series of lunch time talks and conversations with UWA Academics. The talks explore personal stories of family, place, formative influences and how these things continue to shape people's lives and academic work.

The next conversation is with Aviva Freilich, Associate Professor, Law.

Aviva will share some of her story and then there will be the opportunity for questions/conversation. BYO lunch. Tea/Coffee is available in the meeting room (at the request of the Science Library, please do not carry coffee through the library).

The Science Library is towards the southern end of the campus just south of the Chemistry and Psychology buildings.

We propose that the recent rise in the fertility rate observed in developed countries is the beginning of a broad-based increase in fertility towards above-replacement levels. Environmental shocks that reduced fertility over the past 150 years changed the composition of fertility-related traits under selection and temporarily raised fertility heritability. As those with higher fertility are selected for, the “high-fertility” genotypes are expected to come to dominate the population, causing the fertility rate to return to its pre-shock level. We show that even with relatively low levels of genetically based variation in fertility, there is a rapid return to a high-fertility state, with recovery to above-replacement levels usually occurring within a few generations. In the longer term, this implies that the proportion of elderly in the population will be lower and the proportion of working age higher than projected, reducing the fiscal burden of ageing on developed world governments. However, the rise in the fertility rate increases the proportion of dependent young, presenting other fiscal and policy challenges.