Digital Commons Network^™

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Preserving The Great Barrier Reef, Taylor Cox

Honors Theses

This paper investigates both the economic benefits and costs of protecting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The benefits associated with the Reef come from a 2016 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited report and quantifies direct economic contributions, nonuse values, and a social, economic, and icon value. The costs of protecting the Reef come from a collection of sources, including the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, “The Cost and Feasibility of Marine Coastal Restoration”, and a number of annual reports from governmental and non-governmental organizations. By analyzing these documents, the net benefits were calculated. The Great Barrier Reef contributes $6.4 billion to …

Cleaning The Variable Mess: A Population Genomics Approach To Understanding The Evolutionary History Of A Complicated Plant Group, Claire Marino

Honors Theses

The Solanum dioicum clade is a group of Australian bush tomatoes consisting primarily of species native to Western Australia and the Northern Territory whose species delimitations tend to be quite unclear. Since David Symon’s monograph A Revision of the Genus Solanum in Australia was published in 1981, little additional progress has been made in clarifying these relationships. In this project, a population genomics approach was used to analyze the relationships and delimitations between three species within the S. dioicum clade: Solanum dioicum, S. carduiforme, and S. ossicruentum. The use of population genomics methods is advantageous to understanding …

Growing Cricket In Tasmania: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Elizabeth Ann Stanford

Honors Theses

Sports are an integral part of life in societies throughout the world. Cricket is one of Australia’s two major sports and is a significant aspect of its culture, in a fashion similar to baseball being America’s “national pastime.” Despite its isolation, Tasmania, the small island state of Australia, shares the same mania for cricket as mainland Australia. While in Tasmania for ten weeks interning with the Tasmanian Cricket Association (TCA), I studied the role of cricket in the day-to-day lives of Tasmanians, from the pervasive television, newspaper, and the radio coverage, to pick-up cricket games as a popular leisure time …

England's Experimental Colony: The First Settlement In Australia, Frances M. Casazza

Honors Theses

Almost 200 years ago, the first white settlers stepped on the shores of Australia. They were not there for freedom or opportunity, but rather for punishment. England's prisons were overflowing and their solution was sending the convicts away and forgetting about them. Australia's history and first eighty years of development began in this shadow. From 1787 until 1867 the English Government transported convicts to their penal colony in Australia. In all over 160,000 convicts were sent. The initial settlement and the reasons behind it were uniquel. England's attempt to establish a self-sufficient convict colony was the firs tof its kind. …

Kuru, Scott Turner

Honors Theses

The paper begins with a discussion on the discovery of kuru, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. This is followed by a look at the cultural life of the Fore tribe, the natural hosts of kuru. The clinical characteristics, laboratory data, post-mortem findings and histopathology of kuru victims are also discussed.

The extensive transmission experiments involving kuru is the next topic presented. Next, a classification of disease, the origin of kuru the infectious agent involved, the etiology, the epidemiology and a possible genetic basis for kuru is given.

The paper ends with a look into some of the …