Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Impact Of Fire On Geophyte Abundance, Diversity And Composition In The Jarrah Forests Of South-West Western Australia, Jeffry Cargill

Theses : Honours

Within fire-prone environments, such as the dry sclerophyll forests of south-west Western Australia, species morphology and distributions have established and maintained long-term dynamic relationships with fire regimes. These fire regimes can alter ecosystems, creating spatial and temporal changes in species composition, structure and fuel accumulation at both local and landscape scales. The cessation of Indigenous fire regimes and the establishment and expansion of a fire vulnerable European society produced the need for fire management strategies such as prescribed burning to be implemented to ensure protection of life, property and other values. Concurrent with these human-focused objectives has been the ever-increasing …

Artificial Neural Networks : A Comparative Study Of Implementations For Human Chromosome Classification, Nancy Akl

Theses : Honours

Artificial neural networks are a popular field of artificial intelligence and have commonly been applied to solve many prediction, classification and diagnostic tasks. One such task is the analysis of human chromosomes. This thesis investigates the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) as automated chromosome classifiers. The investigation involves the thorough analysis of seven different implementation techniques. These include three techniques using artificial neural networks, two techniques using ANN s supported by another method and two techniques not using ANNs. These seven implementations are evaluated according to the classification accuracy achieved and according to their support of important system measures, …

End User Preference Of Customisable Features Within A Course Management System, Diana Taylor

Theses : Honours

Customisation is the means by which people alter and change various elements of their environment with the purpose of making it more suited to their immediate needs. This aids in creating a more personalised experience. People are extremely diverse in terms of age, gender, nationality, and with the dominant presence of technology people also have various levels of computer skills and experience. In the context of computer environments, customisation provides the ability to cater for a diverse user group, providing tools and options that assist with specific tasks, improve accessibility and achieve greater user satisfaction. Carter, MacLean, Lovstard & Moran …

Computer Security: Investigating The Impact That Security Specific Education Has On Users’ Behaviour, Samuel David Jones

Theses : Honours

A lack in end-user awareness in computer security issues provides the rationale for this investigation. The research considers whether or not the provision of an educational package addressing computer security issues will improve awareness and transform behaviour of end-users in assessing and enacting appropriate responses in computer security situations. A group of twenty participants was studied in detail using a mixed methods research approach. The participants were drawn from a cross section of computer end-users, from elementary to advanced levels of computer literacy. Outcomes include a positive response to the provision of material, however human factors were found to be …

A Study Of The Effects Of Probait On Chuditch, Dasyurus Geoffroii, Within The Julimar Conservation Park With Notes On The General Ecology, Melissa York

Theses : Honours

Broad scale fox baiting programs have been underway in Western Australia since 1996 when the Western Shield fauna recovery program commenced with the aim of recovering many fauna species that are under threat of extinction. Until recently, effective fox control for fauna recovery has been achieved with dried meat baits impregnated with the poison 1080. The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) has developed more readily available and cost effective sausage meat baits, termed Probait. As bait acceptability trials in the laboratory indicated a potential risk from Pro bait ingestion by chuditch (Dasyurus geoffroii), assessment of the likely risk …

An Investigation Of Network Security Management Methods, Shamila Anuranga Ratnayake

Theses : Honours

Network Management (NM) is concerned with reducing complexity and managing cost. The traditional NM tools and techniques are based on the Open System Interconnection (OSI) NM model. However, several drawbacks have been identified when managing a network using traditional NM tools (Sarkar & Verma, 2001). Network security is a major issue when managing a network. Even though the technology assists to reduce security risks, unless properly managed, the security measures may not do the job as expected. The State Model (SM) diagram is a new method, which may assists in managing the network. This new method may provide functionality not …

Dryland Salinity In Western Australia: A Local Government Perspective, Paul Scalzi

Theses : Honours

This study evaluated local government's response to the problem of dryland salinity in the Western Australian Wheatbelt, and to what extent local government has the capacity to meet its statutory obligations. Salinity is a significant environmental problem that has the potential to have a marked effect on Western Australia's economy, environment and social fabric. The problem has been the focus of much Commonwealth and State attention, but the same level of involvement is not apparent in the institution of local government. This is also reflected in the paucity of published literature in the area of local government and salinity. Local …

Predicting The Spatial Distribution Of Organic Rich Sediments On The Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia, David Blake

Theses : Honours

The Organic Rich Sediments (ORS) of the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) are an important component of the ecosystem, an important source of habitat and refuge for many species of fauna and act as natural fire control mechanisms through edaphic measures within the landscape. There have been numerous impacts on ORS, with fire now rated as one of the imminent threats to the continued existence and functioning of these entities. Conversely fire is an important tool for land mangers in their efforts to promote biodiversity and manage fuel loads to prevent wildfires, at present many of these ORS are becoming victim …

Towards Persistent Resource Identification With The Uniform Resource Name, Luke Brown

Theses : Honours

The exponential growth of the Internet, and the subsequent reliance on the resources it connects, has exposed a clear need for an Internet identifier which remains accessible over time. Such identifiers have been dubbed persistent identifiers owing to the promise of reliability they imply. Persistent naming systems exist at present, however it is the resolution of these systems into what Kunze, (2003) calls "persistent actionable identifiers" which is the focus of this work. Actionable identifiers can be thought of as identifiers which are accessible in a simple fashion such as through a web browser or through a specific application. This …

A Salt On The Land: The Osmolyte Production And Physiological Responses Of Selected Myrtaceae Species Exposed To Salt And Water Stress, Janelle Atkinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Glasshouse trials were conducted on Calothamnus quadrifidus, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Melaleuca uncinata

to test relative tolerance and uniformity of response in the Myrtaceae family to salt, waterlogging and salt x waterlogging. Seed sources from both saline (SA) and non-saline areas were used to compare differences in survival, growth and proline production to these stresses.

2d-Barcode For Mobile Devices, Hiroko Kato

Theses : Honours

2D-barcodes were designed to carry significantly more data than its 1D counterpart. These codes are often used in industrial information tagging applications where high data capacity, mobility, and data robustness are required. Wireless mobile devices such as camera phones and Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs) have evolved from just a mobile voice communication device to what is now a mobile multimedia computing platform. Recent integration of these two mobile technologies has sparked some interesting applications where 2D-barcodes work as visual tags and/or information source and camera phones performs image processing tasks on the device itself. One of such applications is hyperlink …

Opto-Vlsi Processing For Reconfigurable Optical Devices, Chung-Kiak Poh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The implementation of Wavelength Division Multiplexing system (WDM) optical fibre transmission systems has the potential to realise this high capacity data rate exceeding 10 Tb/s. The ability to reconfigure optical networks is a desirable attribute for future metro applications where light paths can be set up or taken down dynamically as required in the network. The use of microelectronics in conjunction with photonics enables intelligence to be added to the high-speed capability of photonics, thus realising reconfigurable optical devices which can revolutionise optical telecommunications and many more application areas. In this thesis, we investigate and demonstrate the capability of Opto-VLSI …

View Space Linking, Solid Node Compression And Binary Space Partitioning For Visibility Determination In 3d Walk-Throughs, Joel Anderson

Theses : Honours

Today's 3D games consumers are expecting more and more quality in their games. To enable high quality graphics at interactive rates, games programmers employ a technique known as hidden surface removal (HSR) or polygon culling. HSR is not just applicable to games; it may also be applied to any application that requires quality and interactive rates, including medical, military and building applications. One such commonly used technique for HSR is the binary space partition (BSP) tree, which is used for 3D ‘walk-throughs’, otherwise known as 3D static environments or first person shooters. Recent developments in 3D accelerated hardware technology do …