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O.U.T. LIBRARY

Issue No 83 Gardens Point, Kelvin Grove, Kedron Park, Carseldine Campuses and Sunshine Coast Centre

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Faults in vision gO undetected

QUT research into eye-testing for drivers could result in dramatic changes following proof that current methods are unsafe.

Papua New Guinea language lecturer Mr Otto Anduari with school teacher Ms Kimeata Kabumarou.

(Photo: Tony Phillips)

Mr Otto Anduari and Ms Kimeata Kabumarou are among international students who will be sharing their culture with Aussies during QUT's annual multi-cultural festival.

Island of Kiribati, where she is a primary school teacher. She is studying at the School of Early Childhood.

The multicultural festival begins on Monday 6 April with an address by race discrimination, human rights and equal opportunity commissioner Ms Irene Moss.

festival would the gala day on Sat- urday 11 April on Carseldine campus, running from I lam to 5pm. It will be opened officially at lpm by the director of the Bureau of Ethnic Affairs Mr Uri Themal.

A cooperative study between the Centre for Eye Research and the Physi- cal Infrastructure Centre (PIC) has found the Australia-wide standard eye- testing method for drivers licence ap- plicants is ineffective.

Research led by optometry senior lecturer Dr Joanne Wood and PIC deputy director Associate Professor Rod Troutbeck has proved methods based on an applicant's ability to read letters from a distance fails to reveal major vision faults.

The results are significant in an ag- e •"'irf81JOlllfthltkmwhere most adults have

spent most of their lives as drivers and intend to continue.

Dr Wood said the study showed no evidence linking driving performance with letter vision.

Testing showed simulated monocu- lar - or single-eye - vision had little effect on driving capability. In contrast, a restricted field of vision or simulated cataracts, which did not show up in a letter test, made a significant difference to the way people drove.

Dr Wood said testing for the project, financed by almost $20 000 in Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS) funds, started in 1990 using final year optometry students.

Wearing special goggles to restrict vision in various ways the students were asked to drive around the Trans- port Department's closed-circuit po- lice testing centre at Mt Cotton.

Professor Troutbeck helped design

by Kathy Lund

the driving tests and appropriate methods to measure driving performance.

The next step will be to extend the study to include people with true visual impairment problems, particularly those with cataracts. Funding for further study is being sought from the FORS and Australian Research Coun- cil (ARC),

"Our simulated studies show cataracts reduc~ an. awareness of signs,

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tions of the normal driving environment and impact on lane position," said Dr Wood.

"Most old people have some degree of cataract but the amount of cataract has to be quite substantial before it reduces ability to pass letter tests. Let- ters may look fuzzy but the driver may still able to read them. Therefore letter tests are not appropriate."

The study will try to determine the value of tests such as useful field of view, or simulated distractions, time- to-collision or reaction times, and dis- ability glare or the ability to assess low-contrast letters in the presence of glare.

Dr Wood and Professor Troutbeck are also seeking funding for another interdisciplinary research project, this time in conjunction with head of the social business and environmental education school Associate Professor Rodney Gerber.

Otto is a language lecturer at a Papua New Guinea teachers' college who is studying at QUT for a year. Kimeata will be showing dances that represent sailing and more mundane activities such as washing. She hails from the Pacific

Coordinator Ms Deanne Betten, of the arts faculty, said this year's theme was Celebrating unity in diversity.

Ms Betten said the highlight of the

Entry to the festival on Saturday is free. It will include music, dance and song from all over the world.

There will be plenty of fun for children and displays of arts and crafts.

See full festival program page 6. Dr Joanne Wood fits special goggles to (Photo: Tony Phillips)

$300 000 grant fo r law ce ntre

QUT's Centre for Commercial and Property Law has won a $300 000 grant to develop library resources in the fast-growing environmental law field.

Centre director Professor Bill Duncan said the grant would give QUT one of the best environmental law collections in Australia. Books already were being bought.

The centre itself is proving a leader in the field of texts on environmental law. Of five books currently being written by centre staff, four deal with environmental legislation.

Work on what Professor Duncan has termed the "centrepiece", a textbook titled Planning and Environmental lAw in Queensland was made possible by a grant of almost $33 000 from the Law QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 864 2999

Society Grants Committee. The book is a joint project involving centre members and outside legal practitioners. QUT contributors include Professor Doug Fisher, Professor Chris Gilbert, Ms Sue Rigney, Ms Helen Endre, Ms Ros MacDonald and Professor Duncan. Planning law

• Continued page 2

New weapon in cancer f ight

• page 5

Registered by Australia Post- Publication No. QBF 4778

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Vice-chancellor's comment

Preservers of traditions, leaders of change

To some in academia, the concept of students/parents, employers and the government being customers is offensive. Universities have and must continue to have great freedom.

But to ignore the rules followed by any good service organisation, those of involving customers in the design of its services and being accountable to its customers, risks a downturn in business.

Students, more than ever, are customers, paying money (although heavily subsidised) for expectations of great benefit from a degree. Parents support their student sons and daughters and, in many cases, they are the ones who actually pay for the services the university provides.

Employers, of course, are the buyers of our graduate product. If the then thev will buy from elsewhere. More and more,

· employers are contributing funds di- rectly to assist universities maintain the quality of service they want.

The federal government, repre- senting its citizens, contracts the university to undertake education and research programs on a fee for service basis. It has demonstrated that it is prepared to move resources within the sector to get what it considers to be better value for money.

These customer groups have different needs or wants and the university must balance these without compromising a measure of inde- pendence. On the one hand, universities have a precious tradition to preserve. On the other, they are leaders of change.

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Professor Dennis Gibson

Driv.er eye tests unsafe- page 1

Governments benefit from policy studies .

Future graduates ofQUT's School of Cultural and Policy Studies may be able to help governments avoid crises such as the shortage of terti- ary education places.

The school's newly-appointed head Professor Noeline Kyle says the current dilemma is the result of a 1980s Federal Government policy that "obviously worked too well". Professor Kyle described policy studies as a

Professor Noeline Kyle

fairly new area of academic interest, particularly in Australia. The discipline examined policy formulation, imple- mentation and impacts on particular groups in society. QUT was among the leaders in the field.

"Developing advanced policy analysis skills in teachers and other profes- sionals will help them to make and evaluate policy," she explained.

"We would be hoping to influence policy makers in the future to try to predict problems which might arise, such as the bulge in student numbers.

"With the rapid changes now taking place in education systems there is a clear need for critical analyses of these policy shifts with their under- pinning economic-rationalist assumptions and accompanying rhetoric of excellence, quality and equity."

She said the current nexus between education and the workplace was re- flected unambiguously in the make- up of the Federal Department of Em- ployment Education and Training (DEET).

Despite the scarcity of research

Grant for law centre

• From page 1

specialists from the firm Feez Ruthning, Mr Ian Hodgetts, Mr Paul Newman and Ms Ros-anne Muerlin are also contributing.

Professor Duncan said there was a great need for such a text as very little had been written on planning and environmental law in Queens- land despite a growth of legislation, particularly in the heritage and pollution areas. ·

A book of essays, The Challenge of Resource Security, is aimed at helping legal practitioners and students come to grips with the highly controversial issue of resource security.

Written in conjunction with the University of Western Australia's Centre for Commercial and Re- sources Law QUT's contribution is being supervised by Professor Fisher, a national authority on natural resources law. He is writing the chapter The Meaning and Signifi- cance of Resource Security.

The newly-published textbook Maritime Law in Australia , co-writ-

ten by Professor Duncan and QUT law lecturer Mr Des Butler, also has an environmental slant.

"A few years ago a book on maritime law would not deal with pollution," said Professor Duncan. "We consider it important enough now to include a chapter on'oil pollution of the sea by ships."

A further grant of$7800 from the Queensland Law Society Grants Com'mittee has helped fund a book of essays, edited. by Professor Dmican, on commercial and property law. Environmental law is among the subjects covered. This work forms the basis of a series called Australian Studies in Law being published by the centre in conjunction with The Federation Press of Sydney.

Another joint effort with The Fed- eration Press is a book of essays edited by senior lecturer Dr Stephen Corones entitled Restrictive Trade Practices in the Media and Aviation Industries. Twelve experts - from academia, government and industry - have contributed to the publication. It is due for release in May.

Pa_ge 2 INSIDE OUT, 31 March 1992

funds Professor Kyle said the school intended to develop a critically con- structive response to policy developments in education.

"Although there's been a strong push for education for work there re- mains in Australia a very strong lib- em! view of educatioq for life." said Professor Kyle.

"The government believes that an education system linked more closely to the economy can perhaps ease un- employment. One of our jobs is to find out if that's the case by looking critically at all aspects of that policy development."

Professor Kyle comes to QUT from Wollongong University where she was an associate professor in the education faculty. Her major interests are equity policy, particularly gender equity, and the history of education.

Reflecting these interests Professor Kyle is keen to encourage more links between historical analysis and policy studies. Research concentrations will focus on five strands including equity policy, with a particular emphasis on gender equity.

With former colleague, Wollongong University education professor Dr Ron King, she is writing a book on Equity Policy in Australian Education due to be published next year by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Professor Kyle described herself as a mature-age student who went back to school in the Whitlam era after having left at the age of 14. She went on to university, did an honours degree, won a postgraduate scholarship and has never looked back.

Her message to prospective mature- age students seeking her advice? "It's never too late!".

Seminars

The first semester seminar series at the Key Centre in Strategic Man- agement began on 12 March. The speaker was Professor Ian Saunders, the Queensland Government professor of quality management.

Professor Saunders' subject was Quality in education: what does it mean? Other seminars have been addressed by senior research fellow Dr John Forster and Professor Bill Birkett, of the University of New South Wales.

The seminars are held each week in BLT4 lecture theatre on the ground floor of B Block at Gardens Point campus.

This issue Inside QUT asked students if, as a community, we care sufficiently for the aged.

MEGANSTACE

Bachelor of Teaching -Primary

"I think the aged get more care now than they are going to get in the future. With no pensions all people will get is what they put away in their su- perannuation. By the time they get it, it won't be worth anything because of inflation. Now old people don't have to rely on charity, they are independent but in the future they won't be so independent."

MICHAEL WALL

Bachelor of Teaching - Primary

"No I don't think so. Our overall culture doesn't relate to old age. To- day's family strucwre is changing. It is no longer a family unit.

"Both husband and wife are out working now. Children of the future won't care for the elderly as they don't have as much respect for parents or for the elderly.

"The falling out of the family unit effects the views and beliefs of the elderly."

TRINAHAYES

"I have an aunt in a nursing home and the care seems to be very good.

Staff seem to be very caring and know their job well.

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than school-aged children. Children don't have the right attitude towards the elderly.

"I know when I was their age, I just saw them as old people."

MURRAY SHIELDS

"I don't think so. We have views of them from the media as doddering old fools, like in Mother and Son.

"It's not right. There are a lot of images like that in the media and people don't give them (the elderly) the respect they deserve.

" A lot of them are still living at home with not enough income."

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Health classification

Third-year anatomy student Ms Bernadette Skehan (right} checks on the progress of first-year student Ms Anne Forester. (Photo: Tony Phillips)

Nearly half of 400 students studying anatomy at QUT are taking part in a DEET -funded project in which experienced students help their first-year colleagues avoid course and exam pitfalls.

The scheme, called Pass Assist- ance Study Sessions (PASS), is part of the university's policy of improv- ing teaching through total quality management (TQM) techniques.

Department of Employment Edu- cation and Training (DEET) repre- sentative Ms Barbara Kelly is coor- dinating the program.

"Under this project we are really treating the students as customers,"

she said. "It also provides an opportunity for feedback from the students to help the lecturer."

Ms Kelly said PASS was a proactive, cost-effective, academic support program based on collabo- rative learning. It involved regularly scheduled out-of-class study sessions which were offered to all students enrolled in a particular subject. The PASS sessions were en- tirely voluntary. Session leaders were advanced students who already

had experienced the study problems faced by their colleagues.

Pass targeted "at risk" subjects rather than "at risk" students, Ms Kelly explained.The principal objectives were to improve the learning strate- gies and study skills of participating students. She said the PASS program at QUT was based on a supplemental instruction (SI) process introduced at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, USA, in 1974.

PASS was a student-centred col- laborative learning improvement strategy aiming to change students from being passive, lecturer dependent, un- questioning recipients and uncritical reproducers of inf9rmation into active, autonomous, questioning, critical and reflective learners, Ms Kelly said.

Third-year student Ms Bernadette Skehan is one of the PASS leaders.

She said she failed anatomy in her first year and took it again in her second year "and I passed and did fairly well in it."

"So I knew the pitfalls and when I can see other students falling into them, I can help them," Ms Skehan said.

Ms Pauline Sheather, a second- year student, said she thought she was asked to be a PASS leader partly because she was slightly older than most students and could relate to mature-age students.

Ms Skehan said the program was helping her to find new study techniques for her own use as well as helping others.

"With subjects that I might be having difficulty with these sessions help me to work out different ways of approaching problems," she said.

Ms Sheather said the PASS program was working very well. ''The feedback that Henry (lecturer Mr Henry Loh) has been getting from the students he says is tremendous.

"Even in the lab sessions the students are asking more questions, better informed questions and really seem to be altogether more interested," she said.

The program also was helping the first-year students to assimilate into the university socially. "They know now that the second- and third-year students are approachable," Ms Sheather said.

Campus quickies

QUT news scoop!...Dr J Hewson says Prime Minister Keating has got it more or less right on the republican issue.

QUT' s first post-doctoral fellow, Dr Jenny-Lea Hewson, did her education PhD on the topic of nationalism and the factors and forces that go towards making a collective identity. Her thesis questions the impact of English tradition in the development of the Australian personality. "I argue innovation and a sense of looking to our future, rather than looking to our traditions, helped to consolidate our collective identity." says Dr Hewson. "It does give a lot of historical strength to what Paul Keating is proposing."

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Environmental engineering students from Griffith University had a "high" old time during a recen~, inaugural visit _to the laboratories of QUT' s civil engineering school to see what they could learn from our research techmques. The expenence, unfortunately, proved a little too real for them. These students, who specialise in helping to maintain a clean environment picked the wrong day to visit ... A blockage in all the toilets in the area led to a very realistic demonstration ofraw sewerage overflow.

unit open

A major health classification centre serving Australia and the western Pacific region has been established at QUT. The centre was opened early this month by Federal MLA Mr Gary Johns.

Called the Australian Institute of statistics to be made between coun- Health and Welfare National Refer- tries. Mr Johns said the appointment ence Centre for Classification in of the AIH as a collaborating centre Health, it is a joint venture between for lCD was a significant award.

the Australian Institute of Health and He described the new centre as a Welfare (AIH), QUT's School of Pub- major component of the AIH's future lie Health, Queensland Health and the contributions.

Australian Bureau of Statistics The centre also would organise and (Queensland). present training courses, workshops The centre was established last and seminars on the use and applica- month following World Health Or- tion of disease classification systems.

ganisation (WHO) designation of the A committee of th_e AIH had rec- Australian Institute of Health and ommended the establishment of a na- Welfare as a WHO collaborating cen- tiona! nosology reference centre in tre for disease classification. 1986.

Centre director Ms Jennifer Mitch- (Nosology is the study of classifi- ell said the facility would play a major cation of disease.)

role in the development of health clas- Formal agreements leading to the sification systems and health informa- founding of the new centre came into tion systems in Australia and through- effect on 6 February this year. . out the western Pacific region. "As a reference centre, an essential

Opening the centre Mr Johns said: activity will be the collection and dis-

" Australia has a long record of mak- semination of information about health ing a major contribution to interna- classification systems," Mr Johns said.

tiona! developments in disease classi- An important and long overdue ac- fication." tivity would be the development and

The initial focus of the centre would maintenance of standard guidelines for be the introduction into Australia and hospital coding practice throughout the western Pacific region of the lOth Australia.

revision of the international classifi- At present each state health author- cation of diseases (lCD) for use from ity had its own guidelines within the 1993 for cause of death coding. broad framework of WHO and ABS lCD was a classification system requirements and in keeping with lCD which enabled comparisons of health rules, he said.

The Queensland Government has been accused of having policy op- posed to the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD).

QUT senior lecturer in the planning and landscape architecture school Dr Catherin BuD says the government should adopt the "users pay" principle to finance the pres- ervation of national parks and other natural beauty spots.

Dr Bull has been asked by the Whitsunday Shire to fmd ways of combating the negative impact of tourism. She said recently that in resisting moves to charge users of national parks and tourist fre- quented areas Queensland Govern- ment policy was "contrary to the principles of ESD".

"One of the fundamentals of the concept is that resources should be explicitly valued and that users should pay for them to be managed and accessible," she said.

By not charging users the state risked perpetuating a situation where national parks and other natural assets remained under-managed and at risk. National parks in Queensland had been traditionally treated as the poor relation when it came to funding for resource management, Dr Bull said.

It was hard to see how this would vary without proper funding of conservation planning, environmental management and high quality infrastructure development.

"National parks constitute a significant part of the state's tourist attractions and need all the help they can get, not only for management of use but to protect them from impacts from change beyond their boundaries," Dr Bull said.

"In addition, many of the state's natural assets such as the coastline, waterways, habitats and topography features lie outside of designated na-

tional parks. These also need to be managed for increasing use and impacts from development."

Dr Bull asked where money would come from to care for all these "valu- able places" if not from the user.

There seemed to be a perception that all would be well in the areas pro- viding nobody thought about them or initiated active management, despite evidence to the contrary from all over the world and the rest of Australia.

"We need to be pro-active in our management and planning across the board in these regions. National parks, local and state government all need to be involved. These areas are our resources. They are the at- traction," she said.

Without properly funded and managed parks where people could learn about the environment there was risk that people were being pre- vented from learning how parks operated, how they should be best used and what made them so important to the nation.

Dr Bull said it also went against the principles ofESD, which encour- aged appropriate use of natural and important areas for educational pur- poses.

"We should be able to see them not only in their undisturbed state but also as examples of how we can and should use them," she said.

"Rather than preventing use, we should plan and encourage tourist access to the highest possible standard, using all the expertise we can muster."

Care should be invested both in the resources and the development of expertise to protect them so they would remain healthy, interesting and informative in the long-term. If this were done, Queensland would be acting in line with the principles of sustainability and sustainable tourism, Dr Bull said.

Page 3 INSIDE OUT, 31 March 1992

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Politieian · s _ should study history

Politicians with a penchant for immortality should learn the les- sons of history says QUT's new head of the School of Humanities Professor Cameron Hazlehurst.

Those politicians who capture the historical agenda from the outset have the greatest chance of being remembered in a positive way, he says. Studies of reformist politicians, particularly early-20th century British leaders Asquith, Lloyd George and Churchill led to Profes- sor Hazlehurst developing a special interest in the skills of communication and persuasion.

"One of the things that fascinated me was finding how much the be- haviours of political leaders was por- trayed in a stereotyped manner," he said.

"All sorts of assumptions had crept into the history books about what these people were actually like which, when you traced them back, really seemed to stem from hostile propaganda. In fact, someone had actually captured the history books."

Professor Hazlehurst said contemporary debates seemed to be carried forward for decades influenc-

New QUT Student Guild president Scott Zackeresen has accepted his challenging position with a sense of enthusiasm and optimism for the year ahead.

After a hectic "honeymoon" culmi- nating in Orientation Week activities, Mr Zackeresen has settled into his overall task of trying to improve the daily life of students at QUT.

Mr Zackeresen, 25, is the first to admit he may have underestimated the demands of his high profile role.

Even the decision to put his Bach- elor of Education degree on hold to dedicate himself full-time to the Stu- dent Guild in 1992 has not given him all the time he needs.

"Having been an active member of the guild for the past couple of years, I did have some sort of insight into what the position would involve," Mr Zackeresen said.

"But it is a lot more hectic than I had appreciated. Suddenly I've become the 'keeper of all knowledge' and I'm expected to have an opinion on everything.

"There's a lot of nitty-gritty type things I hadn't accounted for. Offi- cially the job is 35 hours per week but it tends to take up a lot more time than that."

The Student Guild has become a large-scale organisation since the amalgamation of QUT with the Brisbane College of Advanced Edu- cation in 1990, which resulted in a 1992 student population of 23 000 at four campuses and the Sunshine Coast centre.

Each campus has a guild executive to look after local affairs. A central executive addresses issues which affect all campuses. The president's role is to coordinate the process.

Mr Zackeresen says his main aim is to bring QUT students into line with those at some of the older southern universities, where he believes they have more of a say in university policy.

"We have a lot more muscle and buying power now than we had before amalgamation," Mr Zackeresen said.

"I think a lot of opportunities have been missed in previous years because students have been reluctant to even be seen to be rocking the boat. They've been reluctant to confront people who may affect their futures.

"We don't see ourselves as being

ing the way subsequent generations perceived what had happened.

"If you happen to be lucky and get

your story in first it can have a significant impact on subsequent interpreta- tions of events," he concludes.

"Clearly many politicians have under- stood that and recognised the relevance of history to politics."

He cited as an example the way in which political parties "called upon traditional understandings of the nature of their country's past" as evi- denced by the current debate on Aus- tralia's future direction.

Professor Hazlehurst said he hoped new Bachelor of Arts students would graduate with an understanding of the forces that created a society's view of itself. He also hoped graduates would be equipped to work out Australia's place in the world. But he advised cau- tion about rhetoric which positioning Australia firmly as part of Asia.

"On the whole we tend not to be very good at projecting the nature of world change beyond a period of about five or 10 years," he explained.

"If you had looked at strategic as-

sessments pre-glasnost and perestroika and tried to predict the incredible trans-

antagonistic but I think we should be a little more assertive. I'd like to see us involved in some commercial ventures as well, to give us a little fmancial backing."

Mr Zackeresen says one of the major problems facing QUT students is

the multi-campus structure, which forces students to travel frequently between campuses.

It obviously is a problem for academic staff as well but now that they are more established it is students who face the most difficulties relating to time management and costs.

"Initially, there was a little bit of hesitancy in the guild to confront the problem because Gardens Point has tended to be more conservative than the other campuses," Mr Zackeresen said.

"It also sees itself as the hub of the university and, when northern campus students were affected, it was not seen as a huge problem.

"But now that business students, for example, have been forced to travel between Gardens Point and Kedron, it has really hit home."

Mr Zackeresen says the guild also plans to address issues affecting students nationally, such as Austudy and overcrowding.

He says he appreciates there are no simple solutions to these major problems but he believes students can and should have a greater influence on government higher education policies.

"We've said for a long time that we understand problems like overcrowding are not wholly the universities' fault. But what concerns us is the way our university administration re- sponds to those government issues,"

he said.

'That's where we would like to have an input."

On the local scene, Mr Zackeresen says the "general thrust" of the guild is to get in touch with its students again.

"During the general upheaval of amalgamation, students felt slightly alienated from the guild. We want to remedy that situation," he said.

"We provide a lot of services that the students are not always aware of and we are trying to develop a situation where the students come to us if they have a problem. All they have to do is ask."

Professor Cameron Hazlehurst formation that's occurred in Europe who would have got that right?

"I'm not sure how the rhetoric about being part of Asia will correspond with the. reality of the world in a decade from now."

Professor Hazlehurst has come to QUT from the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. He has spent the past 19 years on a fellowship in the Research School of Social Stud- ies which is part of the Institute of

Advanced Studies. His research was on 20th century British and Australian history. He is a graduate of Melbourne University and has a PhD from Ox- ford where he spent seven years as a lecturer and research fellow.

Professor Hazlehurst's academic interest in communication has spawned secondary careers as a public service analyst, broadcaster, research consultant, television producer and author.

In 1979 he wrote a biography of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, published by Allen and Unwin. In 1989 he wrote a biography of former Queensland Liberal Party leader Sir Gordon Chalk who once became state premier for eight days.

He was a public service adviser from 1973 to 1975 in the federal urban and regional development department under the then minister Mr Tom Uren.

As head of the strategy division in the communications department, he re- searched a range of new technology, particularly satellites and their impli- cations for the broadcasting and tel- ecommunications systems of Aus- tralia. A part-time assignment was as national director of the AIDS educa-

tion and information campaign with the Department of Community Serv- ices and Health.

In television he has worked as a consultant on the ABC series Mas- termind and Close Up and the 13- part BBC documentary series The British Empire.

Professor Hazlehurst said the school would be teaching humanities traditions as well as helping people understand the changing nature of contemporary societies -Asian, European and Australian.

"In disciplinary terms we will be covering history, some politics, ge- ography and a range of languages other than English- French, German, Indonesian and Japanese," he said.

"Later on we hope to add Thai.

"We will group our studies around regional themes."

In addition there would be strands in studies in the human condition and applied ethics.

"We hope graduates will have a basis for comprehending the changes that are taking place in the world,"

he said. ''That basis will start from an understanding of the human condition."

Aussie scientists leaders in geographical ecology

One ofthe world's foremost ecolo- gists says Australian scientists are among global leaders in landscape ecology.

With Dutch and American scientists, Australians had the greatest understanding of the ecology of large land masses he said on a recent visit to QUT.

Professor Robert Foreman was a guest of the School of Planning and Landscape Architecture for three days early this month.

He is in Australia while on sabbati- cal from the graduate school of design at Harvard University, Connecticut, USA.

At Harvard, he is resident senior professor in landscape ecology. With co-author Michel Godron he has pro- duced an internationally recognised standard text called Landscape Ecol- ogy. His book is the set text for QUT landscape ecology students.

During his visit Professor Foreman, who was accompanied by his wife

Barbara, lectured undergraduates and a graduate class that wiis open to the public.

"I've also been meeting with the graduate students in small groups, finding out what they do and telling them about our work," he said.

Australia's environmental problems had both similarities and big differ- ences to those of the US, he said.

"One of the reasons I come to Aus- tralia is that I'm very interested in the ecology of very large land areas and Australia has science going on that is in the forefront of that field," Profes- sor Foreman explained.

"I felt I had to come and fmd out what really is going on here. Other than the Netherlands and, perhaps, the United States, Australia is the best in understanding the ecology of large land areas."

Environmental issues such as timber cutting, flooding and over-grazing were problems common in large countries throughout the world.

Statistical study of chaos theory

Research being carried out by QUT mathematics lecturer Dr Nancy Spencer could result in a statistical interpretation of the controversial chaos theory.

The chaos theory has been used in recent times to explain phenomena as diverse as measles outbreaks, weather patterns and the dealings of the stock market. Dr Spencer said the theory had been around for some time but only recently became "fashionable".

"The chaotic process has usually been treated as a mathematical orientation but now we are looking to analyse the statistical properties," she explained.

''If we can develop a statistical model it will help to validate the theory and also help to explain processes better."

Dr Spencer's work is in the area of non-linear time series modelling techniques. "Non-linear models provide a simple method of explaining data," she explained. "Non-linear are more complicated but allow a clearer explanation of data."

Dr Spencer has just returned after spending five months on professional development program (PDP) leave at Birmingham University in the United Kingdom working with chair in statistics Professor Tony Lawrance. An expert in non-linear time series he has recently been looking at the chaos theory.

Dr Spencer said she and Professor Lawrance were seeking ''to fit non- linear equations to the data to explain it." Their preliminary research was presented to the Royal Statistical Society in London last October. They hope the paper will be published in the society's journal.

''If we can explain the statistical properties of the chaotic process then we can develop a better, or alternative, way of explaining such series," she said. ·

Dr Spencer said Professor Lawrance had been invited to visit QUT later this year or early next year. His visit probably would be shared with the University of Queensland.

Professor Foreman said he could not comment on environmental politics in Australia but in the US occasionally a politician appeared who "would address ecological issues".

"But we're not in that period right now," he said.

"One of the interesting things that is somewhat different than Australia is that when government has putle<!

out of the running in addressing ecological problems we have whole rafts of private agencies and organisa- tions that depend on fund-raising and they have sky-rocketed since 1980 or so."

The effect of nature conservation had increased enormously during the period when the US Government had moved out of the fore.

"But they each have their own focus so the conservancy iii our country is mainly protecting the habitats of rare species," he said.

Areas such as wind erosion and soil conservation were not being addressed very well.

One of the reasons landscape ecology was so interesting was that it did not involve only trying to provide clean water, or improve fish populations and productivity but it was interested in local communities, their lifestyles and employment opportunities.

"We actually model large land ar-

eas, simple geometric models, and we do it in such a way that we investigate how an area of virgin forest can be cut ... there are a variety of ways it can be done," Professor Foreman said.

''Then we publish some of that and we show that the way our government does it is not very effective and also the way that private timber companies do it is not very effective.

"There are some middle ways that are ecologically better."

One of the reasons he wanted to talk to students at QUT was because the pattern of landscape change was general.

When suburbs were constructed out of cities such as Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne, the effect was very similar to clearing land by timber cutting.

"What we are proposing and I actually came up with yesterday in a pro- vocative way is an ecologically opti- mum way of changing land so that it minimises many of the detrimental effects," he said.

Professor Foreman stressed that proper planning at all stages of land change was imperative to minimise degradation.

(5)

A recent copy of Perspective, the magazine of the University of Ala- bama, Tuscaloosa, was brightened by an article written by QUT exchange student Ms Susan Horsburgh.

Ms Horsburgh wrote of being

"plucked from Down Under and de- posited in Dixie - an alien world of Smokey and the Bandit bars and red pick-up trucks.

Among her discoveries was that football is just as much a religion in Alabama as it is at Brisbane's Lang Park with a giant computer screen flashing "23 days to kick off' as she arrived on campus.

She said that despite her experiences as a spectator at rugby matches, noth- ing could have prepared her for her first American football game.

" ... patriotic fanfare abounded - a 300-member strong marching band, hand-on-the-heart anthem singing and a hyped-up crowd decked out in crim- son and white.

''There's a school spirit which goes beyond the confines of the campus and finds a voice at every Alabama dinner table, at every bar where cheering com- petitions break out between Barna and Auburn fans," Ms Horsburgh said.

She admitted that before arriving in Alabama her mind conjured up images of the Deep South and all the history and mystique that went with it, Gone With the Wind, southern belles, the Civil War. But, she said, the reality surpassed her expectations.

The southern belle is not a myth, Ms Horsburgh insists. ''There's noth- ing more demoralising than stagger- ing into an 8am class and plonking yourself between two immaculately groomed modern-day • Scarlett O'Haras," she said.

Ms Horsburgh is one of Alabama's first two exchange students from Aus- tralia.

US professor guest speaker

A professor involved in multi- million dollar research in the USA was the speaker at the inaugural seminar in a new series at QUT's School of Social Sci- ence.

Professor AI Reiss addressed the seminar at Carseldine campus on 9 March. The first presentation in the new series was sponsored by the Faculty of Arts, and Justice Studies, with support from the justice administration school at Grif- fith University.

The seminars are held each Thursday from 10.45am to 12.45pm. Future subjects will include psychotherapy, gerontology, general issues confronting social science, community development and policing, and theories of social work. A program is available from the school.

Professor Reiss's talk focused on a major longitudinal study to be piloted in the US shortly. He said he and his colleagues had se- cured $2.5 million for the pilot study. They were aiming for $60 million to $80 million to fund the project, due for completion in the year 2001.

He said his research methodol- ogy involved overlapping cohorts.

These would be selected in 60 separate communities. The study would involve 12 000 subjects.

The cohorts would include subjects from pre-natal stage up to age 24 years.

The study ~oulrl f()('"~ rw hnth i?dividual~ For Sale

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Graduate helps BP lead the field

Ms Nazaneen Asker at work in BP's Bulwer Island laboratory.

a er 1s new weapon •

against breast cancer

A QUT research group as won a

$75 000 grant to fund the quest for improved early diagnosis of breast cancer.

Working through the centre for Medical and Health Physics within the science faculty, the project team members are Dr Tim van Doom (director), Dr Michael Waterworth (senior research fellow), Dr Christine Baker (director, breast screening clinic, Royal Women's Hospital) and Dr John McCaffrey (professor of surgery at the University of Queensland).

The team is working on the development of a Laser Diaphanography Scanner (LDS). Dr van Doom said the LDS made use of a laser beam to scan one side of soft body tissue and measure light emerging from the other side.

He said the technique had particular application to scanning the female

breast for can'Cer. The breast would be scanned from many different angles and the LDS would reproduce a trans- verse "slice" on a computer screen showing the internal structure.

Once developed sufficiently to scan for breast cancer, the process could replace current x-ray scanning techniques.

"X-rays as used for scanning for breast cancer are not dangerous but there is a stigma associated with them and tumours are not always visible to an x-ray system," Dr van Doom explained.

He said the first prototype LDS unit was under construction. He expected a second stage prototype to be completed later this year and clinical trials would start in 1993.

Diaphanography had been in use since the 1920s using multiple wave

length incandescent lights. The LDS would use only one wave length and would be a far cooler, cleaner and more precise method, Dr van Doom said.

"We are trying to make use of recently developed technology to improve scanning methods," he said.

"Current breast screening programs mean that many more women are having breast x-rays. If we can cut down on the x-rays by using a light source then we can scan much more often and begin scanning in lower age groups."

Dr van Doom explained that scanning for breast cancer now began in the 45 - 50 years age group because younger breasts were not suitable for present screening methods. The LDS also would avoid the compression dis- comfort associated with the present technique of x-ray screening.

A QUT chemistry graduate has helped make industrial giant BP a world leader in the development of a new oil analytical technique.

Ms Nazaneen Asker is working in the United States at BP's Warrensville Research Centre near Cleveland, Ohio, helping to develop a new technique known as Near Infra Red (NIR) to determine properties of refined oil. ·

The NIR technique was first applied to oil analysis at BP' s La vera Research Centre in France, where initial results aroused international interest.

Ms Asker previously worked at BP' s Bulwer Island refinery in Brisbane, where she successfully applied NIR technology to improve accuracy and efficiency in a wide variety of tests in the laboratory.

She proved that using NIR, even BP's smallest refinery laboratories could rapidly develop new techniques without the need for large research expenditure.

Bulwer Island refinery technical manager, Dr John Rowney, said Ms Asker's work had highlighted the tremendous potential for large cost savings offered by NIR.

"The oil industry is very keen to develop it to replace a number of testing procedures," Dr Rowney said.

"The main savings are in time. For example, the bulk of the tests that we do are for measuring octane in petrol, which normally takes about 45 minutes. The NIR technique takes two minutes."

By using NIR analysis, Bulwer Is- land refinery was able to save about

$160 000 in laboratory costs last year, with quality control also improved .

"The success of the research was very rewarding for us," Dr Rowney said.

"We're just a small refmery and we really don't have a research budget, so it was extremely satisfying."

Needless to say, BP's international management was suitably impressed and Ms Asker was offered a position at the company's major research facility in the US to continue her work.

But Ms Asker's success is hardly surprising. Her ambitious nature and hunger for learning have been evident since she first arrived in Australia eight years ago, after fleeing her war-rav- aged homeland, Afghanistan.

Despite having no knowledge of English, she attended a local high school armed with a dictionary and completed the two years' study in normal time.

She then obtained her chemistry degree at QUT and completed three years under BP Australia's graduate training scheme.

Ms Asker is expected to continue working at Warrensville for the next two years, before she decides whether to pursue a marketing or managerial career.

Focus on banking regulations

Banking regulations may become self-defeating if they work against market forces according to banking law specialist Dr Kevin McGuinness, a visiting professor at QUT's Cen- tre for Commercial and Property Law.

Commenting on Australia's move to deregulation in the '80s Profes- sor McGuinness, who lectures at the Bar Admission Course of the Law Society of Upper Canada - the old name for Ontario - said the role of the lawyer was to provide technical support to economic policy makers who determined general goals.

"The lawyer then looks at regulations to see if they support those goals," he said. "If not they develop amendments to attain the objective.

"The job of the lawyer is to make sure that regulations are clearly drafted and sharply focused on well- defined problems."

Professor McGuinnells. who i.e;

nity precinct proJeCt.

o A design competition for the business building on Gardens Point is currently being organised.

VCAC has been looking at various op- tions for relocation of parts of the Faculties

many cases they lack focus and run counter to the direction in which the market is heading. It's like saying to the tide 'do not come in.'

"Such regulations are like a dyke.

If you only build it part way along the beach the water just comes around each end.

''But in a free and democratic society it's not possible to build a dyke along the entire beach because that would require a command economy.

"Regulations must be consistent with the needs and goals of the mar- ketplace."

Professor McGuinness said many of the old methods of regulating banks in Australia had been_ by- passed by the market and restricted a bank's ability to pursue new mar- kets. Less regulated financial insti- tutions, such as merchant banks, had filled the void. He said it was diffi- cult to see how Australia could have rontinl•"'d \"·Wy·ctllDJI!ary apltem Of the following courses planned f~t had duction in 1993:

o Master of Business (Communica.·1a- - journalism specialisation

o Doctor of Juridical Science

o Master of Quality.

most other economies," he said. The problem was, said Professor McGuinness, the tricky would always find ways around rules to meet market demand and those who tried to live within the spirit of unrealis- tic rules would find themselves pro- gressively squeezed out.

Professor McGuinness says the term "deregulation" is, in fact, a misnomer.

"What we're taking about here is really reregulation, or more pur- poseful regulation," he said.

"There are always going to be areas of concern to government so to talk about deregulation is mislead- ing. In some cases there's an increase in regulation."

Examples of matters authorities would always be concerned about were banks having adequate liquid- ity, protecting depositors funds and prudent lending practices.

He suggested that the regulatory process should focus on key areas of concern and that regulations should be constantly monitored to make sure those concerns remained valid and the regulations accomplished

their purpose.

Professor McGuinness pointed to the new rules on capital adequacy, developed through the Bank of In- ternational Settlements, as an example of a more international approach toward banking regulation. He said there was a clear benefit in bringing an international perspective to the regulation of financial institutiC'ns.

"Australia can definitely learn from Canada's experience just as Canada can learn from Australia,"

he said. "It is useful to examine the experiences of other countries where the economies have enough similar- ity for conclusions to be drawn."

Commenting on legal education in Canada Professor McGuinness said that, like the United States, law was basically a graduate program.

Although students may enter Cana- dian law schools with only two years of university nearly all law students had at least one degree and many had two or three.

This resulted in virtually non-ex- istent failure and drop-out rates because "most of our students are committed to the idea of practising law".

Page 5 INSIDE QUT, 31 March 1992

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(6)

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Playwrights to ta · p ·new audiences

Australian playwrights should be creating stage characters based on footy heroes and sporting stars says QUT drama lecturer Mr Mark Radvan.

He says he believes the theatre should be seeking new audiences instead of always catering to inner-city intellectuals.

"We need to let our audiences edu- cate us," he said.

"Plays should reflect the life of the people. Instead of Death of a Sales- man perhaps we should be doing Death of a Medicare Clerk. Instead of ap- pealing to the residents of Red Hill and Toowong we should writing about what life is like in Logan City."

Mr Radvan has joined forces with Brisbane theatre identities part-time QUT lecturer and Matilda Award-win- ning actress Ms Jennifer Flowers and arts administrator Mr Mark Thomp- son in establishing a new theatre company called Metaluna, to take over where TN! theatre company left off.

Mr Thompson held the position of marketing officer for TN! until it closed due to fmancial difficulties late last year.

Mr Radvan said Brisbane's theatre world owed a great debt to TN!

"It was a very important employer

of actors in this city and worked hard to give young actors a go," he said.

"We hope the new company will not only take over the work of TN!, but set new directions. "

Part of the strategy wi)l be to be

"very portable".

New directions include tapping into the holiday market by helping create memorable cultural experiences for tourists. Theatre will be taken out- doors, plays will be broken up into component parts and enacted at different sites. Performances may be held

QUT Multicultural Festival program:

Monday 6 April: Address by race discrimination, human rights and equal opportunities commissioner Ms Irene Moss, followed by discussion panel with members of different cultural groups. 4pm Room 423 Law Faculty Gardens Point.

Tuesday 7 April: International market day 11.30am to 2.30pm Gardens Point. Twilight concert 4.30pm to 6pm, Aboriginal story-telling, poetry read- ing, Chinese orchestra, Kidney Lawn Gardens Point. Interfaith meditation, 6pm to 7pm Kidney Lawn Gardens Point.

Wednesday 8 April: Academy of Arts concert by Russian instrumental duo lpm room 203 Carseldine. Jazz concert, 4MBS live radio broadcast, concert music studio 7pm Kelvin Grove. Multicultural Festival arts exhibition opens 7 .15pm Carseldine

in unexpected places such as buses and trains, and historical reenactments may be staged at particular sites. Events such as conventions will be targeted.

"We also want to tap into new audiences in the outer metropolitan area - Logan, Albert, Redlands, Pine Rivers and Moreton Shires," said Mr Radvan.

"But to do that we will have to provide theatre that people want to see, plays about everyday people and Aus- tralian life."

He said Metal una had received "fan- tastic support" from a number of important sources including QUT, the Brisbane City Council, the Arts Divi- sion of the Premier's Department, the Royal Queensland Theatre Company, the Queensland Performing Arts Com- plex and Myer, which would provide assistance in costuming. The company had been offered use of the River Stage as a home base for performances.

To ensure the company is off to a fine start acclaimed director Mr Aarne Neeme, on a visiting lectureship to QUT, is refining Metaluna's first pro- duction, a new Australian play by Robert Hewett, The Adman. It pre- miered at QUT's Woodward Theatre, Kelvin Grove, on 28 March.

Mr Neeme, formerly head of the theatre department at the Western Australian Academy of the Perform- ing Arts, is probably best known in Brisbane as director of Essington Lewis, a play about the founder of Bro- ken Hill Proprietary (BHP), which ran for three weeks at the Suncorp Thea- tre June last.

After The Adman Mr Neeme will go to Sydney to direct the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) pro- duction of Euripides Alcestis. He will then go to Singapore for a two-year appointment with the National Uni- versity of Singapore.

Campus Art Gallery. Brisbane Sym- phonic Band with international guests 8pm Carseldine theatre. Inaugural lecture by Dean of Arts Professor Paul Wilson. Lecture theatre HN501 nursing building Kelvin Grove campus.

Thursday 9 Aprii:International foods and crafts market llam to 2pm Community Building Kelvin Grove.

Excerpts from Origins and Lemons by drama students lpm Community Building Kelvin Grove.

Friday 10 April: South American/

African Jazz roots concert 12.30pm to 1.30pm Kedron Park. Papua New Guinea cultural performance lpm Carseldine.

Monday 6 April to Saturday 11 April: Arts exhibition of works pro- duced by Brisbane artists of non-Eng- lish-speaking cultural backgrounds.

Carseldine campus art gallery.

Saturday 11 April: Multicultural Day festivalllam to 5pm Carseldine.

Teaching project popular

Members of QUT' s Academic Staff Development Unit say they are thrilled with this year's response to its Teach- ing, Reflection, Action Research and Collaboration project (TRAC).

ASDU lecturer Ms Tricia Weeks said about 70 staff from all campuses had registered to be part of the project during 1992. The TRAC project is a personal, professional, development program committed to the development of teaching and learning in QUT.

TRAC participants undertake small scale action research projects into some aspects of their own teaching and their students' learning.

Reflecting and collaborating with others is

part

of the process and con- tributes largely to the project's spirit and success. Staff members wishing to be part of the project should contact Ms Weeks on (07) 864 2919, or leave messages with Emma or Carolyn on

(07) 864 2697. --

Drama lecturer Mr Mark Radvan (left) and director Mr Aarne Neeme with the script of The Adman as QUT drama students act out a scene in the background. (Photo: Tony Phillips)

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n develop a better, or alternative, way of explaining soCii series," she

"' -

Spencer said Professor Lawrance had been invited to visit QUT later year or early next year. His visit probably would be shared with the University of Queensland.

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effects," he said.

Professor Foreman st;,.

proper planning at all stag change was imperative to ₁ degradation.