Archive for May, 2011

A ceremony at the University of New England yesterday, which acknowledged the gift of scholarships with a total value of $5.6 million, celebrated the vital links between the University and the community.

In welcoming donors and recipients and their families to UNE’s 2011 Scholarship Presentation ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jim Barber, said that the ceremony was a celebration of the “heart and soul – the spirit” of the University, and of the community’s generous response to that “spirit”. He thanked the donors, pointing out that, in investing in the future of students, they were also investing in “the prosperity of the nation”.

During the ceremony, 132 out of a total of 214 scholarships were presented.

Professor Barber began the presentations by giving 23 UNE Country Scholarships to first-year undergraduate students from regional and remote areas. These scholarships, established in 1998, are each worth $5,000 a year for the duration of the student’s degree program.

A number of additional Country Scholarships are named in recognition of individual or corporate donors. These include the Roberts/UNE Country Scholarship, supported by Emeritus Professor John Roberts and his wife Yvonne, who travelled from their home in Sydney for the ceremony. Professor and Mrs Roberts both come originally from Armidale, and both studied at UNE in the 1950s. John Roberts graduated from UNE in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree and went on to a distinguished career as a geologist, becoming Professor of Geology at the University of NSW.

Professor Roberts explained that his “great attachment” to UNE went back to the involvement of his father, who was a lecturer in English at Armidale Teachers’ College, in the University’s educational extension program. “My feeling is that the University of New England is a special place,” he said, explaining that this was partly because of “the extremely friendly nature of the staff”. He said he enjoyed “benefiting a future graduate”, and hoped that they, too, might one day feel like “giving something back to the University”.

Professor Roberts presented the scholarship to Molly van Hemert, who comes from Tamworth and is in the first year of an animal science degree program.

Among the scholarships presented for the first time this year is the Services UNE Limited Scholarship for New England Regional School Leavers. This scholarship is for students who are from the New England region or who have attended school in the region. Mr Rod Watt, the Director of Services UNE, presented the scholarship to Peta Jeffery.

In introducing the presentation of postgraduate scholarships, UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Students and Social Inclusion, Eve Woodberry, who was MC for the ceremony, said that the scholarships were “awarded to students undertaking a Master’s degree by research, or a research doctoral degree”. “They are variously funded by the Commonwealth, the University, and a number of organisations, companies and individuals,” she said, explaining that “funding may provide a living allowance and fee relief, and support activities associated with research such as resources and travel.”

Scholarships awarded specifically for travel are the Keith & Dorothy Mackay Travelling Scholarships, a number of which were presented yesterday. Ms Woodberry said that these were to assist with expenses towards a short-term attachment to another university, or for attendance at an international conference where the recipient would present a paper on their research.

At the end of the ceremony a current undergraduate scholarship holder, Jacob Foley, offered a vote of thanks on behalf of the recipients. “I would like to thank the scholarship donors and the University of New England for providing the opportunity for so many well-deserving students to reach their potential,” he said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Professor John Roberts with Molly van Hemert.

Research at the University of New England could help people suffering from bipolar disorder to control the debilitating mood swings associated with the illness.

Alex Kary, who is studying for a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at UNE, believes that people with bipolar disorder could learn to dampen the brain activity that causes their massive mood swings by mentally manipulating a visual representation of that brain activity – as it’s actually occurring – on a computer screen.

People with epilepsy have benefited from this kind of “neurofeedback” technique, and it has also been used successfully in the treatment of problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and alcohol abuse in adults. Mr Kary pointed out that epilepsy and bipolar disorder both involved periodic episodes triggered by instability in the brain, and that they could often be treated with the same medication. “We’re arguing that the two conditions could involve similar brain processes,” he said, “and that the neurofeedback techniques used by patients with epilepsy could also be useful for those with bipolar disorder.”

The visual display of electrical activity in the brain is derived from signals detected by an array of electrodes placed against the scalp and organised as a meaningful “graph” by an electroencephalograph (EEG) instrument. Purpose-built software then transforms the “graph” into a display in the form of a computer game: patients observe the movement of characters on the screen as their mood changes, and practise controlling those movements by the voluntary control of their mood. “By playing the game they learn to control their brain activity,” Mr Kary said.

Mr Kary and his supervisors in the project at UNE, Dr Graham Jamieson and Dr Tanya Hanstock, are now recruiting subjects for the study – people between the ages of 18 and 65 who have bipolar disorder and who would be interested in helping with this search for an alternative treatment. It would involve a weekly session of about one hour for 10-15 weeks.

This is the first trial of the efficacy of neurofeedback for managing bipolar disorder. “An adjunct to conventional treatment such as this would be welcomed by people who don’t like taking medication for various reasons – including the development of side-effects such as weight gain and tremors,” Mr Kary said.

People interested in participating in the trial should contact Mr Kary on 0407 243 851 (e-mail: akary@une.edu.au) or Dr Jamieson on (02) 6773 4279 (e-mail: gjamieso@une.edu.au).

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Alex Kary and Dr Tanya Hanstock demonstrating the attachment of EEG electrodes.

School Careers Advisers will gain a deeper understanding of living and learning at the University of New England when they travel from near and far to participate in UNE’s biennial Careers Advisers’ Summit in the second week of June.

The Summit, which runs from the 8^th to the 10^th of June, is an opportunity for Careers Advisers to visit the campus, to hear from current students, and to attend seminars on various aspects of study at UNE. They tour the residential colleges, the world-class sporting complex, and ‘Booloominbah’, the historic mansion in which the University began.

“Careers Advisers always find it extremely valuable to actually see the University campus,” said Ruth Bartlett-Taylor, a member of UNE’s Schools Liaison team. “They spend a lot of time talking to their school students about UNE, and they find it easier to provide campus information when they’ve actually seen the campus. And over the two days they enjoy talking with current UNE students – for example over breakfast in the colleges – about what their UNE experiences have been like.

“The University treats the Careers Advisers to a couple of days rich in networking opportunities and unique New England experiences. The Summit is a showcase for both Armidale and UNE.”

“University staff members thoroughly enjoy working – and relaxing – with the Careers Advisers during the Summit,” Mrs Bartlett-Taylor said. “Without the assistance of Careers Advisers, we in the Schools Liaison team would find our job extremely challenging. They welcome us into their schools to speak to students, they bring their students on excursions to UNE, and they ring us for advice or even just a friendly chat. This makes our job so much easier and more enjoyable.”

Mrs Bartlett-Taylor is particularly looking forward to seeing the Careers Advisers from the Central and North West regions of NSW, with whom she works closely.

Brian See, another UNE Schools Liaison Officer, said that the Summit was also a great chance for the many Careers Advisers who studied in Armidale to revisit the campus. “These Careers Advisers have been wonderful advocates for UNE over many years and will always be valued alumni,” he said.

Careers Advisers who are interested in attending the Summit and have not yet registered their interest can e-mail events@une.edu.au.

Louise Noble, who has just published a book on the cultural context of “medicinal cannibalism” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, draws important parallels between the trade in human bodies to make medicines during that period and today’s global traffic in body parts.

By “medicinal cannibalism” she means the eating or drinking of medicines containing derivatives of human body parts or excretions.

“As is the case in today’s medical economy, the fragmented human body was a crucial commodity in the business of health in early modern England,” she says in the book, Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture.

Dr Noble (pictured here), a lecturer in English at the University of New England, conducted extensive research on the subject in overseas libraries, including the British Library, the Wellcome Library and Cambridge University Library in England, and the Huntington Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library in the United States.

Medicinal Cannibalism outlines the use of “mummy” (a contemporary term for medicinal matter derived from a corpse) in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, and explores the imaginative resonance of this medical practice in some major works of English literature of the period. These works include several of Shakespeare’s plays, Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and Donne’s Devotions.

“Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pharmacopoeias abound in references to ‘mummy’,” Dr Noble writes in the Introduction to the book. “The term identifies matter procured from both ancient embalmed bodies imported from the Middle East for the purpose, and local bodies – frequently the bodies of executed criminals sentenced to be anatomised and the bodies of those who were socially disenfranchised.” As well as ‘mummy’ itself, medicines included preparations of human urine, faeces, blood, fat and bone.

“A central tenet of this corpse pharmacology,” she explains, “is the perception that the human body contains a mysterious healing power that is transmitted in ingested matter such as ‘mummy’.” The literary imagery inspired by the consumption of human flesh in the pursuit of health – both physical and spiritual – extends as far as the sacrament of the Eucharist itself.

Dr Noble argues  that “what happens to bodies in today’s medical market is one moment – albeit a highly organised and sophisticated one – in a long historical continuum in which the human body and its products are exchanged and distributed in a complex medical economy”. And the fact that “mummy” was still being offered for sale by German pharmaceutical companies as late as 1912 is an illustration of this “continuum”.

Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of their “Early Modern Cultural Studies” series, has been accepted for review in the London Review of Books.

Armidale and the University of New England yesterday celebrated becoming the first centre in mainland Australia to receive the National Broadband Network.

At a launch in Armidale, accompanied by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy the Hon. Stephen Conroy, Tony Windsor MP, the Member for Northern Tablelands and UNE Chancellor Richard Torbay, and the CEO of NBNCo Mike Quigley, the Prime Minister flicked the switch on the connection of NBN services to Armidale residents.

Speaking at the launch, the Prime Minister said: “The NBN will end the tyranny of distance between rural and regional Australia and our capital cities, literally changing the way Australians live and work.”

Senator Conroy emphasised that the day marked a significant milestone in the Government’s vision to deliver high- speed broadband to every home, school and business. “May 18 will mark the day the communications landscape in mainland Australia underwent a historic transformation,” he said.

Mr Quigley thanked the University for its collaboration and support with the rollout, emphasising that the National Broadband Network provided fair access for all, including in particular regional communities.

UNE showcased its broadband innovations at the launch, including SmartFarm technology (which includes sensor platforms for crops, pasture and livestock, mentoring and diagnostic applications for farm machinery, and high-definition videoconferencing), and UNE’s collaboration with the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, which brings high-tech broadband-enabled educational applications to regional Australian medical students.

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jim Barber, said: “This event is recognition of the role that the city of Armidale, the region and this University have played in leading the agenda in the largest nation-building investment in Australia’s history. With our community, industry and government partners, we’ll continue to work on the promise of the National Broadband Network, showing the value of broadband applications in providing high-quality services – particularly education – to Australians wherever they live.”

“It’s important that we keep the momentum going,” Professor Barber said.  ”We’re determined to make the most of this opportunity for our students and our community.”

The Prime Minister went on to launch a joint project between the New England Institute of TAFE and UNE, in which the project partners will lead the dissemination of free media-rich open-source digital educational materials and communication applications for individual and workplace training, including lead-in to VET and university courses, through a joint portal (the EDUONE portal). The EDUONE portal draws upon the NBN to deliver stimulating, media-rich training programs to maximise the potential of high-speed communications in regions and remote areas. This project has received $3.5 million in funding through the Commonwealth’s Digital Regions Initiative fund.

The Prime Minister concluded her visit with an interview on UNE’s TUNE! FM radio station with Professor Barber, which included discussion of the measures included in the Budget for regional universities, and the Government’s higher education agenda. (The interview is available at http://tunefm.net/NBN-GillardBarber.wav.)

THE PHOTOGRAPH of the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, displayed here was taken during her interview in the TUNE! FM studio.

The ability of nonviolence movements to bring about social and political change for the better will be on display and under discussion next week during the University of New England’s 2^nd Annual Nonviolence Film Festival.

“We have recently witnessed another remarkable success for nonviolence, when an Egyptian uprising toppled the entrenched dictator Hosni Mubarak, who had held on to power for 30 years, propped up by US financial and military support,” said Dr Marty Branagan, a lecturer in Peace Studies at UNE and the organiser of the film festival. “At the core of this uprising was a subtle, long-term campaign by a group of dedicated activists who had studied and trained in nonviolence.”

Dr Branagan said that the week-long festival of free films presented by Peace Studies at UNE could help people to understand the potential of what he called “the world’s most powerful philosophy of social change”.

The films will be screened each day next week (Monday 23 – Friday 27 May) in the Di Watson Lecture Theatre near UNE’s Northern Carpark. Each session will begin at 1 pm. The festival program is available at http://www.une.edu.au/humanities/pdf/Brochures/nonviolence-film-festival-poster-may-2011.jpg.

The films on Monday will deal with the best-known examples of nonviolence: the liberation of India and the US civil rights movement. Dr Branagan said that these films highlighted the violent and repressive nature of the regimes that the nonviolence movements were opposing.

There will also be home-grown films about Australian activism: Embassy Days, on Tuesday, about the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, and, on Thursday, films about environmental actions such as the Franklin River blockade and more recent activism. Also on Thursday will be a film documenting resistance to Nazism by Jehovah’s Witnesses during World War II.

Wednesday’s film will be about the 2004 ‘Orange Revolution’ in the Ukraine, and the festival will conclude on Friday with The Day After Peace, about one man’s crusade for an annual day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.

Everyone is welcome to these free films, each of which will be followed by a discussion.

The film festival will be accompanied by a week-long exhibition in the UNE Bistro titled Transforming the Human Spirit. This free exhibition is to be presented by the international Buddhist peace organisation Soka Gakkai.

For more information, contact Dr Marty Branagan on (02) 6773 3951 (e-mail: marty.branagan@une.edu.au).

Mathematics students from secondary schools throughout northern NSW and from as far south-west as Dubbo got together at the University of New England on Friday to share their enthusiasm for maths in a day of stimulating competition.

More than 200 students from 32 schools, accompanied by teachers and parents, travelled to UNE to take part in the University’s annual Year 8 Mathematics Day, which is now in its 17^th year. Working in 55 teams of four, the students enjoyed an experience of cooperative problem solving and applying mathematics to real-life scenarios.

“It’s been a great day,” said Anna Owen, a mathematics teacher from The Armidale School, after it was all over. “It’s stretched them and encouraged them, and it’s also shown them how much enjoyment you can get from maths. It’s been a very positive experience for maths students.”

The event is sponsored each year by the UNE-based National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR), UNE’s School of Education, and the New England Mathematical Association. UNE’s Professor John Pegg, the Director of SiMERR, said that the students had tackled all the challenges with enthusiasm, and that the final scores had been very close.

Ashford Central School won the trophy in the central schools’ division, with teams from Emmaville Central and Uralla Central coming second and third respectively. Toormina High School won the high schools’ division, with teams from John Paul College (Coffs Harbour) and Duval High School (Armidale) coming second and third. Students from New England Girls’ School won the “construction” competition, which challenged the teams to build the tallest free-standing tower from the materials provided.

Professor Pegg pointed out that the Year 8 Mathematics Day allowed participants to meet enthusiastic maths students from other schools, and that it encouraged them to talk to each other about maths within their teams when solving problems collaboratively.

At the end of the day, Professor Pegg thanked all those involved, and in particular the teachers from the New England Mathematical Association who had devised the questions and answers.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Professor John Pegg at the Maths Day.

Researchers at the University of New England want to put the excitement back into your love life — and they’re not necessarily talking about the bedroom.

Dr John Malouff and his colleagues at UNE’s School of Psychology are seeking more than 100 couples for two studies that will attempt to make their relationships more exciting and more caring respectively.

The couples don’t have to be married or even living together — they just have to be in a romantic relationship. Same-sex couples are welcome. And since the interventions will be conducted online, the couples can come from anywhere, according to Dr Malouff.

Both of the studies draw on previous UNE research that found romantic relationships can be described in terms of four fundamental characteristics: how exciting, caring, secure, and difficult the partners perceive the relationship to be. That research was presented in San Francisco last year at the Annual Convention of the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies.

“Our research shows that all four factors are related to relationship satisfaction,” Dr Malouff said, “and this in turn is related to life satisfaction. After all, how happy we are in our primary relationship has a big effect on happiness generally.”

“Of the four, there are two we think we may be able to influence: how exciting and how caring a couple perceives their relationship to be.”

Couples can participate in either study, and participation is completely confidential, with all interaction with the researchers to be conducted via e-mail.

“All we need the participants to do is answer a few questions, and then complete some activities over the course of a few weeks. Afterwards, we’ll ask some more questions to examine the effects of the intervention.”

Besides being over 18, Dr Malouff said there were no limits on the age of the participants.  There was one requirement, however: both partners in a couple must be willing to participate.

“Improving your relationship is not something you can do solo,” Dr Malouff said. “Both partners need to be involved if the intervention is to be effective.”

People interested in participating in the study on increasing excitement levels in a relationship should contact co-researcher Kimberley Coulter at kcoulter@une.edu.au.  Those interested in participating in the study on increasing the level of caring in their relationship should contact co-researcher Sandra Gilbert at sgilber3@une.edu.au.

In his Inaugural Lecture to the Armidale community on Wednesday 18 May, the UNE economics professor Mahinda Siriwardana will outline his approach to modelling the impact of a carbon tax.

Professor Siriwardana’s lecture, titled “Carbon tax, the economy and carbon dioxide emissions: Measuring the effects”, will be presented in non-technical terms by a politically neutral, independent expert. It is designed to help members of the community understand this nationally significant issue.

Professor Siriwardana (pictured here) is an expert in the “computable general equilibrium” approach to such modelling, and has developed numerous models using this approach over the past 30 years. After considering a range of tax levels ($5-$40 per tonne of carbon) he will discuss the impact of a $30-per-tonne tax using a model he has recently developed for this purpose.

“A preliminary analysis undertaken by simulating the impact of a carbon tax of $30 per tonne using this new model reveals that, in the short run, Australia’s real GDP may decline by 0.71 per cent, consumer prices may rise by 0.77 per cent, and the price of electricity may increase by about 29 per cent,” he said. “The good news is that a carbon tax of this magnitude may allow Australia to make a substantial cut in its carbon dioxide emissions. The simulation results imply an emission reduction of about 9.2 per cent of the 2005-based emissions.”

“The lecture will also propose an appropriate compensation package to ease the pressure on households due to rising costs of living after the tax,” he added.

Everyone is welcome to this free lecture by UNE’s Professor Mahinda Siriwardana, which will be in Armidale Town Hall at 6.30 pm. In the tradition of UNE’s Inaugural Lectures, there will be an academic procession.

Supper in the Town Hall foyer will follow the lecture.

One hundred residents of Earle Page College at the University of New England are preparing energetic dance routines for the College’s annual Charity Fashion Parade on Saturday 14 May.

The Fashion Parade, at the Armidale Ex-Services Memorial Club, is a traditional part of the College’s annual “Coast Run” campaign – now in its 32^nd year – to raise funds for the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI). The Parade is a showcase of Armidale fashion, and is one of the biggest events on the College calendar.

“As well as the serious side of raising money for the Children’s Medical Research Institute, the night is about having a great time and watching students, children and even some important University staff members strutting their stuff on the catwalk,” said the 2011 Fashion Parade Coordinator, Laura Crompvoets. “Everyone is welcome to attend this worthwhile and enjoyable event.”

This year’s Fashion Parade will feature a special routine with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jim Barber, the Head of UNE’s Residential System, Barb Shaw, and Senior Common Room and staff members of Earle Page College taking part.

The theme this year is “masquerade”, so members of the audience are being invited to match their outfits (semi-formal) with a mask.

The Fashion Parade, sponsored by Roberts and Morrow, is just one of many fund-raising events organised by the Coast Run Committee through the year; other events include the Discount Card, Auction and inter-floor College events, and the run to Coffs Harbour itself.

“Being one of the first events of the Coast Run campaign this year, it’s exciting and I’m looking forward to a great year,” said the Coast Run Convener, Michael Fraser.

A cheque for the $45,000 raised by last year’s Coast Run Committee, convened by Lauren Nay, will be presented to CMRI at the Parade. The 2010 Fashion Parade contributed $10,000 to that total.

Entry will begin at 7 pm for the event to start at 7.30 pm. Tickets – $25 for adults, $20 for students and $15 for children under 15 – can be bought from the Earle Page College Office (phone 6773 5300). Tickets will also be available at the door for $25. Tables for 10 are available: please book in advance.