Minerva Elements Records
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ItemUNWRAPPING AUTHENTICITY: Skill development + perception / conception development( 2022)The music that has always meant the most to me has taught me something new about the world, about life, or about myself. It has a brilliance about it, a depth, an innate beauty. The music that has touched me the most has an inherent authenticity, and authenticity touches people. It does not have to be a serious or earnest work; it can be fun, whimsical, or curious. But there remains an underlying integrity, a truthfulness, and a musical communication that lies beyond superficiality, gimmick, or sterile intellectualism and I hope to believe that humans are hard-wired to know when communication is authentic. As a listener, I seek music where there is genuine coherence between the artist and that which they express in their work. As a music maker and practitioner, the continual extension of my technical skills, knowledge, and analysis is essential. However, so too is pondering, deep listening, and observation of oneself and the world, as well as the development of what I would like to say. Whilst technique and research assist a composer to present a work with clarity, poignancy, and potency, they are not the point in and of themselves. So, whilst I extend my technical and analytical music skills, I also seek to clarify and extend my ability to perceive and conceive an integral point of view. Authenticity requires interrogation of one’s perception, broad enquiry, and leaning on one’s own life experiences. I believe that perception is as important a skill to develop in music as it is in the visual arts. I create as I perceive. I am a witness to my life and to my times. Each creative has a chance to deliver a refracted vision of life as we experience it; as we share our version of reality, so too does the collective understanding of life broaden and flourish. This initiates an important feedback loop, where flourishing ideas nourish the community, which then, in turn, nourish new creative endeavours. For this composer, authenticity means witnessing and expressing the corner of reality I inhabit; my culture, my experiences, my observations, and history-in-the-making during my life and times. I locate my music with this compass.
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ItemCommunicable Knowledge: Medical Communication, Professionalisation, and Medical Reform in Colonial Victoria, 1855-66( 2020)This thesis examines the process of medical professionalisation in colonial Victoria from 1855-66. During this eleven-year period the medical profession of colonial Victoria were able to create Australia’s first long lasting medical societies and medical journal, found the first medical school, and receive legislative support of their claims to exclusive knowledge of medicine. The next time an Australian colony would have these institutions created would not be for another 20 years. This thesis examines these developments through a framework of communication, primarily from the medical community itself. Communication was central to the process that resulted in the creation of the above listed institutions. Here communication is examined as the driving force behind the two processes of professionalisation: the internal, community creating and boundary forming aspect; and the external process through which the community gains external recognition of their claims. For Victorian practitioners during the period of this study the internal process drives the creation of the societies, the journal, and the medical school, whereas the external process is typified by the campaign for ‘Medical Reform’ that sees the community engage in agitation for legislative backing of their conception of medicine as science over other alternate medicines. Communication was not isolated within the colony. As such the place of the Victorian medical community as a node within transnational networks of knowledge exchange is examined. As Victoria was better integrated into these networks than its colonial neighbours, an examination of the involvement of said flow of information in the creation of professional communities is considered an important part of this analysis. Behind these processes of community creation, I trace a thread of disunity sparked by professional differences. Highly publicised arguments over differences in medical opinion play out in the colonial press. This comes to a head at the end of the period of study. Despite their focus on communication the medical community ignores the role their public conduct plays in this process. The end result is that, while they were able to create these lasting institutions, their public conduct saw the public’s opinion of them stay low through to the end of the century.
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ItemHLA genetics of autoimmune Graves’ disease and the effects of lifestyle factors on the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in Vietnamese living in Melbourne( 2011)Background: There has been an increasingly high attendance rate of Vietnamese Graves’ disease (GD) patients at Western Hospital and local clinics in Melbourne. This proposes interplay between genetic and environmental factors, causing increased susceptibility to GD, which could be specific to Vietnamese. Evidence of HLA genetic susceptibility was established in Asian and Caucasian populations worldwide, but it is not defined in Vietnamese because HLA studies have not been carried out on this ethnic group. A possible environmental factor in GD is Vitamin D deficiency, which was found to be highly prevalent in the Vietnamese population of our previous study in 2008. Aims: This study aims to investigate HLA genetic factors associated with GD in Vietnamese and lifestyle factors associated with the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in Vietnamese living in Melbourne. Methods: There were 201 Vietnamese participants from recruitment, including 61 GD patients and 140 control participants. Prior to participation, all participants were subjected to a physical examination, where their medical and family history was obtained. Following the process of providing written consent for participation, all participants were asked to complete a Medical Questionnaire, Food Frequency Questionnaire and Sun Exposure Questionnaire, and have their height and weight measured for BMI calculation. Serology samples were collected from participants at the end of participation for HLA genotyping, and tested using Vitamin D assays and TRAb assays. Results: Associations were found between GD and two HLA-DRB1 alleles in Vietnamese. DR7 has a protective effect against GD in controls (OR 0.204, 95% CI 0.044-0.946, p-value 0.042) and DR9 has a predisposal effect to GD in cases (OR 2.247, 95% CI 1.156-4.366, p-value 0.017). There was no evidence of association between Vitamin D deficiency (<75 nmol/L) and GD. However, Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was determined to be as high as 85.6% (172 out of 201) in Vietnamese living in Melbourne. Mean serum 25(OH)D level in cases was 53.49 nmol/L (SD 20.73) and controls was 50.46 nmol/L (SD 23.60). Mean daily total Vitamin D intake per participant excluding supplements (381.174 IU) is lower than Recommended Daily Intake (400 IU/day) for adults and adolescents. Mean daily total calcium intake per participant (429.123 mg) is much lower than Recommended Daily Intake (1,000 mg/day) for adult men and women. Significant associations exist between Vitamin D deficiency and age, and two lifestyle factors including sun exposure and sun avoidance. Conclusion: For the first time, HLA genetic profile in association with GD was reported in a Vietnamese population, adding to the existing knowledge of HLA genetics in Asians. Better understanding of the genetic background for GD could potentially lead to improved diagnosis and treatment methods, as well as being useful for developing primary prevention strategies in GD. This research study also confirmed the high prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in Vietnamese living in Melbourne and identified associated lifestyle factors for this condition.