Conducting suicide research in Australia in relation to the operation of Human Research Ethics Committees
- Authors: Macgill, Jennifer
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis began with a research project on suicide that was abandoned after many hurdles were encountered in terms of reaching participants and after various applications to ethics committees. The ultimate research question was then recast as ‘Do Human Research Ethics Committees influence the conduct of suicide research in Australia?’ The conceptual framework for setting up the research was derived from literature on Critical Theory, Feminism and Weberian concepts of power and rationality. Subsidiary questions were then derived from this literature and the starting exemplar case of my own research attempts. These considered whether suicide research was problematic for ethics committees, the nature of the experiences of ethics committee members in making decisions regarding suicide research and whether the influences of disciplinary background, patriarchal medical dominance and pro-positivism were evident. In addition, questions were raised about whether and how other researchers who sought approval to conduct research into suicide-related issues were appraised. [...]
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Macgill, Jennifer
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis began with a research project on suicide that was abandoned after many hurdles were encountered in terms of reaching participants and after various applications to ethics committees. The ultimate research question was then recast as ‘Do Human Research Ethics Committees influence the conduct of suicide research in Australia?’ The conceptual framework for setting up the research was derived from literature on Critical Theory, Feminism and Weberian concepts of power and rationality. Subsidiary questions were then derived from this literature and the starting exemplar case of my own research attempts. These considered whether suicide research was problematic for ethics committees, the nature of the experiences of ethics committee members in making decisions regarding suicide research and whether the influences of disciplinary background, patriarchal medical dominance and pro-positivism were evident. In addition, questions were raised about whether and how other researchers who sought approval to conduct research into suicide-related issues were appraised. [...]
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Conflict and conservation : sharing the costs and benefits of tiger (Panthera tigris) conservation in communities adjacent to tiger reserves in Nepal
- Authors: Bhattarai, Babu
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Human wildlife conflict (HWC) is a highly studied but unresolved aspect of wildlife management. To further knowledge on HWC, this study used a multidisciplinary approach to investigate HWC implications for local people living adjacent to two key tiger conservation reserves in Nepal. The study also assessed the potential to redistribute financial benefits accruing from predator conservation to those bearing costs through associated HWC. Secondary data and anecdotal reports suggest that local people experience significant direct and indirect costs from predator conservation through livestock losses following attacks by common leopards and Bengal tigers, and additionally, crop losses due to their prey species plus two mega herbivores (elephant and one-horned rhinoceros). To investigate this situation, data regarding HWC incidents and costs were sourced through interviews with 422 local households, direct observations, and stakeholder interviews. Collected data included livestock loss (5-year time-period) and crop loss (1-year time-period). Complementary direct observation data collated livestock loss and crop damage for 12 months. Interviews were conducted also with park visitors (N=387) and tourism business owners (N=74). Results showed that tigers are involved in significantly fewer depredation events compared to leopards. Leopards predominantly killed small to medium livestock whereas tigers selected both small to medium and large sized livestock. Livestock depredation events occurred more frequently in livestock corrals relative to forest zones or crop fields. Rates of livestock losses per household per year self-reported during interviews with local people were found higher when compared to those observed by direct measurement. Prey species of tigers and leopards (most often wild boar and chital) were involved in more frequently in crop raiding events, and caused more crop damage, when compared that caused by mega herbivores. Quantities of crops lost per household were lowest in communities where effective physical barriers to wildlife were present. Park visitors and tourism business owners indicated willingness to pay for conservation of tigers and for compensation of farmers for the losses caused by tigers and their prey species. Study findings support several key recommendations proposed to mitigate negative HWC effects in the study area. These include financial support for local communities to build predator proof livestock corrals and establishment of effective physical barriers at the park borders. A dedicated tariff for park visitors and a levy for tourism business owners are also recommended to fund ongoing predator conservation and support financial compensation for local farmers affected by HWC.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Bhattarai, Babu
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Human wildlife conflict (HWC) is a highly studied but unresolved aspect of wildlife management. To further knowledge on HWC, this study used a multidisciplinary approach to investigate HWC implications for local people living adjacent to two key tiger conservation reserves in Nepal. The study also assessed the potential to redistribute financial benefits accruing from predator conservation to those bearing costs through associated HWC. Secondary data and anecdotal reports suggest that local people experience significant direct and indirect costs from predator conservation through livestock losses following attacks by common leopards and Bengal tigers, and additionally, crop losses due to their prey species plus two mega herbivores (elephant and one-horned rhinoceros). To investigate this situation, data regarding HWC incidents and costs were sourced through interviews with 422 local households, direct observations, and stakeholder interviews. Collected data included livestock loss (5-year time-period) and crop loss (1-year time-period). Complementary direct observation data collated livestock loss and crop damage for 12 months. Interviews were conducted also with park visitors (N=387) and tourism business owners (N=74). Results showed that tigers are involved in significantly fewer depredation events compared to leopards. Leopards predominantly killed small to medium livestock whereas tigers selected both small to medium and large sized livestock. Livestock depredation events occurred more frequently in livestock corrals relative to forest zones or crop fields. Rates of livestock losses per household per year self-reported during interviews with local people were found higher when compared to those observed by direct measurement. Prey species of tigers and leopards (most often wild boar and chital) were involved in more frequently in crop raiding events, and caused more crop damage, when compared that caused by mega herbivores. Quantities of crops lost per household were lowest in communities where effective physical barriers to wildlife were present. Park visitors and tourism business owners indicated willingness to pay for conservation of tigers and for compensation of farmers for the losses caused by tigers and their prey species. Study findings support several key recommendations proposed to mitigate negative HWC effects in the study area. These include financial support for local communities to build predator proof livestock corrals and establishment of effective physical barriers at the park borders. A dedicated tariff for park visitors and a levy for tourism business owners are also recommended to fund ongoing predator conservation and support financial compensation for local farmers affected by HWC.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Consultation and organisational maturity in the Victorian construction industry
- Authors: Ayers, Gerard
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Consultation is generally acknowledged both in Australia and internationally, as being essential if high levels of occupational health and safety (OHS) are to be achieved and maintained. In Victoria, such is the recognition of the important role that consultation plays in OHS, that it is mandated under the Victorian OHS regulatory framework. Indeed, all Australian OHS statutes now make provision, to varying degrees, for consultation to occur when dealing with OHS matters. This is principally conducted through OHS representatives and OHS committees. However, there is a growing body of opinion which raises concerns over whether such legislative provisions that provide for OHS consultation, is sufficiently adequate to ensure that the consultation is both meaningful and effective in terms of OHS outcomes. If this is the case, what might be missing or lacking from the consultation process, especially in hazardous and dangerous industries where OHS success would appear to be imperative? The Victorian construction industry, like the construction industry in general, is acknowledged for its dangerous and hazardous nature. It has a large transitory workforce with little permanent job security and often suffers from a multifarious and disjointed work organisation structure. Such features tend to work against an environment that openly recognises and encourages meaningful and effective consultation. These conditions also tend to confound the development of any kind of social and positive learning and communicative culture within the industry, leading to an underutilization of the knowledge and skill contained within the workforce. As well as failing to bring to fruition the full participation of workers in the management of OHS, the underutilization of knowledge and skill is potentially one of the largest hidden costs that an organisation may incur. The notion of organisational and cultural maturity is acknowledged both internationally and in Australia as a useful concept that can assist organisations in achieving higher standards and levels of OHS. This is especially so in high risk and hazardous industries such as the petrochemical, oil refinery and aviation industries. However, organisational and cultural maturity is arguably a relatively new and under-researched construct in the Victorian building and construction industry, while the concept of consultation within both the industry and the organisational maturity paradigm has not yet been sufficiently explored. The role that moral and ethical principles play in consultation is now beginning to emerge and gain wider recognition within the literature. This research project set out to examine how some of these principles were applied by senior site managers and OHS representatives of five Victorian construction companies during OHS consultation at five different constructions sites, and whether this consultation could be considered to be meaningful and effective. The companies who participated in this project were each allocated a level of organisational maturity, dependent upon how they managed various aspects of their business operations in terms of OHS. Senior managers and OHS representatives were chosen as participants in the research because they are generally acknowledged as the critical vectors in the sharing and transferring of knowledge and skill at the workplace. The data from this research suggest that regardless of the level of organisational maturity each organisation was deemed to have reached, and no matter how the individual participants applied the particular moral and ethical principles used during this research, the OHS consultation that took place on the different construction sites was limited to, and focused primarily on, everyday operational and execution aspects of the job, rather than more strategic and longer term OHS issues. The practical implications of this research are that if OHS consultation between senior managers and OHS representatives can be conducted in such a way as to openly and unambiguously recognise and apply particular moral and ethical principles, and if consultation is allowed to focus on more strategic and longer term OHS and organisational aspects of a construction project, this may yield more benefits, in terms of OHS outcomes, for all industry participants.
- Authors: Ayers, Gerard
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Consultation is generally acknowledged both in Australia and internationally, as being essential if high levels of occupational health and safety (OHS) are to be achieved and maintained. In Victoria, such is the recognition of the important role that consultation plays in OHS, that it is mandated under the Victorian OHS regulatory framework. Indeed, all Australian OHS statutes now make provision, to varying degrees, for consultation to occur when dealing with OHS matters. This is principally conducted through OHS representatives and OHS committees. However, there is a growing body of opinion which raises concerns over whether such legislative provisions that provide for OHS consultation, is sufficiently adequate to ensure that the consultation is both meaningful and effective in terms of OHS outcomes. If this is the case, what might be missing or lacking from the consultation process, especially in hazardous and dangerous industries where OHS success would appear to be imperative? The Victorian construction industry, like the construction industry in general, is acknowledged for its dangerous and hazardous nature. It has a large transitory workforce with little permanent job security and often suffers from a multifarious and disjointed work organisation structure. Such features tend to work against an environment that openly recognises and encourages meaningful and effective consultation. These conditions also tend to confound the development of any kind of social and positive learning and communicative culture within the industry, leading to an underutilization of the knowledge and skill contained within the workforce. As well as failing to bring to fruition the full participation of workers in the management of OHS, the underutilization of knowledge and skill is potentially one of the largest hidden costs that an organisation may incur. The notion of organisational and cultural maturity is acknowledged both internationally and in Australia as a useful concept that can assist organisations in achieving higher standards and levels of OHS. This is especially so in high risk and hazardous industries such as the petrochemical, oil refinery and aviation industries. However, organisational and cultural maturity is arguably a relatively new and under-researched construct in the Victorian building and construction industry, while the concept of consultation within both the industry and the organisational maturity paradigm has not yet been sufficiently explored. The role that moral and ethical principles play in consultation is now beginning to emerge and gain wider recognition within the literature. This research project set out to examine how some of these principles were applied by senior site managers and OHS representatives of five Victorian construction companies during OHS consultation at five different constructions sites, and whether this consultation could be considered to be meaningful and effective. The companies who participated in this project were each allocated a level of organisational maturity, dependent upon how they managed various aspects of their business operations in terms of OHS. Senior managers and OHS representatives were chosen as participants in the research because they are generally acknowledged as the critical vectors in the sharing and transferring of knowledge and skill at the workplace. The data from this research suggest that regardless of the level of organisational maturity each organisation was deemed to have reached, and no matter how the individual participants applied the particular moral and ethical principles used during this research, the OHS consultation that took place on the different construction sites was limited to, and focused primarily on, everyday operational and execution aspects of the job, rather than more strategic and longer term OHS issues. The practical implications of this research are that if OHS consultation between senior managers and OHS representatives can be conducted in such a way as to openly and unambiguously recognise and apply particular moral and ethical principles, and if consultation is allowed to focus on more strategic and longer term OHS and organisational aspects of a construction project, this may yield more benefits, in terms of OHS outcomes, for all industry participants.
Contemporary applications of Fresco : The narrative of the artist
- Authors: Chappell, Annette
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Fresco is a vehicle for powerful and enduring forms of cultural storytelling; it references universal narrative themes. The research objective of this project is to achieve a contemporary application of fresco through exploration and transgression of traditional material, pictorial forms and functions. In this transgression, the artist locates a personal narrative, through the immersive methods of autoethnographic inquiry and from the epistemological position of material thinking and production. The contemporary application of fresco is arrived at by interrogating the traditional methods, materials and intentions of fresco as recorded in fifteenth-century Europe and with reference to what other contemporary practitioners in this field have achieved. Materials knowledge and methods gained through on-site material conservation of lime plaster fresco is an impetus to this project and has engendered a focus on re-purposing and re-imagining the media in contemporary and personal expressions. The narrative of the artist is arrived at through materials thinking in fresco methodology, and through an interpretive autoethnographic analysis of a personal archive or studio text consisting of visual and textual material. The studio text is regarded as a unique ethnographic artefact of personal significance. The new term of ‘studio text’ for practice-led research is proposed to differentiate practice-led language and forms from the sociological or positivist terminology of ‘fieldwork notes’ or ‘data’. Autoethnographic methodology is disrupted to incorporate the indwelling practices of material thinking and immersive writing (ekphrasis) and drawing (enstasis). Through the integration of these methodologies, interpretations of the studio text are enacted concurrently with material production. Materials and motifs are selected for personal significance and resonance, and constructed as part or full frescoes. The material outcomes of this integration of methodologies are described as Visual Diaries and publicly exhibited. The documentation of integrated methodology in this project may contribute to emergent thinking in practice-led research.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Chappell, Annette
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Fresco is a vehicle for powerful and enduring forms of cultural storytelling; it references universal narrative themes. The research objective of this project is to achieve a contemporary application of fresco through exploration and transgression of traditional material, pictorial forms and functions. In this transgression, the artist locates a personal narrative, through the immersive methods of autoethnographic inquiry and from the epistemological position of material thinking and production. The contemporary application of fresco is arrived at by interrogating the traditional methods, materials and intentions of fresco as recorded in fifteenth-century Europe and with reference to what other contemporary practitioners in this field have achieved. Materials knowledge and methods gained through on-site material conservation of lime plaster fresco is an impetus to this project and has engendered a focus on re-purposing and re-imagining the media in contemporary and personal expressions. The narrative of the artist is arrived at through materials thinking in fresco methodology, and through an interpretive autoethnographic analysis of a personal archive or studio text consisting of visual and textual material. The studio text is regarded as a unique ethnographic artefact of personal significance. The new term of ‘studio text’ for practice-led research is proposed to differentiate practice-led language and forms from the sociological or positivist terminology of ‘fieldwork notes’ or ‘data’. Autoethnographic methodology is disrupted to incorporate the indwelling practices of material thinking and immersive writing (ekphrasis) and drawing (enstasis). Through the integration of these methodologies, interpretations of the studio text are enacted concurrently with material production. Materials and motifs are selected for personal significance and resonance, and constructed as part or full frescoes. The material outcomes of this integration of methodologies are described as Visual Diaries and publicly exhibited. The documentation of integrated methodology in this project may contribute to emergent thinking in practice-led research.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Contemporary ways of learning in secondary teacher education : Towards a deeper understanding of teacher learning
- Authors: Brown, Maryann
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "The focus of this portfolio is an exploration of contemporary ways of learning in secondary teacher education."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Brown, Maryann
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "The focus of this portfolio is an exploration of contemporary ways of learning in secondary teacher education."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Continuing "assimilation"? : A shifting identity for the Tiwi 1919 to the present
- Authors: Morris, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The Tiwi are the indigenous people of the Tiwi Islands, located off the Northern Territory mainland. In 1919, as a unique and distinct people they appeared to be in a position to maintain their identity, to resist absorption into western culture and to avoid some of the serious social problems that came to affect some other Indigenous communities. While aspects of the Tiwi culture and lifestyle were gradually modified or abandoned through contact with outside societies between 1919 and 2000, other traits remained strong or were strengthened. These included their relationship with the land, the local language, dancing and singing, and adoption customs. Forms of visual art, some introduced, brought fame to the Tiwi. Government policies on Indigenous matters changed dramatically over the twentieth century. The earlier ones, including assimilation programmes were discriminatory and restrictive. Later approaches to Aboriginal and Islander welfare, including land rights, had significant consequences for the Islanders, some beneficial, others detrimental in nature. From the 1970s, the departure of resident missionaries and government officers from the islands led to an influx of private European employees. The exposure to these people added to that which the Tiwi experienced as they travelled far beyond their islands. After 1972, the policies of self-determination and, then, self-management placed enormous strains on the Tiwi as they strove to meet the requirements of government, private enterprise and the wider society. New forms of land and local government controls replaced the law of the elders. A younger, western-educated generation now spoke on behalf of the people. Ultimately, under the influence of outside pressures, degrees of socio-cultural absorption occurred in the islands even though the official policy of assimilation had been abandoned. Fortunately, the strong identity of the Tiwi ensured a level of social cohesion capable of combating full assimilation into a wholly western lifestyle.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Morris, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The Tiwi are the indigenous people of the Tiwi Islands, located off the Northern Territory mainland. In 1919, as a unique and distinct people they appeared to be in a position to maintain their identity, to resist absorption into western culture and to avoid some of the serious social problems that came to affect some other Indigenous communities. While aspects of the Tiwi culture and lifestyle were gradually modified or abandoned through contact with outside societies between 1919 and 2000, other traits remained strong or were strengthened. These included their relationship with the land, the local language, dancing and singing, and adoption customs. Forms of visual art, some introduced, brought fame to the Tiwi. Government policies on Indigenous matters changed dramatically over the twentieth century. The earlier ones, including assimilation programmes were discriminatory and restrictive. Later approaches to Aboriginal and Islander welfare, including land rights, had significant consequences for the Islanders, some beneficial, others detrimental in nature. From the 1970s, the departure of resident missionaries and government officers from the islands led to an influx of private European employees. The exposure to these people added to that which the Tiwi experienced as they travelled far beyond their islands. After 1972, the policies of self-determination and, then, self-management placed enormous strains on the Tiwi as they strove to meet the requirements of government, private enterprise and the wider society. New forms of land and local government controls replaced the law of the elders. A younger, western-educated generation now spoke on behalf of the people. Ultimately, under the influence of outside pressures, degrees of socio-cultural absorption occurred in the islands even though the official policy of assimilation had been abandoned. Fortunately, the strong identity of the Tiwi ensured a level of social cohesion capable of combating full assimilation into a wholly western lifestyle.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Continuing professional development of allied health professionals : A regional study
- Authors: Schenk, Peter
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Background The Australian healthcare system is challenged by an ageing population and lifestyle risk factors that disproportionately affect people in regional (non-metropolitan) geographic regions. In addition, the allied health professionals who work in knowledge-intensive occupations in regional Victoria face barriers regarding profession related learning. Allied health professionals provide diagnostic and therapeutic patient care services, and within these professions, healthcare diagnoses and treatments are expected by society and government to be founded on scientific evidence. Therefore, remaining up-to-date with rapidly developing knowledge requires continuing professional development (CPD). Purpose This study explores pertinent issues affecting the CPD programs of allied health professionals and the interaction with regional Victorian public hospitals’ knowledge management (KM) approaches. Consequently, the study identifies opportunities for improving profession related learning, enhancing evidence-based practice and the efficacy of diagnoses and treatments. The proposed outcome of this study addresses perceived inadequacies of allied health professionals’ CPD and its contribution to medical errors. Furthermore, greater availability and effectiveness of profession related learning in these occupations should improve patients’ health outcomes. The study described in this thesis answers the primary research question: 1) What factors significantly influence the availability and effectiveness of continuing professional development (CPD) for allied health professionals (radiographers, sonographers and physiotherapists)? In addition, it also answers the secondary research question: 2) How can the findings of this research be represented to improve the CPD of allied health professionals and knowledge management (KM) in regional Victorian public hospitals? Methodology This study explores subjective phenomena involving human behaviour; therefore, the philosophical foundations of this study are post-positivist, with knowledge claims of interpretivist research. This research employs multi-site embedded case studies, defined as empirical enquiries investigating contemporary phenomena in real-world contexts. Therefore, they are suitable for this investigation, where participant experiences and contexts are equally important. Case selection in this study expresses regionalism through remoteness classifications of inner and outer regional areas, and hospital size comparing small/medium and large/referral regional hospitals. The 37 respondents to semi-structured interviews include hospital managers and purposefully selected allied health professionals (radiographers, sonographers and physiotherapists). The interviews were conducted from March to June 2017, with thematic analysis completed thereafter. Results Respondents in this study propose a holistic concept of CPD, encompassing all profession related learning opportunities, including learning from CPD activities and practice-based learning. Furthermore, the allied health professionals had various motivations for undertaking CPD, including maintaining and enhancing profession related knowledge, personal interest, supporting hospital needs, and meeting mandatory requirements. In addition, they discussed the factors that influenced their CPD planning, including their preference for formal face-to-face CPD activities, the availability of hospital-provided or local CPD activities, online learning, and overcoming barriers of their regional location. Finally, the factors influencing allied health professionals’ CPD include their planning of CPD programs, the influence of hospitals’ KM, and the competencies they consider necessary for good practice. Conclusion The thematic analysis in this study represents this study’s findings as a normative conceptual model in answer to the secondary research question. The Model of Allied Health Professionals’ CPD (described in section 6.7) proffers a heuristic framework depicting reflective feedback and the process of deliberative planning of CPD. Extrapolating knowledge from the literature and respondents’ experiences with CPD, the model’s elements include interrelationships between allied health professionals’ CPD planning and activities, hospitals’ approaches to KM, and informal workplace learning. Furthermore, the combined outcomes of CPD and KM contribute to allied health professionals’ competencies and expertise, presumably contributing to improving patients’ healthcare, including diagnoses and treatments.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Schenk, Peter
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Background The Australian healthcare system is challenged by an ageing population and lifestyle risk factors that disproportionately affect people in regional (non-metropolitan) geographic regions. In addition, the allied health professionals who work in knowledge-intensive occupations in regional Victoria face barriers regarding profession related learning. Allied health professionals provide diagnostic and therapeutic patient care services, and within these professions, healthcare diagnoses and treatments are expected by society and government to be founded on scientific evidence. Therefore, remaining up-to-date with rapidly developing knowledge requires continuing professional development (CPD). Purpose This study explores pertinent issues affecting the CPD programs of allied health professionals and the interaction with regional Victorian public hospitals’ knowledge management (KM) approaches. Consequently, the study identifies opportunities for improving profession related learning, enhancing evidence-based practice and the efficacy of diagnoses and treatments. The proposed outcome of this study addresses perceived inadequacies of allied health professionals’ CPD and its contribution to medical errors. Furthermore, greater availability and effectiveness of profession related learning in these occupations should improve patients’ health outcomes. The study described in this thesis answers the primary research question: 1) What factors significantly influence the availability and effectiveness of continuing professional development (CPD) for allied health professionals (radiographers, sonographers and physiotherapists)? In addition, it also answers the secondary research question: 2) How can the findings of this research be represented to improve the CPD of allied health professionals and knowledge management (KM) in regional Victorian public hospitals? Methodology This study explores subjective phenomena involving human behaviour; therefore, the philosophical foundations of this study are post-positivist, with knowledge claims of interpretivist research. This research employs multi-site embedded case studies, defined as empirical enquiries investigating contemporary phenomena in real-world contexts. Therefore, they are suitable for this investigation, where participant experiences and contexts are equally important. Case selection in this study expresses regionalism through remoteness classifications of inner and outer regional areas, and hospital size comparing small/medium and large/referral regional hospitals. The 37 respondents to semi-structured interviews include hospital managers and purposefully selected allied health professionals (radiographers, sonographers and physiotherapists). The interviews were conducted from March to June 2017, with thematic analysis completed thereafter. Results Respondents in this study propose a holistic concept of CPD, encompassing all profession related learning opportunities, including learning from CPD activities and practice-based learning. Furthermore, the allied health professionals had various motivations for undertaking CPD, including maintaining and enhancing profession related knowledge, personal interest, supporting hospital needs, and meeting mandatory requirements. In addition, they discussed the factors that influenced their CPD planning, including their preference for formal face-to-face CPD activities, the availability of hospital-provided or local CPD activities, online learning, and overcoming barriers of their regional location. Finally, the factors influencing allied health professionals’ CPD include their planning of CPD programs, the influence of hospitals’ KM, and the competencies they consider necessary for good practice. Conclusion The thematic analysis in this study represents this study’s findings as a normative conceptual model in answer to the secondary research question. The Model of Allied Health Professionals’ CPD (described in section 6.7) proffers a heuristic framework depicting reflective feedback and the process of deliberative planning of CPD. Extrapolating knowledge from the literature and respondents’ experiences with CPD, the model’s elements include interrelationships between allied health professionals’ CPD planning and activities, hospitals’ approaches to KM, and informal workplace learning. Furthermore, the combined outcomes of CPD and KM contribute to allied health professionals’ competencies and expertise, presumably contributing to improving patients’ healthcare, including diagnoses and treatments.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Contrasting colonial collectors: an examination of nineteenth-century collectors of Victorian Indigenous cultural artefacts, violence and antiquarianism
- Authors: Donovan, Paul
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The motivations and methodologies for collecting Indigenous Australian cultural material from colonial Victoria from 1802–1900 have varied widely. Some collectors enacted frontier war to disarm a colonised people and dispossess them of their land. Others sought to salvage a material scientific record of the culture of a race they believed was doomed to imminent extinction or build museum collections for public education. Some sought souvenirs or gifts to document tourism experiences, and some acquired exotic material for commercial enterprise. This dissertation offers a historical overview of political and scientific paradigms underpinning the collection of Indigenous Australian cultural material from nineteenth-century Victoria and characterises the resulting collecting practices. The nature of the collection methods and the content of the collections were examined. The dynamics of relationships between nineteenth-century collectors, Indigenous Australian communities, the source of collections, and collecting institutions were analysed following on from Nicholas Thomas’s entangled objects framework and using the methodologies of Geertz’s thick description, McBryde’s ethnohistory, Denzin’s interpretive biography and Thomas, Znaniecki and Shaw’s biographical analysis. By examining evidence in the primary sources of Indigenous Australian value for colonial material and colonial value of Indigenous material, this dissertation deconstructed the nature of the relationships between agents. It explored the nexus between objects, institutions and individuals. The case studies add depth to the understanding of the collections of Victorian cultural material still held in museums.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Donovan, Paul
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The motivations and methodologies for collecting Indigenous Australian cultural material from colonial Victoria from 1802–1900 have varied widely. Some collectors enacted frontier war to disarm a colonised people and dispossess them of their land. Others sought to salvage a material scientific record of the culture of a race they believed was doomed to imminent extinction or build museum collections for public education. Some sought souvenirs or gifts to document tourism experiences, and some acquired exotic material for commercial enterprise. This dissertation offers a historical overview of political and scientific paradigms underpinning the collection of Indigenous Australian cultural material from nineteenth-century Victoria and characterises the resulting collecting practices. The nature of the collection methods and the content of the collections were examined. The dynamics of relationships between nineteenth-century collectors, Indigenous Australian communities, the source of collections, and collecting institutions were analysed following on from Nicholas Thomas’s entangled objects framework and using the methodologies of Geertz’s thick description, McBryde’s ethnohistory, Denzin’s interpretive biography and Thomas, Znaniecki and Shaw’s biographical analysis. By examining evidence in the primary sources of Indigenous Australian value for colonial material and colonial value of Indigenous material, this dissertation deconstructed the nature of the relationships between agents. It explored the nexus between objects, institutions and individuals. The case studies add depth to the understanding of the collections of Victorian cultural material still held in museums.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Controlling Lachnagrostis filiformis (Fairy grass) on dry lake beds in western Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Warnock, Andrew
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The indigenous grass Lachnagrostis filiformis (Fairy grass) has colonised extensive areas of dry lakebeds in western Victoria, Australia during the current (1997-) drought. Large numbers of the plants' detached seed heads disperse in the wind and lodge against housing, fences, railway lines and other obstacles ... In this study, late season application of Glyphosate based herbicide, slashing, seed broadcasting of Atriplex australasica and Puccinellia perlaxa, grazing and burning were examined ... The results highlight how weed management aimed at achieving short-term goals, without controlling the ecological processes that promote weeds establishment and persistence, can be counter productive in the long-term.
- Description: Doctorate of Philosophy
- Authors: Warnock, Andrew
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The indigenous grass Lachnagrostis filiformis (Fairy grass) has colonised extensive areas of dry lakebeds in western Victoria, Australia during the current (1997-) drought. Large numbers of the plants' detached seed heads disperse in the wind and lodge against housing, fences, railway lines and other obstacles ... In this study, late season application of Glyphosate based herbicide, slashing, seed broadcasting of Atriplex australasica and Puccinellia perlaxa, grazing and burning were examined ... The results highlight how weed management aimed at achieving short-term goals, without controlling the ecological processes that promote weeds establishment and persistence, can be counter productive in the long-term.
- Description: Doctorate of Philosophy
Copper loss into rotary holding furnace slag
- Authors: Burrows, Alistair
- Date: 1999
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The Rotary Holding Furnace (RHF) is used in combination with the Copper Isasmelt Furnace as a settling vessel. This study investigated the phenomenon of entrained copper losses into RHF slag. Research work was conducted by laboratory-scale flow modelling, and by plant sampling of the RHF at Mount Isa Mines Limited. Laboratory fold modelling was conducted to measure the residence time distribution of a simulated slag layer in a l;'0 -scale model of the RHF. A novel technique, involving a copper tracer dissolved in an organic solvent extractant solution, was used for these experiments. Plant trials complemented the laboratory work with a variety of slag sampling campaigns. Residence time tests were also attempted on the RHF slag. In combination, the laboratory and plant scale experimental work performed in this investigation helped to highlight some likely causes of entrained copper loss in the RHF. Laboratory cold modelling of the RHF suggests that the depth of the upper liquid layer is • likely to affect the fluid flow patterns, and therefore the residence time distribution expected of the layer. A stratification of the flow was prevalent in thick upper liquid layers, but absent when thin upper layers were used. A stagnant region within the upper layer0 0f the model was identified. The introduction of gas injection through porous plugs caused mixing within the upper liquid layer. Stable waves were produced at the liquid liquid interfate. ' .. Plant experiments were constrained by commercial operating schedules. Several parameters were investigated during two different periods of experimental work. Granulated slag sampling indicated a link between the duration of continuous slag discharge and the copper content of the slag. Evidence was found that suggests the presence of interfacial waves.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Burrows, Alistair
- Date: 1999
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The Rotary Holding Furnace (RHF) is used in combination with the Copper Isasmelt Furnace as a settling vessel. This study investigated the phenomenon of entrained copper losses into RHF slag. Research work was conducted by laboratory-scale flow modelling, and by plant sampling of the RHF at Mount Isa Mines Limited. Laboratory fold modelling was conducted to measure the residence time distribution of a simulated slag layer in a l;'0 -scale model of the RHF. A novel technique, involving a copper tracer dissolved in an organic solvent extractant solution, was used for these experiments. Plant trials complemented the laboratory work with a variety of slag sampling campaigns. Residence time tests were also attempted on the RHF slag. In combination, the laboratory and plant scale experimental work performed in this investigation helped to highlight some likely causes of entrained copper loss in the RHF. Laboratory cold modelling of the RHF suggests that the depth of the upper liquid layer is • likely to affect the fluid flow patterns, and therefore the residence time distribution expected of the layer. A stratification of the flow was prevalent in thick upper liquid layers, but absent when thin upper layers were used. A stagnant region within the upper layer0 0f the model was identified. The introduction of gas injection through porous plugs caused mixing within the upper liquid layer. Stable waves were produced at the liquid liquid interfate. ' .. Plant experiments were constrained by commercial operating schedules. Several parameters were investigated during two different periods of experimental work. Granulated slag sampling indicated a link between the duration of continuous slag discharge and the copper content of the slag. Evidence was found that suggests the presence of interfacial waves.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Corporate reputation in the Australian mining industry : A stakeholder perspective
- Authors: Tuck, Jacqueline
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: This study contributes to corporate reputation theory through the identification of stakeholder specific reputations in the mining industry and further understanding of the complex reputation formation processes. It provides a framework for understanding the formation of reputation at stakeholder level, including the stakeholder network effects and the industry effects in the reputation formation processes for stakeholder groups
- Description: Doctorate of Philosophy
Create, curate, cooperate : Exploring the process of sport safety resource development
- Authors: Bekker, Sheree
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Sports injuries are a significant public health burden both in Australia, and worldwide. Preventing injuries in sports settings is thus an important public health goal. It is now generally accepted that sports injuries are, like other unintentional injuries, largely preventable. Yet intractable problems remain. Complexity theory is harnessed in this research as a means of understanding such problems. To provide new insights into the complexity of sports safety promotion, this research consisted of a qualitative case study design underpinned by constructivist assumptions. Study A documented sports injury prevention and safety promotion resources available from the websites of key sporting organisations. A thematic document analysis approach was used to identify and describe how many, and what types of, resources were available, as well as the sports injury prevention and safety promotion issues addressed. The findings of Study A suggest that sport settings have access to a proliferation of rival resources, which reflects a potentially inefficient and ineffective manner in which to influence policy/practice. Study B determined the process that key intermediary organisations used to develop and disseminate the resources identified in Study A. Interviews with key participants about organisational processes of knowledge translation were undertaken, and a qualitative description approach was used to examine their accounts. The findings of Study B suggest that intermediary organisations can, and do, take on knowledge translation roles in order to make research knowledge more relevant (timely, salient, actionable), accessible (formatted and available), and legitimate (credible) for end-users. A complexity approach was applied to this study to assist in recognising that open systems (stratification and fluidity), non-linearity (emergent properties and feedback loops), and improbability (demi-regularities and the ability to evolve, learn, and adapt) underscore sports safety. This study explicates and examines key insights and implications of adopting a complexity approach to the prevention of injury in sport settings.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Bekker, Sheree
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Sports injuries are a significant public health burden both in Australia, and worldwide. Preventing injuries in sports settings is thus an important public health goal. It is now generally accepted that sports injuries are, like other unintentional injuries, largely preventable. Yet intractable problems remain. Complexity theory is harnessed in this research as a means of understanding such problems. To provide new insights into the complexity of sports safety promotion, this research consisted of a qualitative case study design underpinned by constructivist assumptions. Study A documented sports injury prevention and safety promotion resources available from the websites of key sporting organisations. A thematic document analysis approach was used to identify and describe how many, and what types of, resources were available, as well as the sports injury prevention and safety promotion issues addressed. The findings of Study A suggest that sport settings have access to a proliferation of rival resources, which reflects a potentially inefficient and ineffective manner in which to influence policy/practice. Study B determined the process that key intermediary organisations used to develop and disseminate the resources identified in Study A. Interviews with key participants about organisational processes of knowledge translation were undertaken, and a qualitative description approach was used to examine their accounts. The findings of Study B suggest that intermediary organisations can, and do, take on knowledge translation roles in order to make research knowledge more relevant (timely, salient, actionable), accessible (formatted and available), and legitimate (credible) for end-users. A complexity approach was applied to this study to assist in recognising that open systems (stratification and fluidity), non-linearity (emergent properties and feedback loops), and improbability (demi-regularities and the ability to evolve, learn, and adapt) underscore sports safety. This study explicates and examines key insights and implications of adopting a complexity approach to the prevention of injury in sport settings.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Creating safety : intersection of healthcare and police response to violence against immigrant south asian women in British Columbia : a service provision model
- Authors: Kaur, Harjit
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Background Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), is an internationally prevalent health and safety issue impacting women. Immigrant South Asian women (ISAW) in British Columbia (BC) remain vulnerable to serious injuries and homicides despite efforts of healthcare and police services. It is critical to improve these responses. Knowledge of the challenges to responses can inform and improve services and the well-being of ISAW. Aims This study aimed to explore the needs of ISAW and the challenges of healthcare and police responses, how these may inform responses and to compare the perspectives of survivors, responders and experts to improve the health and safety of ISAW. Methods Design: a two-phased, mixed methods study. Phase 1: a purposive sample of 4 focus groups of 22 ISAW survivors from four cities in BC. An additional focus group involved five subject matter experts. Also conducted were seven face-to-face semi-structured interviews with twelve key informants. Phase 2: a convenience sample of 128 provincial responders completed an online survey. Results The key emerging themes for survivors were the difficulties in identifying and disclosing IPV and the responses to IPV. Responders identified the gaps in services, culturally and linguistically inappropriate policies and uncoordinated and non-collaborative efforts. For the ISAW, perceptions, fears, and socio-cultural impediments hindered their disclosure of IPV. They required culturally and linguistically trauma informed responses, policies and practices to overcome multiple and complex challenges. Co-ordinated, collaborative systemic responses to improve the health and safety of ISAW were identified by all participants, including appropriate risk assessment. Conclusion This study adds to current knowledge by contributing to the understanding of IPV of ISAW from different perspectives: ISAW survivors, responders and experts. This knowledge offers potential improvements to services and policy developments to reduce the health and safety risks to IPV survivors.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Kaur, Harjit
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Background Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), is an internationally prevalent health and safety issue impacting women. Immigrant South Asian women (ISAW) in British Columbia (BC) remain vulnerable to serious injuries and homicides despite efforts of healthcare and police services. It is critical to improve these responses. Knowledge of the challenges to responses can inform and improve services and the well-being of ISAW. Aims This study aimed to explore the needs of ISAW and the challenges of healthcare and police responses, how these may inform responses and to compare the perspectives of survivors, responders and experts to improve the health and safety of ISAW. Methods Design: a two-phased, mixed methods study. Phase 1: a purposive sample of 4 focus groups of 22 ISAW survivors from four cities in BC. An additional focus group involved five subject matter experts. Also conducted were seven face-to-face semi-structured interviews with twelve key informants. Phase 2: a convenience sample of 128 provincial responders completed an online survey. Results The key emerging themes for survivors were the difficulties in identifying and disclosing IPV and the responses to IPV. Responders identified the gaps in services, culturally and linguistically inappropriate policies and uncoordinated and non-collaborative efforts. For the ISAW, perceptions, fears, and socio-cultural impediments hindered their disclosure of IPV. They required culturally and linguistically trauma informed responses, policies and practices to overcome multiple and complex challenges. Co-ordinated, collaborative systemic responses to improve the health and safety of ISAW were identified by all participants, including appropriate risk assessment. Conclusion This study adds to current knowledge by contributing to the understanding of IPV of ISAW from different perspectives: ISAW survivors, responders and experts. This knowledge offers potential improvements to services and policy developments to reduce the health and safety risks to IPV survivors.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Creative activation of the past: Mechanics' Institutes, GLAM, heritage, and creativity in the twenty-first century
- Authors: Tsilemanis, Amy
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This is an interdisciplinary, mixed-method thesis that explores contemporary curation as a means to creatively activate heritage collections and places. The central case study is Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute (BMI), in Ballarat, Australia, where practice and action-led research was undertaken by the curator over the three-year period 2016–2019. Creative connections between five interlinked areas are critically examined: heritage; curatorial practice, by which heritage sites, collections and experiences are managed; historic cultural organisations; their city contexts; and the ways in which such cultural work is valued. The framework for analysis encompasses museology, critical heritage, and approaches to cultural value. Contemporary urban Mechanics’ Institutes (MIs) are placed in the museum context both through historic parallels and their contemporary positioning in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) industry sector. This is in order to ask how heritage collections, and the organisations that house and present them, can creatively connect with the publics they serve with greater connectivity and relevance. Exhibitions and events held at BMI within Ballarat city are treated as case studies. Together with qualitative interviews with staff in the Ballarat GLAM sector and urban MIs, insights derived illuminate the role and challenges of such cultural organisations in the twenty-first century. It is argued that, when employing the practice and energy of the curator, creative activations have the potential to open new points of entry to, and provide alternative perspectives upon, heritage places and collections. This is achieved through arts practice, organisational thinking, and bringing to life the links between past, present and future. In this process, new and dynamic measures of value can be explored and create dialogic encounters between people, heritage and ideas.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Tsilemanis, Amy
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This is an interdisciplinary, mixed-method thesis that explores contemporary curation as a means to creatively activate heritage collections and places. The central case study is Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute (BMI), in Ballarat, Australia, where practice and action-led research was undertaken by the curator over the three-year period 2016–2019. Creative connections between five interlinked areas are critically examined: heritage; curatorial practice, by which heritage sites, collections and experiences are managed; historic cultural organisations; their city contexts; and the ways in which such cultural work is valued. The framework for analysis encompasses museology, critical heritage, and approaches to cultural value. Contemporary urban Mechanics’ Institutes (MIs) are placed in the museum context both through historic parallels and their contemporary positioning in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) industry sector. This is in order to ask how heritage collections, and the organisations that house and present them, can creatively connect with the publics they serve with greater connectivity and relevance. Exhibitions and events held at BMI within Ballarat city are treated as case studies. Together with qualitative interviews with staff in the Ballarat GLAM sector and urban MIs, insights derived illuminate the role and challenges of such cultural organisations in the twenty-first century. It is argued that, when employing the practice and energy of the curator, creative activations have the potential to open new points of entry to, and provide alternative perspectives upon, heritage places and collections. This is achieved through arts practice, organisational thinking, and bringing to life the links between past, present and future. In this process, new and dynamic measures of value can be explored and create dialogic encounters between people, heritage and ideas.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Creative thinking and OHS committees in the NSW construction industry (1998/99) / Gerard F. Ayers
- Authors: Ayers, Gerard
- Date: 1999
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: School of Science & Engineering
- Description: Thesis (Master of Applied Science)
- Authors: Ayers, Gerard
- Date: 1999
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: School of Science & Engineering
- Description: Thesis (Master of Applied Science)
Cultural influence on China's household saving
- Authors: Boffa, Zhang-Ming
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The recession following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis highlighted the problem of deficient household saving and imprudent consumer credit. Studies of selected economies reveal that household saving tends to decline as economies move to higher stages of development. Following rapid economic growth, China’s household saving, possibly due to the influence of traditional culture, has remained high by international standards while consumer credit levels are low. This significant phenomenon has prompted the question of what this development trajectory may become as China proceeds to higher income levels. Whereas the economic, social and financial development factors related to household saving and development have been well researched, from the perspective of this investigation, there are missing ‘cultural values’ in the analysis. Consequently, the Institutional Economics concept of ‘culture as a value’ provides the basis for this thesis into the influence of culture on China’s household saving and its effects. By extending Keynes’s General Theory in relation to saving, and incorporating studies from both the Chinese and Western scholarly traditions, five themes are identified as influencing the cultural preferences of China’s household saving. These are: (i) precautionary motives; (ii) habit formation; (iii) children’s education; (iv) consumer credit; and (v) teaching thrift. The holistic approach of this study has allowed a deeper understanding of the role of cultural values on agency and structure in economic events and their subsequent impact on household saving. Results of this investigation indicate that the Confucian value of family ties and ‘Zhong Yong’ – the Golden Mean, which translates essentially as balance, enable Chinese households to save. This development has highlighted a growing tension, in China’s modernity process, between the traditional Confucian value of thrift and the Western cultural influence of stimulating economic growth by consumption. After consideration of current saving practices and the anticipation of economic changes, this research advocates the striking of a balance between household saving and increasing consumption in China in order to avert a future financial crisis and to facilitate economic growth. The implication of this research is that finding a balance between household saving and consumption is crucial to sustainable future development in China as it shifts its development focus from investment and export-led to domestic consumption-driven growth and social development.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Boffa, Zhang-Ming
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The recession following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis highlighted the problem of deficient household saving and imprudent consumer credit. Studies of selected economies reveal that household saving tends to decline as economies move to higher stages of development. Following rapid economic growth, China’s household saving, possibly due to the influence of traditional culture, has remained high by international standards while consumer credit levels are low. This significant phenomenon has prompted the question of what this development trajectory may become as China proceeds to higher income levels. Whereas the economic, social and financial development factors related to household saving and development have been well researched, from the perspective of this investigation, there are missing ‘cultural values’ in the analysis. Consequently, the Institutional Economics concept of ‘culture as a value’ provides the basis for this thesis into the influence of culture on China’s household saving and its effects. By extending Keynes’s General Theory in relation to saving, and incorporating studies from both the Chinese and Western scholarly traditions, five themes are identified as influencing the cultural preferences of China’s household saving. These are: (i) precautionary motives; (ii) habit formation; (iii) children’s education; (iv) consumer credit; and (v) teaching thrift. The holistic approach of this study has allowed a deeper understanding of the role of cultural values on agency and structure in economic events and their subsequent impact on household saving. Results of this investigation indicate that the Confucian value of family ties and ‘Zhong Yong’ – the Golden Mean, which translates essentially as balance, enable Chinese households to save. This development has highlighted a growing tension, in China’s modernity process, between the traditional Confucian value of thrift and the Western cultural influence of stimulating economic growth by consumption. After consideration of current saving practices and the anticipation of economic changes, this research advocates the striking of a balance between household saving and increasing consumption in China in order to avert a future financial crisis and to facilitate economic growth. The implication of this research is that finding a balance between household saving and consumption is crucial to sustainable future development in China as it shifts its development focus from investment and export-led to domestic consumption-driven growth and social development.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Cytoskeletal plakins in epithelial ovarian cancer
- Authors: Wesley, Tamsin
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: The plakin family of cytoskeletal proteins play an important role in cancer progression yet are under-studied in cancer, especially ovarian cancer. These large cytoskeletal proteins have primary roles in the maintenance of cytoskeletal integrity. They are also associated with scaffolds of intermediate filaments and hemidesmosomal adhesion complexes mediating signalling pathways that regulate cellular growth, migration, invasion and differentiation, as well as a stress response. Abnormalities of plakins, and the closely related spectraplakins, result in serious pathologies of skin, striated muscle and nervous tissue. Their prevalence in epithelial cells suggests that plakins may play a role in epithelial ovarian cancer progression and recurrence. This thesis sought to explore the expression of plakin proteins, particularly plectin (PLEC), desmoplakin (DSP), periplakin (PPL) and envoplakin (EVPL) in ovarian cancer progression, comparing surgical stages, historical Silverberg histological grading and current World Health Organisation (WHO) pathological classification of ovarian tumour types. The study also investigated the potential role that the plakin family of proteins may play in regulating cancer cell growth, survival, migration, invasion and drug resistance. It highlights potential relationships between plakins and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and relates how these interactions may affect ovarian cancer progression, chemoresistance and ultimately recurrence. This study hypothesises that the molecular changes in the expression of plakins in benign ovarian tumours compared to various grades and stages of ovarian carcinomas, as well as floating cellular aggregates (spheroids) in the peritoneal ascites microenvironment, may contribute to the progression of the disease. It also attempts to understand these crucial changes in plakin expression in response to chemotherapy treatment and relate these findings in the perspective of disease recurrence.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Data classification through nonsmooth optimization
- Authors: Soukhoroukova, Nadejda
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test new methods for data classification based on mathematical programming and nonsmooth optimization."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Soukhoroukova, Nadejda
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test new methods for data classification based on mathematical programming and nonsmooth optimization."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Decision making processes within educated intercultural marriages in Australia
- Authors: Alnaimi, Suleiman
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In recent years, the world–wide phenomena of globalization and increasingly flexible social norms have contributed to an increase in intercultural relationships, particularly in multicultural societies. Intercultural relationships have a higher risk of failure and lower marital satisfaction than same-culture marriages. The negotiation of important family decisions are known to lead to marital conflict, however few studies have examined how successful, intercultural couples make important decisions and maintain marital satisfaction. Six intercultural couples who met the criteria were recruited and interviewed (ie.12 individuals).Couples were interviewed longitudinally on how they make important family decisions. The educational levels of participants ranged from college degree to PhD degree. The participants represented diverse cultural backgrounds. The various racial and/or ethnic identifications of the intercultural married couples in this study represented the diversity of the racial and/or ethnic mixes in intercultural marriages within the general population. Prior to completing the conjoint, face to face interviews, each couple completed the Schwartz Value Survey to elicit their individual values. Values are known to motivate and underpin decisions and vary from culture to culture. Interviews revealed that, although cultural differences were clearly evident, these differences did not prevent effective decision making amongst intercultural couples. Instead, couples were successfully turning cultural differences into minor issues or even opportunities. Couples often managed three cultures within the nuclear family as all couples had children being raised in Australia. Couples reported that keys to marital success included developing common values, working towards agreed goals and awareness of their spouse’s culture, support and open communication. Intercultural couples interviewed displayed positive attitudes of commitment to their marriage, each other and family. Couples focused on what was best for the family when making decisions. They held firm beliefs that they were not that different from their partner, despite cultural differences. Themes to emerge from qualitative analysis of the interviews as factors underpinning successful inter-cultural marriages across the participants include shared faith, similar values and the creation of a third culture within an emerging global culture. Cultural differences were not found to be a significant factor when major family decisions were made. This thesis is the first to examine decision making among successful intercultural couples. Qualitative study has investigated couple decision-making from the same cultural background. This current study generates new insights on intercultural couple’s decision making processes, and provides unique perspectives on how successful, well-adjusted and highly educated intercultural couples negotiate important family decisions. The findings of this study have the potential to add to the limited knowledge available on intercultural marriage and cross-cultural adjustment and has implications for counsellors and marriage / family therapists working with cross-cultural couples.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Alnaimi, Suleiman
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In recent years, the world–wide phenomena of globalization and increasingly flexible social norms have contributed to an increase in intercultural relationships, particularly in multicultural societies. Intercultural relationships have a higher risk of failure and lower marital satisfaction than same-culture marriages. The negotiation of important family decisions are known to lead to marital conflict, however few studies have examined how successful, intercultural couples make important decisions and maintain marital satisfaction. Six intercultural couples who met the criteria were recruited and interviewed (ie.12 individuals).Couples were interviewed longitudinally on how they make important family decisions. The educational levels of participants ranged from college degree to PhD degree. The participants represented diverse cultural backgrounds. The various racial and/or ethnic identifications of the intercultural married couples in this study represented the diversity of the racial and/or ethnic mixes in intercultural marriages within the general population. Prior to completing the conjoint, face to face interviews, each couple completed the Schwartz Value Survey to elicit their individual values. Values are known to motivate and underpin decisions and vary from culture to culture. Interviews revealed that, although cultural differences were clearly evident, these differences did not prevent effective decision making amongst intercultural couples. Instead, couples were successfully turning cultural differences into minor issues or even opportunities. Couples often managed three cultures within the nuclear family as all couples had children being raised in Australia. Couples reported that keys to marital success included developing common values, working towards agreed goals and awareness of their spouse’s culture, support and open communication. Intercultural couples interviewed displayed positive attitudes of commitment to their marriage, each other and family. Couples focused on what was best for the family when making decisions. They held firm beliefs that they were not that different from their partner, despite cultural differences. Themes to emerge from qualitative analysis of the interviews as factors underpinning successful inter-cultural marriages across the participants include shared faith, similar values and the creation of a third culture within an emerging global culture. Cultural differences were not found to be a significant factor when major family decisions were made. This thesis is the first to examine decision making among successful intercultural couples. Qualitative study has investigated couple decision-making from the same cultural background. This current study generates new insights on intercultural couple’s decision making processes, and provides unique perspectives on how successful, well-adjusted and highly educated intercultural couples negotiate important family decisions. The findings of this study have the potential to add to the limited knowledge available on intercultural marriage and cross-cultural adjustment and has implications for counsellors and marriage / family therapists working with cross-cultural couples.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Derivative free algorithms for nonsmooth and global optimization with application in cluster analysis
- Authors: Ganjehlou, Asef Nazari
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is devoted to the development of algorithms for solving nonsmooth nonconvex problems. Some of these algorithms are derivative free methods.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Ganjehlou, Asef Nazari
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is devoted to the development of algorithms for solving nonsmooth nonconvex problems. Some of these algorithms are derivative free methods.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy