Occupational rehabilitation in Victoria : practitioners' perceptions of change
- Authors: Lord, Anne
- Date: 1996
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: "The aim of this work is to assess the impact of legislative changes on the practice of occupational rehabilitation as perceived by rehabilitation practioners using the Victorian experience as a case study."
- Description: Master of Applied Science
- Swan, Christopher, Morgan, Damian, Lawton, Alan
- Authors: Swan, Christopher , Morgan, Damian , Lawton, Alan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 15th International Conference Corporate Social Responsibility and 6th Organisational Governance Conference; Melbourne, Australia; 4th-6th September 2016
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
A three tier forensic model for automatic identification of evidence of child exploitation by analysing the content of chat-logs
- Authors: Miah, Md Waliur Rahman
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Detection of child exploitation (CE) in Internet chatting by locating evidence in the chat-log is an important issue for the protection of children from prospective online paedophiles. The un-grammatical and informal nature of chat-text makes it difficult for existing formal language processing techniques to handle the problem. The methodology of the current research avoids those difficulties by developing a multi-tier digital forensic model bulit on new ideas of psychological similarity measures and ways of applying them to chat-texts. The model uses text classifiers in the beginning to identify shallow evidence of CE. For locating the particular evidence it is required to identify the behavioural pattern of CE chats consisting of documented CE psychological stages and associate the perpetrators' posts to them. Similarities among the posts of a chat play an important role for the task of differentiating and identifying these stages. To accomplish this task a novel similarity measure is constructed backed by a dictionary with terms associated with each CE stage. Using the new similarity measure is constructed backed by a dictionary with terms associated with each CE stage. Using the new similarity measure in a hieraarchial agglomerative algoritm a new clusterer is built to cluster the posts of a chat-log into the CE stages to learn whether it follows the CE pattern. Inspired by the field of recognition of textual entailment a new soft entailment technique is developed and implemented to locate the specific posts associated with the CE stages. Those specific posts of the perpetrator are extarcted as the particular evidence from the chat-log. It is anticipated that the developed methodology will have many future pratical implementations. It would assist in the development of forensic tools for digital forensic experts in law and enforcement agencies to conveniently locate evidence of online child grooming in a confiscated hard disk drive. Another future implementation would be a parental filter used by parents to protect their children from potential online offenders.
- Description: Doctor of Philosphy
- Authors: Miah, Md Waliur Rahman
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Detection of child exploitation (CE) in Internet chatting by locating evidence in the chat-log is an important issue for the protection of children from prospective online paedophiles. The un-grammatical and informal nature of chat-text makes it difficult for existing formal language processing techniques to handle the problem. The methodology of the current research avoids those difficulties by developing a multi-tier digital forensic model bulit on new ideas of psychological similarity measures and ways of applying them to chat-texts. The model uses text classifiers in the beginning to identify shallow evidence of CE. For locating the particular evidence it is required to identify the behavioural pattern of CE chats consisting of documented CE psychological stages and associate the perpetrators' posts to them. Similarities among the posts of a chat play an important role for the task of differentiating and identifying these stages. To accomplish this task a novel similarity measure is constructed backed by a dictionary with terms associated with each CE stage. Using the new similarity measure is constructed backed by a dictionary with terms associated with each CE stage. Using the new similarity measure in a hieraarchial agglomerative algoritm a new clusterer is built to cluster the posts of a chat-log into the CE stages to learn whether it follows the CE pattern. Inspired by the field of recognition of textual entailment a new soft entailment technique is developed and implemented to locate the specific posts associated with the CE stages. Those specific posts of the perpetrator are extarcted as the particular evidence from the chat-log. It is anticipated that the developed methodology will have many future pratical implementations. It would assist in the development of forensic tools for digital forensic experts in law and enforcement agencies to conveniently locate evidence of online child grooming in a confiscated hard disk drive. Another future implementation would be a parental filter used by parents to protect their children from potential online offenders.
- Description: Doctor of Philosphy
Proceedings of the Australia-China Wetland Network Research Partnership Symposium
- Authors: Kattel, Giri
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text:
- Description: This publication is a compilation of short papers presented at the Australia-China Wetland Network Research Partnership Symposium, held in China at the Nanjing International Conference Hotel, 24 March 2014. The symposium, jointly organised by the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) of Federation University Australia and the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGLAS), brought together a range of scientists including the neo-ecologists, palaeoecologists and hydrologists from both Australia and China. More than 100 students and scientists from across China attended the symposium. A majority of papers presented at the symposium have overlapping themes between ecology and hydrology of the large river and wetland systems that are exposed to a range of impacts posed by humans and recent climate change. The research focus of this volume is around the topic highlighting the conservation and management of degraded wetlands in Australia and China and the maintenance of a long term ecological resilience.
- Authors: Kattel, Giri
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text:
- Description: This publication is a compilation of short papers presented at the Australia-China Wetland Network Research Partnership Symposium, held in China at the Nanjing International Conference Hotel, 24 March 2014. The symposium, jointly organised by the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) of Federation University Australia and the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGLAS), brought together a range of scientists including the neo-ecologists, palaeoecologists and hydrologists from both Australia and China. More than 100 students and scientists from across China attended the symposium. A majority of papers presented at the symposium have overlapping themes between ecology and hydrology of the large river and wetland systems that are exposed to a range of impacts posed by humans and recent climate change. The research focus of this volume is around the topic highlighting the conservation and management of degraded wetlands in Australia and China and the maintenance of a long term ecological resilience.
Percy : A life in China - The life and times of Percy Nettle : 1886-1964
- Authors: Nettle, Rodney
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is about the transnational life of Percival Edward Nettle (1886-1964), a young man born in Ballarat who moved from Australia to Shanghai at the end of 1906 on his way to San Francisco. He never did get to San Francisco but lived in and out of China until he died in 1964. This thesis tells his story and also addresses the perennial human management problem of achieving a co-operative fit between people from different cultural backgrounds. Percy Nettle achieved this fit with the Chinese through developing an exceptional rapport with Chinese people from the time he commenced working with them in 1907 on engineering projects, and later during and through wars and other civil engagements. He was a great success in China, the key to which was his skill with the language and later from his ability to culturally adapt and empathise with the people in the environments in which he was living at the time. Percy also found that his ‘Wesleyan’ approach to people conveniently dovetailed with the ‘Confucian’ values approach of the Chinese. Percy was able to communicate with Chinese people from Viceroys to infantry men and bandits and could win their trust regardless of social levels. Percy documented his ‘fitting in’ experience with the Chinese in his diaries, letters and journals over a fifty-five-year period until his death in Hong Kong in 1964. The analysis and contextualisation of his original records form the basis of this thesis and what is learned from this study of his exceptional life is the importance of achieving a very high level of cultural empathy and understanding with the people we deal with beginning with learning how to speak with them in their own language. Percy was also able to demonstrate the universal efficacy of strong ethical values even when they are transposed from one cultural setting to another.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Nettle, Rodney
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is about the transnational life of Percival Edward Nettle (1886-1964), a young man born in Ballarat who moved from Australia to Shanghai at the end of 1906 on his way to San Francisco. He never did get to San Francisco but lived in and out of China until he died in 1964. This thesis tells his story and also addresses the perennial human management problem of achieving a co-operative fit between people from different cultural backgrounds. Percy Nettle achieved this fit with the Chinese through developing an exceptional rapport with Chinese people from the time he commenced working with them in 1907 on engineering projects, and later during and through wars and other civil engagements. He was a great success in China, the key to which was his skill with the language and later from his ability to culturally adapt and empathise with the people in the environments in which he was living at the time. Percy also found that his ‘Wesleyan’ approach to people conveniently dovetailed with the ‘Confucian’ values approach of the Chinese. Percy was able to communicate with Chinese people from Viceroys to infantry men and bandits and could win their trust regardless of social levels. Percy documented his ‘fitting in’ experience with the Chinese in his diaries, letters and journals over a fifty-five-year period until his death in Hong Kong in 1964. The analysis and contextualisation of his original records form the basis of this thesis and what is learned from this study of his exceptional life is the importance of achieving a very high level of cultural empathy and understanding with the people we deal with beginning with learning how to speak with them in their own language. Percy was also able to demonstrate the universal efficacy of strong ethical values even when they are transposed from one cultural setting to another.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Place and space in the rhetoric of Australian colonial poetry
- Authors: Healey, Margaret
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "This study focuses on poetry as evidence for the presence of a conceptual side to the nature of place. It utilises the poetry of the early European period in Australia to explore aspects of the manner in which concepts of place are transmitted through a community. It works through this poetry, seeking for rhetoric, for arguments about the nature of place and the values of particular aspects of place, rather than for particularly literary virtues of originality of language use"
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Healey, Margaret
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "This study focuses on poetry as evidence for the presence of a conceptual side to the nature of place. It utilises the poetry of the early European period in Australia to explore aspects of the manner in which concepts of place are transmitted through a community. It works through this poetry, seeking for rhetoric, for arguments about the nature of place and the values of particular aspects of place, rather than for particularly literary virtues of originality of language use"
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
About regularity properties in variational analysis and applications in optimization
- Authors: Nguyen, Hieu Thao
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Regularity properties lie at the core of variational analysis because of their importance for stability analysis of optimization and variational problems, constraint qualications, qualication conditions in coderivative and subdierential calculus and convergence analysis of numerical algorithms. The thesis is devoted to investigation of several research questions related to regularity properties in variational analysis and their applications in convergence analysis and optimization. Following the works by Kruger, we examine several useful regularity properties of collections of sets in both linear and Holder-type settings and establish their characterizations and relationships to regularity properties of set-valued mappings. Following the recent publications by Lewis, Luke, Malick (2009), Drusvyatskiy, Ioe, Lewis (2014) and some others, we study application of the uniform regularity and related properties of collections of sets to alternating projections for solving nonconvex feasibility problems and compare existing results on this topic. Motivated by Ioe (2000) and his subsequent publications, we use the classical iteration scheme going back to Banach, Schauder, Lyusternik and Graves to establish criteria for regularity properties of set-valued mappings and compare this approach with the one based on the Ekeland variational principle. Finally, following the recent works by Khanh et al. on stability analysis for optimization related problems, we investigate calmness of set-valued solution mappings of variational problems.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: Regularity properties lie at the core of variational analysis because of their importance for stability analysis of optimization and variational problems, constraint qualications, qualication conditions in coderivative and subdierential calculus and convergence analysis of numerical algorithms. The thesis is devoted to investigation of several research questions related to regularity properties in variational analysis and their applications in convergence analysis and optimization. Following the works by Kruger, we examine several useful regularity properties of collections of sets in both linear and H
- Authors: Nguyen, Hieu Thao
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Regularity properties lie at the core of variational analysis because of their importance for stability analysis of optimization and variational problems, constraint qualications, qualication conditions in coderivative and subdierential calculus and convergence analysis of numerical algorithms. The thesis is devoted to investigation of several research questions related to regularity properties in variational analysis and their applications in convergence analysis and optimization. Following the works by Kruger, we examine several useful regularity properties of collections of sets in both linear and Holder-type settings and establish their characterizations and relationships to regularity properties of set-valued mappings. Following the recent publications by Lewis, Luke, Malick (2009), Drusvyatskiy, Ioe, Lewis (2014) and some others, we study application of the uniform regularity and related properties of collections of sets to alternating projections for solving nonconvex feasibility problems and compare existing results on this topic. Motivated by Ioe (2000) and his subsequent publications, we use the classical iteration scheme going back to Banach, Schauder, Lyusternik and Graves to establish criteria for regularity properties of set-valued mappings and compare this approach with the one based on the Ekeland variational principle. Finally, following the recent works by Khanh et al. on stability analysis for optimization related problems, we investigate calmness of set-valued solution mappings of variational problems.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: Regularity properties lie at the core of variational analysis because of their importance for stability analysis of optimization and variational problems, constraint qualications, qualication conditions in coderivative and subdierential calculus and convergence analysis of numerical algorithms. The thesis is devoted to investigation of several research questions related to regularity properties in variational analysis and their applications in convergence analysis and optimization. Following the works by Kruger, we examine several useful regularity properties of collections of sets in both linear and H
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
Capital budgeting practices and firm performance : A comparative study of Australia and Sri Lanka
- Puwanenthiren, Pratheepkanth
- Authors: Puwanenthiren, Pratheepkanth
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis disentangles two elements from the complex interdependent suite of key drivers of firm sophistication in capital-budgeting. Specifically, the relative sophistication of a firm (i.e. its nature) and the development level of the nation in which a firm is embedded (i.e. the nurture experienced by the firm). This research should enhance the development focus and process of nations (e.g., to what degree should national development be about raising the ability of individual firms or will raising national development act as a rising tide [that] raises all boats). The comparative data used in this study comes from 150 Australian (ASX200-index-listed) firms and 150 Sri Lankan (Colombo-stock-exchange-listed firms). The research questions are answered via a quantitative research design that uses primary and secondary data. The response rate to the questionnaire survey of firms was, 45 and 73 completed questionnaires from, respectively, Australia and Sri Lanka (an effective response rate of, respectively, 31.5 and 48.7 percent). Secondary data for 2003-12 are obtained from the ASX, CSE’s and SIRCA databases and are used to calculate return on assets, return on equity, Tobin Q, and earnings per share for the sampled firms. It was found that Australian firms tend to rely heavily on sophisticated capital-budgeting practices, but Sri Lankan relatively small firms prefer simple analysis methods and the larger firms tend to be as adept at sophisticated capital budgeting as their Australian counterparts. The choice of whether to use more sophisticated practices or simpler alternatives varies with a firm’s attributes as well as the level of economic and financial market development in its environment. Also, Australian firms tend to use capital-budget models with good-to-strong predictive power (except for ROE) and Sri Lankan firms tend to use capital-budget models with fair-to-poor predictive power. Further, the analysis of Australian firms tends to yield stronger and more statistically-significant results, than those generated by Sri Lankan firms.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Puwanenthiren, Pratheepkanth
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis disentangles two elements from the complex interdependent suite of key drivers of firm sophistication in capital-budgeting. Specifically, the relative sophistication of a firm (i.e. its nature) and the development level of the nation in which a firm is embedded (i.e. the nurture experienced by the firm). This research should enhance the development focus and process of nations (e.g., to what degree should national development be about raising the ability of individual firms or will raising national development act as a rising tide [that] raises all boats). The comparative data used in this study comes from 150 Australian (ASX200-index-listed) firms and 150 Sri Lankan (Colombo-stock-exchange-listed firms). The research questions are answered via a quantitative research design that uses primary and secondary data. The response rate to the questionnaire survey of firms was, 45 and 73 completed questionnaires from, respectively, Australia and Sri Lanka (an effective response rate of, respectively, 31.5 and 48.7 percent). Secondary data for 2003-12 are obtained from the ASX, CSE’s and SIRCA databases and are used to calculate return on assets, return on equity, Tobin Q, and earnings per share for the sampled firms. It was found that Australian firms tend to rely heavily on sophisticated capital-budgeting practices, but Sri Lankan relatively small firms prefer simple analysis methods and the larger firms tend to be as adept at sophisticated capital budgeting as their Australian counterparts. The choice of whether to use more sophisticated practices or simpler alternatives varies with a firm’s attributes as well as the level of economic and financial market development in its environment. Also, Australian firms tend to use capital-budget models with good-to-strong predictive power (except for ROE) and Sri Lankan firms tend to use capital-budget models with fair-to-poor predictive power. Further, the analysis of Australian firms tends to yield stronger and more statistically-significant results, than those generated by Sri Lankan firms.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Development, hydrology and salinisation of the regolth at Bamganie-Meredith, Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Smith, Michael S.
- Date: 2001
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The thesis looks at landscape evolution and salinisation in the Bamganie-Meredith region of Victoria. The importance of reducing waterlogging is stressed if successful land management is to be achieved.
- Description: Master of Applied Science
- Authors: Smith, Michael S.
- Date: 2001
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The thesis looks at landscape evolution and salinisation in the Bamganie-Meredith region of Victoria. The importance of reducing waterlogging is stressed if successful land management is to be achieved.
- Description: Master of Applied Science
Static code analysis of data-driven applications through common lingua and the Semantic Web technologies
- Authors: Ureche, Oana
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Web applications have become increasingly popular due to their potential for businesses' high revenue gain through global reach. Along with these opportunities, also come challenges in terms of Web application security. The increased rise in the number of datadriven applications has also seen an increased rise in their systematic attacks. Cyberattacks exploit Web application vulnerabilities. Attack trends show a major increase in Web application vulnerabilities caused by improper implementation of information-flow control methods and they account for more than 50% of all Web application vulnerabilities found in the year 2013. Static code analysis using methods of information-flow control is a widely acknowledged technique to secure Web applications. Whilst this technique has been found to be both very effective and efficient in finding Web application vulnerabilities, specific tools are highly dependent on the programming language. This thesis leverages Semantic Web technologies in order to offer a common language through source code represented using the Resource Description Framework format, whereby reasoning can be applied to securely test Web applications. In this thesis, we present a framework that extracts source code facts from various programming languages at a variable-level of granularity using Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) generated using language grammars and the ANTLR parser generator. The methodology for detecting Web application vulnerabilities implements three phases: entry points identification, tracing information-flow and vulnerability detection using the Jena framework inference mechanism and rules describing patterns of source code. The approach discussed in this thesis is found to be effective and practical in finding Web application vulnerabilities with the limitation that it can only detect patterns that are used as training data or very similar patterns. False positives are caused by limitations of the language grammar, but they do not affect the accuracy of the security vulnerability detection method in identifying the correct Web application vulnerability.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Ureche, Oana
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Web applications have become increasingly popular due to their potential for businesses' high revenue gain through global reach. Along with these opportunities, also come challenges in terms of Web application security. The increased rise in the number of datadriven applications has also seen an increased rise in their systematic attacks. Cyberattacks exploit Web application vulnerabilities. Attack trends show a major increase in Web application vulnerabilities caused by improper implementation of information-flow control methods and they account for more than 50% of all Web application vulnerabilities found in the year 2013. Static code analysis using methods of information-flow control is a widely acknowledged technique to secure Web applications. Whilst this technique has been found to be both very effective and efficient in finding Web application vulnerabilities, specific tools are highly dependent on the programming language. This thesis leverages Semantic Web technologies in order to offer a common language through source code represented using the Resource Description Framework format, whereby reasoning can be applied to securely test Web applications. In this thesis, we present a framework that extracts source code facts from various programming languages at a variable-level of granularity using Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) generated using language grammars and the ANTLR parser generator. The methodology for detecting Web application vulnerabilities implements three phases: entry points identification, tracing information-flow and vulnerability detection using the Jena framework inference mechanism and rules describing patterns of source code. The approach discussed in this thesis is found to be effective and practical in finding Web application vulnerabilities with the limitation that it can only detect patterns that are used as training data or very similar patterns. False positives are caused by limitations of the language grammar, but they do not affect the accuracy of the security vulnerability detection method in identifying the correct Web application vulnerability.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
A philosophical analysis of the functions and operation of due process in accounting standard setting in Australia
- Authors: Mehta, Surinder
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The setting of accounting standards in the Australian context has undergone significant change over the past few decades because of both the introduction of international accounting standards and the outcomes of the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP). One major thrust of these reforms was to widen the breadth of participation and to introduce new voices into the Australian accounting standard setting regime. Though there have been recent changes to Australian accounting standard setting arrangements, due process still remains as the underlying procedure for incorporating stakeholder participation. Standard setting resides within a socio-political and economic realm which lies between a capitalistic economic individualism premised upon self-interest and interest group preferences, and an idealistic paradigm of the public interest (common good). Both notions are espoused within modern civil society and present in the formulation of policy and regulation through participation. Recent times have seen the promulgation of accounting standards given over by delegated legislation to private sector interests who compete for desired outcomes and more recently this has been entrenched within the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) which produces International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This research presents a two-fold investigation of the due process which is applied when developing accounting standards in Australia. Firstly, this study questions whether such standards provide an adequate avenue for incorporating both appropriate attributes of participation and accountability in line with the historical understanding of due process as developed through common law. Secondly, this study questions whether such standards provide an appropriate vehicle for widening participation by introducing new voices into the Australian accounting standard setting process. On the former question, common law due process resonates within a paradigm that supports fair dealing and equity between individuals with themselves and with government. On the latter question, this research identifies low and declining stakeholder participation within the due process of accounting standard setting. This is accompanied by the declining interest of previous major participants. In examining the longitudinal participation trends of submitters to the accounting standard setting regime, this research contends that the due process finds itself embedded within the confines of a procedural construct to the detriment of accommodating natural justice through a more enlightened substantive approach. As such, when considered in light of its common law roots, it fails both to provide an adequate level of openness along with accommodating only a limited opportunity to participate, specifically when taking into account opinions and interests. The very construct of common law due process rests upon its ability both to subsume participation within the decision-making process, and for that participation to be substantive in the outcome of the process. That is, such participation gives meaning to the outcome. Instead the current due process as applied within the accounting standard setting environment resonates such participation through abolitionist type approaches. Here self-interested parties compete for advantages from property rights and private benefits in line with the more modern interpretation of the public interest. The approach taken in this thesis is to consider the due process from a philosophical perspective by assessing the questions of accountability and participation within the due process in terms of civil society, the public good, economic individualism, libertarianism, liberalism, and agency, rather than to embed the discussion within the expansive existing studies concerning due process in the accounting standard setting process. The conclusion from this perspective is that due process is clearly a process past its due date.
- Description: Masters by Research
- Authors: Mehta, Surinder
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The setting of accounting standards in the Australian context has undergone significant change over the past few decades because of both the introduction of international accounting standards and the outcomes of the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP). One major thrust of these reforms was to widen the breadth of participation and to introduce new voices into the Australian accounting standard setting regime. Though there have been recent changes to Australian accounting standard setting arrangements, due process still remains as the underlying procedure for incorporating stakeholder participation. Standard setting resides within a socio-political and economic realm which lies between a capitalistic economic individualism premised upon self-interest and interest group preferences, and an idealistic paradigm of the public interest (common good). Both notions are espoused within modern civil society and present in the formulation of policy and regulation through participation. Recent times have seen the promulgation of accounting standards given over by delegated legislation to private sector interests who compete for desired outcomes and more recently this has been entrenched within the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) which produces International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This research presents a two-fold investigation of the due process which is applied when developing accounting standards in Australia. Firstly, this study questions whether such standards provide an adequate avenue for incorporating both appropriate attributes of participation and accountability in line with the historical understanding of due process as developed through common law. Secondly, this study questions whether such standards provide an appropriate vehicle for widening participation by introducing new voices into the Australian accounting standard setting process. On the former question, common law due process resonates within a paradigm that supports fair dealing and equity between individuals with themselves and with government. On the latter question, this research identifies low and declining stakeholder participation within the due process of accounting standard setting. This is accompanied by the declining interest of previous major participants. In examining the longitudinal participation trends of submitters to the accounting standard setting regime, this research contends that the due process finds itself embedded within the confines of a procedural construct to the detriment of accommodating natural justice through a more enlightened substantive approach. As such, when considered in light of its common law roots, it fails both to provide an adequate level of openness along with accommodating only a limited opportunity to participate, specifically when taking into account opinions and interests. The very construct of common law due process rests upon its ability both to subsume participation within the decision-making process, and for that participation to be substantive in the outcome of the process. That is, such participation gives meaning to the outcome. Instead the current due process as applied within the accounting standard setting environment resonates such participation through abolitionist type approaches. Here self-interested parties compete for advantages from property rights and private benefits in line with the more modern interpretation of the public interest. The approach taken in this thesis is to consider the due process from a philosophical perspective by assessing the questions of accountability and participation within the due process in terms of civil society, the public good, economic individualism, libertarianism, liberalism, and agency, rather than to embed the discussion within the expansive existing studies concerning due process in the accounting standard setting process. The conclusion from this perspective is that due process is clearly a process past its due date.
- Description: Masters by Research
Structural analysis of Online Romance Scams by applying the transtheoretical model in conjunction with the theory of personal love stories
- Authors: Kopp, Christian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The internet has become an important communications platform which people choose for personal interactions. One of the most popular manifestations is the creation and maintenance of social relationships using social and dating websites. Unscrupulous operators have identified its potential for reaching vulnerable people and have started using it as platform for their criminal activity in the form of so-called Online Romance Scams. Quickly, this cybercrime has become very successful and thus an increasing threat in the social networking environment. The Online Romance Scam causes considerable financial and emotional damage to the victims. In this research we introduce a theory which helps to explain the success of this scam. In a similar way to the “The Nigerian Letter”, we propose that the scam techniques appeal to strong emotions, which are clearly involved in Romantic relationships. We also assume that the same success factors of normal relationships contribute to the success of the Romance Scam. Previous research into normal relationships has identified personal “love stories” as an important factor for the development of relationships. We have suggested that these personal love stories will have a key role in fraudulent relationships. The aim of this research is to explore Online Romance Scams as a type of ‘virtual love’ which initially creates happiness for the victim in a virtual romantic relationship, but tragically then causes the victim to be separated from his or her savings. Using narrative research methodology, this research will establish a model of the Romance Scam structure and its variations regarding human romantic attitudes. During the research program, the analysis of publicly available data from the internet were used, and as a consequence of this, appropriate ethical usage of research data is discussed. Findings of this research will contribute to the knowledge of the Online Romance Scam as significant crime, and provide information about the structure and the development of the modus operandi which can be used to identify an online relationship as a scam at an early phase in order to prevent significant harm to the victim.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Kopp, Christian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The internet has become an important communications platform which people choose for personal interactions. One of the most popular manifestations is the creation and maintenance of social relationships using social and dating websites. Unscrupulous operators have identified its potential for reaching vulnerable people and have started using it as platform for their criminal activity in the form of so-called Online Romance Scams. Quickly, this cybercrime has become very successful and thus an increasing threat in the social networking environment. The Online Romance Scam causes considerable financial and emotional damage to the victims. In this research we introduce a theory which helps to explain the success of this scam. In a similar way to the “The Nigerian Letter”, we propose that the scam techniques appeal to strong emotions, which are clearly involved in Romantic relationships. We also assume that the same success factors of normal relationships contribute to the success of the Romance Scam. Previous research into normal relationships has identified personal “love stories” as an important factor for the development of relationships. We have suggested that these personal love stories will have a key role in fraudulent relationships. The aim of this research is to explore Online Romance Scams as a type of ‘virtual love’ which initially creates happiness for the victim in a virtual romantic relationship, but tragically then causes the victim to be separated from his or her savings. Using narrative research methodology, this research will establish a model of the Romance Scam structure and its variations regarding human romantic attitudes. During the research program, the analysis of publicly available data from the internet were used, and as a consequence of this, appropriate ethical usage of research data is discussed. Findings of this research will contribute to the knowledge of the Online Romance Scam as significant crime, and provide information about the structure and the development of the modus operandi which can be used to identify an online relationship as a scam at an early phase in order to prevent significant harm to the victim.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An evaluation of a new test of reactive agility
- Authors: Sheppard, Jeremy
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: "The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of a new test of agility, as well as the validity of the test to distinguish between players of differing ability in Australian Rules Football (ARF). In addition, the study's third purpose was to identify the relationships between straight-sprinting (SS), a sprint with planned change of direction (CODS), reactive strength (RS), and the new test of agility (Reactive Agility Test, RAT)."
- Description: Master of Applied Science
- Authors: Sheppard, Jeremy
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: "The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of a new test of agility, as well as the validity of the test to distinguish between players of differing ability in Australian Rules Football (ARF). In addition, the study's third purpose was to identify the relationships between straight-sprinting (SS), a sprint with planned change of direction (CODS), reactive strength (RS), and the new test of agility (Reactive Agility Test, RAT)."
- Description: Master of Applied Science
Precipitation and evaporative aspects of the terrestrial water balance in Central Victoria and their relationship to large-scale climate drivers during the growing season
- Authors: Marshall, Adam
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Terrestrial Water Balance (TWB) incorporates the combined effects of precipitation and evaporation, and is an important factor influencing agricultural and hydrological processes and management. This study analyses the TWB components at five stations in central Victoria from 1972 - 2013, a region which spans a range of agricultural and hydrological regimes. These stations represent distinct climatic and geographic locations including the dry inland plains, the Great Dividing Range and the southern coastal area. This research focuses on the „Growing Season‟ from March - November; a period where increased availability of moisture is critical for commencing, maintaining and ceasing a variety of agricultural practices. Moisture surplus is known as „Effective Precipitation‟ and is represented by a Precipitation/Evaporation (P-E) ratio >1. Whilst the combined P-E ratio is significant, an emphasis is placed upon examining individual meteorological components which determine the TWB. Hence rainfall and pan evaporation characteristics are analysed on both monthly and seasonal timescales within the 'Growing Season'. Trends in rainfall are fairly consistent across all stations with ongoing declines generally observed in all months except November, most notable in April, May and October. Pan evaporation displays much more variation between stations with both strong positive and negative trends evident throughout the station network in each season. The varying trends in pan evaporation between the stations suggest that the same large scale conditions can result in vastly different effects locally, owing to topographic and geographic factors. The influence of El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) on pan evaporation is widespread and statistically significant during Winter and Spring. The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) displays marked intra-seasonal influence which appears to be highly location dependent. Consistent with the literature, rainfall shows increasing correlations with ENSO and IOD through Winter before peaking in Spring at all stations. Interestingly, despite changes in teleconnection strength over time, these tropical climate drivers display a stronger relationship with pan evaporation than rainfall over the full analysis period. Therefore an opportunity may exist to use such relationships to develop seasonal forecasts of evaporation, similar to what is currently employed for seasonal rainfall forecasting. This is important as Effective Precipitation is significantly influenced by the evaporative component of the TWB. Critically, this study shows that variations in such elements need to be considered on a regional basis, bearing in mind differences in geographic and topographic location, as well as intra-seasonal regimes within the overall Growing Season.
- Description: Master of Applied Science
- Authors: Marshall, Adam
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Terrestrial Water Balance (TWB) incorporates the combined effects of precipitation and evaporation, and is an important factor influencing agricultural and hydrological processes and management. This study analyses the TWB components at five stations in central Victoria from 1972 - 2013, a region which spans a range of agricultural and hydrological regimes. These stations represent distinct climatic and geographic locations including the dry inland plains, the Great Dividing Range and the southern coastal area. This research focuses on the „Growing Season‟ from March - November; a period where increased availability of moisture is critical for commencing, maintaining and ceasing a variety of agricultural practices. Moisture surplus is known as „Effective Precipitation‟ and is represented by a Precipitation/Evaporation (P-E) ratio >1. Whilst the combined P-E ratio is significant, an emphasis is placed upon examining individual meteorological components which determine the TWB. Hence rainfall and pan evaporation characteristics are analysed on both monthly and seasonal timescales within the 'Growing Season'. Trends in rainfall are fairly consistent across all stations with ongoing declines generally observed in all months except November, most notable in April, May and October. Pan evaporation displays much more variation between stations with both strong positive and negative trends evident throughout the station network in each season. The varying trends in pan evaporation between the stations suggest that the same large scale conditions can result in vastly different effects locally, owing to topographic and geographic factors. The influence of El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) on pan evaporation is widespread and statistically significant during Winter and Spring. The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) displays marked intra-seasonal influence which appears to be highly location dependent. Consistent with the literature, rainfall shows increasing correlations with ENSO and IOD through Winter before peaking in Spring at all stations. Interestingly, despite changes in teleconnection strength over time, these tropical climate drivers display a stronger relationship with pan evaporation than rainfall over the full analysis period. Therefore an opportunity may exist to use such relationships to develop seasonal forecasts of evaporation, similar to what is currently employed for seasonal rainfall forecasting. This is important as Effective Precipitation is significantly influenced by the evaporative component of the TWB. Critically, this study shows that variations in such elements need to be considered on a regional basis, bearing in mind differences in geographic and topographic location, as well as intra-seasonal regimes within the overall Growing Season.
- Description: Master of Applied Science
The role of Telomeres in the development of Cardiac Hypertrophy
- Authors: Booth, Scott
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: The overall aim of this thesis was to determine the role of telomeres in the development of cardiac hypertrophy. It was hypothesised that changes in cardiomyocyte telomere length and/or maintenance cause cardiac hypertrophy.
- Authors: Booth, Scott
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: The overall aim of this thesis was to determine the role of telomeres in the development of cardiac hypertrophy. It was hypothesised that changes in cardiomyocyte telomere length and/or maintenance cause cardiac hypertrophy.
Framed by reconciliation : Reading cross-cultural space in early twenty-first century Australian literature
- Authors: Hall, Demelza
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis analyses literary works by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian writers, focussing on the production and function of space in scenes of constructive cross-cultural interaction. All of the novels examined can be read as pedagogies of reconciliation due to their engagement with – and subversion of – the goals, processes, issues, and outcomes of the 1990s reconciliation movement. Yet, while these texts are all broadly framed by reconciliation, this thesis argues that it is their commitment to reimagining spaces of home which marks them as particularly productive reconciliatory pedagogies. One of the primary assertions of this thesis is that for reconciliatory discourses to become useful pedagogies – to educate and inspire and connect people, rather than just inform and unsettle – they need to create spaces of hope. Home became a contested site during the reconciliation years, with processes of historical revisioning and reports such as Bringing Them Home forcing a reconsideration of what it might actually mean to be at home. By moving away from traditional domestic spaces and staid conceptions of dwelling, these narratives attempt to heterogeneously reconfigure notions of home and nation. This thesis is organised around specific spaces and spatial metaphors, and the critical paradigms informing them. Chapter 2, for example, examines ways in which the metaphor of ‘the Gap’ structures ideas of intercultural exchange in reconciliatory discourse and postcolonial criticism. Chapter 3 – which analyses Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and Vivienne Cleven’s Her Sister’s Eye – focusses on the space of the colonial homestead and how it is used to frame notions of impasse, or unbelonging. Chapter 4 examines a series of “interspaces” and how “dwelling-in-motion” frames cross-cultural transformation in Alex Miller’s Journey to the Stone Country, Gail Jones’s Sorry and Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria. Moving away from traditional conceptions of home, Chapter 5 analyses how heterotopic spaces are deployed to frame scenes of exile in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, Tim Winton’s Dirt Music and Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish. Chapter 6 explores how conceptions of being in country frame notions of belonging and well-being in Alex Miller’s Landscape of Farewell and Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance. Finally, in conclusion, Chapter 7 suggests that spaces of hope can emerge in reconciliatory discourses when home, like nation, is recognised as a site of entanglement.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Hall, Demelza
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis analyses literary works by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian writers, focussing on the production and function of space in scenes of constructive cross-cultural interaction. All of the novels examined can be read as pedagogies of reconciliation due to their engagement with – and subversion of – the goals, processes, issues, and outcomes of the 1990s reconciliation movement. Yet, while these texts are all broadly framed by reconciliation, this thesis argues that it is their commitment to reimagining spaces of home which marks them as particularly productive reconciliatory pedagogies. One of the primary assertions of this thesis is that for reconciliatory discourses to become useful pedagogies – to educate and inspire and connect people, rather than just inform and unsettle – they need to create spaces of hope. Home became a contested site during the reconciliation years, with processes of historical revisioning and reports such as Bringing Them Home forcing a reconsideration of what it might actually mean to be at home. By moving away from traditional domestic spaces and staid conceptions of dwelling, these narratives attempt to heterogeneously reconfigure notions of home and nation. This thesis is organised around specific spaces and spatial metaphors, and the critical paradigms informing them. Chapter 2, for example, examines ways in which the metaphor of ‘the Gap’ structures ideas of intercultural exchange in reconciliatory discourse and postcolonial criticism. Chapter 3 – which analyses Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and Vivienne Cleven’s Her Sister’s Eye – focusses on the space of the colonial homestead and how it is used to frame notions of impasse, or unbelonging. Chapter 4 examines a series of “interspaces” and how “dwelling-in-motion” frames cross-cultural transformation in Alex Miller’s Journey to the Stone Country, Gail Jones’s Sorry and Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria. Moving away from traditional conceptions of home, Chapter 5 analyses how heterotopic spaces are deployed to frame scenes of exile in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, Tim Winton’s Dirt Music and Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish. Chapter 6 explores how conceptions of being in country frame notions of belonging and well-being in Alex Miller’s Landscape of Farewell and Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance. Finally, in conclusion, Chapter 7 suggests that spaces of hope can emerge in reconciliatory discourses when home, like nation, is recognised as a site of entanglement.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Harvesting stormwater : Testing the paradigm by assessing the impacts with an inter-disciplinary case study
- Authors: Ebbs, David
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) is often proposed as a framework for comprehensively managing the water cycle in urban areas. One of the tenets of IUWM is that, due to increased impervious area, stormwater runoff in excess of the natural flow could be captured and used to supplement the water supply, while mitigating the environmental impact. This thesis tests that theory through an inter-disciplinary case study utilising legacy data for the regional city of Ballarat, Australia. The case study approach has enabled the water balance of an urbanised catchment to be better understood in various ways and provided for five tightly nested research projects, being: 1. Does the long-term development of water management within a city provide insight into what drives decisions, therefore informing future progress? 2. Can the drivers of water use be adequately determined from a community wide, historical analysis such that future regulatory decisions can be informed? 3. Will assessment of the long-term streamflow of a river, combined with an urban water balance of the catchment, enable the identification of additional stormwater flow due to urbanisation, in excess of the natural flow? 4. Can the impact of urbanisation on groundwater be identified (i.e. trends quantified or qualified) from the city’s legacy data or any available data sources, or models? 5. Is it possible to establish a comparative analysis technique that accounts for the uncertainty of information which changes over time, maintains intellectual rigour and is understandable and easily presented? IUWM was found, perhaps unsurprisingly, to be a complex problem with the challenges being very contextual on the particular catchment and city being studied. This research revealed that evidence of greater volumes of water being generated from increasingly urbanised impervious catchments is not easy to find. This finding may challenge conventional thinking and means that decisions on stormwater harvesting and WSUD practices more broadly should first be informed by evidence of the water balance. This research also revealed some very significant challenges in the water industry with finding and effectively using very dispersed data sets which are held and managed across multiple water agencies in various digital and hard copy formats. Information and data availability is critical to all aspects of IUWM, including in the measurement of its success, and so this research reminds the water industry of the importance of its data management practices.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Ebbs, David
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) is often proposed as a framework for comprehensively managing the water cycle in urban areas. One of the tenets of IUWM is that, due to increased impervious area, stormwater runoff in excess of the natural flow could be captured and used to supplement the water supply, while mitigating the environmental impact. This thesis tests that theory through an inter-disciplinary case study utilising legacy data for the regional city of Ballarat, Australia. The case study approach has enabled the water balance of an urbanised catchment to be better understood in various ways and provided for five tightly nested research projects, being: 1. Does the long-term development of water management within a city provide insight into what drives decisions, therefore informing future progress? 2. Can the drivers of water use be adequately determined from a community wide, historical analysis such that future regulatory decisions can be informed? 3. Will assessment of the long-term streamflow of a river, combined with an urban water balance of the catchment, enable the identification of additional stormwater flow due to urbanisation, in excess of the natural flow? 4. Can the impact of urbanisation on groundwater be identified (i.e. trends quantified or qualified) from the city’s legacy data or any available data sources, or models? 5. Is it possible to establish a comparative analysis technique that accounts for the uncertainty of information which changes over time, maintains intellectual rigour and is understandable and easily presented? IUWM was found, perhaps unsurprisingly, to be a complex problem with the challenges being very contextual on the particular catchment and city being studied. This research revealed that evidence of greater volumes of water being generated from increasingly urbanised impervious catchments is not easy to find. This finding may challenge conventional thinking and means that decisions on stormwater harvesting and WSUD practices more broadly should first be informed by evidence of the water balance. This research also revealed some very significant challenges in the water industry with finding and effectively using very dispersed data sets which are held and managed across multiple water agencies in various digital and hard copy formats. Information and data availability is critical to all aspects of IUWM, including in the measurement of its success, and so this research reminds the water industry of the importance of its data management practices.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry analysis of volatile organic compounds from cancer cell cultures - The effect of hypoxia
- Authors: Kalluri, Usha
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Early diagnosis of lung cancer improves patient outcomes which has led to a search for non-invasive diagnostic tests suitable for population screening. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath have shown potential, however, confirmation of the metabolic origins and disease specificity of candidate markers is required. Cell culture metabolomics can identify disease biomarkers and their origins. To date VOC profiles from in vitro cultured cancer cells have little similarity to cancer breath VOC profiles. In vivo, cancer cells experience hypoxia whereas in vitro cells are cultured under normoxic conditions. Since hypoxia influences cell metabolism, we hypothesize that cancer cells cultured under hypoxic conditions will have altered cell metabolism and produce VOC profiles more typical of cancer breathe. This study investigates the effect of hypoxia on metabolic reprogramming in A549 lung cancer cells cultured under standard normoxic (atmospheric oxygen) or hypoxic (2% oxygen) conditions. Results from quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated a significant upregulation in hypoxia of the glucose transporter (GLUT1) and the key TCA regulatory gene PDHK1, demonstrating that hypoxia plays a pivotal role in regulating metabolism in A549 cells. A ratio-metric assessment of Lipid Peroxidation (LPO) and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) showed an increase in LPO and a slight decrease in the production of ROS in hypoxic cultures, the combined effect of which may serve to equip the cells to adapt to and proliferate under low oxygen. Finally, the comparison of endogenous VOCs produced by A549 cells under hypoxic and normoxic conditions identified twelve VOCs unique to cells grown under hypoxic conditions including n-pentane, a marker of LPO and cancer, and 3-methyl hexane, which has been reported as a biomarker of cancer. This data is consistent with the hypothesis that a hypoxic tumour microenvironment may influence cell metabolism leading to a unique and diagnostic cancer VOC profile.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Kalluri, Usha
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Early diagnosis of lung cancer improves patient outcomes which has led to a search for non-invasive diagnostic tests suitable for population screening. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath have shown potential, however, confirmation of the metabolic origins and disease specificity of candidate markers is required. Cell culture metabolomics can identify disease biomarkers and their origins. To date VOC profiles from in vitro cultured cancer cells have little similarity to cancer breath VOC profiles. In vivo, cancer cells experience hypoxia whereas in vitro cells are cultured under normoxic conditions. Since hypoxia influences cell metabolism, we hypothesize that cancer cells cultured under hypoxic conditions will have altered cell metabolism and produce VOC profiles more typical of cancer breathe. This study investigates the effect of hypoxia on metabolic reprogramming in A549 lung cancer cells cultured under standard normoxic (atmospheric oxygen) or hypoxic (2% oxygen) conditions. Results from quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated a significant upregulation in hypoxia of the glucose transporter (GLUT1) and the key TCA regulatory gene PDHK1, demonstrating that hypoxia plays a pivotal role in regulating metabolism in A549 cells. A ratio-metric assessment of Lipid Peroxidation (LPO) and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) showed an increase in LPO and a slight decrease in the production of ROS in hypoxic cultures, the combined effect of which may serve to equip the cells to adapt to and proliferate under low oxygen. Finally, the comparison of endogenous VOCs produced by A549 cells under hypoxic and normoxic conditions identified twelve VOCs unique to cells grown under hypoxic conditions including n-pentane, a marker of LPO and cancer, and 3-methyl hexane, which has been reported as a biomarker of cancer. This data is consistent with the hypothesis that a hypoxic tumour microenvironment may influence cell metabolism leading to a unique and diagnostic cancer VOC profile.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The effect of an eight week jump training program performed on indoor and sand surfaces on verticle jump performance in elite volleyball players
- Authors: Riggs, Michael
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Purpose – The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an 8-week jump training program, completed on either a hard or sand surface, on vertical jump performance in elite volleyball players. It was of major interest to determine if training on one surface yielded meaningful gains on the other surface. Further, this study sought to determine if the short term jump training program was effective for developing leg muscle function. Method – Eighteen elite national and state volleyball players were split into two groups and trained on either a hard surface (HS, n=10) or a sand surface (SS, n=8). The participants completed 1380 jumps during the 8-week training program progressing from 120-jumps/week to 240-jumps/week. Participants were assessed on both a hard and a sand surface, pre and post training, on volleyball performance tests the block jump (BJ), spike jump (SPJ), as well as leg muscle function via ground reaction force (GRF) data collected during countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ) and drop jump (DJ) performance. Results – The HS group demonstrated significant gains in jump height for BJ on the hard surface (2.6%, p= 0.033) and sand surface (6.7%, p= 0.019) while the SS group only made significant gains in BJ on the sand surface (9.8%, p= 0.009). Neither group demonstrated significant (p<0.05) gains in SPJ performance. Strong correlations between pre intervention BJ and SPJ data suggested a level of consistency in the participants jumping ability regardless of the type of surface or skill (jump). GRF data demonstrated that leg muscle function predictors accounted for 86-89% of the variance associated with volleyball performance jump tests (BJ, SPJ). Conclusion – The 8-week jump training program did not greatly improve the overall vertical jump performance of elite volleyball players. It appears surface does impact performance directly but any gains made from training on either surface are not necessarily isolated to performance on the same surface being trained on. Interestingly, SPJ performance did not demonstrate a strong link to DJ variables, in fact, within this study it appears that the skill of performing a BJ and SPJ are closely related, both rely heavily upon concentric power and this is part of why such strong correlations were seen between the two jump types.
- Description: Masters of Human Movement
- Authors: Riggs, Michael
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Purpose – The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an 8-week jump training program, completed on either a hard or sand surface, on vertical jump performance in elite volleyball players. It was of major interest to determine if training on one surface yielded meaningful gains on the other surface. Further, this study sought to determine if the short term jump training program was effective for developing leg muscle function. Method – Eighteen elite national and state volleyball players were split into two groups and trained on either a hard surface (HS, n=10) or a sand surface (SS, n=8). The participants completed 1380 jumps during the 8-week training program progressing from 120-jumps/week to 240-jumps/week. Participants were assessed on both a hard and a sand surface, pre and post training, on volleyball performance tests the block jump (BJ), spike jump (SPJ), as well as leg muscle function via ground reaction force (GRF) data collected during countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ) and drop jump (DJ) performance. Results – The HS group demonstrated significant gains in jump height for BJ on the hard surface (2.6%, p= 0.033) and sand surface (6.7%, p= 0.019) while the SS group only made significant gains in BJ on the sand surface (9.8%, p= 0.009). Neither group demonstrated significant (p<0.05) gains in SPJ performance. Strong correlations between pre intervention BJ and SPJ data suggested a level of consistency in the participants jumping ability regardless of the type of surface or skill (jump). GRF data demonstrated that leg muscle function predictors accounted for 86-89% of the variance associated with volleyball performance jump tests (BJ, SPJ). Conclusion – The 8-week jump training program did not greatly improve the overall vertical jump performance of elite volleyball players. It appears surface does impact performance directly but any gains made from training on either surface are not necessarily isolated to performance on the same surface being trained on. Interestingly, SPJ performance did not demonstrate a strong link to DJ variables, in fact, within this study it appears that the skill of performing a BJ and SPJ are closely related, both rely heavily upon concentric power and this is part of why such strong correlations were seen between the two jump types.
- Description: Masters of Human Movement