An Australian Rules for radicals? Community activism and genuine empowerment
- Authors: Harrison, Tim
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis seeks to develop a critical understanding of the impact of a particular Community Renewal project on the residents. The Wendouree West Community Renewal was part of a broader Victorian state government intervention, Neighbourhood Renewal, which worked ‘on’ communities identified as disadvantaged. The study investigated the experiences of key residents, along with those of the author, during the period 2001-2013. The main contention is that Wendouree West Community Renewal project colluded with the welfare sector to impose a hegemonic and alien set of understandings on the community. This study is passionate; it takes a stance that is unashamedly political, ideological and partisan. Its key premise is that government interventions of this kind are damaging to communities like the one investigated. The Wendouree West experience promoted a three-fold residualisation: at the level of a ‘breaking down’ of local economies; an undermining of formal and informal education at a community level; and a manipulation of understandings of place, belonging and community that resulted in the imposition of a fake ’aspirational community’ in Wendouree West. The impact of this three-fold residualisation was a deep stigmatisation of Wendouree West as a ‘non-place’ (Auge, 2008), enabling its ultimate ghettoisation, both within the broader context of the regional city of which Wendouree West forms a small part, and within the understandings of residents themselves. This thesis represents struggle at a number of levels: the struggle of the residents to push back against a hegemonic intervention; the struggle of a scholar to make sense of his own role within the action; and the struggle of how to represent the residents’ stories in ways that are powerful and ‘truthful’ within the context of a PhD thesis. ii The ‘critical hope’ of this work is that the residents are able to push back against this program through acts of resistance and that community organising, in the style of the American radical Saul Alinsky, may represent a possible longer term means for empowerment and self-determination.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An efficient framework for mining outlying aspects
- Authors: Samariya, Durgesh
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In the era of big data, an immense volume of information is being continuously generated. It is common to encounter errors or anomalies within datasets. These anomalies can arise due to system malfunctions or human errors, resulting in data points that deviate from expected patterns or values. Anomaly detection algorithms have been developed to identify such anomalies effectively from the data. However, these algorithms often fall short in providing insights into why a particular data point is considered as an anomaly. They cannot explain the specific feature subset(s) in which a,data point significantly differs from the majority of the data. To address this limitation, researchers have recently turned their attention,to a new research area called outlying aspect mining. This area focuses on discovering feature subset(s), known as aspects or subspaces, in which anomalous data points exhibit significant deviations from the remaining set of data. Outlying aspect mining algorithms aim to provide a more detailed,understanding of the characteristics that make a data point anomalous. Although outlying aspect mining is an emerging area of research only a few studies have been published so far. One of the key challenges in this field is scaling up these algorithms to handle large datasets, characterised by,either a large data size or high dimensionality. Many existing outlying aspect mining algorithms are not well-suited for such datasets, as they exhaustively enumerate all possible subspaces and utilise density or distance-based anomaly scores to rank subspaces. As a result, most of these algorithms struggle to handle datasets with dimensions exceeding 20. Addressing the scalability issue and developing efficient algorithms for outlying aspect mining in large datasets remain active area of research. The ability to identify and understand the specific feature subsets contributing to anomalies in big data holds great potential for various applications, including fraud detection, network intrusion detection, and anomaly-based decision support systems. Existing outlying aspect mining methods are suffering from three main problems. Firstly, these measures often rely on distance or density-based calculations, which can be biased toward high-dimensional spaces. As the dimensionality of the subspace increases, the density tends to decrease, making it difficult to assess the outlyingness of data points within specific subspaces accurately. Secondly, distances or density-based measures are computationally expensive, especially when dealing with large-scale datasets that contain millions of data points. As distance and density-based measures require computing pairwise distance, it makes them computationally expensive. In addition to that, existing work uses Z-Score normalisation to make density-based scoring measure dimensionally unbias. However, it adds additional computational overload on already computationally expensive measures. Lastly, existing outlying aspect mining uses brute-force methods to search subspaces. Thus, it is essential to tackle this efficiency issue because when the dimensionality of the data is high – candidate subspace grows exponentially, which is beyond computational resources. This research project aims to solve this challenge by developing efficient and effective methods for mining outlying aspects in high-dimensional and large datasets. I have explored and designed different scoring measures to find the outlyingness of a given data point in each subspace. The effectiveness and efficiency of these proposed measures have been verified with extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets. To overcome the first problem, this thesis first identifies and analyses the condition under which Z-Score based normalisation scoring measure fails to find the most outlying aspects and proposes two different approaches called HMass and sGrid++, both measures are dimensionally unbiased in their raw form, which means they do not require any additional normalisation. sGrid++ is a simpler version of sGrid that is not only efficient and effective but also dimensionality unbiased. It does not require Z-score normalisation. HMass is a simple but effective and efficient histogram-based solution to rank outlying aspects of a given query in each subspace. In addition to detecting anomalies, HMass provides explanations on why the points are anomalous. Both sGrid++ and HMass do not require pair-wise calculation like distance or density-based measures; therefore, sGrid++ and HMass are computationally faster than distance and density-based measures, which solves the second issue of existing work. The effectiveness and efficiency of both sGrid++ and HMass are evaluated using synthetic and real-world datasets. In addition to that, I presented an exciting application of outlying aspect mining in the cybersecurity domain. To tackle the third problem, this thesis proposes an efficient and effective outlying aspect mining framework named OIMiner (for Outlying - Inlying Aspect Miner). It introduces a new scoring measure to compute outlying degree, called Simple Isolation score using Nearest Neighbor Ensemble (SiNNE), which not only detects the outliers but also provides an explanation on why the selected point is an outlier. SiNNE is a dimensionally unbias measure in its raw form, which means the scores produced by SiNNE are compared directly with subspaces having different dimensions. Thus, it does not require any normalisation to make the score unbiased. Our experimental results on synthetic and publicly available real-world datasets revealed that (i) SiNNE produces better or at least the same results as existing scores. (ii) It improves the run time of the existing outlying aspect mining algorithm based on beam search by at least two orders of magnitude. SiNNE allows the existing outlying aspect mining algorithm to run in datasets with hundreds of thousands of instances and thousands of dimensions, which was not possible before.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An evaluation of low and high intensity digital mental health treatment models for anxiety and depression : an adaptive treatment randomized clinical trial
- Authors: Andrews, Brooke
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Doctor of Philsophy
An evaluation of the effectiveness of a consumer-led educational program about stigma in mental illness and recovery attitudes among Mental Health Nurses
- Authors: Sreeram, Anju
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Fear, frustration and myths about mental illness engenders negative attitudes towards mental illness. Such negative attitudes impede the recovery of people diagnosed with mental illness. Despite an increasing emphasis on stigma and recovery-focused practices, evidence shows prejudicial attitudes towards mental illness and the recovery of people with mental illness among mental health professionals still exist. Anti-stigma initiatives and recovery-oriented interventions can aid in enhancing the attitudes of mental health professionals. Contact-based interventions have the greatest impact on attitudes among the mental health professionals including nurses. However, research regarding initiatives targeting stigma of mental illness and recovery attitudes among Mental Health Nurses working in the acute inpatient psychiatric units is limited. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a consumer-led education package on stigma about mental illness and recovery attitudes of Mental Health Nurses. A sequential explanatory mixed-method, with a pre-test and post-test design was used to evaluate the effect of consumer-led education. This research involved three phases. In the first phase, the study explored Mental Health Nurses' attitudes towards mental illness and recovery using surveys and non-participant observation. The second phase focused on the co-development and co-implementation of a consumer-led education package. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated using immediate post-test assessment and again three months later. The final phase focused on exploring the results obtained in the first and second phases of the study through an in-depth interview.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An examination of peripheral blood to reflect transcriptomic adaptation to physical exercise training in sedentary men compared with sex-matched athletic phenotypes
- Authors: Marin, Sergio
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: There is renewed interest in exercise genomics that peripheral blood RNA expression may be important to understand exercise mediated adaptations to exercise. However, there is little direct supporting evidence. Therefore, this thesis involved two studies to examine the relationship between RNA expression and exercise, and two experimental studies to examine relationships and adaptive response of peripheral blood RNA in sedentary compared with athletic phenotypes. In the first two studies, we conducted both meta-analysis and network meta-analysis to examine current randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence to determine current best evidence on the link between RNA expression and athletic phenotype in addition to head-to-head comparison of different exercise types to induce differential expression of RNA transcripts in sedentary compared with athletic phenotypes. We observed that current available body of RCTs in peripheral blood exercise genomics presents too large heterogeneity in study design, methodological and data reporting aspects. Thus, we concluded that peripheral blood cannot be established as a valid source for identifying, neither the effect of physical exercise training on transcriptomic markers nor the distinction of divergent transcriptomic profiles in response to different exercise modalities. In the third and fourth studies, we aimed to determine whether peripheral blood RNA and circular RNA (circRNA) expression was different between sedentary and athletic phenotypes, and whether these transcripts were consistent in response to exercise training in exercise-naïve men. To achieve this, we conducted two STROBE compliant observational experiments of n=71 participants with distinct athletic phenotypes. We concluded that peripheral blood transcriptome expression might allow for identification of divergent athletic phenotypes, although this is not supported by further examination of peripheral blood RNA expression levels in response to an exercise training intervention. The sum of works presented in this thesis does not agree with many propositions relating to the strength of evidence in peripheral blood transcriptomics literature. This is principally due to the heterogeneity and lack of consistency of research in this field which is currently insufficient to provide any strong conclusions. In conclusion, peripheral blood RNA and circRNA do not yet offer useful avenues to predict the adaptive response to different exercise types in athletic and non-athletic men.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An examination of physical exercise as an adjunct treatment for depressive symptoms in adults aged 65 years and older
- Authors: Miller, Kyle
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In light of impending demographic shifts and projected strain on healthcare systems, this thesis set out to progress our putative understanding of the benefits of physical exercise on mental health in older adults aged 65 years and over. Herein, four studies of divergent research design interrogated the current knowledge base relating to the potential benefits of exercise in older adults with depressive symptomology. Study 1 set out to establish preliminary experimental evidence that four years of unsupervised aerobic exercise can improve cardiorespiratory function (determined by VO2max) and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in lifelong sedentary ageing men compared with lifelong exercising athletes. Results demonstrated preliminary proof of concept for exercise-induced benefits on cardiorespiratory function and HRQL in ageing men. Study 2 surveyed community-dwelling older adults (n = 586) to establish a hierarchy of exercise-associated factors to predict depressive symptomology. Contrary to expectation, exercise behaviour did not confer additional antidepressant effect, but was substantially predicted by exercise-induced mood, exercise self-efficacy, and social support (f2 = 0.993). Study 3 pooled evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to quantitatively compare the treatment effectiveness from aerobic, resistance and mind-body exercise training in older adults with pre-existing clinical depression, whereas Study 4 followed the same methodology in apparently health older adults without pre-existing clinical depression. Using network meta-analytical techniques, both clinical depressed (g = -0.41 to -1.38) and apparently healthy (g = -0.27 to -0.51) older adults demonstrated equivalent effectiveness for aerobic, resistance, and mind-body exercise interventions, with encouraging levels of study compliance. Taken together, these findings encourage personal exercise preference when prescribing either aerobic, resistance, or mind-body exercise as a treatment adjunct for clinical depression and older adults with symptoms thereof. The sum of works herein provide new knowledge to guide exercise prescription for stakeholders in mental health and older adults over 65 years.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An examination of physical exercise therapy on quality of life (QoL) and mortality in men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer (PCa)
- Authors: Khan, Nazib
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequent malignancy in men worldwide, accounting for 27% of new cancer cases in men and responsible for 3.8% of worldwide male cancer deaths (2018). This risk is projected to double before 204, so it is surprising that there are no well- established modifiable risk factors for PCa diagnosis orr progression. Considering this, the following thesis consists of three original research studies that examined; (1) the moderating effect of physical activity and muscular strength on prostate cancer mortality; (2) the magnitude of effect from pooled therapeutic exercise studies to impact quality of life and adverse events in PCa patients following surgery; (3) the head-to-head comparative efficacy of individual exercise therapies to impact quality of life and adverse events following surgery. The sum of works presented in this thesis lead to the conclusion that 1) when PCa is the only lifetime cancer diagnosis, life expectancy is similar to lifetime cancer free counterparts whereas diagnosis of PCa with any other lifetime cancer is associated with a 30.2% lower life expectancy during 10-year follow-up. Physical activity has negligible effect on life-expectancy whereas handgrip strength accounts for ~4% of the difference in life-expectancy between PCa with any other lifetime cancer compared with controls; 2) Pooled evidence from randomised controlled trials (n=999 participants) identifies that perioperative exercise therapy (aerobic, resistance, pelvic floor, mind-body exercise, or mixed exercise (combined aerobic and resistance) has a positive impact on patient quality of life and adverse events in PCa patients undergoing surgery which is predominant in perceptions of symptom related QoL (SMD: 0.56, 111 95% CI’s [0.22-0.89]) more so than health related quality of life (HRQoL) (SMD: 0.02, 95% 112 CI’s [-0.16-0.20]; 3) Comparison of head-to-head efficacy of different therapeutic exercise interventions [Aerobic, resistance, pelvic floor, mind-body exercise or mixed exercise (combined aerobic and resistance)] identified pelvic floor muscle exercise to be the most favorable exercise therapy to maintain QoL in PCa patients undergoing surgery, partly due to the current lack of evidence to support other exercise therapies. These findings provide new knowledge to support the effective treatment of PCa patients.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An examination of public attitudes to retail banks in Australia : 1993-2002, with particular reference to corporate social responsibilty
- Authors: McCarthy, Terence
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: Anecdotal and other evidence indicates that public attitudes to retail banks have been affected by changes in banking practices. There is a perceived gap between the public statements by banks as to services offered and customers' expectations and experience. By being "authorised" under legislation to operate, banks are seen to occupy a special position within the business community in Australia. The banking industry has stated that any negative attitudes to retails banks will be corrected once customers understand the need for change. "From summary"
- Description: (Doctor of Business Administration)
An experimental investigation of flow fields generated by extraction hoods in local exhaust ventilation / by Wilhelmus (Bill) Joost Vermeend
- Authors: Vermeend, Wilhelmus (Bill)
- Date: 1994
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The researcher investigated the effectiveness of exhaust hoods in controlling toxic contaminants and dust. Computer programs were used to measure velocities around the captor hoods.
- Description: Doctor of Philosphy
An identification of the meanings(s) of 'development' in a Chinese village context : The first piece of a jigsaw puzzle
- Authors: Roy, Cameron
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis examines the meaning(s) of ‘development’ within a rural village in Sichuan province, China... Importantly, this thesis is a unique snapshot account containing grassroots stories about what development means from the voice and perspective of average Han villagers in a single village in contemporary rural China. (Taken from Abstract)
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An inquiry into Suiboku and Kano School influences on Rococo and Romantic landscape painting through Claude Lorraine (1600-1682) and Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
- Authors: Woodger, Jeff Robert
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "This research project examines the impact and influence of Chinese and Japanese ink landscape painting on the genre of Grand Manner Classical and Romantic landscape painting in Europe, from its beginnings as an independent genre in the 17th century. Specifically, the grand theme of woods and rivers will be investigated and its stylistic and philosophical relationship to Chinese and Japanese aesthetics demonstrated. The work examines how Far Eastern landscape painting conventions and techniques can be effectively acquired, and practically applied to painting in the manner of Classical and Romantic landscapes. [...]The aim of the investigation is to contribute to our deeper understanding of the genesis of this important style of artistic representation, and give fuller credit to the initiators of the technique and to those who realised its potential in the field of Western art."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An investigation into commercially feasible applications of ellagic acid and its derivatives
- Authors: Przewloka, Simon
- Date: 1999
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "Significant quantities of ellagic acid and its metal salts, in the form of waste byproducts, are readily available from both the pulping and tanning industries should a feasible commercial use for the acid (1) be found. The purpose of this work was to prepare key derivatives of ellagic acid and assess their feasibilty for use on a commercial scale. To accomplish this, it was first necessary to prepare ellagic acid in high yield."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An investigation into modification of the engineering properties of salt affected soils using electrokinetics
- Authors: Jayasekera, Samudra
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Soil salinity (due to ingress of excess amounts of dissolved salts in soil pores) and soil sodicity (due to excess amounts of sodium ions attached to the clay surface) are significant forms of land degradation in many parts of the world in particular in arid and semi arid regions. In Australia, soil salinity has long been identified as the major form of land degradation and the greatest environmental threat. Saline soils cover almost 6% of Australia’s land mass and impose severe threats on agricultural productivity and built infrastructure with an estimated annual loss of $250 million. In recent years, ‘soil sodicity’ is recognised as a far more significant form of land degradation and a severe environmental problem both in terms of affected land area and impact on the environment than is salinity as a problem in Australia. One third of Australian land mass is occupied by sodic soils costing an estimated $2 billion each year in lost production alone, with further significant impacts on the economy due to extensive damage to infrastructure facilities and the environment. [...]
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An investigation into the agronomic factors affecting sustainability, surface hardness and rotational traction on community-level football grounds during drought conditions.
- Authors: Ford, Phillip
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Excessive hardness and rotational traction are the factors most associated with non-contact, ground-related injury risk in football. Irrigation has the greatest influence on surface hardness, and also in determining the turfgrass species that can be sustained. However, irrigation is prohibited on many Australian community-level grounds during drought. This thesis investigated the influence of various agronomic factors on surface hardness and on rotational traction, with the aim of devising strategies to reduce ground-related injury risk in drought conditions. In replicated plots tested over a drought period, Clegg hardness values on a football ground peaked at 160 gravities when turfgrass coverage was present, compared to values in excess of 200 gravities when turf coverage was absent. If the Clegg threshold was set at 160 g for community-level football, many grounds would stay open for play provided they sustained turfgrass coverage. In southern mainland Australia during drought and without irrigation, only a drought-resistant species such as couchgrass (Cynodon dactylon and hybrids) could do this. However, couchgrass has been linked by past epidemiological evidence to a higher risk of knee injury than perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), which was attributed to couchgrass having a higher rotational traction. In data presented in this thesis, perennial ryegrass actually had significantly higher rotational stiffness than couchgrass on four out of eight assessment dates. Consequently, there appears no reason to favour perennial ryegrass and to recommend against the use of couchgrass for reasons concerning rotational traction. Furthermore, the largest range in rotational traction was between areas of full grasscover compared to denuded areas. The thesis concluded that the ability to sustain turfgrass coverage provided the most effective agronomic solution for moderating both hardness and rotational traction on community-level football fields, and that a turfgrass species should be selected primarily on its ability to best sustain that coverage.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An Investigation into the experiences of occupational stress of graduate nurses in Hong Kong
- Authors: Lee, Irene
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: "The major criticism by hospital trained clinical nurses is that university graduates are perceived as not being competent practioners as a result of limited time spent in clinical areas. This lack of clinical experience is thought to contribute to new graduates' sense of occupational stress."--leaf xii.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An investigation into the relationships between novel Y chromosome-linked long non-coding RNAs and coronary artery disease
- Authors: Molina, Elsa
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of cardiovascular disease and is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. However, the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis which leads to CAD and results in heart attacks, heart failure and death is not well understood. In this context, studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between increased hepatic free fatty acids (FFAs) in atherosclerosis and CAD. Although CAD has welldefined environmental risk factors, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated a genetic influence on CAD. Previous studies have shown that genetic variation within the human Y chromosome is associated with an increased risk of developing CAD independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors; possibly through a modulating effect of an adaptive immunity and inflammatory response by macrophages in men. However, no Y chromosome-linked gene has been investigated in this disease so far. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently gained focused attention as a new class of regulatory RNA molecules involved in cardiovascular function and associated disease, particularly long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs), the largest class within the lncRNA group so far. To date, Y chromosome-linked lincRNAs are poorly characterised and the potential link between these non-coding RNA molecules and CAD in men has not been investigated. In this context, I hypothesised that Y chromosome-linked lncRNAs may regulate pathways involved in lipid metabolism and trigger an over accumulation of FFAs in coronary arteries contributing to atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of CAD. The main objective of this thesis was to therefore further investigate the relationship between the Y chromosome, lncRNAs and CAD in light of the deficiencies within the literature to better understand the causative molecular mechanisms of CAD pathophysiology in men. In my first study (Chapter 2), I identified for the first time through gene expression analysis (real-time PCR) the expression of the following (unannotated in PubMed) Y chromosomelinked lincRNA transcripts: lnc-KDM5D-4:1, lnc-ZFY-1:1, lnc-ZFY-1:3, lnc-ZFY-2:1, lnc- RBMY1B-1:1, lnc-RBMY1B-1:4, lnc-RBMY1J-1:1, lnc-RBMY1J-1:2, and lnc-RBMY1J- 1:3, across 21 different normal, human tissues such as adipose, bladder, brain, cervix, colon, esophagus, heart, kidney, liver, lung, ovary, placenta, prostate, skeletal muscle, small intestine, spleen, testes, thymus, thyroid, trachea, and white blood cells (WBCs) (leukocytes). I found that Y-linked lincRNAs were expressed at low levels (with the lowest CT number equal at 24.5) with a high tissue-specificity for some. Also, the Y-linked RNA gene lnc-KDM5D-4 was widely expressed across male tissues while the Y-linked RNA gene lnc-RBMY1J-1 was specific to the testes. Furthermore, this study presents the first evidence through gene expression analysis that the Y chromosome-linked lincRNA transcripts, lnc-KDM5D-4:1, lnc- ZFY-1:1, lnc-ZFY-1:3, lnc-ZFY-2:1, lnc-RBMY1B-1:1, lnc-RBMY1B-1:4, and lnc- RBMY1J-1:3 are expressed in male leukocytes. Hence, these lincRNAs could be potential non-protein coding gene candidates for CAD research. Knowing that the Y chromosome contributes to lipid levels in humans, to further explore the potential function of these Y-linked lincRNAs in CAD in men, I then studied their expression in a fatty liver context (steatosis-associated atherosclerosis) (Chapter 3). This was performed using the human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cell line, HepG2; the human model of liver cells in CAD research. This study showed for the first time that the Y-linked lincRNA transcripts lnc-KDM5D-4:1, lnc-ZFY-1:1, lnc-ZFY-2:1, lnc-RBMY1B-1:1, and lncxix RBMY1B-1:4 were expressed in HepG2 cells, hence in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Furthermore, this study demonstrated that lnc-KDM5D-4 is a nuclear-retained lincRNA using RNA fluorescence in situ hybridisation (RNA FISH), and is upregulated in palmitate-induced steatosis within hepatocytes (Fold Change = 2.16; p-value = 0.00216). The human Atherosclerosis RT2 Profiler™ PCR Array determined that the silencing of lnc-KDM5D-4 in HepG2 cells was triggering the upregulation of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) gene baculoviral IAP repeat containing 3 (BIRC3) (Fold Change = 12.45, p-value = 0.000025), a well-described protein-coding gene expressed by vascular smooth muscle cells and macrophage foam cells of the inflamed vascular wall of atherosclerotic arteries. Furthermore, perilipin 2 (PLIN2), a gene known to be implicated in lipid metabolism, was also found upregulated. Therefore, this study provides the first evidence for the involvement of a Ychromosome- linked lincRNA, lnc-KDM5D-4, in steatosis-associated atherosclerosis and its retained-nuclear cellular localisation in human hepatocytes, suggesting a function which takes place in the cell nucleus and may play a role in regulating metabolic processes in the liver that are implicated in atherosclerosis. Having shown that a Y chromosome-linked lincRNA could be involved in the determination of lipid level and hence atherosclerosis in men, and to further explore the role of lnc-KDM5D- 4, the expression of this Y-linked lincRNA was studied in human coronary artery smooth muscle cells, especially in atherosclerotic coronary artery cells (Chapter 4). The expression of other non-coding RNAs were also studied such as the protein kinase, Y-linked, pseudogene (PRKY) - previously considered as a new functional candidate for the development of CAD. By analysing the transcriptome of human atherosclerotic and non-atherosclerotic coronary artery smooth muscle cells, I established evidence for the implication of the human Y chromosome in atherosclerosis and CAD. This study exposed the general underexpression of the transcripts from the Y chromosome in atherosclerotic cells implicating a loss or a repression of this chromosome in relation to CAD. Furthermore, this research determined by RNA sequencing a significant downregulation of seven transcripts from Y chromosome genes, including RPS4Y1, USP9Y, DDX3Y, TXLNGY, NLGN4Y and PRKY. RNA FISH determined the subcellular localisation of PRKY in smooth muscle cells by showing a nuclear and a cytoplasmic expression. Furthermore, qPCR gene expression analysis demonstrated that lnc- KDM5D-4 is significantly downregulated in atherosclerotic cells in comparison to the nonatherosclerotic cells. Together, these results showed that lnc-KDM5D-4 is a potential regulator of PLIN2 and BIRC3 genes. Therefore, the downregulation of lnc-KDM5D-4 in atherosclerotic coronary artery smooth muscle cells suggests that this downregulation could be linked to the inflammation of the vascular smooth muscle cells in pathophysiology of CAD via the inhibition of apoptosis of the vascular smooth muscle cells triggered by the upregulation of BIRC3 in these cells. Overall, this study is the first to emphasise a potential involvement of a Y-specific lincRNA, called lnc-KDM5D-4, as a potential contributor to physiology in males. Lnc-KDM5D-4 knockdown resulted in an upregulation of anti-apoptosis and lipid metabolism-related genes. Collectively, our data suggest that the male–specific lnc-KDM5D-4 may regulate key processes in cellular inflammation that trigger atherosclerosis and CAD in men. Accordingly, this data suggests that lnc-KDM5D-4 may provide a novel molecular biomarker for atherosclerotic arteries, and could potentially lead to revolutionary treatment modalities on Y-linked lincRNA as therapeutic agents to manipulate CAD-causing genes in men.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An investigation of heat stress epidemiology, prevention guidelines, and sporting environment
- Authors: Gonsalves, Marlon
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: As temperatures rise, the frequency of heatwaves, extreme summer heat and less night-time cooling increases. An uncontrolled increase in heat production affects performance and subsequently affects the health of the athlete resulting in exertional heat illness (EHI). EHI is a result of an uncontrollable rise in core body temperature arising from a thermoregulatory response. With rising temperatures, the risk of EHI when exercising or participating in sport increases. However, assessing the risk of EHI is contingent on accurate epidemiological data and addressing the risk of EHI is reliant on effective evidence-based interventions. This thesis assessed the risk of EHI through four interlinked studies: (ⅰ) an analysis of heat-related sports and leisure hospitalisations and emergency department presentations to determine trends in incidence rates and compare them with meteorological trends; (ⅱ) a document analysis of all sports and leisure activity heat-related injury prevention resources in Australia to develop an understanding of the content within those resources; (ⅲ) an investigation of surface temperatures of commonly used artificial sports surfaces to assess the risk posed by such surfaces and measure the differences in microclimates; and, (ⅳ) an assessment of the concordance of meteorological data of multiple artificial sports surfaces with meteorological data from the nearest Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) weather station and a local City of Ballarat (COB) environmental monitoring system (EMS). A total of 1055 heat injury hospitalisations and emergency department (ED) presentations were recorded between July 2008 and June 2018, which included 171 sport-related hospitalisations,139 ED presentations, 83 leisure-related hospitalisations and 662 ED presentations. There were significant correlations between ED presentations for heat-related sports injuries and mean, minimum and maximum temperature, mean and maximum temperature anomaly, summer maximum temperature, and summer maximum temperature anomaly. Three overarching categories emerged through the document analysis process: preventive strategies (n=299, 63.9%), risk factors (n=94, 20.1%), and treatment (n=75, 16.0%). Activity modification, which included information on rescheduling games and extra breaks, was the most common intervention. Cricket, soccer, swimming, and triathlon had the most complete set of heat resources. During the 2020–2021 summer period a total of 1245 measurements were recorded across five artificial sports surfaces: athletics, hockey, lawn bowls, soccer, tennis. The lawn bowls turf was the hottest surface with a mean surface temperature of 54.43 (± 13.46) °C. An increase in surface temperature corresponded to an increase in air temperature, wet bulb temperature and a decrease in relative humidity but the effect varied across the five surfaces. An increase in solar radiation and air temperature also corresponded to an increase in surface temperature. On all five surfaces measured, the BOM air temperatures were the lowest, followed by the on-site air temperatures and then the COB air temperatures on all surfaces. The highest Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) measurements of 24.38 (± 2.39) °C were recorded by the COB sensor, while the lowest WBGT measurements 20.76 (± 1.99) °C were recorded by the BOM. There was a statistically significant difference in the WBGT categorisation between on-site estimate measurements and BOM measurements, p <0.001. The incidence of heat-related hospitalisations and ED presentations provides a baseline from which heat-related guidelines and interventions can be developed, evaluated, and modified. Heat resources considered in the document analysis suggest EHI is preventable if appropriate precautions are implemented. With a focus on preventing EHI, heat resources mainly provided recommendations on modifying activities and reducing exposure to extreme conditions. These results imply the EHI risk posed by artificial sport surfaces are not uniform and safety polices should be updated to reflect the link between air temperature and surface temperature. Understanding how surface temperature is influenced by air temperature, solar radiation and cloud cover allows for more accurate predictions of playing conditions on these artificial sport surfaces. Differences were observed between the individual meteorological measurements, the WBGT measurements and the heat stress categorisation. Overall, a significant discord existed for both individual meteorological variables and WBGT modelled from multiple sources of available data. The findings from this thesis have implications for athlete welfare and strengthening future interventions. Overall, this doctoral research project quantifies the scale of heat-related injuries, reviews the policies to address these heat-related injuries and provides new knowledge on the risk posed by artificial sports surfaces.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: As temperatures rise, the frequency of heatwaves, extreme summer heat and less night-time cooling increases. An uncontrolled increase in heat production affects performance and subsequently affects the health of the athlete resulting in exertional heat illness (EHI). EHI is a result of an uncontrollable rise in core body temperature arising from a thermoregulatory response. With rising temperatures, the risk of EHI when exercising or participating in sport increases. However, assessing the risk of EHI is contingent on accurate epidemiological data and addressing the risk of EHI is reliant on effective evidence-based interventions. This thesis assessed the risk of EHI through four interlinked studies: (
An investigation of middle secondary students’ mathematical conceptions of rate
- Authors: Herbert, Sandra
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This qualitative study investigated Year 10 students’ understandings of the important mathematical concept of 'rate'. Results identified educationally critical aspects including teaching through a range of contexts and representations.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An investigation of the physiological concomitants of worry in a cognitive model of generalised anxiety disorder
- Authors: Stapleton, Craig
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: Doctor of Psychology
An investigative study of burnout among university nurse academics in Australia
- Authors: Singh, Charanjit
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The overall aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence, extent and explore the experiences of Nurse Academics in Australia in relation to job satisfaction and burnout. Over the last three decades, university teaching has become increasingly challenging and stressful; this has affected the quality of life of academics. This is evidenced by the rapidly changing working conditions and stress experienced globally among university academics Consequently, the relationship between academics and their workplace are very demanding, more stressed, followed by lack of resources and eventually leading to burnout. Burnout is defined as a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. Since, the move of nurse education into the university sector in Australia in the mid 1980’s, the stress and demands placed upon Nursing Academics has risen and intensified dramatically. Although the literature is replete about the work experiences among university academics very little research has been carried out to investigate the prevalence and explore the experiences among nurse academics, particularly within Australia (Bittner, & Bechtel, 2017) in relation to occupational stress and burnout. This research study utilized a mixed methods design, specifically, the sequential explanatory model A two phased approach was utilized. In phase one 234 nurse academics completed the survey comprised of the MBI, MSQ and demographics. In phase two, 19 participants were interviewed. The conceptual framework that underpins this study is influenced by the Job- Demands Resource Model (J-DR Model). In phase one, participants were drawn from a cross section from novice to experienced academics. 50% of participants reported low levels of burnout, whilst the other 50% reported either moderate or high levels of burnout. Out of these 50% who experienced burnout about 20% of respondents experienced a high-level of burnout. Similarly, 50% of the participants experienced low levels of job satisfaction and this correlated significantly with high levels of the total burnout scores (r = -0.56). Within the qualitative component, the main themes included a lack of work life balance, incivility towards staff, increasing workloads, challenging students, lack of recognition, negative workplace culture, lack of awareness of the importance of political astuteness, and lack of leadership skills and difficulty with retention of newly appointed staff. Many participants also expressed being threatened, felling intimidated, and unfairly treated coupled with facing personalities who were driven by power struggles. Overall, there appeared to be a sense of powerlessness, that participants were relatively powerless and unable to change their lot. Although personal resilience provided a buffering effect for some of the participants and acted as a protective factor against stress and burnout it is not well understood. This research study contributes to the ongoing body of work on the experiences of nurse academics globally and gives a further insight and understanding of the personal experiences of occupational stress and burnout among Australian nurse academics. However, a few potential limitations to this study should be noted. The study sample was only selected from within Australian universities which may limit the global generalisation of the findings and it was undertaken at an only one time point. Occupational stress leading to burnout is still considered an important factor and predictor of job satisfaction and intention to leave among Australian nurse academics. Effective mentoring and leadership styles that promote a nurturing work environment, a sense of belonging, being valued, heard, and recognised, are areas of priority. Strategies and policies should be revised for greater inclusiveness, academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and a better work-life balance. Further work is needed that examines the specific types of support systems that nurse leaders could initiate to reduce job stress leading to burnout. Ongoing evaluation is crucial to ensure the appropriateness, efficacy, and effectiveness of the support systems. The findings have important global implications in terms of recruitment and retention of nurse academic.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy