The role of psychological variables in help-seeking amongst farmers and farming families
- Authors: Grieve, Aaron
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: This study investigated the role of psychological variables in help-seeking behaviour and attitudes in a rural population, with particular emphasis as to whether differences existed between farmers and non-farming rural residents. These groups were contrasted, as research suggests that farmers appear to be a sub-group of the Australian population at increased risk of chronic health problems and suicide, even in comparison to other rural residents.
- Description: Doctor of Psychology (Clinical)
The role of dissonance in the experience of mothering
- Authors: Wing-Quay, Vanessa
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , Doctorate
- Full Text:
- Description: Maternal dissonance, a specific type of maternal cognition, has been researched little in terms of its importance for the mother. This lack of research has occurred despite the fact that general social discourse assumes the vital importance of dissonant cognitions, based on the notion of the 'perfect mother' image. In the research reported here, maternal dissonance was studies in relation to maternal well-being.
- Description: Professional Doctorate in Psychology
The role of an ICT change agent in ICT diffusion within technology projects in public and private sector setting
- Authors: Jagodic, Jana
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , DBA
- Full Text:
- Description: Rapid changes in the competitive environment and increasing customer demands drive the public and private sectors to innovate by continually investing millions of dollars in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects. Basically, organisations depend on ICT technology for every part of their business. Companies are not only challenged to apply new technologies to remain competitive, they also need to spread (diffuse), manage and implement technological innovation across extended organisational boundaries. Diffusion, management and implementation of ICT innovation involve a considerable amount of risk and potentially protracted delays of technological projects. As a consequence of high demand for ICT innovation, as well as the risk of failure, a wide range of organisations such as state agencies and banks now employ so-called change agents to diffuse, manage and implement innovation within technological projects. While a large number of academics and practitioners are concerned with change agents who alter organisational culture, structure and processes, relatively little research has been undertaken on the role of ICT change agents in the innovation process. Thus, this professional doctorate study aims to fill that gap by exploring ICT change agents’ project work experiences within state agencies and banks and fuse them with theory. The research is based on case study methodology, including 41 cases within 12 target organisations in Australia and Germany. As a former ICT change agent, the researcher of this Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) study applied mixed research methods, also incorporating her ICT project experiences by using an individual reflection model. From this investigation emerged that change agents’ roles are embedded in components (organisational structure, project stages) and processes (ICT diffusion, informal networks). These findings underpin the model of ICT change agents who perform the multiple linker roles of these components and processes in order to deliver set project outcomes. The model is designed to inform practice by providing guidance for advanced ICT change agents’ training in public and private sector settings.
- Description: Doctor of Business Administration
The literacy practices of Kunibídji children : Text, technology and transformation
- Authors: Auld, Glenn
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Members of the Kunibídji community are the traditional owners of the lands and seas around Maningrida, a remote community in Arnhem Land in Northern Australia. Kunibídji children speak Ndjébbana as their first language and learn to speak English as a third or fourth language at school. Underpinning this study is a belief that the children have the right to speak their own language and access texts in their own language at home. [...] This study investigated the literacy practices that approximately fifty Kunibídji children enacted in the literacy events with the Ndjébbana talking books. [...] This study found that Kunibídji children had a desire to access the Ndjébbana talking books, a will to participate in the literacy events and the capacity to be critical about these literacy events at home.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The landscape of my life
- Authors: Woodfield, Linda
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
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- Description: The investigations surrounding the topic ‘The Landscape of My Life’ questions whether it is possible for a landscape to delineate the way in which we live our lives. For a period of thirty-two years my home has been a historic rural property comprising a dwelling and outbuildings on twenty acres of undulating countryside at Carngham. The work conveys the story of my life at this locale and pursues the motives behind the purchase of the country property, the experiences and remembrances that exist from this period of time and reflects upon the implications of a way of life over the last three decades. While considering the impact that a landscape can have on individual lives, it became important to consolidate the insights that surfaced for me with respect to my own life and works and compare it with that of other selected landscape artists. This comparison took into account personal and family backgrounds, artistic techniques, relationships with the land and the motivations that resulted in the depiction of particular landscapes. The result of these observations led to a consideration that not only can a landscape define the way in which we live our lives but, also identifies an affinity between human beings and the environment.
- Description: Master of Arts
The interplay between the experience of doctoral education and familial relationships for mid and late-career academics employed in Australian universities
- Authors: Webb, Janis
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: This investigation explored how family relationships are affected when adults with significant cross-generation responsibilities undertake doctoral study. How family commitments impact on these students’ study and work was also considered.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The intellectual life of Catherine Helen Spence
- Authors: McFarland, Michele
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis will argue that Catherine Helen Spence, a writer, preacher and reformer who migrated from Scotland to Australia in 1839, performed the role of a public intellectual in Australia similar to that played by a number of women of letters in Victorian England. While her ideas were strongly influenced by important British and European nineteenth-century intellectual figures and movements, as well as by Enlightenment thought, her work also reflects the different socio-political, historical and cultural environment of Australia. These connections and influences can be seen in her engagement with what were some of the "big ideas" of the nineteenth century, including feminism, socialism, religious scepticism, utopianism and the value of progress. In arguing that Spence was a public intellectual, I will consider the ways in which she used the literary genres of fiction and journalism, as well as her sermons, to try to help her fellow citizens make sense of the world, attempting to organise and articulate some of the significant ideas affecting the political, social and cultural climates in which they lived. Through the exploration of Spence's intellectual work, I will show how she can be regarded as making a significant contribution to nineteenth-century Australian intellectual life, one that has been under-recognised and under-valued.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The influence of glycerol hyperhydration on run performance within an Olympic distance triathlon
- Authors: Van Ewyk, Gerald
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: This study was designed to determine the impact of glycerol hyperhydration, compared with a placebo hyperhydration, on the run performance during an Olympic distance triathlon. Ten competitive triathletes (mean peak oxygen consumption, VO2 peak = 65.5 ± 5.5 ml.kg.-1min-1) undertook two simulated Olympic Distance Triathlons in 31° C and 61% relative humidity. The trials were split into two work phases: a fixed workload phase comprising a 18-20 min swim and a 60 min cycle and, a self regulated time trial run over 10 kilometres conducted on a treadmill. One hundred and fifty min prior each trial, either a glycerol solution (1 g.kg.-1 body mass (BM) in a 4% carbohydrate – electrolyte drink) or a placebo of equal volume of the 4% carbohydrate-electrolyte solution was ingested over one hour. The total fluid intake in each trial was 23 ml.kg.-1 BM. A randomised, double blind, cross over design was used. Due to either 1) the arduous nature of the trials 2) the side effects associated with the ingestion of glycerol 3) or the combination of the two aforementioned reasons, only five of the 10 subjects completed the final 10 km self regulated time trial for both treatments. Only the data obtained from these five subjects were reported in this study. Glycerol ingestion expanded body water over the placebo by 154 ml (26%). At 60 and 90 min after the start of drinking, urine output was significantly higher with glycerol than placebo treatment (216.4, 366.4 ml vs 81.0, 242.0 ml, respectively) but significantly higher at 120 min in the placebo (421.6 ml vs 131.2 ml). There were no significant differences in heart rate and rectal temperature during the swim and cycle phases. However, there were significant increases in heart rate (at 5, 10, 15, 25 and 30 min) and rectal temperature (at 5, 20 and 30 min) during the 10 km run in the glycerol trial. The mean 10 km run time for the placebo trial was 40 min 21 sec (± 2.9 min) while the glycerol trial was 39 min 22 sec (± 2.0 min). The mean difference of 2.1% in finishing time between trials was not significant. Three of the five subjects in the glycerol trial improved their 10 km time by 7.0, 2.4 and 2.7%, respectively. The finishing time for one subject did not change for both trials while another subject had deteriorated by 2.3% in the glycerol trial. In the glycerol treatment, five subjects complained of bloating and nausea while only one subject complained of feeling unwell in the placebo treatment. Data from this study have shown that glycerol hyperhydration did not significantly improve performance while plasma volume expansion and subsequent lower rectal temperature and lower heart rates were not evident. The exact mechanisms of how glycerol hyperhydration can improve performance warrant further investigation.
- Description: Masters in Applied Science
The floristic composition and regeneration characteristics of Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) woodland of the Wimmera, Victoria
- Authors: Macaulay, Lisa Ann
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: "The pre-settlement distribution and character of Wimmera Buloke woodlands are described based on historical data including early parish plans. It is suggested the open structure of these woodlands was maintained by relatively frequent fire. The floristic composition of the most intact Wimmera Buloke woodland remnants was intensively surveyed. Five floristic communities are described based on computer-based analysis of species presence data. Eight 'pre-settlement Buloke woodland types' are described based on surface soil texture categories and average annual rainfall zones. Native daisies, chenopods and shrubs are components of the understory that differentiate the 'pre-settlement Buloke woodland types'. [...] A series of experiments was undertaken with the aim of determinig the factors responsible for the paucity of Allocasuarina luehmannii regeneration in remnant Wimmera bushland." Digital file does not include CD with Appendix and fold-out map on back cover see print version.
- Description: Master of Applied Science
- Description: "The pre-settlement distribution and character of Wimmera Buloke woodlands are described based on historical data including early parish plans. It is suggested the open structure of these woodlands was maintained by relatively frequent fire. The floristic composition of the most intact Wimmera Buloke woodland remnants was intensively surveyed. Five floristic communities are described based on computer-based analysis of species presence data. Eight 'pre-settlement Buloke woodland types' are described based on surface soil texture categories and average annual rainfall zones. Native daisies, chenopods and shrubs are components of the understory that differentiate the 'pre-settlement Buloke woodland types'. [...] A series of experiments was undertaken with the aim of determinig the factors responsible for the paucity of Allocasuarina luehmannii regeneration in remnant Wimmera bushland."
The experience of treatment via an internet-based cognitive behavioural self-help protocol for social anxiety disorder
- Authors: Hardwick, Damian
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: The aim of the present study was to gain an understanding of the experience of treatment via an Internet-based cognitive behavioural self-help protocol for social anxiety disorder. Participants were four adults, aged between 22-46 years, who fulfilled DSM-IV-TR crriteria for a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder.
- Description: Doctor of Psychology (Clinical)
The effectiveness of using static features in identifying scam genres
- Authors: Stabek, Amber
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Thesis details a cybercrime classification framework stemming from a mixed methodological approach, which is both top down and bottom up and is designed to be multidisciplinary and adaptable across sectors.
- Description: Master by Research of Mathematical Sciences
- Description: Variation in scam classification is regularly identified as a primary cause of discrepancy in victim report data resulting in unsuccessful scam identification and insufficient rates of interception by law enforcement, which results in the low prosecution rate of scammers. The result of such discrepancies lead to complex concerns, such as the under reporting of scam incidence, and reduced rates of successful follow up by investigative and enforcement agencies consequential to difficulties in making correct referrals. Without a shared and common lexicon of scam labels and descriptions, communication between investigative agencies and cross-border cooperation is obstructed. With no compatible comprehension of the scam lexicon, timely progression in scam-case management leading to the identification, tracking and interception of scammer communications cannot be realised. Ambiguities leading to interpretational impedances are aiding scammers by enabling their scams in cross-jurisdictional and multi-national platforms. If the wide variety of known scam types could be condensed to recognisable and traceable instances, the business models that scammers use could be identified and future scamming events predicted, monitored, and interrupted. Following a mixed methodology, this research aims to address some of these concerns. This is achieved by clustering scam descriptions and partitioning them into scam types, called scam genres. The result of which reveals homogeneous groups of scam cases and allows for the assessment of the effectiveness of using static features in identifying scam types. Second to this, identification of the most suitable model for reducing scam cases into the fewest number of clusters with the least number of scam cases within in each cluster at an accuracy level of at least 95% is achieved. Through the use of hierarchical clustering, this research grouped publically available scams into homogeneous clusters of scam genres. Two-hundred and seventy-seven scams from 38 separate categories of scam classification were condensed into as few as 7-clusters of scam genre. Following a mixed methodological, grounded theoretical approach and using discriminant function analysis, 82 static features were derived from the 277 scam descriptions analysed. Of the 82 static features derived, it was concluded that only 68 significantly predicted scam type and explained 95% of the total variation found in scam case assignment. The most significant static features determined to be crucial to any scamming campaign and useful in identifying the type of scam genre a scam case belongs to were; what the scam offered, the role of the victim, the goal of the scammer and the method of scam introduction. The results of this research provide empirical evidence of the inconsistent use of definitions across jurisdictions in scam descriptions, and will contribute to the development of a uniform lexicon of scamming terminology as well as become foundational to further research on the impact of scams for law enforcement, the public and private sector, the community and the individual.
The due process of accounting standard setting in Australia : the case of AAS27 : financial reporting by local governments
- Authors: Hurst, Gavin
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , DBA
- Full Text:
- Description: "This study enquires into the accounting standard system in Australia and questions the appropriateness of its core democratic participatory vehicle, the due process. In doing so it highlights issues associated with self-regulating authorities and their policy making practices. The study is pertinent to the extent it reviews a major paradigm shift within the Australian public sector and more specifically local government financial reporting. Spanning the course of three decades it examines the reasons for such a paradigm shift, the major actors involved, the actual changes made and the effectiveness of those changes."
- Description: Doctor of Business Administration
The determinants of chief executive officer turnover in Chinese listed companies : An aspiration level and power perspective
- Authors: Pi, Lili
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This study focuses on the determinants of CEO turnover of listed companies in China, the largest transitional and developing economy in the world, where governance institutions and structures are evolving. Drawing on the strategic change, aspiration, and CEO power literature, a CEO turnover model and a set of hypotheses have been contructed.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The determinants of capital structure in Chinese listed companies
- Authors: Shen, Gensheng
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Traditional financial theories see capital structure as a result of mainly financial, tax and growth factors (Modigliani & Miller, 1958). But corporate governance theories (Jensen & Meckling, 1976) and business strategy theories (Barton & Gordon, 1988) suggest that ownership structure and ownership concentration, product diversification and asset specificity may also influence capital structure. Focusing on the examination of the determinants of capital structure in Chinese listed companies, this research goes beyond financial factors and considered business strategy and corporate governance approaches, and their impact on capital structure, in a transitioning Chinese context where institutions, expertise and regulatory processes are different to, but converging on, Western approaches. A panel data set of 1,098 Chinese listed companies for the period of 1991 to 2000 was collected from published sources, and conventional and innovative econometric methodologies were used to model a range of relationships between capital structure and its financial and non-financial determinants. The statistical approaches used in this study included Ordinary Least Squares Model and also Linear Mixed Model, which is a powerful tool to examine panel data where independence of explanatory variables is not assumed. The analysis also involved Hox’s model building procedures to measure model fit. The capital structure of listed companies in both the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Securities Exchange is positively related to a firm’s tax rate, growth and capital intensity and negatively related to a firm’s profit and size. Other financial factors such as tangibility, risk and duration are non-significant. The capital structure of listed companies, particularly in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is positively related to product diversification and negatively related to asset specificity. The capital structure of listed companies in the Shanghai Securities Exchange is positively related to government ownership and ownership concentration of the largest shareholder and negatively related to legal person ownership and ownership concentration of the ten largest shareholders. The data and modelling support financial and non-financial determinants of capital structure. In particular, information asymmetry, business diversity and asset specificity have a significant impact on capital structure. In addition the empirical work in the study supports agency cost explanations of debt and equity. Finally the research demonstrates that the two main financial markets in China, Shenzhen and Shanghai, have operated differently but are converging towards a common norm. The research contributes to the general field of capital structure and provides valuable insights into the nature of the Chinese firm and the evolution of the Chinese financial system.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: 2003006320
The construct validity of the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder symptoms : A multitrait-multisource approach based on father and mother ratings
- Authors: Carroll, Steve
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: There has been considerable debate over the construct validity of the Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms in past research due to measurement error (e.g., source effects) associated with parent and teacher ratings of childhood behaviour. Recent multitrait-multisource (MT-MS) studies have attempted to account for measurement error by using multiple sources involving parents and teachers. These studies have identified low trait variance in the AD/HD and ODD dimensions, thereby raising questions about the validity of the AD/HD - inattention (IN), AD/HD - hyperactivity/impulsivity (H/I), and ODD constructs. However, as these studies examine ratings from different settings (i.e., home and school) it can be argued that the low trait variance in the AD/HD constructs may reflect cross-situational differences. The current research used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures to examine the internal and external validity of AD/HD and ODD symptoms based on ratings (i.e., mother and father) from individuals in the same setting...
- Description: Doctor of Psychology (Clinical)
The comprehension of emotions in narrative texts : The role of embodied knowledge
- Authors: Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: "This work explores how current embodied theories of cognition can account for the comprehension of narrative texts. Theoretically, this thesis develops a framework for the study of narrative text comprehension by linking current advances in embodied theories of cognition, discourse processing, and neurosciences. Experimentally, two experiments are reported in which participants were required to read passages of text implying emotional states. The coherence of critical sentences in relation to the preceding text was manipulated in terms of both the emotional adjectives used and the sensory-motor component. In the first experiment, three tasks were used to index the effect of the manipulations on the critical sentences. The first was an on-line naming task in which response times to name emotional labels which matched the implied emotional state of the texts were recorded. [...] The second experiment used backward masking in the naming task with the aim of providing a more sensitive index of the effect of the text manipulations on on-line processing."
- Description: Master of Applied Science by research
The causes and prevention of airline baggage handler back injuries : Safe designs required where behaviour and administrative solutions have had limited effect
- Authors: Dell, Geoff
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "Back injuries have consistently been the most common types of injuries suffered by people at work. They have been a significant worker injury problem in most, if not all, industrialised countries for many years and manual handling has long been established as a significant task related back injury causal factor.[...] This research project established that the manufacturers of the jet airlines used by the airlines in this study had not previously been acquainted with the issue of baggage handler back injuries.[...] This study also canvassed the opinion of airline safety professionals and airline baggage handlers concerning baggage handling tasks and working environment related causal factors. [...] A major focus of this research project was also to measure the effect of ACE and Sliding Carpet, two commercially available retro-fit baggage systems, on the risk of back injuries to baggage handlers stacking baggage within Boeing B737 narrow-body aircraft."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The Body as Fiction / Fiction as a Way of Thinking: On Writing A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents
- Authors: Spencer, Beth
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis uses fiction as a research technology for investigating and thinking about issues to do with bodies and knowledge at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes sample material from a novel in progress -- A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents -- to illustrate some of the unique outcomes of this approach to exploring cultural history and writing cultural criticism. One of the advantages of fiction is that it allows me to create a discursive field in which it is possible for the very wide range of issues raised by my topic to coexist, work off each other and cross-fertilise. These include ideas regarding gender, sexuality, nurture and subjectivity; issues to do with the implants controversy, the cancer industry and the corporatisation of medicine (and hence various current debates within science and medicine); as well as movements in fashion history and popular culture -- all of which contribute to making up the datasphere in which and through which we continually reproduce ourselves as subjects. [...]
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The art of homecoming
- Authors: Heron, Julie
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: This project is concerned with exploring a particular cluster of ideas and stories concerning Homecoming, most notably the presence of the Woman Who Waits for the traveller to return. Underlying the storied aspects of the visual work are the deeper intentions of soulfulness, personal therapy and social interaction. Although profoundly autobiographical, the metaphoric images I have produced are not only a means to touch others but are inclusive of a broader experience than simply my own. Throughout the following exegesis I draw on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, mythology and history, to explore the metaphoric presences of the deities Hestia and Hermes and their relationship to ideas of Home and Not - Home. Particular qualities associated with Home may, for the traveller, become symbolically embodied within the figure of The Woman Who Waits. This simple perception of The Woman Who Waits, and the process of waiting for the traveller to return was explored and expanded through autobiographic art practice combined with visual and theoretical research. Throughout the project the expression of emotive autobiographic issues through the running use of metaphor has been combined with increasing technical control and subtlety along with sustained explorations of spatial and compositional dynamics.
- Description: Masters (Visual Arts)
Structural properties and labeling of graphs
- Authors: Dafik
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The complexity in building massive scale parallel processing systems has re- sulted in a growing interest in the study of interconnection networks design. Network design affects the performance, cost, scalability, and availability of parallel computers. Therefore, discovering a good structure of the network is one of the basic issues. From modeling point of view, the structure of networks can be naturally stud- ied in terms of graph theory. Several common desirable features of networks, such as large number of processing elements, good throughput, short data com- munication delay, modularity, good fault tolerance and diameter vulnerability correspond to properties of the underlying graphs of networks, including large number of vertices, small diameter, high connectivity and overall balance (or regularity) of the graph or digraph. The first part of this thesis deals with the issue of interconnection networks ad- dressing system. From graph theory point of view, this issue is mainly related to a graph labeling. We investigate a special family of graph labeling, namely antimagic labeling of a class of disconnected graphs. We present new results in super (a; d)-edge antimagic total labeling for disjoint union of multiple copies of special families of graphs. The second part of this thesis deals with the issue of regularity of digraphs with the number of vertices close to the upper bound, called the Moore bound, which is unobtainable for most values of out-degree and diameter. Regularity of the underlying graph of a network is often considered to be essential since the flow of messages and exchange of data between processing elements will be on average faster if there is a similar number of interconnections coming in and going out of each processing element. This means that the in-degree and out-degree of each processing element must be the same or almost the same. Our new results show that digraphs of order two less than Moore bound are either diregular or almost diregular.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy