Progressive rebels of Boy's Own Adventure? The 1935 Australian Cricket tour of India; breaking down social and racial barriers
- Authors: Ponsford, Megan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In October 1935, a touring party embarked on the inaugural tour of India by an Australian cricket team. To a great, and somewhat stereotypical, extent popular representations of IndianeAustralian relations are viewed through the lens of cricket – the national game in both countries. This dissertation about a significant, yet overlooked, chapter in sporting history examines the Australian cricketers’ response to the social, racial and political hierarchies of lateecolonial India. The experience of the touring party encouraged a reeimagining of ideological perspectives and this thesis identifies a uniquely Australian subjectivity to the British colonisation of India. The tour between the colony (India) and the dominion (Australia) can be interpreted as an antie imperial gesture. Both countries were attempting to forge relationships that would be independent from Britain. The role of cricket, itself experiencing a renaissance during the 1930s as it transformed from a largely amateur pursuit to an increasingly professional occupation is interrogated. As part of this transformation international cricket positioned itself as an increasingly politicised global entity within the broader turbulence of the firstehalf of the twentieth century. All those involved in the tour are now dead. However a close historical analysis of previously lost, highly personalised, primary material (letters, manuscripts, photographs and cricket ephemera) enables an interpretation of the players’ experience. This thesis argues that sporting events can be interpreted as cultural ciphers yet scholars and the wider sportsewriting community have neglected the historical significance of the 1935/36 tour. The unofficial status of the tour and its highly professional emphasis alienated it from the amateur ideals of Australian cricket. This transnational, multiedisciplinary approach addresses a lacunae in the professional trajectory of cricket. It also provides a new understanding and historical counter narrative of idetwentieth century IndianeAustralian sporting history and cultural exchange.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Ponsford, Megan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In October 1935, a touring party embarked on the inaugural tour of India by an Australian cricket team. To a great, and somewhat stereotypical, extent popular representations of IndianeAustralian relations are viewed through the lens of cricket – the national game in both countries. This dissertation about a significant, yet overlooked, chapter in sporting history examines the Australian cricketers’ response to the social, racial and political hierarchies of lateecolonial India. The experience of the touring party encouraged a reeimagining of ideological perspectives and this thesis identifies a uniquely Australian subjectivity to the British colonisation of India. The tour between the colony (India) and the dominion (Australia) can be interpreted as an antie imperial gesture. Both countries were attempting to forge relationships that would be independent from Britain. The role of cricket, itself experiencing a renaissance during the 1930s as it transformed from a largely amateur pursuit to an increasingly professional occupation is interrogated. As part of this transformation international cricket positioned itself as an increasingly politicised global entity within the broader turbulence of the firstehalf of the twentieth century. All those involved in the tour are now dead. However a close historical analysis of previously lost, highly personalised, primary material (letters, manuscripts, photographs and cricket ephemera) enables an interpretation of the players’ experience. This thesis argues that sporting events can be interpreted as cultural ciphers yet scholars and the wider sportsewriting community have neglected the historical significance of the 1935/36 tour. The unofficial status of the tour and its highly professional emphasis alienated it from the amateur ideals of Australian cricket. This transnational, multiedisciplinary approach addresses a lacunae in the professional trajectory of cricket. It also provides a new understanding and historical counter narrative of idetwentieth century IndianeAustralian sporting history and cultural exchange.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Relationships between pumping costs and water quality in optimal operation of regional multiquality water distribution systems
- Authors: Mala-Jetmarova, Helena
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The operation of regional multiquality water distribution systems (WDSs) is a complex task involving multiple objectives in order to meet customer water quantity and quality requirements. These objectives, often conflicting, include scheduling of pumps to minimise pumping costs and mixing different quality waters from sources to ensure adequate quality water for customers. Evolutionary algorithms have been successfully applied to optimise operation of regional WDSs. Although a considerable reduction in pumping costs was demonstrated in past studies, other legitimate objectives, for example water quality, were not considered on an equal basis as they were included as a constraint. This single-objective approach precludes the tradeoffs between the objectives being obtained, so any insight on how to operate such a system cannot be provided should pumping costs and water quality be considered on equal basis. A multi-objective approach is applied in this thesis to optimise operation of regional multiquality WDSs considering pumping costs and water quality as legitimate objectives. Two optimisation models with increasing complexity are proposed. The first model considers two objectives, the pumping costs and a general water quality objective. The second model includes three objectives, the pumping costs and two water quality objectives for turbidity and salinity. The optimisation models are applied to three example networks from the literature using numerous scenarios and water quality data from the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline, Australia. A methodology is proposed to find the optimal solution for the multi‐objective optimisation of the WDS, which links a network simulator with a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Prior to optimisation, the performance of algorithm parameters is evaluated and their sensitivity analysed, for which a new methodology is developed. The following results were obtained. For the two-objective optimisation problem, there is a tradeoff with a competing nature between pumping costs and water quality. It means that reduction in pumping costs cannot be achieved without deterioration of water quality delivered to customers and vice versa. For the three-objective optimisation problem, interestingly, there is not a unique type of tradeoff (either competing or non-competing) between a particular pair of objectives. It is dependent on network hydraulics in combination with water quality at sources and customer water quality requirements. General principles behind the tradeoffs are formulated based on new categorisation of sources, so called consistent/inconsistent water quality (CWQ/IWQ) sources, in relation to customer water quality requirements. A practical approach for system operational strategy is developed for the purpose of long-term operational planning. It enables an operator to schedule supply from multiple sources with minimum pumping costs and customer water quality requirements being satisfied as much as possible, for all predicted water quality scenarios in the system.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Mala-Jetmarova, Helena
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The operation of regional multiquality water distribution systems (WDSs) is a complex task involving multiple objectives in order to meet customer water quantity and quality requirements. These objectives, often conflicting, include scheduling of pumps to minimise pumping costs and mixing different quality waters from sources to ensure adequate quality water for customers. Evolutionary algorithms have been successfully applied to optimise operation of regional WDSs. Although a considerable reduction in pumping costs was demonstrated in past studies, other legitimate objectives, for example water quality, were not considered on an equal basis as they were included as a constraint. This single-objective approach precludes the tradeoffs between the objectives being obtained, so any insight on how to operate such a system cannot be provided should pumping costs and water quality be considered on equal basis. A multi-objective approach is applied in this thesis to optimise operation of regional multiquality WDSs considering pumping costs and water quality as legitimate objectives. Two optimisation models with increasing complexity are proposed. The first model considers two objectives, the pumping costs and a general water quality objective. The second model includes three objectives, the pumping costs and two water quality objectives for turbidity and salinity. The optimisation models are applied to three example networks from the literature using numerous scenarios and water quality data from the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline, Australia. A methodology is proposed to find the optimal solution for the multi‐objective optimisation of the WDS, which links a network simulator with a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Prior to optimisation, the performance of algorithm parameters is evaluated and their sensitivity analysed, for which a new methodology is developed. The following results were obtained. For the two-objective optimisation problem, there is a tradeoff with a competing nature between pumping costs and water quality. It means that reduction in pumping costs cannot be achieved without deterioration of water quality delivered to customers and vice versa. For the three-objective optimisation problem, interestingly, there is not a unique type of tradeoff (either competing or non-competing) between a particular pair of objectives. It is dependent on network hydraulics in combination with water quality at sources and customer water quality requirements. General principles behind the tradeoffs are formulated based on new categorisation of sources, so called consistent/inconsistent water quality (CWQ/IWQ) sources, in relation to customer water quality requirements. A practical approach for system operational strategy is developed for the purpose of long-term operational planning. It enables an operator to schedule supply from multiple sources with minimum pumping costs and customer water quality requirements being satisfied as much as possible, for all predicted water quality scenarios in the system.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Site, substance and sensation
- Authors: Ryan, Leonie
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The idea that experiencing the world is a straightforward uncomplicated matter is challenged in a contemporary postmodern context. The empirical notion that reality can be experienced firsthand has been mostly abandoned in favour of the view that reality is constructed through language and culture. Indeed, most views of the world carry a bias, whether conscious or unconscious, which affects all that is encountered. It is not possible to separate the observable world from the person observing it nor to report on the world without already having a position on how it functions. As such ‘meaning’, in this body of research, is found in the awareness that the past informs and shapes the experience of the present moment. This is activated through a heightened sensory awareness of various stimuli, set up through the artworks, which draw distant, past associations into the present consciousness. Through practice led research I am creating the conditions within which the visitor can develop a heightened awareness of their associations through sensory experience and discover that those associations are always tethered to the past, shaping the ways in which they encounter the world. It is my objective through this project to open the way for a better understanding of the Self in relation to Being (consciousness), in a phenomenological sense, through this heightened sensory awareness. The practical outcomes of this research have been developed through a creative exploration of the sensorial world. In this project I posit that we do not draw meaning from the physical, material world itself but rather, meaning is located in our understanding that the physical world is brought into being through our consciousness of it.
- Description: Master of Art by Research
- Authors: Ryan, Leonie
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The idea that experiencing the world is a straightforward uncomplicated matter is challenged in a contemporary postmodern context. The empirical notion that reality can be experienced firsthand has been mostly abandoned in favour of the view that reality is constructed through language and culture. Indeed, most views of the world carry a bias, whether conscious or unconscious, which affects all that is encountered. It is not possible to separate the observable world from the person observing it nor to report on the world without already having a position on how it functions. As such ‘meaning’, in this body of research, is found in the awareness that the past informs and shapes the experience of the present moment. This is activated through a heightened sensory awareness of various stimuli, set up through the artworks, which draw distant, past associations into the present consciousness. Through practice led research I am creating the conditions within which the visitor can develop a heightened awareness of their associations through sensory experience and discover that those associations are always tethered to the past, shaping the ways in which they encounter the world. It is my objective through this project to open the way for a better understanding of the Self in relation to Being (consciousness), in a phenomenological sense, through this heightened sensory awareness. The practical outcomes of this research have been developed through a creative exploration of the sensorial world. In this project I posit that we do not draw meaning from the physical, material world itself but rather, meaning is located in our understanding that the physical world is brought into being through our consciousness of it.
- Description: Master of Art 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
Study on complex rock slope stability in large scale open cut mine : Mechanism and evaluation
- Authors: Al Mandalawi, Maged
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: This thesis is restricted access for an unlimited timeframe and therefore will not be available for public use.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Sustainable practices in small and medium sized enterprises in regional Australia
- Authors: Salimzadeh, Parisa
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Global warming, through rising greenhouse gas emissions, is not only impacting on human populations and ecosystems; it is also causing negative impacts on economic development. Commercial activities of businesses are contributing to global warming through unethical social behaviours, so businesses have a role to play by adopting environmental friendly practices in their actions and strategies, so as to reduce their impact on ecosystems. Also, successful businesses to be sustainable need to consider the social concerns within their local communities. Socially friendly businesses attempt to increase human capital through skill improvement and contribute to social capital in a way that community and social groups respect their social responsibility and support them. Sustainability adoption refers to the actual implementation of sustainable practices in currently operating businesses. Such adoption in terms of ecology and community has been commonly accepted as a requirement for large businesses under the rubric of corporate social responsibility. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have not been scrutinised anywhere near to the same level in terms of their attention to sustainability adoption in their business mission and strategies. Owner/managers of SMEs are no more exempt from environmental and social ethics than anyone else in society. Furthermore, SMEs are significant regional development agents contributing to the increased productivity and an improved quality of local life. Especially in Regional Australia where SMEs constitute approximately 95% of businesses in services and industry sectors, so for Regional Australian SMEs to adopt sustainability and regional economic strategies at the same time, enables local communities to benefit from sustainable development, innovation and economic development in their regions. In the SME literature, there is a lack of appreciation of the sustainability issue and its connection with its local community. Bringing together the relevant literature, this research develops a sustainability assessment framework for SMEs by determining the internal and external drivers and inhibitors affecting the adoption of social and environmental friendly practices in SMEs within the regional context. This framework can be used as a basis for application in regional development. It will also be a valuable tool for evaluation and monitoring of strategies for sustainability adoption. To gain a deep understanding of sustainability adoption by regional SMEs, this research investigates social and environmental practices adopted by regional SMEs in order to respond to the sustainability challenge. This research explores factors affecting the sustainability adoption by regional SMEs. Also the research undertaken seeks to identify whether some demographic variables (i.e. business size, business category, business age, owners/managers‟ experience and educational level) have any significant impact on the adoption of social and environmental practices. This quantitative research has a response rate of 28.77% and stands on pre-test, a pilot study and the main study. It draws on the response of 233 SME owner/managers within the regional city of Ballarat. The research uses descriptive statistics, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression and is guided by the conceptual framework. The results show that the SMEs are actively engaged in employee support and they tend to be close to the local community while lacking environmental practices. However, despite being active in the areas of recycling, energy efficiency, and using environmentally friendly products, these SMEs showed an inability to grasp the strategic importance of overall environmentally sustainable policy and practice. Moreover, findings reveal that business size and owner/managers‟ education have significant positive effects on the adoption of socially responsible practices. The results of this research contribute significantly to understanding of sustainability adoption by SMEs in a regional context. This research is one of the first empirical studies undertaken to investigate the factors affecting the sustainability adoption by regional SMEs in Australia. Thus, this research builds a platform for future research in relation to understanding better the factors that are barriers to adoption of sustainable practices outside major metropolitan regions, and a theoretical framework to guide such future research. The findings of this research highlight significant implications for both theory and practice in the context of a non-metropolitan urban setting. These implications include addressing practices in a way that brings business operators together to network and collaborate with the communities in the region.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Salimzadeh, Parisa
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Global warming, through rising greenhouse gas emissions, is not only impacting on human populations and ecosystems; it is also causing negative impacts on economic development. Commercial activities of businesses are contributing to global warming through unethical social behaviours, so businesses have a role to play by adopting environmental friendly practices in their actions and strategies, so as to reduce their impact on ecosystems. Also, successful businesses to be sustainable need to consider the social concerns within their local communities. Socially friendly businesses attempt to increase human capital through skill improvement and contribute to social capital in a way that community and social groups respect their social responsibility and support them. Sustainability adoption refers to the actual implementation of sustainable practices in currently operating businesses. Such adoption in terms of ecology and community has been commonly accepted as a requirement for large businesses under the rubric of corporate social responsibility. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have not been scrutinised anywhere near to the same level in terms of their attention to sustainability adoption in their business mission and strategies. Owner/managers of SMEs are no more exempt from environmental and social ethics than anyone else in society. Furthermore, SMEs are significant regional development agents contributing to the increased productivity and an improved quality of local life. Especially in Regional Australia where SMEs constitute approximately 95% of businesses in services and industry sectors, so for Regional Australian SMEs to adopt sustainability and regional economic strategies at the same time, enables local communities to benefit from sustainable development, innovation and economic development in their regions. In the SME literature, there is a lack of appreciation of the sustainability issue and its connection with its local community. Bringing together the relevant literature, this research develops a sustainability assessment framework for SMEs by determining the internal and external drivers and inhibitors affecting the adoption of social and environmental friendly practices in SMEs within the regional context. This framework can be used as a basis for application in regional development. It will also be a valuable tool for evaluation and monitoring of strategies for sustainability adoption. To gain a deep understanding of sustainability adoption by regional SMEs, this research investigates social and environmental practices adopted by regional SMEs in order to respond to the sustainability challenge. This research explores factors affecting the sustainability adoption by regional SMEs. Also the research undertaken seeks to identify whether some demographic variables (i.e. business size, business category, business age, owners/managers‟ experience and educational level) have any significant impact on the adoption of social and environmental practices. This quantitative research has a response rate of 28.77% and stands on pre-test, a pilot study and the main study. It draws on the response of 233 SME owner/managers within the regional city of Ballarat. The research uses descriptive statistics, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression and is guided by the conceptual framework. The results show that the SMEs are actively engaged in employee support and they tend to be close to the local community while lacking environmental practices. However, despite being active in the areas of recycling, energy efficiency, and using environmentally friendly products, these SMEs showed an inability to grasp the strategic importance of overall environmentally sustainable policy and practice. Moreover, findings reveal that business size and owner/managers‟ education have significant positive effects on the adoption of socially responsible practices. The results of this research contribute significantly to understanding of sustainability adoption by SMEs in a regional context. This research is one of the first empirical studies undertaken to investigate the factors affecting the sustainability adoption by regional SMEs in Australia. Thus, this research builds a platform for future research in relation to understanding better the factors that are barriers to adoption of sustainable practices outside major metropolitan regions, and a theoretical framework to guide such future research. The findings of this research highlight significant implications for both theory and practice in the context of a non-metropolitan urban setting. These implications include addressing practices in a way that brings business operators together to network and collaborate with the communities in the region.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Teacher pedagogies of dialogic imagination - A narrative inquiry
- Authors: Zibell, Linda
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is a narrative inquiry to investigate teachers’ meanings for imagination and its potency for teaching and learning. Six teachers who identified it as central to their practice shared stories of how imagination is an effective pedagogy through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Imagination is a living, mercurial phenomenon contested in philosophical circles yet taken-for-granted amongst the populace. Consequently, imagination in teaching and learning is under researched and widely regarded as mere decoration - helpful for engagement but unrelated to cognition. The literature review situates the research in international discussions concerning imagination’s value for teaching and learning. Several conceptualisations of meaning for imagination lead to a theoretical framework which re-conceptualises Bakhtin’s dialogic imagination and combines his philosophy of discourse with Ricoeur’s philosophy of imagination, and Brockmeier’s narrative imagination. Data analysis to compare and contrast the teachers’ meanings to the framework strongly suggests that, contrary to existing stereotypes, imagination is cognitive: it catalyses metaphoric meaning-making events as dialogic imagination. Since an open living discourse and narrative imagination are conditions for such meaning events, the teachers’ pedagogical choices are consequently rational and supportive of learning. Australian educational policy-makers have increasingly leveraged a closed classroom discourse over past decades: teachers must ensure students comply with national testing regimes that demand monologic responses tied to finalised syllabus requirements. Over that period students’ accomplishment has either seriously declined or flatlined. The teachers in this narrative inquiry keep living discourse and imagination open and alive but in spite of, not because of existing policy: the research presented here permits their understandings and professional art to be given voice in educational debates on effective teaching. I conclude policy makers might seriously consider the impacts of policy dynamics and whether they are slowly suffocating opportunities for a living atmosphere that invites imagination – a powerhouse of learning – into their lives.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Zibell, Linda
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is a narrative inquiry to investigate teachers’ meanings for imagination and its potency for teaching and learning. Six teachers who identified it as central to their practice shared stories of how imagination is an effective pedagogy through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Imagination is a living, mercurial phenomenon contested in philosophical circles yet taken-for-granted amongst the populace. Consequently, imagination in teaching and learning is under researched and widely regarded as mere decoration - helpful for engagement but unrelated to cognition. The literature review situates the research in international discussions concerning imagination’s value for teaching and learning. Several conceptualisations of meaning for imagination lead to a theoretical framework which re-conceptualises Bakhtin’s dialogic imagination and combines his philosophy of discourse with Ricoeur’s philosophy of imagination, and Brockmeier’s narrative imagination. Data analysis to compare and contrast the teachers’ meanings to the framework strongly suggests that, contrary to existing stereotypes, imagination is cognitive: it catalyses metaphoric meaning-making events as dialogic imagination. Since an open living discourse and narrative imagination are conditions for such meaning events, the teachers’ pedagogical choices are consequently rational and supportive of learning. Australian educational policy-makers have increasingly leveraged a closed classroom discourse over past decades: teachers must ensure students comply with national testing regimes that demand monologic responses tied to finalised syllabus requirements. Over that period students’ accomplishment has either seriously declined or flatlined. The teachers in this narrative inquiry keep living discourse and imagination open and alive but in spite of, not because of existing policy: the research presented here permits their understandings and professional art to be given voice in educational debates on effective teaching. I conclude policy makers might seriously consider the impacts of policy dynamics and whether they are slowly suffocating opportunities for a living atmosphere that invites imagination – a powerhouse of learning – into their lives.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Telomere, DNA Methylation and Gene Expression changes caused by exercise training
- Authors: Denham, Joshua
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Exercise training is one of the few therapeutic interventions that improves health span by delaying the onset of age-related diseases and preventing early death. Despite the clear benefits to health conferred by exercise training, our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms remain crude. The primary purpose of this thesis is to determine and analyse the molecular biology changes that occur with strenuous aerobic exercise. Specifically, the main objectives were to investigate the impact of strenuous aerobic exercise training on structural DNA modifications, measured in context with cardiovascular health and fitness adaptations. In the first part of this thesis I investigated the influence of endurance exercise training on leukocyte telomere length and cardiovascular health. Leukocyte telomere length reflects biological age. Indeed, excessively short leukocyte telomeres are associated with age-related chronic diseases. Epidemiological studies indicate endurance athletes live longer than people from the general public who do not engage in extensive aerobic exercise training. In Chapter 2, my literature review on the subject of exercise and telomere biology suggested that, at the time of this study, the impact of exercise training on leukocyte telomere length was equivocal. Therefore, to determine whether strenuous aerobic exercise training influences biological ageing (assessed by leukocyte telomere length), I conducted two cross-sectional studies on leukocyte telomere length differences between endurance athletes and healthy controls. The first study (Chapter 3) was a cross-sectional analysis of leukocyte telomere length between athletes and controls, determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). This is a relative measurement of telomere length expressed as a telomere (T) to single copy gene (S) ratio. Relative to the healthy controls (n = 56), the ultra-marathon runners (n = 67) possessed 11% longer leukocyte telomeres in age-adjusted analysis (ultra-marathon runners vs controls; average T/S ratio: 3.56 vs 3.16, p = 1.4 × 10-4) and the difference was not explained by the favourable cardiovascular health profile exhibited by the athletes (p = 2.2 × 10-4). The difference in leukocyte telomere length indicated the athletes had reduced their biological age by 16.2 years. To elucidate the potential mechanism for the longer leukocyte telomeres observed in endurance athletes, I recruited another cohort of athletes and controls and measured leukocyte telomere length and gene expression of genes involved in telomere length regulation. In the second study (Chapter 4), I describe data replicating the finding that endurance athletes possess longer leukocyte telomeres compared to healthy controls (athletes v controls mean T/S ratio ± SE: 3.64 ± 0.06 vs 3.38 ± 0.06, p = 0.002). This difference was associated with a concomitant increased activity of two important telomere regulating genes, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and adrenocortical dysplasia homolog (TPP1) (2- fold and 1.3-fold, respectively, both p < 0.05). The difference in leukocyte telomere length and leukocyte telomere-regulating gene (TERT and TPP1 mRNA) expression was ameliorated after adjusting for maximal oxygen uptake and resting heart rate (all p > 0.05). This finding indicates that cardiorespiratory fitness is an important determinant of telomere biology. Together, these two cross-sectional studies suggest that regular endurance exercise training is associated with longer leukocytes telomeres and that this is likely achieved through higher TPP1 and TERT mRNA expression gained through improved cardiorespiratory fitness. The findings in Chapters 3 and 4 provide evidence for extensive endurance exercise training as an effective lifestyle strategy to attenuate biological ageing. In parallel to telomere length changes, epigenetic modifications (e.g. DNA methylation) caused by environmental factors alter the transcriptomic milieu of cells. My thorough literature review (Chapter 5) revealed that exercise training seems to rearrange chromatin by modifying the DNA methylome in a variety of cells and that the extent is dictated by exercise duration and intensity. Therefore, in the second part of my thesis, I investigated the DNA methylation changes in leukocytes (which are somatic cells) and sperm (male germ cells) from healthy men before and after sprint interval training (SIT). Unlike traditional, long duration training at moderate intensity training, SIT involves short, intense (>85% VO2max to supra-maximal) efforts followed by periods of rest (3–4 min), typically repeated 3–8 times. It is an effective type of training that improves cardiorespiratory fitness quicker than traditional long slow distance training. Thus, to establish the DNA methylome changes associated with SIT, I conducted two training studies and analysed the leukocyte and sperm methylomes using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip (Illumina). My third study (Chapter 6) provides the first evidence showing an association between DNA methylation changes paralleled with improvements to lipid profile and cardiorespiratory fitness in humans. Twelve young men (18–24 years) undertook SIT (thrice weekly) for four weeks. Resting blood samples were obtained and whole-blood leukocytes were isolated by red blood cell lysis. Genome-wide DNA methylation was assessed using the 450K BeadChip (Illumina). Cardiorespiratory fitness, determined by maximal oxygen uptake, was improved by 2.1 ml.kg-1.min-1 and low-density lipo-protein cholesterol was decreased by 3.9% after SIT (p < 0.05). Notably, the leukocyte methylome was significantly affected by SIT, in regions throughout the genome in relation to CpG islands – CpG islands, North shores, N shelves, South shores and South shelve – and the nearest genes – 3’ untranslated region (UTR), 5’ UTR, exonic, intergenic, intronic, non-coding and promoter regions (all p < 0.001). Genes with differentially methylated CpG sites (q < 0.005) after SIT were enriched for cardiovascular gene ontology (GO) terms that included metabolic activity, biological adhesion and antioxidant activity. Similarly, pathway analysis revealed genes involved in focal adhesion, calcium signaling and mitogen activated protein kinase were modulated by SIT-induced DNA methylation changes. Amongst the 205,987 probes relating 32,445 transcripts differentially methylated after SIT (q < 0.05), with methylation changes between 0.1 – 62.8%, the largest and most statistically significant demethylated site was in the epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene, causing decreased mRNA expression. As with EGF, the microRNA-21 and microRNA-210 genes (MIR21 and MIR210, respectively), known for their roles in cardiovascular disease (ischemic heart disease and coronary atherosclerosis), had modest but consistently statistically significant DNA methylation changes at numerous CpG sites, which altered mature microRNA abundance. Together, these data suggest that genome-wide DNA methylation changes occur after short-term intense exercise training concurrently with improvements to blood cholesterol profile and cardiorespiratory fitness. The data presented in this thesis provided evidence that the epigenome of somatic cells is malleable to exercise. There is mounting evidence supporting the premise that environmental perturbations cause DNA methylation changes and these are subsequently transgenerationally inherited, altering phenotypes of future generations. In the current study I also asked the question; can exercise training reconfigure the DNA methylome of male germ cells (sperm)? Therefore, my next study (Chapter 7) entails an analysis of the impact that three months of SIT has on genome-wide DNA methylation of sperm in healthy men. Thirteen subjects undertook twice-weekly SIT for three months, while the controls were asked not to change their current physical activity habits (if any). Sperm samples were donated before and after the three-month intervention. Mature sperm were isolated using density gradient centrifugation and DNA was extracted using the Purelink Genomic DNA Mini Kit (Life Technologies). Global and genome-wide DNA methylation was assessed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based kit and the 450K BeadChip (Illumina), respectively. Relative to controls, the cases decreased their resting heart rate and had a higher maximal treadmill speed during exercise testing (both p < 0.05). Cases had decreased global DNA methylation after SIT compared to controls (p < 0.05). Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis revealed numerous modest (0.3 – 6%) methylation changes to 7509 CpG sites, relating to 4602 transcripts (q ≤ 0.1). Differentially methylated CpG sites were in genes associated with developmental biology, which included GO terms, such as developmental process, anatomical structure, embryonic morphogenesis and organ development, together with known pathways regulated by exercise training (MAPK, ErbB and PI3K-Akt signalling). Genes with increased methylation were associated with numerous human diseases, with most overrepresented being psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease and autism). Notably, paternally imprinted genes associated with other diseases were also differentially methylated after SIT. Therefore, exercise training is associated with the modifications to genome-wide DNA methylation of both somatic and germ cells. In conclusion, the studies presented as a series of peer-reviewed publications, outlines investigations that describe an influence of strenuous exercise training on leukocyte telomere length regulation and the DNA methylome of both leukocytes and germ cells. Both of these molecular changes in leukocytes and sperm provide evidence for novel molecular mechanisms by which exercise improves cardiovascular health and fitness. Future investigations should focus on longitudinal studies determining whether these changes are required for improved health and fitness, and should establish whether exercise-induced DNA methylation changes are transgenerationally inherited, and if so, what impact this has to future generations. Such discoveries could change national physical activity guidelines and policies, by emphasising the benefit of regular exercise both in the present and to future offspring.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Denham, Joshua
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Exercise training is one of the few therapeutic interventions that improves health span by delaying the onset of age-related diseases and preventing early death. Despite the clear benefits to health conferred by exercise training, our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms remain crude. The primary purpose of this thesis is to determine and analyse the molecular biology changes that occur with strenuous aerobic exercise. Specifically, the main objectives were to investigate the impact of strenuous aerobic exercise training on structural DNA modifications, measured in context with cardiovascular health and fitness adaptations. In the first part of this thesis I investigated the influence of endurance exercise training on leukocyte telomere length and cardiovascular health. Leukocyte telomere length reflects biological age. Indeed, excessively short leukocyte telomeres are associated with age-related chronic diseases. Epidemiological studies indicate endurance athletes live longer than people from the general public who do not engage in extensive aerobic exercise training. In Chapter 2, my literature review on the subject of exercise and telomere biology suggested that, at the time of this study, the impact of exercise training on leukocyte telomere length was equivocal. Therefore, to determine whether strenuous aerobic exercise training influences biological ageing (assessed by leukocyte telomere length), I conducted two cross-sectional studies on leukocyte telomere length differences between endurance athletes and healthy controls. The first study (Chapter 3) was a cross-sectional analysis of leukocyte telomere length between athletes and controls, determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). This is a relative measurement of telomere length expressed as a telomere (T) to single copy gene (S) ratio. Relative to the healthy controls (n = 56), the ultra-marathon runners (n = 67) possessed 11% longer leukocyte telomeres in age-adjusted analysis (ultra-marathon runners vs controls; average T/S ratio: 3.56 vs 3.16, p = 1.4 × 10-4) and the difference was not explained by the favourable cardiovascular health profile exhibited by the athletes (p = 2.2 × 10-4). The difference in leukocyte telomere length indicated the athletes had reduced their biological age by 16.2 years. To elucidate the potential mechanism for the longer leukocyte telomeres observed in endurance athletes, I recruited another cohort of athletes and controls and measured leukocyte telomere length and gene expression of genes involved in telomere length regulation. In the second study (Chapter 4), I describe data replicating the finding that endurance athletes possess longer leukocyte telomeres compared to healthy controls (athletes v controls mean T/S ratio ± SE: 3.64 ± 0.06 vs 3.38 ± 0.06, p = 0.002). This difference was associated with a concomitant increased activity of two important telomere regulating genes, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and adrenocortical dysplasia homolog (TPP1) (2- fold and 1.3-fold, respectively, both p < 0.05). The difference in leukocyte telomere length and leukocyte telomere-regulating gene (TERT and TPP1 mRNA) expression was ameliorated after adjusting for maximal oxygen uptake and resting heart rate (all p > 0.05). This finding indicates that cardiorespiratory fitness is an important determinant of telomere biology. Together, these two cross-sectional studies suggest that regular endurance exercise training is associated with longer leukocytes telomeres and that this is likely achieved through higher TPP1 and TERT mRNA expression gained through improved cardiorespiratory fitness. The findings in Chapters 3 and 4 provide evidence for extensive endurance exercise training as an effective lifestyle strategy to attenuate biological ageing. In parallel to telomere length changes, epigenetic modifications (e.g. DNA methylation) caused by environmental factors alter the transcriptomic milieu of cells. My thorough literature review (Chapter 5) revealed that exercise training seems to rearrange chromatin by modifying the DNA methylome in a variety of cells and that the extent is dictated by exercise duration and intensity. Therefore, in the second part of my thesis, I investigated the DNA methylation changes in leukocytes (which are somatic cells) and sperm (male germ cells) from healthy men before and after sprint interval training (SIT). Unlike traditional, long duration training at moderate intensity training, SIT involves short, intense (>85% VO2max to supra-maximal) efforts followed by periods of rest (3–4 min), typically repeated 3–8 times. It is an effective type of training that improves cardiorespiratory fitness quicker than traditional long slow distance training. Thus, to establish the DNA methylome changes associated with SIT, I conducted two training studies and analysed the leukocyte and sperm methylomes using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip (Illumina). My third study (Chapter 6) provides the first evidence showing an association between DNA methylation changes paralleled with improvements to lipid profile and cardiorespiratory fitness in humans. Twelve young men (18–24 years) undertook SIT (thrice weekly) for four weeks. Resting blood samples were obtained and whole-blood leukocytes were isolated by red blood cell lysis. Genome-wide DNA methylation was assessed using the 450K BeadChip (Illumina). Cardiorespiratory fitness, determined by maximal oxygen uptake, was improved by 2.1 ml.kg-1.min-1 and low-density lipo-protein cholesterol was decreased by 3.9% after SIT (p < 0.05). Notably, the leukocyte methylome was significantly affected by SIT, in regions throughout the genome in relation to CpG islands – CpG islands, North shores, N shelves, South shores and South shelve – and the nearest genes – 3’ untranslated region (UTR), 5’ UTR, exonic, intergenic, intronic, non-coding and promoter regions (all p < 0.001). Genes with differentially methylated CpG sites (q < 0.005) after SIT were enriched for cardiovascular gene ontology (GO) terms that included metabolic activity, biological adhesion and antioxidant activity. Similarly, pathway analysis revealed genes involved in focal adhesion, calcium signaling and mitogen activated protein kinase were modulated by SIT-induced DNA methylation changes. Amongst the 205,987 probes relating 32,445 transcripts differentially methylated after SIT (q < 0.05), with methylation changes between 0.1 – 62.8%, the largest and most statistically significant demethylated site was in the epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene, causing decreased mRNA expression. As with EGF, the microRNA-21 and microRNA-210 genes (MIR21 and MIR210, respectively), known for their roles in cardiovascular disease (ischemic heart disease and coronary atherosclerosis), had modest but consistently statistically significant DNA methylation changes at numerous CpG sites, which altered mature microRNA abundance. Together, these data suggest that genome-wide DNA methylation changes occur after short-term intense exercise training concurrently with improvements to blood cholesterol profile and cardiorespiratory fitness. The data presented in this thesis provided evidence that the epigenome of somatic cells is malleable to exercise. There is mounting evidence supporting the premise that environmental perturbations cause DNA methylation changes and these are subsequently transgenerationally inherited, altering phenotypes of future generations. In the current study I also asked the question; can exercise training reconfigure the DNA methylome of male germ cells (sperm)? Therefore, my next study (Chapter 7) entails an analysis of the impact that three months of SIT has on genome-wide DNA methylation of sperm in healthy men. Thirteen subjects undertook twice-weekly SIT for three months, while the controls were asked not to change their current physical activity habits (if any). Sperm samples were donated before and after the three-month intervention. Mature sperm were isolated using density gradient centrifugation and DNA was extracted using the Purelink Genomic DNA Mini Kit (Life Technologies). Global and genome-wide DNA methylation was assessed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based kit and the 450K BeadChip (Illumina), respectively. Relative to controls, the cases decreased their resting heart rate and had a higher maximal treadmill speed during exercise testing (both p < 0.05). Cases had decreased global DNA methylation after SIT compared to controls (p < 0.05). Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis revealed numerous modest (0.3 – 6%) methylation changes to 7509 CpG sites, relating to 4602 transcripts (q ≤ 0.1). Differentially methylated CpG sites were in genes associated with developmental biology, which included GO terms, such as developmental process, anatomical structure, embryonic morphogenesis and organ development, together with known pathways regulated by exercise training (MAPK, ErbB and PI3K-Akt signalling). Genes with increased methylation were associated with numerous human diseases, with most overrepresented being psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease and autism). Notably, paternally imprinted genes associated with other diseases were also differentially methylated after SIT. Therefore, exercise training is associated with the modifications to genome-wide DNA methylation of both somatic and germ cells. In conclusion, the studies presented as a series of peer-reviewed publications, outlines investigations that describe an influence of strenuous exercise training on leukocyte telomere length regulation and the DNA methylome of both leukocytes and germ cells. Both of these molecular changes in leukocytes and sperm provide evidence for novel molecular mechanisms by which exercise improves cardiovascular health and fitness. Future investigations should focus on longitudinal studies determining whether these changes are required for improved health and fitness, and should establish whether exercise-induced DNA methylation changes are transgenerationally inherited, and if so, what impact this has to future generations. Such discoveries could change national physical activity guidelines and policies, by emphasising the benefit of regular exercise both in the present and to future offspring.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The inimitable Mr Meek : Re-discovering a lost art
- Authors: Luxemburg, Joan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: James McKain Meek was a Victorian-era graphic artist, miniature calligrapher and colonial eccentric with polymathic interests, who fell into obscurity at the end of the nineteenth century. This research re-discovers, re-presents and re-evaluates his body of graphic art. A single lithograph by Meek held in the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s collection generated the research which uncovered a significant body of work in Australia and overseas. Inspired by this re-discovered oeuvre, an exhibition was curated to mark Meek’s bicentenary, returning him to public view. An illustrated companion catalogue, the first scholarly commentary on Meek’s oeuvre, presented a series of essays exploring Meek’s works and situating them in their Victorian context and within a longer tradition of prints. The exegesis, the final element of this project, reflects on the research design, addresses curatorial and related issues, and deepens the examination of Meek’s output. An analysis of key works informed by Word and Image Studies explores his trademark verbal and visual interplay. Valuable research outcomes discussed include the ongoing conservation of works, contextualisation of material held in collections around the world, Meek’s place in the larger narrative of Australian art history, and his legacy. This tri-partite PhD thesis is comprised of exhibition, catalogue and exegesis: these components are complementary and designed to be considered together. The catalogue addresses an educated lay readership and the exegesis is an overarching academic commentary. The exegesis extends and references the catalogue, and both are grounded in Meek’s works, in particular, key works displayed in the exhibition. This research contends that Meek’s work is singular and argues for his re-instatement in the Australian graphic arts canon. His highly individual style and the fact he is local (in his special links with Ballarat and his Trans-Tasman career), make him of particular interest in the Victorian and Australasian contexts.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Luxemburg, Joan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: James McKain Meek was a Victorian-era graphic artist, miniature calligrapher and colonial eccentric with polymathic interests, who fell into obscurity at the end of the nineteenth century. This research re-discovers, re-presents and re-evaluates his body of graphic art. A single lithograph by Meek held in the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s collection generated the research which uncovered a significant body of work in Australia and overseas. Inspired by this re-discovered oeuvre, an exhibition was curated to mark Meek’s bicentenary, returning him to public view. An illustrated companion catalogue, the first scholarly commentary on Meek’s oeuvre, presented a series of essays exploring Meek’s works and situating them in their Victorian context and within a longer tradition of prints. The exegesis, the final element of this project, reflects on the research design, addresses curatorial and related issues, and deepens the examination of Meek’s output. An analysis of key works informed by Word and Image Studies explores his trademark verbal and visual interplay. Valuable research outcomes discussed include the ongoing conservation of works, contextualisation of material held in collections around the world, Meek’s place in the larger narrative of Australian art history, and his legacy. This tri-partite PhD thesis is comprised of exhibition, catalogue and exegesis: these components are complementary and designed to be considered together. The catalogue addresses an educated lay readership and the exegesis is an overarching academic commentary. The exegesis extends and references the catalogue, and both are grounded in Meek’s works, in particular, key works displayed in the exhibition. This research contends that Meek’s work is singular and argues for his re-instatement in the Australian graphic arts canon. His highly individual style and the fact he is local (in his special links with Ballarat and his Trans-Tasman career), make him of particular interest in the Victorian and Australasian contexts.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The life and times of Dr Hermann Beckler (1828-1914) : An Australian - Barvarian Odyssey
- Authors: Dodd, David
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The principal aim of this research thesis has been to reconstruct the life and times of Dr Hermann Beckler (1828-1914), a Bavarian-born scientist and adventurer who spent six years in Australia between 1856 and 1862. This study constitutes the first authoritative analysis of Beckler’s life. It focuses on the various turning points that influenced his odyssey-like journey from Bavaria to Australia and back again, as well as his travels within Australia, his interest in the natural environment and the botany of Australia, and his empathy towards the Indigenous people. Beckler was a product of the Age of Romanticism. He was an enigmatic and contemplative person, yet possessed a degree of toughness and resilience to overcome what appeared to be initially a self-imposed exile, replete with self-recriminations, as he tried to establish himself, firstly as a medical doctor and then as a pharmacist in the pioneering Moreton Bay region of colonial New South Wales. His interests in the natural sciences provided a solution to the problem of employment, and his botanical collecting skills ultimately gained him a position with Dr Ferdinand Mueller of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. He worked as a botanical plant collector in northern New South Wales before his medical qualifications and botanical saw him appointed as medical doctor and botanist to the Victorian Exploring Expedition 1860-1861 led by Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills. Beckler recognized this appointment as an opportunity to explore the hitherto unknown parts of the interior of Australia and while he did his best to fulfill his role, he was frustrated by the mismanagement of the whole expedition by Burke’s erratic leadership and by the ineptitude of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Exploration Committee. He remains one of Australia’s and Germany’s forgotten explorer botanists. This thesis aims to bring to life Beckler’s contribution to this important episode in Australian colonial history.
- Description: Master of Business by Research
- Authors: Dodd, David
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The principal aim of this research thesis has been to reconstruct the life and times of Dr Hermann Beckler (1828-1914), a Bavarian-born scientist and adventurer who spent six years in Australia between 1856 and 1862. This study constitutes the first authoritative analysis of Beckler’s life. It focuses on the various turning points that influenced his odyssey-like journey from Bavaria to Australia and back again, as well as his travels within Australia, his interest in the natural environment and the botany of Australia, and his empathy towards the Indigenous people. Beckler was a product of the Age of Romanticism. He was an enigmatic and contemplative person, yet possessed a degree of toughness and resilience to overcome what appeared to be initially a self-imposed exile, replete with self-recriminations, as he tried to establish himself, firstly as a medical doctor and then as a pharmacist in the pioneering Moreton Bay region of colonial New South Wales. His interests in the natural sciences provided a solution to the problem of employment, and his botanical collecting skills ultimately gained him a position with Dr Ferdinand Mueller of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. He worked as a botanical plant collector in northern New South Wales before his medical qualifications and botanical saw him appointed as medical doctor and botanist to the Victorian Exploring Expedition 1860-1861 led by Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills. Beckler recognized this appointment as an opportunity to explore the hitherto unknown parts of the interior of Australia and while he did his best to fulfill his role, he was frustrated by the mismanagement of the whole expedition by Burke’s erratic leadership and by the ineptitude of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Exploration Committee. He remains one of Australia’s and Germany’s forgotten explorer botanists. This thesis aims to bring to life Beckler’s contribution to this important episode in Australian colonial history.
- Description: Master of Business by Research
The use of on-farm water points and artificial wildlife ponds in providing habitat for fauna in the Wimmera and Southern Mallee, Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Starks, Jonathan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Fauna living in arid environments face strong ecological and physiological constraints. Water is the key requirement and vertebrates exhibit a range of adaptations for survival. Some species obtain water from their diet, but those which require water to drink or as habitat must either live in or near permanent water, or move in search of water. This strongly influences the distribution and abundance of vertebrate species in arid environments. In arid agricultural landscapes, the development of artificial water sources for stock has benefited water-dependant native fauna, particularly frogs. Little is known about the effects of removal of artificial water sources in these environments. In North-western Victoria, completion of the Northern Mallee Pipeline and the proposed construction of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline will ultimately replace over 20,000 farm dams, resulting in the widespread loss of an open water resource currently used by fauna across the Wimmera and southern Mallee. The wildlife values of the different on-farm water points in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region and the remaining Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Channel System were examined. Species richness and abundance of vertebrates were surveyed at farm dams, channels and stock troughs in open paddocks, and at farm dams in Mallee woodlands. Mallee woodlands with no available water were also surveyed. Sites were surveyed once per season to determine which species were utilising the different on-farm water points and Mallee woodlands. Knowledge of their usage by different species allowed the importance of each water point type to be determined and the impact of the closure of the channel system to be assessed. The study recorded 57 vertebrate species in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region, including six reptile, 43 bird, seven mammal and zero frog species. Surveys in the Wimmera Mallee Channel/dam region recorded 74 different species, including three reptile , 57 bird, eight mammal and six frog species. Overall species richness and abundance was highest at sites with a farm dam in a Mallee woodland, and the levels of species richness and abundance were significantly higher than at sites with Mallee woodland and no available water. The differences between the two site types were due mainly to greater abundance of water- dependant species at farm dams in Mallee woodland sites. For water points in open paddocks, species richness and abundance was highest at sites with a farm dam in an open paddock and lowest at sites with a stock trough in an open paddock. The difference between the different open paddock water point types were significant, and like woodland sites, were driven by greater numbers of water-dependant species. The study also examined whether purpose-built artificial wildlife ponds could provide habitat for water-dependant fauna and whether artificial wildlife ponds could potentially maintain fauna populations after de-commissioning of the existing channel system. The results of this study showed that artificial wildlife ponds placed in Mallee woodlands can provide habitat for birds, both in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region and the Wimmera Mallee Channel/dam region. The results also showed that these wildlife ponds can support species assemblages at levels comparable to a farm dam in a Mallee woodland, demonstrating that wildlife ponds can be effective in providing a degree of ‘replacement’ habitat for birds on farms. Frogs were not recorded using wildlife ponds situated in Mallee woodlands and this was considered due to the wildlife ponds being placed at least 900 metres from a nearby water source potentially too far for many frog species to disperse in an arid environment. Given these findings, the position of ponds was adjusted for the ponds installed in Black Box woodlands. Wildlife ponds in Black Box woodlands were also successful in providing habitat for birds and functioned as an important source of water for water-dependant birds in summer. Frogs were recorded using the wildlife ponds situated in Black Box woodlands and this was most likely due to their close proximity (<200 metres) to a nearby water source, as well as being located in a wetland-associated vegetation type. The success of the wildlife ponds concept has been demonstrated both in their ability to function as habitat for water-dependant fauna and through widespread community acceptance and support. With the de-commissioning of the channel and dam system removing open water sources from the farming landscape, artificial wildlife ponds installed on farms across the region could provide not just a vital habitat resource supporting water-dependant fauna, but in many areas, the only source of water for wildlife within the Wimmera and southern Mallee regions.
- Description: Masters of Applied Science
- Authors: Starks, Jonathan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Fauna living in arid environments face strong ecological and physiological constraints. Water is the key requirement and vertebrates exhibit a range of adaptations for survival. Some species obtain water from their diet, but those which require water to drink or as habitat must either live in or near permanent water, or move in search of water. This strongly influences the distribution and abundance of vertebrate species in arid environments. In arid agricultural landscapes, the development of artificial water sources for stock has benefited water-dependant native fauna, particularly frogs. Little is known about the effects of removal of artificial water sources in these environments. In North-western Victoria, completion of the Northern Mallee Pipeline and the proposed construction of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline will ultimately replace over 20,000 farm dams, resulting in the widespread loss of an open water resource currently used by fauna across the Wimmera and southern Mallee. The wildlife values of the different on-farm water points in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region and the remaining Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Channel System were examined. Species richness and abundance of vertebrates were surveyed at farm dams, channels and stock troughs in open paddocks, and at farm dams in Mallee woodlands. Mallee woodlands with no available water were also surveyed. Sites were surveyed once per season to determine which species were utilising the different on-farm water points and Mallee woodlands. Knowledge of their usage by different species allowed the importance of each water point type to be determined and the impact of the closure of the channel system to be assessed. The study recorded 57 vertebrate species in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region, including six reptile, 43 bird, seven mammal and zero frog species. Surveys in the Wimmera Mallee Channel/dam region recorded 74 different species, including three reptile , 57 bird, eight mammal and six frog species. Overall species richness and abundance was highest at sites with a farm dam in a Mallee woodland, and the levels of species richness and abundance were significantly higher than at sites with Mallee woodland and no available water. The differences between the two site types were due mainly to greater abundance of water- dependant species at farm dams in Mallee woodland sites. For water points in open paddocks, species richness and abundance was highest at sites with a farm dam in an open paddock and lowest at sites with a stock trough in an open paddock. The difference between the different open paddock water point types were significant, and like woodland sites, were driven by greater numbers of water-dependant species. The study also examined whether purpose-built artificial wildlife ponds could provide habitat for water-dependant fauna and whether artificial wildlife ponds could potentially maintain fauna populations after de-commissioning of the existing channel system. The results of this study showed that artificial wildlife ponds placed in Mallee woodlands can provide habitat for birds, both in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region and the Wimmera Mallee Channel/dam region. The results also showed that these wildlife ponds can support species assemblages at levels comparable to a farm dam in a Mallee woodland, demonstrating that wildlife ponds can be effective in providing a degree of ‘replacement’ habitat for birds on farms. Frogs were not recorded using wildlife ponds situated in Mallee woodlands and this was considered due to the wildlife ponds being placed at least 900 metres from a nearby water source potentially too far for many frog species to disperse in an arid environment. Given these findings, the position of ponds was adjusted for the ponds installed in Black Box woodlands. Wildlife ponds in Black Box woodlands were also successful in providing habitat for birds and functioned as an important source of water for water-dependant birds in summer. Frogs were recorded using the wildlife ponds situated in Black Box woodlands and this was most likely due to their close proximity (<200 metres) to a nearby water source, as well as being located in a wetland-associated vegetation type. The success of the wildlife ponds concept has been demonstrated both in their ability to function as habitat for water-dependant fauna and through widespread community acceptance and support. With the de-commissioning of the channel and dam system removing open water sources from the farming landscape, artificial wildlife ponds installed on farms across the region could provide not just a vital habitat resource supporting water-dependant fauna, but in many areas, the only source of water for wildlife within the Wimmera and southern Mallee regions.
- Description: Masters of Applied Science
Tourism governance for sustainable heritage tourism in Sri Lankan heritage destinations
- Authors: Sivanandamoorthy, Sivesan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis investigates tourism governance models for sustainable heritage tourism in Kandy, a world heritage city situated in central Sri Lanka. Additionally, it explains how the success of sustainable heritage tourism has underpinned sustainable livelihoods development from a socio-cultural perspective. The main objective is to find, identify and assess the influence of tourism governance on sustainable heritage tourism in Sri Lanka. Stemming from this approach is the development of a tourism governance model for sustainable heritage tourism in Kandy. This thesis is intended as a response to the challenges of adopting a sustainable livelihoods development approach. Accordingly, it investigates the role sustainable heritage tourism plays in host community development within the context of sociocultural, economic and environmental aspects in Kandy. Employing a qualitative methodological approach, this thesis is underpinned by an interpretive research philosophy. Research data was collected through field-based in-country interviews and open-ended questionnaires as this approach allowed respondents to offer more information and to include their feelings, attitudes and understanding of the subject. Research results from in-country fieldwork reveal that tourism governance models have a major influence on the viability of sustainable heritage tourism at Sri Lankan heritage destinations. Macro-scale and micro-scale factors were found to be influential in tourism governance models. Additionally, sustainable heritage tourism was found to be a persuasive factor in host community development. Research from this thesis provides policy recommendations and potential management frameworks for tourism practitioners and policy makers. These insights into Kandy and other Sri Lankan heritage localities enable improvement of tourism governance systems and sustainable heritage tourism.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Sivanandamoorthy, Sivesan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis investigates tourism governance models for sustainable heritage tourism in Kandy, a world heritage city situated in central Sri Lanka. Additionally, it explains how the success of sustainable heritage tourism has underpinned sustainable livelihoods development from a socio-cultural perspective. The main objective is to find, identify and assess the influence of tourism governance on sustainable heritage tourism in Sri Lanka. Stemming from this approach is the development of a tourism governance model for sustainable heritage tourism in Kandy. This thesis is intended as a response to the challenges of adopting a sustainable livelihoods development approach. Accordingly, it investigates the role sustainable heritage tourism plays in host community development within the context of sociocultural, economic and environmental aspects in Kandy. Employing a qualitative methodological approach, this thesis is underpinned by an interpretive research philosophy. Research data was collected through field-based in-country interviews and open-ended questionnaires as this approach allowed respondents to offer more information and to include their feelings, attitudes and understanding of the subject. Research results from in-country fieldwork reveal that tourism governance models have a major influence on the viability of sustainable heritage tourism at Sri Lankan heritage destinations. Macro-scale and micro-scale factors were found to be influential in tourism governance models. Additionally, sustainable heritage tourism was found to be a persuasive factor in host community development. Research from this thesis provides policy recommendations and potential management frameworks for tourism practitioners and policy makers. These insights into Kandy and other Sri Lankan heritage localities enable improvement of tourism governance systems and sustainable heritage tourism.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Video game classification in Australia : Does it enable parents to make informed game choices for their children
- Authors: Ross, Julie
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: If Australian video game classification does not warn of all classifiable elements, parents may be making game choices that inadvertently expose their child to content that may be deemed inappropriate. Research shows that classification in the United States of America (USA) does not always warn of all elements, and to date there has been no comparable research in Australia. This research explored issues surrounding video game classification in Australia, and whether parents feel that provides enough information for them to make informed game choices, by asking the following questions: 1. Does video game classification in Australia provide enough information for parents to make informed decisions about what games their children play? 2. What are the factors that may prevent parents from protecting children from inappropriate content in video games? To answer the first question, a content analysis compared the classification given to video games classified ‘MA15+’ in Australia during the years 2009 - 2010 with their overseas counterparts. Results showed that a substantial number of video games in Australia carry different classification information than those overseas. To answer the second question, a mixed-methods questionnaire surveyed parents of children who played video games to explore issues surrounding video game classification, and the role it plays when making game choices for children. A quasi-longitudinal process within the questionnaire explored the effect that more detailed information has on game choices. Results showed that some parents use classification to assist them with choosing games for their child, but when presented with more information some parents will make different choices. Factors which may prevent parents from protecting their child from inappropriate content in video games were also identified. The Protection Motivation Theory underpinning this research was modified to produce the Vigilant Protection Motivation Theory. Overall, this research suggests that parents in Australia may not have enough information to make appropriate game choices.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Ross, Julie
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: If Australian video game classification does not warn of all classifiable elements, parents may be making game choices that inadvertently expose their child to content that may be deemed inappropriate. Research shows that classification in the United States of America (USA) does not always warn of all elements, and to date there has been no comparable research in Australia. This research explored issues surrounding video game classification in Australia, and whether parents feel that provides enough information for them to make informed game choices, by asking the following questions: 1. Does video game classification in Australia provide enough information for parents to make informed decisions about what games their children play? 2. What are the factors that may prevent parents from protecting children from inappropriate content in video games? To answer the first question, a content analysis compared the classification given to video games classified ‘MA15+’ in Australia during the years 2009 - 2010 with their overseas counterparts. Results showed that a substantial number of video games in Australia carry different classification information than those overseas. To answer the second question, a mixed-methods questionnaire surveyed parents of children who played video games to explore issues surrounding video game classification, and the role it plays when making game choices for children. A quasi-longitudinal process within the questionnaire explored the effect that more detailed information has on game choices. Results showed that some parents use classification to assist them with choosing games for their child, but when presented with more information some parents will make different choices. Factors which may prevent parents from protecting their child from inappropriate content in video games were also identified. The Protection Motivation Theory underpinning this research was modified to produce the Vigilant Protection Motivation Theory. Overall, this research suggests that parents in Australia may not have enough information to make appropriate game choices.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
What is the value of meaning created through social learning in informal virtual communities?
- Authors: Wilmott, Deirdre
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This study asks the question ‘What is the value of meaning created through social learning in informal virtual communities?’. By researching how people learn in two virtual communities of practice, based around forums, it endeavours to explore learning in online environments that are unconnected to workplace or educational institutions. Both communities studied in this project are meeting places for peers who pursue a domain of personal interest, hence neither community defines itself as a learning environment but as a social meeting place for people to share similar pursuits. The rationale of this study was to explore in-depth the plethora of resources that forum-based communities offer researchers of learning outside the academy, in order to understand the intricacies of un-facilitated social learning. A research strategy for this study was developed from Crotty's (1998) platform which defines: research methods; a methodology; a theoretical perspective; and an epistemology. Triangulated research methods of interview, observation, and personal participation form the basis of data collection. Ethnography, which incorporates auto-ethnography, was the chosen methodology, and the study is centred on a constructivist epistemology. This study employs an interpretivist theoretical perspective, relying on the approaches of two theorists to analyse the data. Both communities were explored by developing four specific propositions from an in-depth analysis of the available literature on informal learning, virtual environments and communities, together with the theoretical understandings of Wenger (1998) regarding Communities of Practice, and Candy (1991) relating to autodidactic and constructed learning. Two viewpoints were chosen because whilst there are a number of theoretical perspectives that can be applied to informal learning in a virtual environment, there is no one agreed theory which comprehensively explains the complexities of individual and social learning in virtual communities. Despite recognition of the Internet as a major source of many people’s informal learning, there is still comparatively limited research undertaken on how this happens. This study is intended to assist in the reduction of this gap by examining aspects of learning including: the connection between autonomous learners and virtual communities; the effect of the written format of the communities observed on dispersing meaning; and the impact of the virtuality of the community on the process of learning and creation of meaning. By undertaking an ethnographical examination of the nature of learning in two informal virtual communities based around written asynchronous forums, this study is intended to contribute to understanding the worth of informal learning in virtual communities where learning occurs between peers. This study contributes to knowledge through its exploration of the way learning occurs in un-facilitated environments and the legitimacy of the outcomes of that learning. Through this exploration, it fosters an appreciation of the value of meaning created in these social environments, as well as their role in validation of communal and individual meaning. It is able to do this by circumnavigating the difficulties earlier researchers have had in developing in-depth studies of the topic because it does not rely implicitly on the perspectives of those participating, or limited-time observations. The study concludes that for both communities their virtuality greatly influences the way their practice develops, as well as how this practice shapes the way in which their members learn in informal environments. It also concludes that learning in these environments is a very complex, often sophisticated, and sometimes contradictory process that is governed by many different, and occasionally competing, aims of individuals and communities. This study also resolved that because of the very complexity of this learning, these two communities produce some very deep and meaningful contributions to their respective domains. As individuals connected within these communities in order to explore their interest in their respective domains, the communities became: repositories of ideas and resources; places to engage in negotiating and renegotiating meaning; and places to validate personal meaning through testing against established community understandings and peer views. Thus after extensive ethnographical research on both communities of this study, it is considered that this work advances the knowledge of learning outside the academy by providing evidence that people do learn effectively in informal virtual communities
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Wilmott, Deirdre
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This study asks the question ‘What is the value of meaning created through social learning in informal virtual communities?’. By researching how people learn in two virtual communities of practice, based around forums, it endeavours to explore learning in online environments that are unconnected to workplace or educational institutions. Both communities studied in this project are meeting places for peers who pursue a domain of personal interest, hence neither community defines itself as a learning environment but as a social meeting place for people to share similar pursuits. The rationale of this study was to explore in-depth the plethora of resources that forum-based communities offer researchers of learning outside the academy, in order to understand the intricacies of un-facilitated social learning. A research strategy for this study was developed from Crotty's (1998) platform which defines: research methods; a methodology; a theoretical perspective; and an epistemology. Triangulated research methods of interview, observation, and personal participation form the basis of data collection. Ethnography, which incorporates auto-ethnography, was the chosen methodology, and the study is centred on a constructivist epistemology. This study employs an interpretivist theoretical perspective, relying on the approaches of two theorists to analyse the data. Both communities were explored by developing four specific propositions from an in-depth analysis of the available literature on informal learning, virtual environments and communities, together with the theoretical understandings of Wenger (1998) regarding Communities of Practice, and Candy (1991) relating to autodidactic and constructed learning. Two viewpoints were chosen because whilst there are a number of theoretical perspectives that can be applied to informal learning in a virtual environment, there is no one agreed theory which comprehensively explains the complexities of individual and social learning in virtual communities. Despite recognition of the Internet as a major source of many people’s informal learning, there is still comparatively limited research undertaken on how this happens. This study is intended to assist in the reduction of this gap by examining aspects of learning including: the connection between autonomous learners and virtual communities; the effect of the written format of the communities observed on dispersing meaning; and the impact of the virtuality of the community on the process of learning and creation of meaning. By undertaking an ethnographical examination of the nature of learning in two informal virtual communities based around written asynchronous forums, this study is intended to contribute to understanding the worth of informal learning in virtual communities where learning occurs between peers. This study contributes to knowledge through its exploration of the way learning occurs in un-facilitated environments and the legitimacy of the outcomes of that learning. Through this exploration, it fosters an appreciation of the value of meaning created in these social environments, as well as their role in validation of communal and individual meaning. It is able to do this by circumnavigating the difficulties earlier researchers have had in developing in-depth studies of the topic because it does not rely implicitly on the perspectives of those participating, or limited-time observations. The study concludes that for both communities their virtuality greatly influences the way their practice develops, as well as how this practice shapes the way in which their members learn in informal environments. It also concludes that learning in these environments is a very complex, often sophisticated, and sometimes contradictory process that is governed by many different, and occasionally competing, aims of individuals and communities. This study also resolved that because of the very complexity of this learning, these two communities produce some very deep and meaningful contributions to their respective domains. As individuals connected within these communities in order to explore their interest in their respective domains, the communities became: repositories of ideas and resources; places to engage in negotiating and renegotiating meaning; and places to validate personal meaning through testing against established community understandings and peer views. Thus after extensive ethnographical research on both communities of this study, it is considered that this work advances the knowledge of learning outside the academy by providing evidence that people do learn effectively in informal virtual communities
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
"So what I do is bang in the search term and see how I go" The information-seeking approaches of Arts Academy students
- Authors: Claridge, Cheryl
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: In this qualitative research project I investigated the use of library systems by a cohort of students from the University of Ballarat Arts Academy. The purpose of the study was to build a clearer picture of how these students use the library resources for their information-seeking, with a view to improving the provision of library services, resources and training. In particular I aimed to identify whether this cohort had a common approach to information-seeking. In this study I thematically analysed the data from eight think-aloud protocols and semi- structured interviews. Participants were Arts Academy students studying Performing Arts, Visual Arts or a Visual Arts/Education dual-degree who were searching for information to complete an assessment task. With the exception of two second year dual-degree students all participants were first year students. The steps taken by participants in information-seeking were identified and the successes and difficulties they experienced with the library’s systems highlighted. The participants in this cohort did not share one specific ‘information-seeking style’ however I identified some common factors across this group of students. All of the participants engaged in a staged process to source the information they required, although in some cases this process was non-linear. They did not however utilise the full capabilities of the search tools they used or access potentially useful tools and resources which the library provides. A number of participants were reticent about using eResources as they had been instructed not to use internet resources for assessment tasks. As a result of this inquiry I have made recommendations relating to the provision of library training and services, collection maintenance and library record standards. Collaboration between library and academic staff would be required to implement these recommendations to ensure optimum outcomes. Areas highlighted for future research include similar studies with student cohorts from different disciplines and an examination of students’ approaches to choosing a topic or focus for assessment tasks.
- Description: Master of Education (Research)
- Authors: Claridge, Cheryl
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: In this qualitative research project I investigated the use of library systems by a cohort of students from the University of Ballarat Arts Academy. The purpose of the study was to build a clearer picture of how these students use the library resources for their information-seeking, with a view to improving the provision of library services, resources and training. In particular I aimed to identify whether this cohort had a common approach to information-seeking. In this study I thematically analysed the data from eight think-aloud protocols and semi- structured interviews. Participants were Arts Academy students studying Performing Arts, Visual Arts or a Visual Arts/Education dual-degree who were searching for information to complete an assessment task. With the exception of two second year dual-degree students all participants were first year students. The steps taken by participants in information-seeking were identified and the successes and difficulties they experienced with the library’s systems highlighted. The participants in this cohort did not share one specific ‘information-seeking style’ however I identified some common factors across this group of students. All of the participants engaged in a staged process to source the information they required, although in some cases this process was non-linear. They did not however utilise the full capabilities of the search tools they used or access potentially useful tools and resources which the library provides. A number of participants were reticent about using eResources as they had been instructed not to use internet resources for assessment tasks. As a result of this inquiry I have made recommendations relating to the provision of library training and services, collection maintenance and library record standards. Collaboration between library and academic staff would be required to implement these recommendations to ensure optimum outcomes. Areas highlighted for future research include similar studies with student cohorts from different disciplines and an examination of students’ approaches to choosing a topic or focus for assessment tasks.
- Description: Master of Education (Research)
A collaborative exploration of creativity, doodling and flow : A practice-based education inquiry
- Authors: Barrand, Katherine
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The initial stage of this inquiry is a solo exploration of my definition of doodling, how doodling became my preferred artistic process, and reflectively examines the factors that contribute to my experience of flow moments when creating art. An intrinsic component of this solo research was finding new ways to create moments of flow when working individually, and reflecting how they could influence and shape the second stage of the project. The second stage of this inquiry investigates doodling in collaboration with four participating artists. In an attempt to flesh out the spaces between conscious and unconscious artistic interventions, and the role that outside influences can play on the creative process, this collaborative inquiry developed into an examination of the factors which influence co-creation during different stages of art making. The framework for this second inquiry was created by utilising insights gained from the initial solo investigation Accordingly, this research includes multiple strands of artistic exploration, including solo works, works created in collaboration, and interviews with the collaborating artists involved in the project. Selected key solo works and all artistic collaborations are included in the body of this exegesis to encourage immersion in this practice based research. Beginning as an artist and incorporating the different roles of researcher and teacher into the work, this research is an a/r/tographical inquiry into the way these oftentimes overlapping identities influence and guided the research. The outcomes from this research include insights into my creative processes, revealing previously unacknowledged tensions between the need for creative control and flow. One of the most important outcomes from this research was the development of non-verbal conversations between artists, and the way the collaborative process has the potential to both encourage and hinder flow moments. This work is a self-study which incorporates others in relation to my own work. I believe it holds significant relevance to a wider artistic audience seeking a different perspective on encouraging collaborative artistic flow, and the method of collaborative doodling enacted in this research has potential applications in both formal and informal educational settings.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Barrand, Katherine
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The initial stage of this inquiry is a solo exploration of my definition of doodling, how doodling became my preferred artistic process, and reflectively examines the factors that contribute to my experience of flow moments when creating art. An intrinsic component of this solo research was finding new ways to create moments of flow when working individually, and reflecting how they could influence and shape the second stage of the project. The second stage of this inquiry investigates doodling in collaboration with four participating artists. In an attempt to flesh out the spaces between conscious and unconscious artistic interventions, and the role that outside influences can play on the creative process, this collaborative inquiry developed into an examination of the factors which influence co-creation during different stages of art making. The framework for this second inquiry was created by utilising insights gained from the initial solo investigation Accordingly, this research includes multiple strands of artistic exploration, including solo works, works created in collaboration, and interviews with the collaborating artists involved in the project. Selected key solo works and all artistic collaborations are included in the body of this exegesis to encourage immersion in this practice based research. Beginning as an artist and incorporating the different roles of researcher and teacher into the work, this research is an a/r/tographical inquiry into the way these oftentimes overlapping identities influence and guided the research. The outcomes from this research include insights into my creative processes, revealing previously unacknowledged tensions between the need for creative control and flow. One of the most important outcomes from this research was the development of non-verbal conversations between artists, and the way the collaborative process has the potential to both encourage and hinder flow moments. This work is a self-study which incorporates others in relation to my own work. I believe it holds significant relevance to a wider artistic audience seeking a different perspective on encouraging collaborative artistic flow, and the method of collaborative doodling enacted in this research has potential applications in both formal and informal educational settings.
- 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
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
- 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 un-natural history : paradox, wonder and The Glass Flowers
- Authors: Kahan, Dena
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis
- Full Text:
- Description: This research project concerns itself with the human desire for control, order and perfection through an investigation of our attempts to control nature. The museum case acts as a metaphor for this attempt to organise the natural world in a logical and systematised fashion. In my artwork I aim both to present and to challenge this imposition of order and control through my interpretation of the Glass Flower display at the Harvard Natural History Museum, formally known as the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants. This examination of the Glass Flowers and their visual representation has been informed and challenged by an understanding of their paradoxical and enigmatic position between science and art, nature and culture. In my artwork this ambivalence about the Flowers as objects of scientific certainty, and about the museum as a site of control, is expressed as an increasing tension between representation and abstraction, the precise rendition of form and the visibility of the medium of oil paint. Together with the exegesis this project explores issues of museology and the nature of collected and displayed objects, particularly these Glass Flowers which were purpose-made for the museum. My visual work responds to the museum environment in ways which both embrace its aesthetic and question its attitudes to nature. In doing so, it reflects the paradoxical nature of the Flowers and the nature of seeing itself, creating a visual world in which ambiguities of scale, location and even subject undermine our certainty of what we see, creating a magical space out of the ordered world of the museum.
- Description: Master of Arts
- Authors: Kahan, Dena
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis
- Full Text:
- Description: This research project concerns itself with the human desire for control, order and perfection through an investigation of our attempts to control nature. The museum case acts as a metaphor for this attempt to organise the natural world in a logical and systematised fashion. In my artwork I aim both to present and to challenge this imposition of order and control through my interpretation of the Glass Flower display at the Harvard Natural History Museum, formally known as the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants. This examination of the Glass Flowers and their visual representation has been informed and challenged by an understanding of their paradoxical and enigmatic position between science and art, nature and culture. In my artwork this ambivalence about the Flowers as objects of scientific certainty, and about the museum as a site of control, is expressed as an increasing tension between representation and abstraction, the precise rendition of form and the visibility of the medium of oil paint. Together with the exegesis this project explores issues of museology and the nature of collected and displayed objects, particularly these Glass Flowers which were purpose-made for the museum. My visual work responds to the museum environment in ways which both embrace its aesthetic and question its attitudes to nature. In doing so, it reflects the paradoxical nature of the Flowers and the nature of seeing itself, creating a visual world in which ambiguities of scale, location and even subject undermine our certainty of what we see, creating a magical space out of the ordered world of the museum.
- Description: Master of Arts
Becoming "Brave and Gallant" : Decolonising the myths of Burke and Wills; Cross-cultural exchanges and the co-production of knowledge during the Victorian Exploring Expedition and the subsequent Relief Expeditions
- Authors: Jeffries, Peta
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The history of the Victorian Exploring Expedition (VEE), also known as ‘Burke and Wills’, has commonly been told as a story of ‘brave and gallant men’ who ventured into an unfamiliar landscape and became victims of the ‘ghastly blank’ interior of Australia. Visual artists and historians have memorialised these men as solo-hero explorers who sacrificed their youth and life potential for the sake of Australian nation. The myth of Burke and Wills is a constructed narrative and symbol of glory and achievement that denies the involvement of significant others in exploration and geographical knowledge creation. The path the VEE created through the centre of Australia opened up the broader continent for rapid colonisation and imperial expansion. The tragic legacy of the deaths of Burke and Wills is part of the Australian identity, however, some major aspects of the VEE successes and failures have been sidelined, silenced and even completely ignored in many historical accounts. The historical and visual art accounts that contributed to the memorialisation of Burke and Wills often denied the involvement of other exploration team members, the relief expeditions who went in search of the missing explorers, various intermediaries, guides, go-betweens and significantly Aboriginal peoples’ close involvement and or resistance to interior exploration. Yandruwandha people have been remembered as a friendly and accommodating community who assisted the explorers in their last days and who cared for John King. Within the archives and social memories are examples of agency, power, resistance, and varied perspectives of Burke and Wills. This ethnographic history asks why relations between the explorers, Aboriginal peoples and landscape have been told the way they have and provides examples of encounter and exchange, mutual adaptation and the co-production of knowledge as a way to decolonise the myths of Burke and Wills.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Jeffries, Peta
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The history of the Victorian Exploring Expedition (VEE), also known as ‘Burke and Wills’, has commonly been told as a story of ‘brave and gallant men’ who ventured into an unfamiliar landscape and became victims of the ‘ghastly blank’ interior of Australia. Visual artists and historians have memorialised these men as solo-hero explorers who sacrificed their youth and life potential for the sake of Australian nation. The myth of Burke and Wills is a constructed narrative and symbol of glory and achievement that denies the involvement of significant others in exploration and geographical knowledge creation. The path the VEE created through the centre of Australia opened up the broader continent for rapid colonisation and imperial expansion. The tragic legacy of the deaths of Burke and Wills is part of the Australian identity, however, some major aspects of the VEE successes and failures have been sidelined, silenced and even completely ignored in many historical accounts. The historical and visual art accounts that contributed to the memorialisation of Burke and Wills often denied the involvement of other exploration team members, the relief expeditions who went in search of the missing explorers, various intermediaries, guides, go-betweens and significantly Aboriginal peoples’ close involvement and or resistance to interior exploration. Yandruwandha people have been remembered as a friendly and accommodating community who assisted the explorers in their last days and who cared for John King. Within the archives and social memories are examples of agency, power, resistance, and varied perspectives of Burke and Wills. This ethnographic history asks why relations between the explorers, Aboriginal peoples and landscape have been told the way they have and provides examples of encounter and exchange, mutual adaptation and the co-production of knowledge as a way to decolonise the myths of Burke and Wills.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy