Description:
Maternal dissonance, a specific type of maternal cognition, has been researched little in terms of its importance for the mother. This lack of research has occurred despite the fact that general social discourse assumes the vital importance of dissonant cognitions, based on the notion of the 'perfect mother' image. In the research reported here, maternal dissonance was studies in relation to maternal well-being.
Description:
Maternal dissonance, a specific type of maternal cognition, has been researched little in terms of its importance for the mother. This lack of research has occurred despite the fact that general social discourse assumes the vital importance of dissonant cognitions, based on the notion of the 'perfect mother' image. In the research reported here, maternal dissonance was studies in relation to maternal well-being.
Description:
Community concern about sexual offending places continued pressure on correctional services to refine treatment and reduce re-offending. While cognitive processes have been identified as a key element in the development and maintenance of sexual offending, more research on the precise nature of these processes is required. The current study, based on Ward and Siegert’s Pathways Model, involved 100 male offenders of various types: 25 intra – familial sex offenders against children, 25 extra-familial sex offenders against children, 25 sex offenders who chose adult victims, and 25 convicted of non-sexual offences. There was also a control group of 25 non-offenders. The quantitative data, derived from a series of questionnaires concerning childhood and sexual experiences, provided evidence that the two types of child sex offender differed from the other groups with respect to their expectations of sexual behaviour among children, their experience of sexual abuse and neglect as children themselves, and, paradoxically, their current high self-esteem. In addition, scripts relating to hypothetical consenting adult sexual relations and sexual contact with a child were collected from the 50 sex offenders against children. The script content suggested that, compared with intra - familial offenders, extra-familial offenders had notably unrealistic, naïve and romanticised scripts for adult relationships and more sophisticated scripts for offences against children. The latter suggested that scripts might serve as a mediating function in offending behaviour and that offenders acquired a degree of task domain expertise. Despite some inherent problems undertaking research with the sex-offender population, the findings confirmed that sex-offenders do not constitute a homogenous group and that the pathways model offers a unique perspective on how males become and develop their capacity as sex-offenders, how they sustain a positive view of themselves, and how they continue to commit offences. Finally, the model was considered in terms of its capacity to suggest ways to better target treatment efforts to specific groups of sexual offenders to further reduce their rate of recidivism
Description:
Community concern about sexual offending places continued pressure on correctional services to refine treatment and reduce re-offending. While cognitive processes have been identified as a key element in the development and maintenance of sexual offending, more research on the precise nature of these processes is required. The current study, based on Ward and Siegert’s Pathways Model, involved 100 male offenders of various types: 25 intra – familial sex offenders against children, 25 extra-familial sex offenders against children, 25 sex offenders who chose adult victims, and 25 convicted of non-sexual offences. There was also a control group of 25 non-offenders. The quantitative data, derived from a series of questionnaires concerning childhood and sexual experiences, provided evidence that the two types of child sex offender differed from the other groups with respect to their expectations of sexual behaviour among children, their experience of sexual abuse and neglect as children themselves, and, paradoxically, their current high self-esteem. In addition, scripts relating to hypothetical consenting adult sexual relations and sexual contact with a child were collected from the 50 sex offenders against children. The script content suggested that, compared with intra - familial offenders, extra-familial offenders had notably unrealistic, naïve and romanticised scripts for adult relationships and more sophisticated scripts for offences against children. The latter suggested that scripts might serve as a mediating function in offending behaviour and that offenders acquired a degree of task domain expertise. Despite some inherent problems undertaking research with the sex-offender population, the findings confirmed that sex-offenders do not constitute a homogenous group and that the pathways model offers a unique perspective on how males become and develop their capacity as sex-offenders, how they sustain a positive view of themselves, and how they continue to commit offences. Finally, the model was considered in terms of its capacity to suggest ways to better target treatment efforts to specific groups of sexual offenders to further reduce their rate of recidivism
Description:
The sun-moths (family Castniidae) are a distinctive group of monocot-feeding diurnal Lepidoptera that contains a high proportion of threatened species worldwide. Seven of the eight Victorian Synemon species are considered as threatened. This study has determined through extensive fieldwork that most of these species are now restricted to very small remnants of their particular habitats. These findings have been integrated into a review of the current distribution, biology and habitat requirements of all the Victorian species. This has enabled recommendations for their long-term conservation and management to be made. Special attention was paid to the Pale Sun-moth (Synemon selene Klug, 1850) because it appeared to be nationally endangered and without a government strategy for its conservation. Also, there was strong circumstantial evidence of complete parthenogenesis within all of its Victorian populations. The Victorian occurrences are shown to be parthenogenetic, although specimens of both sexes are known from a ?now-extinct population near Two Wells, South Australia. It was also established that these parthenogenetic populations include five distinct morphs, two or three of which occur sympatrically at four localities in the Wimmera area. Parthenogenetic populations of these morphs cannot interbreed, this potentially restricting their genetic diversity. The extent of genetic diversity was examined with all parthenogenetic Victorian morphs of S. selene. DNA sequencing of 1515 bp of the COI gene revealed a maximum divergence level of 12 bp between some of the morphs and 1 to 2 bp within some morphs. This level of genetic diversity implies that these morphs have continued to evolve in the absence of males through time. This study has highlighted the special academic interest of S. selene and the urgent need for its adequate conservation. Some important directions for future research on the species are also discussed.
Description:
The sun-moths (family Castniidae) are a distinctive group of monocot-feeding diurnal Lepidoptera that contains a high proportion of threatened species worldwide. Seven of the eight Victorian Synemon species are considered as threatened. This study has determined through extensive fieldwork that most of these species are now restricted to very small remnants of their particular habitats. These findings have been integrated into a review of the current distribution, biology and habitat requirements of all the Victorian species. This has enabled recommendations for their long-term conservation and management to be made. Special attention was paid to the Pale Sun-moth (Synemon selene Klug, 1850) because it appeared to be nationally endangered and without a government strategy for its conservation. Also, there was strong circumstantial evidence of complete parthenogenesis within all of its Victorian populations. The Victorian occurrences are shown to be parthenogenetic, although specimens of both sexes are known from a ?now-extinct population near Two Wells, South Australia. It was also established that these parthenogenetic populations include five distinct morphs, two or three of which occur sympatrically at four localities in the Wimmera area. Parthenogenetic populations of these morphs cannot interbreed, this potentially restricting their genetic diversity. The extent of genetic diversity was examined with all parthenogenetic Victorian morphs of S. selene. DNA sequencing of 1515 bp of the COI gene revealed a maximum divergence level of 12 bp between some of the morphs and 1 to 2 bp within some morphs. This level of genetic diversity implies that these morphs have continued to evolve in the absence of males through time. This study has highlighted the special academic interest of S. selene and the urgent need for its adequate conservation. Some important directions for future research on the species are also discussed.
Description:
"Through a review of the art of late antiquity and early Christianity, the study examines the nature of, and tension between, superstion and belief. It debates the implicit question 'is all religion superstition?' in an attempt to provide a sound basis for the presentation of reasons for my personal unwilingness to 'disallow belief' in the mysteries of the Faith, despite doubts on their content."
Description:
"Through a review of the art of late antiquity and early Christianity, the study examines the nature of, and tension between, superstion and belief. It debates the implicit question 'is all religion superstition?' in an attempt to provide a sound basis for the presentation of reasons for my personal unwilingness to 'disallow belief' in the mysteries of the Faith, despite doubts on their content."
Description:
"Non-economical industrial sites are being demolished in Geelong, making way for alternative economic development. Whilst progress is inevitable, I question the wisdom of short-term financial gain over long-term loss of identity. The association of industrial buildings with the concept of cultural heritage, art and architecture does not seem so incongrous in other parts of the world."--leaf 2.
Description:
"Non-economical industrial sites are being demolished in Geelong, making way for alternative economic development. Whilst progress is inevitable, I question the wisdom of short-term financial gain over long-term loss of identity. The association of industrial buildings with the concept of cultural heritage, art and architecture does not seem so incongrous in other parts of the world."--leaf 2.
Description:
Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Description:
Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Description:
"The study examines two decades in the musical life of Ballarat, a regional city in south-eastern Australia. Beginning at the time of the 1851 gold rush, it covers the period in which Ballarat grew from a rough mining camp to an established city with a socially and ethnically diverse population of over 40,000 people. The thesis pursues the aim of looking at the music practices of the community in ways that will further our understanding of the significance of music in the lives of the people."--Abstract.
Description:
"The study examines two decades in the musical life of Ballarat, a regional city in south-eastern Australia. Beginning at the time of the 1851 gold rush, it covers the period in which Ballarat grew from a rough mining camp to an established city with a socially and ethnically diverse population of over 40,000 people. The thesis pursues the aim of looking at the music practices of the community in ways that will further our understanding of the significance of music in the lives of the people."--Abstract.
Description:
"This dissertation illustrates an interdisciplinary sport science approach to further understand the interaction between physiology and performance in tennis. An integral theme throughout the experimental phases was the emphasis on obtaining information from actual competitive scenarios or settings that simulated a match environment. [...] This study extended the work of similar investigations through the multifaceted methods in which performance was quantified. Overall the thesis provides unique insight into the physiological demands of professional tournament tennis and the constraints these impose on performance. Furthermore, evidence was accrued to support some of the common preparatory and in-match behaviours used by players to enhance performance."
Description:
"This dissertation illustrates an interdisciplinary sport science approach to further understand the interaction between physiology and performance in tennis. An integral theme throughout the experimental phases was the emphasis on obtaining information from actual competitive scenarios or settings that simulated a match environment. [...] This study extended the work of similar investigations through the multifaceted methods in which performance was quantified. Overall the thesis provides unique insight into the physiological demands of professional tournament tennis and the constraints these impose on performance. Furthermore, evidence was accrued to support some of the common preparatory and in-match behaviours used by players to enhance performance."
Description:
"This project has, for its central component, an epic poem, 'A locale of the cosmos'. The accompanying exegesis examines epic as an ancient, but continually evolving form. It argues that, as a contemporary example of the genre and, as a sustained poetic rumination on landscape and memory, 'A locale of the cosmos' represents a significant development within the modern tradition of autobiographical epic. In broader terms, 'A locale of the cosmos' privileges the landscape and history of a region of Australia, the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria and, in doing so, explores the cumulative effects of the physical environment as a site for sustained poetic treatment. The poem is, therefore, an epic of both historical narrative and philosophical reflection, giving meaning to and interpreting ideas of space, place and locale. "Furthermore, it explores, in particular, the psychological and spiritual effects of vast horizontal distances, created by a landscape in which endless plains and immense horizons form an analogue of the wider cosmos. The poem's themes, therefore, bear not only on the prominences of the visible locale, but also explore the salients of an interior world, a landscape of the mind to which the poetry gives shape and meaning."
Description:
"This project has, for its central component, an epic poem, 'A locale of the cosmos'. The accompanying exegesis examines epic as an ancient, but continually evolving form. It argues that, as a contemporary example of the genre and, as a sustained poetic rumination on landscape and memory, 'A locale of the cosmos' represents a significant development within the modern tradition of autobiographical epic. In broader terms, 'A locale of the cosmos' privileges the landscape and history of a region of Australia, the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria and, in doing so, explores the cumulative effects of the physical environment as a site for sustained poetic treatment. The poem is, therefore, an epic of both historical narrative and philosophical reflection, giving meaning to and interpreting ideas of space, place and locale. "Furthermore, it explores, in particular, the psychological and spiritual effects of vast horizontal distances, created by a landscape in which endless plains and immense horizons form an analogue of the wider cosmos. The poem's themes, therefore, bear not only on the prominences of the visible locale, but also explore the salients of an interior world, a landscape of the mind to which the poetry gives shape and meaning."
Description:
"In many cities around the world traffic congestion has been increasing faster than can be dealt with by new road construction. To resolve this problem traffic management devices and technology such as ramp meters are increasingly being utilized."--leaf 1.
Description:
"In many cities around the world traffic congestion has been increasing faster than can be dealt with by new road construction. To resolve this problem traffic management devices and technology such as ramp meters are increasingly being utilized."--leaf 1.
An inquiry into Suiboku and Kano School influences on Rococo and Romantic landscape painting through Claude Lorraine (1600-1682) and Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
Description:
"This research project examines the impact and influence of Chinese and Japanese ink landscape painting on the genre of Grand Manner Classical and Romantic landscape painting in Europe, from its beginnings as an independent genre in the 17th century. Specifically, the grand theme of woods and rivers will be investigated and its stylistic and philosophical relationship to Chinese and Japanese aesthetics demonstrated. The work examines how Far Eastern landscape painting conventions and techniques can be effectively acquired, and practically applied to painting in the manner of Classical and Romantic landscapes. [...]The aim of the investigation is to contribute to our deeper understanding of the genesis of this important style of artistic representation, and give fuller credit to the initiators of the technique and to those who realised its potential in the field of Western art."
Description:
"This research project examines the impact and influence of Chinese and Japanese ink landscape painting on the genre of Grand Manner Classical and Romantic landscape painting in Europe, from its beginnings as an independent genre in the 17th century. Specifically, the grand theme of woods and rivers will be investigated and its stylistic and philosophical relationship to Chinese and Japanese aesthetics demonstrated. The work examines how Far Eastern landscape painting conventions and techniques can be effectively acquired, and practically applied to painting in the manner of Classical and Romantic landscapes. [...]The aim of the investigation is to contribute to our deeper understanding of the genesis of this important style of artistic representation, and give fuller credit to the initiators of the technique and to those who realised its potential in the field of Western art."
Description:
"The major criticism by hospital trained clinical nurses is that university graduates are perceived as not being competent practioners as a result of limited time spent in clinical areas. This lack of clinical experience is thought to contribute to new graduates' sense of occupational stress."--leaf xii.
Description:
"The major criticism by hospital trained clinical nurses is that university graduates are perceived as not being competent practioners as a result of limited time spent in clinical areas. This lack of clinical experience is thought to contribute to new graduates' sense of occupational stress."--leaf xii.
Anger : Specific cognitive and developmental factors : An investigation into the specific associations between anger, early maladaptive schemas and parenting
Description:
"This research aimed to explore and better understand intervention protocols and their effect on lower limb control associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. A fundamental and unique aspect of this investigation was to establish a lab-based testing protocol that successfully mimicked actual game play. [...]This research validated a lab-based measure that best mimicked game-play to use as a pre- and post- testing measure for two common methods used in current ACL intervention strategies. In addition, further understanding of the effects of a landing training and dynamic balance training program were found."
Description:
"This research aimed to explore and better understand intervention protocols and their effect on lower limb control associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. A fundamental and unique aspect of this investigation was to establish a lab-based testing protocol that successfully mimicked actual game play. [...]This research validated a lab-based measure that best mimicked game-play to use as a pre- and post- testing measure for two common methods used in current ACL intervention strategies. In addition, further understanding of the effects of a landing training and dynamic balance training program were found."
Description:
Text Classification is the task of mapping a document into one or more classes based on the presence or absence of words (or features) in the document. It is intensively being studied and different classification techniques and algorithms have been developed. This thesis focuses on classification of online documents that has become more critical with the development of World Wide Web. The WWW vastly increases the availability of on-line documents in digital format and has highlighted the need to classify them. From this background, we have noted the emergence of “automatic Web Classification”. These mainly concentrate on classifying HTML-like documents into classes or categories by not only using the methods that are inherited from the traditional Text Classification process, but also utilizing the extra information provided only by Web pages. Our work is based on the fact that, Web documents, contain not only ordinary features (words) but also extra information, such as meta-data and hyperlinks that can be used to advantage the classification process. The aim of this research is to study various ways of using the extra information, in particularly, hyperlink information provided by HTML-documents (Web pages). The merit of the approach, developed in this thesis, is its simplicity, compared with existing approaches. We present different approaches of using hyperlink information to improve the effectiveness of web classification. Unlike other work in this area, we will only use the mappings between linked documents and their own class or classes. In this case, we only need to add a few features called linked-class features into the datasets, and then apply classifiers on them for classification. In the numerical experiments we adopted two wellknown Text Classification algorithms, Support Vector Machines and BoosTexter. The results obtained show that classification accuracy can be improved by using mixtures of ordinary and linked-class features. Moreover, out-links usually work better than in-links in classification. We also analyse and discuss the reasons behind this improvement.
Description:
Text Classification is the task of mapping a document into one or more classes based on the presence or absence of words (or features) in the document. It is intensively being studied and different classification techniques and algorithms have been developed. This thesis focuses on classification of online documents that has become more critical with the development of World Wide Web. The WWW vastly increases the availability of on-line documents in digital format and has highlighted the need to classify them. From this background, we have noted the emergence of “automatic Web Classification”. These mainly concentrate on classifying HTML-like documents into classes or categories by not only using the methods that are inherited from the traditional Text Classification process, but also utilizing the extra information provided only by Web pages. Our work is based on the fact that, Web documents, contain not only ordinary features (words) but also extra information, such as meta-data and hyperlinks that can be used to advantage the classification process. The aim of this research is to study various ways of using the extra information, in particularly, hyperlink information provided by HTML-documents (Web pages). The merit of the approach, developed in this thesis, is its simplicity, compared with existing approaches. We present different approaches of using hyperlink information to improve the effectiveness of web classification. Unlike other work in this area, we will only use the mappings between linked documents and their own class or classes. In this case, we only need to add a few features called linked-class features into the datasets, and then apply classifiers on them for classification. In the numerical experiments we adopted two wellknown Text Classification algorithms, Support Vector Machines and BoosTexter. The results obtained show that classification accuracy can be improved by using mixtures of ordinary and linked-class features. Moreover, out-links usually work better than in-links in classification. We also analyse and discuss the reasons behind this improvement.
Description:
"A natural process in examining properties of Banach spaces is to see if a Banach space can be decomposed into simpler Banach spaces; in other words, to see if a Banach space has complemented subspaces. This thesis concentrates on three main aspects of this problem: norm of projections of a Banach space onto its finite dimensional subspaces; a class of Banach spaces, each of which has a large number of infinite dimensional complemented subspaces; and methods of finding Banach spaces which have uncomplemented subspaces, where the subspaces and the quotient spaces are chosen as well-known classical sequence spaces (finding non-trivial twisted sums)." --Abstract.
Description:
"A natural process in examining properties of Banach spaces is to see if a Banach space can be decomposed into simpler Banach spaces; in other words, to see if a Banach space has complemented subspaces. This thesis concentrates on three main aspects of this problem: norm of projections of a Banach space onto its finite dimensional subspaces; a class of Banach spaces, each of which has a large number of infinite dimensional complemented subspaces; and methods of finding Banach spaces which have uncomplemented subspaces, where the subspaces and the quotient spaces are chosen as well-known classical sequence spaces (finding non-trivial twisted sums)." --Abstract.
Description:
"Three sampling campaigns were conducted in the Ballarat, Creswick and Maldon areas. The sampling area is part of the Golden Triangle region where significant gold-mining activities took place from the 1850s to the present day. [...] Locations were chosen to evaluate arsenic distribution in soils, surface waters and plants in different environments. Easy access to sampling locations allowed detailed scientific sampling, especially in the seasonality study. The different range of environments such as agricultural, state forest, mining, urban and rural provided an opportunity to compare the concentrations of arsenic and other elements in the study area. The study of the three selected areas combined provided further understanding of possible exposure and pathways through which arsenic can get into the food chain. "The objective of the study is to measure levels of heavy metals/metalloids in soils, water and plants in various environments, identify whether the heavy metals/metalloids are mobile and bioavailable and understand the importance of clays and oxide complexes in the fixation of metals."
Description:
"Three sampling campaigns were conducted in the Ballarat, Creswick and Maldon areas. The sampling area is part of the Golden Triangle region where significant gold-mining activities took place from the 1850s to the present day. [...] Locations were chosen to evaluate arsenic distribution in soils, surface waters and plants in different environments. Easy access to sampling locations allowed detailed scientific sampling, especially in the seasonality study. The different range of environments such as agricultural, state forest, mining, urban and rural provided an opportunity to compare the concentrations of arsenic and other elements in the study area. The study of the three selected areas combined provided further understanding of possible exposure and pathways through which arsenic can get into the food chain. "The objective of the study is to measure levels of heavy metals/metalloids in soils, water and plants in various environments, identify whether the heavy metals/metalloids are mobile and bioavailable and understand the importance of clays and oxide complexes in the fixation of metals."
Description:
Because mobility is associated with rural social decline, this two-phase cross sectional study investigates whether social patterns in small, rural Australian towns are affected by commuting. Quantitative data, which was gathered via a mail-out questionnaire (response = 54 per cent) that was issued to 1,040 occupationally diverse professionals who worked in fourteen towns throughout north-western Victoria, was analysed to determine whether commuting and non-commuting professionals differed significantly in their community involvement. To explain why certain relationships emerged from survey analysis, face-toface interviews were subsequently undertaken with 24 questionnaire respondents. The key finding of this study is that there is a significant relationship between commuting status and the retention of rural professionals. A significantly greater proportion of noncommuters than commuters remain working in the one location for longer than five years. This finding has important implications for the sustainability of rural areas.
Description:
Because mobility is associated with rural social decline, this two-phase cross sectional study investigates whether social patterns in small, rural Australian towns are affected by commuting. Quantitative data, which was gathered via a mail-out questionnaire (response = 54 per cent) that was issued to 1,040 occupationally diverse professionals who worked in fourteen towns throughout north-western Victoria, was analysed to determine whether commuting and non-commuting professionals differed significantly in their community involvement. To explain why certain relationships emerged from survey analysis, face-toface interviews were subsequently undertaken with 24 questionnaire respondents. The key finding of this study is that there is a significant relationship between commuting status and the retention of rural professionals. A significantly greater proportion of noncommuters than commuters remain working in the one location for longer than five years. This finding has important implications for the sustainability of rural areas.