Teacher perceptions of changes in school infrastructure and how these impact on their teaching practice
- Authors: Zivave, Takavada
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The impetus of this study comes from the 2009 Commonwealth Government of Australia’s $16.2 billion investment in school infrastructure under the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program. The BER program was supposed to stimulate the economy through creating construction jobs by building schools and ensuring that workers had jobs during the global financial crisis. Provision of learning spaces and learning space design was secondary to this need to create construction jobs. This thesis aimed to explore the teaching activity using an activity system based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engestrom, 1987) with the intent of bringing out or exposing the contribution made by the BER school infrastructure program on teaching especially around issues of pedagogy, teamwork, wellbeing, collaboration and interactions with students. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study utilised three sources of data, document analysis, online survey responses and focus group interviews. In the first phase, data were collected using a document analysis, this information guided the design of the online survey instrument, which was used to collect data in the second phase. Data collected using both the document analysis and online survey responses were used in the third phase, which involved focus group interviews. The data analysis involved identifying, grouping together and labelling document analysis, data from the online survey and transcripts of focus group interviews. These were coded and organised into themes, or units of meaning. The quantitative data was presented in frequency tables and descriptive statistics. This quantitative data was corroborated with extracts from focus group interviews and document analysis data where possible. The study’s findings demonstrated that school infrastructure supports teacher collaboration by allowing for team planning and co-teaching. Furthermore, the study revealed a link between teacher collaboration and teacher wellbeing. The study findings indicate that when teachers plan together and co-teach, their workload is reduced contributing positively to teacher wellbeing. The study suggests that a relationship exists between school infrastructure and student-teacher interactions, which serves to reduce negative interactions when dealing with outside classroom behaviour. The present study seeks to generate insights that, while unique to participants and individuals, are anticipated to be of interest to teachers more broadly. Potentially, the findings from this study could inform other educational contexts, for example, school architectural designers. Significantly, this research seeks to contribute to literature on the importance of school infrastructure on teacher performance ultimately improving student-learning outcomes.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Zivave, Takavada
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The impetus of this study comes from the 2009 Commonwealth Government of Australia’s $16.2 billion investment in school infrastructure under the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program. The BER program was supposed to stimulate the economy through creating construction jobs by building schools and ensuring that workers had jobs during the global financial crisis. Provision of learning spaces and learning space design was secondary to this need to create construction jobs. This thesis aimed to explore the teaching activity using an activity system based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engestrom, 1987) with the intent of bringing out or exposing the contribution made by the BER school infrastructure program on teaching especially around issues of pedagogy, teamwork, wellbeing, collaboration and interactions with students. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study utilised three sources of data, document analysis, online survey responses and focus group interviews. In the first phase, data were collected using a document analysis, this information guided the design of the online survey instrument, which was used to collect data in the second phase. Data collected using both the document analysis and online survey responses were used in the third phase, which involved focus group interviews. The data analysis involved identifying, grouping together and labelling document analysis, data from the online survey and transcripts of focus group interviews. These were coded and organised into themes, or units of meaning. The quantitative data was presented in frequency tables and descriptive statistics. This quantitative data was corroborated with extracts from focus group interviews and document analysis data where possible. The study’s findings demonstrated that school infrastructure supports teacher collaboration by allowing for team planning and co-teaching. Furthermore, the study revealed a link between teacher collaboration and teacher wellbeing. The study findings indicate that when teachers plan together and co-teach, their workload is reduced contributing positively to teacher wellbeing. The study suggests that a relationship exists between school infrastructure and student-teacher interactions, which serves to reduce negative interactions when dealing with outside classroom behaviour. The present study seeks to generate insights that, while unique to participants and individuals, are anticipated to be of interest to teachers more broadly. Potentially, the findings from this study could inform other educational contexts, for example, school architectural designers. Significantly, this research seeks to contribute to literature on the importance of school infrastructure on teacher performance ultimately improving student-learning outcomes.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Teachers' emotional intelligence as a predisposition for discrimiation against students with severe emotional and behavioural disorders
- Authors: Metaxas, Melinda
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Students with Emotional Behavioural Disorders (EBD) are among the most challenging students to teach. Personality Trait Theory predicts teachers’ level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) would affect their cognitive-affective-behavioural reactions towards students with EBDs, and influence level of academic achievement and difficult behaviour of these students. This research explores which teachers are more predisposed to discriminate against EBD students, and identifies the most ‘effective’, supportive EI teacher traits. Underlying psychological processes, such as genetic EI make-up of teachers, may prove to be most valuable in determining whether more practical strategies for dealing with students’ behaviour/emotions are effectively applied and successful. An Attribution Model framework helped assess teacher reactions towards students. Two hundred and sixty one teachers from 51 Victorian schools participated in the study by completing self-report questionnaires, including the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. A quantitative survey methodology used vignettes, with each school contact person randomly giving 50/50 surveys to their teachers (depicting a student with either mild or severe EBD symptoms). Pathway analysis revealed that teachers with higher EI reported less stigmatising and punitive intentions and likely greater helping behaviours. A new EI Process Model of Stigmatisation was proposed to measure teacher reactions through an affective-cognitive-behavioural sequence, rather than a cognitive-affective-behavioural sequence. Teachers’ EI levels also related to their own levels of psychological distress and/or compassion stress, which influenced likely helping or punitive outcomes. Despite behavioural severity of EBD students, teachers higher in EI still indicate more supportive helping behaviours. Specifically-identified ‘ideal’ teacher EI traits should lead to greater helping and be psychologically beneficial to both students and teachers. These results assisted development of an assessment tool (ASET – Assessment Screen for Emotionally Intelligent Teachers), which lays a sound foundation for schools and others to profile or recruit teachers with best ‘qualities’ to effectively teach students EBD students.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Metaxas, Melinda
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Students with Emotional Behavioural Disorders (EBD) are among the most challenging students to teach. Personality Trait Theory predicts teachers’ level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) would affect their cognitive-affective-behavioural reactions towards students with EBDs, and influence level of academic achievement and difficult behaviour of these students. This research explores which teachers are more predisposed to discriminate against EBD students, and identifies the most ‘effective’, supportive EI teacher traits. Underlying psychological processes, such as genetic EI make-up of teachers, may prove to be most valuable in determining whether more practical strategies for dealing with students’ behaviour/emotions are effectively applied and successful. An Attribution Model framework helped assess teacher reactions towards students. Two hundred and sixty one teachers from 51 Victorian schools participated in the study by completing self-report questionnaires, including the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. A quantitative survey methodology used vignettes, with each school contact person randomly giving 50/50 surveys to their teachers (depicting a student with either mild or severe EBD symptoms). Pathway analysis revealed that teachers with higher EI reported less stigmatising and punitive intentions and likely greater helping behaviours. A new EI Process Model of Stigmatisation was proposed to measure teacher reactions through an affective-cognitive-behavioural sequence, rather than a cognitive-affective-behavioural sequence. Teachers’ EI levels also related to their own levels of psychological distress and/or compassion stress, which influenced likely helping or punitive outcomes. Despite behavioural severity of EBD students, teachers higher in EI still indicate more supportive helping behaviours. Specifically-identified ‘ideal’ teacher EI traits should lead to greater helping and be psychologically beneficial to both students and teachers. These results assisted development of an assessment tool (ASET – Assessment Screen for Emotionally Intelligent Teachers), which lays a sound foundation for schools and others to profile or recruit teachers with best ‘qualities’ to effectively teach students EBD students.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Curry, Christina
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: With the movement to evolving classroom practices and pedagogies to enhance student-centered learning environments across all Key Learning Areas, there has been growing concern about how educators can produce high quality, intellectual learning experiences within physical education. To provide much-needed understanding of teachers' experiences of the implementation of a TGfU (Teaching Games for Understanding) teaching approach, this study aimed to identify the ways in which individual teachers, adopt, embrace or alternatively resist TGfU as an innovative pedagogy. - Taken from abstract.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Teaching with difference : barriers and enablers for teachers with impairments in their professional roles
- Authors: Skene, Gerrard
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Amidst the current groundswell of inclusive practices adopted in learning institutions, there would appear to be a paucity of research regarding the barriers and enablers experienced by teachers with impairments in Australian education systems (Burke, 2016; Pritchard, 2010; Sheridan & Kotevski, 2014). This thesis presents an examination of national and international literature where an imprecise range of issues for teachers with impairments is identified. The social model of disability has been adopted as the overarching theoretical perspective for this study. The conceptualisation of teaching with impairment, rather than about impairment, embodies the notion of teachers with impairments as being culturally relevant educators (Pritchard, 2010). Narrative inquiry, in conjunction with Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) three-dimensional space approach as a thematical analysis methodology, has been employed and supports the investigation of ten teachers with impairments working in professional education roles within Australia. Narrative interviews were conducted with each of the ten participants with the aim of identifying barriers and enablers within the lived experiences of teachers with impairments. This study identified a silence in relation to teachers with impairments, and to address this silence has amplified the voices of teachers with impairments. Five primary themes emerged from the data to provide insights into barriers and enablers experienced by teachers with impairments. These themes are: Thinking about becoming a teacher; The limiting attitudes of others; Connecting with students and parents; Notions of teaching spaces; and I get by with a little help from my friends. This study found that teachers with impairments do experience adverse attitudes and biases in Australian teaching institutions despite there being laws that have been specifically designed to prevent disability discrimination. Bias, experienced as discrimination towards teachers with impairments, extends to career promotion and workplace advancement opportunities. Conversely, the study also found that respectful conversations about impairment which took place both inside and outside teaching places, highlighted how having open conversations about reasonable adjustments can lead to actions that become enablers for teachers with impairments. This study commences the important work of giving voice to teachers with impairments and creates a space to challenge dominant perspectives. The thesis concludes that more needs to be done to challenge the constructed normative attitudes that are responsible for setting teachers with impairments apart and resulting in them being mostly undetected within the teacher population; Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Skene, Gerrard
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Amidst the current groundswell of inclusive practices adopted in learning institutions, there would appear to be a paucity of research regarding the barriers and enablers experienced by teachers with impairments in Australian education systems (Burke, 2016; Pritchard, 2010; Sheridan & Kotevski, 2014). This thesis presents an examination of national and international literature where an imprecise range of issues for teachers with impairments is identified. The social model of disability has been adopted as the overarching theoretical perspective for this study. The conceptualisation of teaching with impairment, rather than about impairment, embodies the notion of teachers with impairments as being culturally relevant educators (Pritchard, 2010). Narrative inquiry, in conjunction with Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) three-dimensional space approach as a thematical analysis methodology, has been employed and supports the investigation of ten teachers with impairments working in professional education roles within Australia. Narrative interviews were conducted with each of the ten participants with the aim of identifying barriers and enablers within the lived experiences of teachers with impairments. This study identified a silence in relation to teachers with impairments, and to address this silence has amplified the voices of teachers with impairments. Five primary themes emerged from the data to provide insights into barriers and enablers experienced by teachers with impairments. These themes are: Thinking about becoming a teacher; The limiting attitudes of others; Connecting with students and parents; Notions of teaching spaces; and I get by with a little help from my friends. This study found that teachers with impairments do experience adverse attitudes and biases in Australian teaching institutions despite there being laws that have been specifically designed to prevent disability discrimination. Bias, experienced as discrimination towards teachers with impairments, extends to career promotion and workplace advancement opportunities. Conversely, the study also found that respectful conversations about impairment which took place both inside and outside teaching places, highlighted how having open conversations about reasonable adjustments can lead to actions that become enablers for teachers with impairments. This study commences the important work of giving voice to teachers with impairments and creates a space to challenge dominant perspectives. The thesis concludes that more needs to be done to challenge the constructed normative attitudes that are responsible for setting teachers with impairments apart and resulting in them being mostly undetected within the teacher population; Doctor of Philosophy
Techniques for the reverse engineering of banking malware
- Authors: Black, Paul
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Malware attacks are a significant and frequently reported problem, adversely affecting the productivity of organisations and governments worldwide. The well-documented consequences of malware attacks include financial loss, data loss, reputation damage, infrastructure damage, theft of intellectual property, compromise of commercial negotiations, and national security risks. Mitiga-tion activities involve a significant amount of manual analysis. Therefore, there is a need for automated techniques for malware analysis to identify malicious behaviours. Research into automated techniques for malware analysis covers a wide range of activities. This thesis consists of a series of studies: an anal-ysis of banking malware families and their common behaviours, an emulated command and control environment for dynamic malware analysis, a technique to identify similar malware functions, and a technique for the detection of ransomware. An analysis of the nature of banking malware, its major malware families, behaviours, variants, and inter-relationships are provided in this thesis. In doing this, this research takes a broad view of malware analysis, starting with the implementation of the malicious behaviours through to detailed analysis using machine learning. The broad approach taken in this thesis differs from some other studies that approach malware research in a more abstract sense. A disadvantage of approaching malware research without domain knowledge, is that important methodology questions may not be considered. Large datasets of historical malware samples are available for countermea-sures research. However, due to the age of these samples, the original malware infrastructure is no longer available, often restricting malware operations to initialisation functions only. To address this absence, an emulated command and control environment is provided. This emulated environment provides full control of the malware, enabling the capabilities of the original in-the-wild operation, while enabling feature extraction for research purposes. A major focus of this thesis has been the development of a machine learn-ing function similarity method with a novel feature encoding that increases feature strength. This research develops techniques to demonstrate that the machine learning model trained on similarity features from one program can find similar functions in another, unrelated program. This finding can lead to the development of generic similar function classifiers that can be packaged and distributed in reverse engineering tools such as IDA Pro and Ghidra. Further, this research examines the use of API call features for the identi-fication of ransomware and shows that a failure to consider malware analysis domain knowledge can lead to weaknesses in experimental design. In this case, we show that existing research has difficulty in discriminating between ransomware and benign cryptographic software. This thesis by publication, has developed techniques to advance the disci-pline of malware reverse engineering, in order to minimize harm due to cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, government institutions, and industry.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Black, Paul
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Malware attacks are a significant and frequently reported problem, adversely affecting the productivity of organisations and governments worldwide. The well-documented consequences of malware attacks include financial loss, data loss, reputation damage, infrastructure damage, theft of intellectual property, compromise of commercial negotiations, and national security risks. Mitiga-tion activities involve a significant amount of manual analysis. Therefore, there is a need for automated techniques for malware analysis to identify malicious behaviours. Research into automated techniques for malware analysis covers a wide range of activities. This thesis consists of a series of studies: an anal-ysis of banking malware families and their common behaviours, an emulated command and control environment for dynamic malware analysis, a technique to identify similar malware functions, and a technique for the detection of ransomware. An analysis of the nature of banking malware, its major malware families, behaviours, variants, and inter-relationships are provided in this thesis. In doing this, this research takes a broad view of malware analysis, starting with the implementation of the malicious behaviours through to detailed analysis using machine learning. The broad approach taken in this thesis differs from some other studies that approach malware research in a more abstract sense. A disadvantage of approaching malware research without domain knowledge, is that important methodology questions may not be considered. Large datasets of historical malware samples are available for countermea-sures research. However, due to the age of these samples, the original malware infrastructure is no longer available, often restricting malware operations to initialisation functions only. To address this absence, an emulated command and control environment is provided. This emulated environment provides full control of the malware, enabling the capabilities of the original in-the-wild operation, while enabling feature extraction for research purposes. A major focus of this thesis has been the development of a machine learn-ing function similarity method with a novel feature encoding that increases feature strength. This research develops techniques to demonstrate that the machine learning model trained on similarity features from one program can find similar functions in another, unrelated program. This finding can lead to the development of generic similar function classifiers that can be packaged and distributed in reverse engineering tools such as IDA Pro and Ghidra. Further, this research examines the use of API call features for the identi-fication of ransomware and shows that a failure to consider malware analysis domain knowledge can lead to weaknesses in experimental design. In this case, we show that existing research has difficulty in discriminating between ransomware and benign cryptographic software. This thesis by publication, has developed techniques to advance the disci-pline of malware reverse engineering, in order to minimize harm due to cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, government institutions, and industry.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Telling a story – managing impressions about corporate social responsibility
- Authors: Paynter, Merryn
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Today, an increasing number of companies are being held accountable by stakeholders for their impact on the environment and on society. Hence, failure to address stakeholder concerns can have dire consequences for companies, threatening their social licence-to-operate. To retain stakeholder support, companies must communicate to stakeholders how their concerns are being addressed, and this includes making disclosures about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Existing literature focuses on explaining the reasons for the uptake of CSR reporting, and why companies make CSR disclosures. Presently, to date, there has been only limited research on the way that companies use CSR reporting to manage impressions, and how this differs across industries. This study is unique because it uses constructive-interpretive, qualitative storytelling research methods to examine CSR reporting, and to investigate companies’ motivations for making CSR disclosures. In this thesis, multi-level narrative research was conducted on the annual, CSR, and integrated reports produced by three Australian companies: BHP, Westpac, and Westfield between 1992 and 2017. These companies represent very different industry sectors, and were chosen to provide an understanding of the similarities and differences in the development of storytelling practices in their CSR reporting. Significant events in company reports are substantiated by newspaper articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald. These significant events are used to study episodic changes in companies’ strategic organisational storytelling responses. This study found that companies use explicit and implied storytelling strategies to convey meanings about CSR using both visual and textual language. A conceptual framework is developed which presents organisational storytelling as a process and illustrates how companies construct and tell stories about CSR. Several implications were identified from this research, key amongst them being the ability of stakeholders to determine companies’ underlying motives for creating their particular CSR stories. From a company perspective, the importance of management’s understanding of the implications of poorly-executed storytelling is demonstrated, highlighting the consequent potential for stakeholders to misinterpret CSR disclosures and form adverse opinions of companies’ actions, despite positive intentions
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Paynter, Merryn
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Today, an increasing number of companies are being held accountable by stakeholders for their impact on the environment and on society. Hence, failure to address stakeholder concerns can have dire consequences for companies, threatening their social licence-to-operate. To retain stakeholder support, companies must communicate to stakeholders how their concerns are being addressed, and this includes making disclosures about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Existing literature focuses on explaining the reasons for the uptake of CSR reporting, and why companies make CSR disclosures. Presently, to date, there has been only limited research on the way that companies use CSR reporting to manage impressions, and how this differs across industries. This study is unique because it uses constructive-interpretive, qualitative storytelling research methods to examine CSR reporting, and to investigate companies’ motivations for making CSR disclosures. In this thesis, multi-level narrative research was conducted on the annual, CSR, and integrated reports produced by three Australian companies: BHP, Westpac, and Westfield between 1992 and 2017. These companies represent very different industry sectors, and were chosen to provide an understanding of the similarities and differences in the development of storytelling practices in their CSR reporting. Significant events in company reports are substantiated by newspaper articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald. These significant events are used to study episodic changes in companies’ strategic organisational storytelling responses. This study found that companies use explicit and implied storytelling strategies to convey meanings about CSR using both visual and textual language. A conceptual framework is developed which presents organisational storytelling as a process and illustrates how companies construct and tell stories about CSR. Several implications were identified from this research, key amongst them being the ability of stakeholders to determine companies’ underlying motives for creating their particular CSR stories. From a company perspective, the importance of management’s understanding of the implications of poorly-executed storytelling is demonstrated, highlighting the consequent potential for stakeholders to misinterpret CSR disclosures and form adverse opinions of companies’ actions, despite positive intentions
- 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
Temporal and environmental influences on seed protein accumulation in soybean seeds
- Authors: Sykes, Geoffrey
- Date: 1991
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: Masters Degree of Applied Science
Tertiary student connectedness : Intervention influence on student connectedness as measured in health and academic behaviours of regional tertiary students
- Authors: Young, Patricia
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: At a time when university student diversity is heightened and when national government regulations have shifted their quality focus from support improvements to student achievement, little is known about the mechanism of the latter. University efforts to support quality, caring interactions between students and staff, known as connectedness, are currently favoured, and this thesis examines connectedness, mood, emotional well-being and academic behaviours of commencing students at a regional Australian university. This is done through the lens of a first semester intervention, known as Tertiary Learning Communities (TLC). Drawing on existing connectedness research, across both school and university settings and guided by a whole-school framework, details of the establishment of a suitable working party, the development of survey, pilot and intervention activities, and monitoring the ability of a cross-campus intervention to influence student connectedness and behaviour markers, are highlighted to advance further understanding of the mechanics of connectedness in a university setting. The developed survey, which collected data from undergraduate students early in their first semester, effectively captured perceptions of connectedness across a broad range of sources in addition to their mood, emotional well-being and academic student behaviours. Paired sample-tests assessed connectedness changes, and chi square analysis assessed behaviour changes when comparing the experimental and control groups on two occasions. A single intervention aligned to a first year core unit to support academic and social interactions, was shown to be ineffective in enhancing student connectedness during the semester of the intervention or the semester following the intervention. However, the level of connectedness decreases measured across ‘personal’, ‘other students’ and ‘lecturers’ were indeed significant, as was the finding that connectedness decreases for intervention participants exceeded the decreases of the control group. Furthermore, mood and emotional well-being challenges and the slow emergence of academic behaviours were also revealed. These findings provided support for future inclusive student support initiatives, maintained the involvement of working party members and extended support beyond the first semester to across first year.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Young, Patricia
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: At a time when university student diversity is heightened and when national government regulations have shifted their quality focus from support improvements to student achievement, little is known about the mechanism of the latter. University efforts to support quality, caring interactions between students and staff, known as connectedness, are currently favoured, and this thesis examines connectedness, mood, emotional well-being and academic behaviours of commencing students at a regional Australian university. This is done through the lens of a first semester intervention, known as Tertiary Learning Communities (TLC). Drawing on existing connectedness research, across both school and university settings and guided by a whole-school framework, details of the establishment of a suitable working party, the development of survey, pilot and intervention activities, and monitoring the ability of a cross-campus intervention to influence student connectedness and behaviour markers, are highlighted to advance further understanding of the mechanics of connectedness in a university setting. The developed survey, which collected data from undergraduate students early in their first semester, effectively captured perceptions of connectedness across a broad range of sources in addition to their mood, emotional well-being and academic student behaviours. Paired sample-tests assessed connectedness changes, and chi square analysis assessed behaviour changes when comparing the experimental and control groups on two occasions. A single intervention aligned to a first year core unit to support academic and social interactions, was shown to be ineffective in enhancing student connectedness during the semester of the intervention or the semester following the intervention. However, the level of connectedness decreases measured across ‘personal’, ‘other students’ and ‘lecturers’ were indeed significant, as was the finding that connectedness decreases for intervention participants exceeded the decreases of the control group. Furthermore, mood and emotional well-being challenges and the slow emergence of academic behaviours were also revealed. These findings provided support for future inclusive student support initiatives, maintained the involvement of working party members and extended support beyond the first semester to across first year.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Testing the efficacy of therapeutic footwear with rocker-soles to protect ulceration in diabetic and neuropathic patients
- Authors: Stacpoole Shea, Susan
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "This thesis aimed to test rocker-sole shoe designs to select the most effective design for protecting plantar hallux and plantar first metatarsophalangeal joint ilcerations from plantar pressures during walking in adults with diabetes and peripheral neuropathy."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Stacpoole Shea, Susan
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: "This thesis aimed to test rocker-sole shoe designs to select the most effective design for protecting plantar hallux and plantar first metatarsophalangeal joint ilcerations from plantar pressures during walking in adults with diabetes and peripheral neuropathy."
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The Accountability of public museums in Portugal
- Authors: Menezes, Carlos
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This research examines the historical development and current state of accountability practices in Portugal’s public museums, within the context of New Public Management (NPM) philosophies. The study addresses the following research questions: (1) What systems of accountability presently apply to Portugal's public museums? (2) What are the historical determinants of these systems and what has been the role of NPM? (3) Relative to the objectives and missions of the museums, what deficiencies are evident in the systems of accountability and how might these be redressed? New institutional theory, supplemented by the concepts of path dependency, practical drift and governmentality, provides the theoretical framework for examining the historical determinants of accountability practices, identifying the limitations of those practices, and proposing possible solutions. This study adopts an interpretative paradigm and an inductive reasoning approach. The research uses a case study approach based on the Portuguese Museums Network. The study combines quantitative, archival and qualitative (interviews) data. The survey was administered to directors and other people directly responsible for the management of public museums and yielded 220 usable responses. The analysis of archival data included historical documents available in the archives of museums, legislation, newspapers and historical books. Finally, 26 interviews were conducted with directors and other personnel from nine museums and six interviews were conducted with representatives from the central government and relevant professional associations. The findings show that present accountability systems in Portuguese public museums are hierarchical and frail and provide limited information for meaningful accountability evaluations. In addition, accountability has been influenced by historical path dependency, leading to museums being used as instruments of governmentality for controlling citizens, society and public organisations. The implementation of NPM and double entry bookkeeping are reflections of a process of institutional isomorphism that has led to a process of “double talking” and the adoption of practical drift situations. The accountability deficiencies identified – within the context of the missions and objectives of museums – lead to a set of recommendations to improve accountability in the sector. Managerial implications stemming from the study entail, for example, giving more managerial autonomy to the museums; periodically auditing the collections and their scope; and, producing new accounting rules that reflect and involve relevant stakeholders.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Menezes, Carlos
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This research examines the historical development and current state of accountability practices in Portugal’s public museums, within the context of New Public Management (NPM) philosophies. The study addresses the following research questions: (1) What systems of accountability presently apply to Portugal's public museums? (2) What are the historical determinants of these systems and what has been the role of NPM? (3) Relative to the objectives and missions of the museums, what deficiencies are evident in the systems of accountability and how might these be redressed? New institutional theory, supplemented by the concepts of path dependency, practical drift and governmentality, provides the theoretical framework for examining the historical determinants of accountability practices, identifying the limitations of those practices, and proposing possible solutions. This study adopts an interpretative paradigm and an inductive reasoning approach. The research uses a case study approach based on the Portuguese Museums Network. The study combines quantitative, archival and qualitative (interviews) data. The survey was administered to directors and other people directly responsible for the management of public museums and yielded 220 usable responses. The analysis of archival data included historical documents available in the archives of museums, legislation, newspapers and historical books. Finally, 26 interviews were conducted with directors and other personnel from nine museums and six interviews were conducted with representatives from the central government and relevant professional associations. The findings show that present accountability systems in Portuguese public museums are hierarchical and frail and provide limited information for meaningful accountability evaluations. In addition, accountability has been influenced by historical path dependency, leading to museums being used as instruments of governmentality for controlling citizens, society and public organisations. The implementation of NPM and double entry bookkeeping are reflections of a process of institutional isomorphism that has led to a process of “double talking” and the adoption of practical drift situations. The accountability deficiencies identified – within the context of the missions and objectives of museums – lead to a set of recommendations to improve accountability in the sector. Managerial implications stemming from the study entail, for example, giving more managerial autonomy to the museums; periodically auditing the collections and their scope; and, producing new accounting rules that reflect and involve relevant stakeholders.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The acute effects of aerobic exercise on Leukocyte Telomere biology
- Authors: Chilton, Warrick
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: Habitual exercise is unequivocally associated with decreased all-cause mortality and morbidity. Despite the strength of the association, a large part of the decreased risk is physiologically unaccounted for. Accumulating evidence indicates that leukocyte telomere length (LTL) may be one such explanatory mechanism. Telomeres are specialized deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences located at chromosomal ends where they protect the genomic DNA from enzymatic degradation. Excessive and/or premature telomere shortening in leukocytes is associated with a host of chronic diseases and impaired immune function. Observational associations exist between LTL and habitual physical activity/exercise in multiple cohorts. However, correlation does not imply causal story and the underpinning mechanisms behind the association are unclear. The current consensus is that long-term exercise-induced reductions in oxidative stress and inflammation mediate the association. The acute dynamics of telomere biology are poorly understood; however, a growing body of evidence suggests that telomeres may be amenable to acute modulation via expression of telomereassociated genes and microRNAs. Accordingly, the overarching aim of this thesis was to characterize the acute effects of aerobic exercise on leukocyte telomere biology.
- Authors: Chilton, Warrick
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Description: Habitual exercise is unequivocally associated with decreased all-cause mortality and morbidity. Despite the strength of the association, a large part of the decreased risk is physiologically unaccounted for. Accumulating evidence indicates that leukocyte telomere length (LTL) may be one such explanatory mechanism. Telomeres are specialized deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences located at chromosomal ends where they protect the genomic DNA from enzymatic degradation. Excessive and/or premature telomere shortening in leukocytes is associated with a host of chronic diseases and impaired immune function. Observational associations exist between LTL and habitual physical activity/exercise in multiple cohorts. However, correlation does not imply causal story and the underpinning mechanisms behind the association are unclear. The current consensus is that long-term exercise-induced reductions in oxidative stress and inflammation mediate the association. The acute dynamics of telomere biology are poorly understood; however, a growing body of evidence suggests that telomeres may be amenable to acute modulation via expression of telomereassociated genes and microRNAs. Accordingly, the overarching aim of this thesis was to characterize the acute effects of aerobic exercise on leukocyte telomere biology.
The application of marketing concepts to occupational health and safety in an Australian University
- Authors: Giles, Murray
- Date: 1993
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The dissertation examines the legal, financial and social responsibilities that Universities have in complying with minimum occupational health and safety performance standards.The marketing principles and techniques identified in this project may assist Occupational Health and Safety managers to enhance the service provided.
- Description: Masters of Applied Science, Occupational Health and Safety
- Authors: Giles, Murray
- Date: 1993
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The dissertation examines the legal, financial and social responsibilities that Universities have in complying with minimum occupational health and safety performance standards.The marketing principles and techniques identified in this project may assist Occupational Health and Safety managers to enhance the service provided.
- Description: Masters of Applied Science, Occupational Health and Safety
The art of homecoming
- Authors: Heron, Julie
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: This project is concerned with exploring a particular cluster of ideas and stories concerning Homecoming, most notably the presence of the Woman Who Waits for the traveller to return. Underlying the storied aspects of the visual work are the deeper intentions of soulfulness, personal therapy and social interaction. Although profoundly autobiographical, the metaphoric images I have produced are not only a means to touch others but are inclusive of a broader experience than simply my own. Throughout the following exegesis I draw on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, mythology and history, to explore the metaphoric presences of the deities Hestia and Hermes and their relationship to ideas of Home and Not - Home. Particular qualities associated with Home may, for the traveller, become symbolically embodied within the figure of The Woman Who Waits. This simple perception of The Woman Who Waits, and the process of waiting for the traveller to return was explored and expanded through autobiographic art practice combined with visual and theoretical research. Throughout the project the expression of emotive autobiographic issues through the running use of metaphor has been combined with increasing technical control and subtlety along with sustained explorations of spatial and compositional dynamics.
- Description: Masters (Visual Arts)
- Authors: Heron, Julie
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: This project is concerned with exploring a particular cluster of ideas and stories concerning Homecoming, most notably the presence of the Woman Who Waits for the traveller to return. Underlying the storied aspects of the visual work are the deeper intentions of soulfulness, personal therapy and social interaction. Although profoundly autobiographical, the metaphoric images I have produced are not only a means to touch others but are inclusive of a broader experience than simply my own. Throughout the following exegesis I draw on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, mythology and history, to explore the metaphoric presences of the deities Hestia and Hermes and their relationship to ideas of Home and Not - Home. Particular qualities associated with Home may, for the traveller, become symbolically embodied within the figure of The Woman Who Waits. This simple perception of The Woman Who Waits, and the process of waiting for the traveller to return was explored and expanded through autobiographic art practice combined with visual and theoretical research. Throughout the project the expression of emotive autobiographic issues through the running use of metaphor has been combined with increasing technical control and subtlety along with sustained explorations of spatial and compositional dynamics.
- Description: Masters (Visual Arts)
The association of circular RNAs with hypertension
- Authors: Woods, Bradley
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis contains six chapters in total with chapter 1 being a literature overview and chapter 2 being a summary of material and methods. The three results chapters contain all my own work unless stated otherwise and lastly chapter 6 is discussion and conclusions linking together the work undertaken in this thesis.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Woods, Bradley
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis contains six chapters in total with chapter 1 being a literature overview and chapter 2 being a summary of material and methods. The three results chapters contain all my own work unless stated otherwise and lastly chapter 6 is discussion and conclusions linking together the work undertaken in this thesis.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The assumed divide : Examining gender, feminism and relationships through visual art
- Authors: Hollis, Sylvia
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The Assumed Divide is a visual arts based, practice-led research project which explores expectations of gender within the context of interpersonal relationships, structured through feminist theory. I created a collection of small, figurative sculptures inspired by experiences of animosity and misunderstanding, to locate areas of gendered interpersonal ambivalence. This thesis proposes that feminism might enhance gender relations by deconstructing harmful stereotypes and by encouraging empathy and respect for diversity. Issues such as reproductive choice, intergenerational debate, and uncertainty in aims are discussed as apparent impediments to the unity of feminism, against a patriarchal tradition that grants men categorical universality. I argue that by dismantling the perception of male unification and by elucidating the multitudinous similarities and variances of human experience, feminism makes advances in eliminating sexism. I also examine how binary gender division, with an assumption of distinct difference between male and female, generates conflict and power dynamics advantageous to men, diminishing the quality of heterosexual and social relationships. The observation that overlapping gender traits blur boundaries of male and female, and that rigid categorisations are not indisputably representative of all people, may offer more points of connection to bridge the divide of gender. Each artwork in The Assumed Divide reflects on gendered experience, with sculpted depictions of disintegrated flesh acting as visual manifestations of the psyches and social conditions of the figures. Working realistically on a small scale, and integrating found silver trays as motifs of domesticity and relationships, my intent is to directly stimulate contemplation of the themes in context to viewers’ lives, recognising that the audience is free to find their own meaning in the works. Discussion of these pieces, alongside works by other artists who broach topics of feminism, gender, and relationships, exemplifies the capacity for art to infuse theory with personal insight, inspired and derived from the lives of both artist and viewer.
- Description: Masters by Research
The attitudes of Australian heterosexuals to same-sex parenting
- Authors: Marchesani, Charmaine
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: Master of Applied Science
The biopsychosocial impact of Autism on families and the contribution of solar irradiance to its aetiology
- Authors: Syed, Somayya
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disorder of unknown aetiology. A recent hypothesis is that a lack of Vitamin D is implicated in either the aetiology or maintenance of ASD. The human body synthesises Vitamin D from Ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation found in sunlight. It follows that greater exposure to sunlight hours may be related to decreased rates of ASD. There are no interventions that target the causes of ASD rather therapies address either its symptoms or its comorbidities. ASD not only affects individuals, it also has an impact on their families. Family members have experienced social, occupational and personal costs associated with their child’s ASD which can result in parental separation or divorce. While researchers have established some of the factors which contribute to the impact on families, this research has not addressed families living in regional areas nor have empirical studies used domain-specific scales. The aims in this thesis were: Study 1) to determine whether the prevalence rates of ASD vary as a function of exposure to sunlight by reviewing reported prevalence rates by latitude where, the greater the distance from the equator, the higher the expected prevalence rates; Study 2) to conduct interviews with parents and caregivers of children with ASD who live in a regional area to determine the factors which affect them and those which might protect them; and Study 3) use the interview data to develop domain specific measures and test a model of living with a child with ASD. The results of Study 1 revealed that there is an increase in the prevalence of ASD as distance from the equator increases lending some support to the hypothesis that Vitamin D is implicated in ASD. The 16 interviews conducted in Study 2 revealed seven themes: impact on finances; family life; child’s health and behaviour, and schooling; child’s future; limited support, and regional living. In Study 3, with 178 participants, domain-specific scales were developed to test a model of the impact of living with a child with ASD. Resilience manifested by social support and coping strategies, explained 54% of the variance in impact of living with a child with ASD which, was operationalised by financial and relationship costs, social impact and feelings. Family life as assessed in this thesis, is significantly impacted by living with a child with ASD. The implications of these findings are discussed, especially around the need for greater exposure to outdoor activities and hence sunlight for children with ASD, more regional facilities and assistance for families, the importance of educational interventions for the public as well as enhancing levels of family resilience, as operationalised by support and coping strategies. Limitations of the studies and future research are discussed.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Syed, Somayya
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disorder of unknown aetiology. A recent hypothesis is that a lack of Vitamin D is implicated in either the aetiology or maintenance of ASD. The human body synthesises Vitamin D from Ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation found in sunlight. It follows that greater exposure to sunlight hours may be related to decreased rates of ASD. There are no interventions that target the causes of ASD rather therapies address either its symptoms or its comorbidities. ASD not only affects individuals, it also has an impact on their families. Family members have experienced social, occupational and personal costs associated with their child’s ASD which can result in parental separation or divorce. While researchers have established some of the factors which contribute to the impact on families, this research has not addressed families living in regional areas nor have empirical studies used domain-specific scales. The aims in this thesis were: Study 1) to determine whether the prevalence rates of ASD vary as a function of exposure to sunlight by reviewing reported prevalence rates by latitude where, the greater the distance from the equator, the higher the expected prevalence rates; Study 2) to conduct interviews with parents and caregivers of children with ASD who live in a regional area to determine the factors which affect them and those which might protect them; and Study 3) use the interview data to develop domain specific measures and test a model of living with a child with ASD. The results of Study 1 revealed that there is an increase in the prevalence of ASD as distance from the equator increases lending some support to the hypothesis that Vitamin D is implicated in ASD. The 16 interviews conducted in Study 2 revealed seven themes: impact on finances; family life; child’s health and behaviour, and schooling; child’s future; limited support, and regional living. In Study 3, with 178 participants, domain-specific scales were developed to test a model of the impact of living with a child with ASD. Resilience manifested by social support and coping strategies, explained 54% of the variance in impact of living with a child with ASD which, was operationalised by financial and relationship costs, social impact and feelings. Family life as assessed in this thesis, is significantly impacted by living with a child with ASD. The implications of these findings are discussed, especially around the need for greater exposure to outdoor activities and hence sunlight for children with ASD, more regional facilities and assistance for families, the importance of educational interventions for the public as well as enhancing levels of family resilience, as operationalised by support and coping strategies. Limitations of the studies and future research are discussed.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Cooper, Andrew
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text: false
- Description: Doctor of Psychology
The Body as Fiction / Fiction as a Way of Thinking: On Writing A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents
- Authors: Spencer, Beth
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis uses fiction as a research technology for investigating and thinking about issues to do with bodies and knowledge at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes sample material from a novel in progress -- A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents -- to illustrate some of the unique outcomes of this approach to exploring cultural history and writing cultural criticism. One of the advantages of fiction is that it allows me to create a discursive field in which it is possible for the very wide range of issues raised by my topic to coexist, work off each other and cross-fertilise. These include ideas regarding gender, sexuality, nurture and subjectivity; issues to do with the implants controversy, the cancer industry and the corporatisation of medicine (and hence various current debates within science and medicine); as well as movements in fashion history and popular culture -- all of which contribute to making up the datasphere in which and through which we continually reproduce ourselves as subjects. [...]
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Spencer, Beth
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis uses fiction as a research technology for investigating and thinking about issues to do with bodies and knowledge at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes sample material from a novel in progress -- A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents -- to illustrate some of the unique outcomes of this approach to exploring cultural history and writing cultural criticism. One of the advantages of fiction is that it allows me to create a discursive field in which it is possible for the very wide range of issues raised by my topic to coexist, work off each other and cross-fertilise. These include ideas regarding gender, sexuality, nurture and subjectivity; issues to do with the implants controversy, the cancer industry and the corporatisation of medicine (and hence various current debates within science and medicine); as well as movements in fashion history and popular culture -- all of which contribute to making up the datasphere in which and through which we continually reproduce ourselves as subjects. [...]
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy