Description:
The aim of this 13 week prospective study was to investigate whether differences in hip, knee, ankle, subtalar, or first metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) range of motion and physical activity levels increase a person's likelihood of developing medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS)." --p.2.
Description:
The aim of this 13 week prospective study was to investigate whether differences in hip, knee, ankle, subtalar, or first metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) range of motion and physical activity levels increase a person's likelihood of developing medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS)." --p.2.
Description:
A desire to more fully understand the impact of altered states of spiritual health on the general health of patients has been a focus of recent research activity. Studies have explored the meaning of spirituality held by patients and nurses, the spiritual needs of patients, and methods of providing spiritual care in nursing. However, few studies have investigated nurses’ own spiritual health and the significance this may have on the provision of holistic nursing care. The aim of this study, therefore, was to inform nursing regarding the spiritual health of nurses and the influence that nurses’ own spiritual health has on their ability to provide holistic nursing care to their patients. The study was conducted in two phases using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Phase one consisted of a survey of Division 1 nurses currently employed in the Grampians region of Victoria to describe key dimensions of their spiritual health. This survey provided biographical data and, through the use of the “Shalom Measure of Spiritual Health”, discovered the ideal of spiritual health held by nurses as well as the nurses’ perception of patient needs pertaining to the achievement of spiritual health. Phase two utilised Naturalistic Inquiry to further explore the meaning of spirituality and spiritual health held by nurses, and the methods of achieving these for nurses and patients. The findings revealed that although nurses perceive the spiritual dimension of patient care to be important, they feel ill-equipped to provide this aspect of care. In addition, the major support for nurses, who themselves experience spiritual distress whilst at work, comes from colleagues. Further, prevailing health care systems in place do not always lend themselves to holistic approaches to care. This study identifies the need for nurse education to redress the clearly inadequate preparation nurses are given for this aspect of their role. Health care policy-makers and administrators also have a responsibility to consider all dimensions of care when designing and implementing health care guidelines and systems.
Description:
A desire to more fully understand the impact of altered states of spiritual health on the general health of patients has been a focus of recent research activity. Studies have explored the meaning of spirituality held by patients and nurses, the spiritual needs of patients, and methods of providing spiritual care in nursing. However, few studies have investigated nurses’ own spiritual health and the significance this may have on the provision of holistic nursing care. The aim of this study, therefore, was to inform nursing regarding the spiritual health of nurses and the influence that nurses’ own spiritual health has on their ability to provide holistic nursing care to their patients. The study was conducted in two phases using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Phase one consisted of a survey of Division 1 nurses currently employed in the Grampians region of Victoria to describe key dimensions of their spiritual health. This survey provided biographical data and, through the use of the “Shalom Measure of Spiritual Health”, discovered the ideal of spiritual health held by nurses as well as the nurses’ perception of patient needs pertaining to the achievement of spiritual health. Phase two utilised Naturalistic Inquiry to further explore the meaning of spirituality and spiritual health held by nurses, and the methods of achieving these for nurses and patients. The findings revealed that although nurses perceive the spiritual dimension of patient care to be important, they feel ill-equipped to provide this aspect of care. In addition, the major support for nurses, who themselves experience spiritual distress whilst at work, comes from colleagues. Further, prevailing health care systems in place do not always lend themselves to holistic approaches to care. This study identifies the need for nurse education to redress the clearly inadequate preparation nurses are given for this aspect of their role. Health care policy-makers and administrators also have a responsibility to consider all dimensions of care when designing and implementing health care guidelines and systems.
Description:
Studying humour and laughter in children with ASDs can provide unique insights into their socio-communicative impairments, and aid in the development of effective interventions. The current study investigated humour and laughter in 16 school-aged children with autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS).
Description:
Studying humour and laughter in children with ASDs can provide unique insights into their socio-communicative impairments, and aid in the development of effective interventions. The current study investigated humour and laughter in 16 school-aged children with autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS).
Description:
The indigenous grass Lachnagrostis filiformis (Fairy grass) has colonised extensive areas of dry lakebeds in western Victoria, Australia during the current (1997-) drought. Large numbers of the plants' detached seed heads disperse in the wind and lodge against housing, fences, railway lines and other obstacles ... In this study, late season application of Glyphosate based herbicide, slashing, seed broadcasting of Atriplex australasica and Puccinellia perlaxa, grazing and burning were examined ... The results highlight how weed management aimed at achieving short-term goals, without controlling the ecological processes that promote weeds establishment and persistence, can be counter productive in the long-term.
Description:
The indigenous grass Lachnagrostis filiformis (Fairy grass) has colonised extensive areas of dry lakebeds in western Victoria, Australia during the current (1997-) drought. Large numbers of the plants' detached seed heads disperse in the wind and lodge against housing, fences, railway lines and other obstacles ... In this study, late season application of Glyphosate based herbicide, slashing, seed broadcasting of Atriplex australasica and Puccinellia perlaxa, grazing and burning were examined ... The results highlight how weed management aimed at achieving short-term goals, without controlling the ecological processes that promote weeds establishment and persistence, can be counter productive in the long-term.
Description:
This thesis examines, via a feminist theoretical framework, the systems in existence that permit the ongoing exploitation of the environment; and the appropriateness of ceramics as a medium to reinvigorate dormant insights. I argue that the organic nuances expressed through clay; the earthy, phenomenological and historic ritual connotations of clay; and the tactile textured surfaces and undulating form, allows ceramics to conjure responses within the viewer that reinvigorates a sense of embedment in the Earth.
Description:
This thesis examines, via a feminist theoretical framework, the systems in existence that permit the ongoing exploitation of the environment; and the appropriateness of ceramics as a medium to reinvigorate dormant insights. I argue that the organic nuances expressed through clay; the earthy, phenomenological and historic ritual connotations of clay; and the tactile textured surfaces and undulating form, allows ceramics to conjure responses within the viewer that reinvigorates a sense of embedment in the Earth.
Description:
In recent years large-scale global optimization (GO) problems have drawn considerable attention. These problems have many applications, in particular in data mining and biochemistry. Numerical methods for GO are often very time consuming and could not be applied for high-dimensional non-convex and / or non-smooth optimization problems. The thesis explores reasons why we need to develop and study new algorithms for solving large-scale GO problems .... The thesis presents several derivative-free hybrid methods for large scale GO problems. These methods do not guarantee the calculation of a global solution; however, results of numerical experiments presented in this thesis demonstrate that they, as a rule, calculate a solution which is a global one or close to it. Their applications to data mining problems and the protein folding problem are demonstrated.
Description:
In recent years large-scale global optimization (GO) problems have drawn considerable attention. These problems have many applications, in particular in data mining and biochemistry. Numerical methods for GO are often very time consuming and could not be applied for high-dimensional non-convex and / or non-smooth optimization problems. The thesis explores reasons why we need to develop and study new algorithms for solving large-scale GO problems .... The thesis presents several derivative-free hybrid methods for large scale GO problems. These methods do not guarantee the calculation of a global solution; however, results of numerical experiments presented in this thesis demonstrate that they, as a rule, calculate a solution which is a global one or close to it. Their applications to data mining problems and the protein folding problem are demonstrated.
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 thesis explores the issues involved in developing a relatively low-cost digital imaging analysis (DIA) system fot the quality assessment of wheat and barley using commonly available equipment. It also explores the capability of such a system to provide rapid and accurate assessments.
Description:
Master of Applied Science by research
Description:
This thesis explores the issues involved in developing a relatively low-cost digital imaging analysis (DIA) system fot the quality assessment of wheat and barley using commonly available equipment. It also explores the capability of such a system to provide rapid and accurate assessments.
Description:
Master of Applied Science by research
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:
This report presents the investigation on the research work "Approximations for some classes of optimal control problems with state constraints and repetitive control systems". This report mainly gives the theoretical part of the research which is based on the numerical methods that are developed. It is conjectured that the corresponding algorithms will be realized as computer programs after which they can be used in practical work.
Description:
This report presents the investigation on the research work "Approximations for some classes of optimal control problems with state constraints and repetitive control systems". This report mainly gives the theoretical part of the research which is based on the numerical methods that are developed. It is conjectured that the corresponding algorithms will be realized as computer programs after which they can be used in practical work.
Description:
Rapid changes in the competitive environment and increasing customer demands drive the public and private sectors to innovate by continually investing millions of dollars in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects. Basically, organisations depend on ICT technology for every part of their business. Companies are not only challenged to apply new technologies to remain competitive, they also need to spread (diffuse), manage and implement technological innovation across extended organisational boundaries. Diffusion, management and implementation of ICT innovation involve a considerable amount of risk and potentially protracted delays of technological projects. As a consequence of high demand for ICT innovation, as well as the risk of failure, a wide range of organisations such as state agencies and banks now employ so-called change agents to diffuse, manage and implement innovation within technological projects. While a large number of academics and practitioners are concerned with change agents who alter organisational culture, structure and processes, relatively little research has been undertaken on the role of ICT change agents in the innovation process. Thus, this professional doctorate study aims to fill that gap by exploring ICT change agents’ project work experiences within state agencies and banks and fuse them with theory. The research is based on case study methodology, including 41 cases within 12 target organisations in Australia and Germany. As a former ICT change agent, the researcher of this Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) study applied mixed research methods, also incorporating her ICT project experiences by using an individual reflection model. From this investigation emerged that change agents’ roles are embedded in components (organisational structure, project stages) and processes (ICT diffusion, informal networks). These findings underpin the model of ICT change agents who perform the multiple linker roles of these components and processes in order to deliver set project outcomes. The model is designed to inform practice by providing guidance for advanced ICT change agents’ training in public and private sector settings.
Description:
Rapid changes in the competitive environment and increasing customer demands drive the public and private sectors to innovate by continually investing millions of dollars in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects. Basically, organisations depend on ICT technology for every part of their business. Companies are not only challenged to apply new technologies to remain competitive, they also need to spread (diffuse), manage and implement technological innovation across extended organisational boundaries. Diffusion, management and implementation of ICT innovation involve a considerable amount of risk and potentially protracted delays of technological projects. As a consequence of high demand for ICT innovation, as well as the risk of failure, a wide range of organisations such as state agencies and banks now employ so-called change agents to diffuse, manage and implement innovation within technological projects. While a large number of academics and practitioners are concerned with change agents who alter organisational culture, structure and processes, relatively little research has been undertaken on the role of ICT change agents in the innovation process. Thus, this professional doctorate study aims to fill that gap by exploring ICT change agents’ project work experiences within state agencies and banks and fuse them with theory. The research is based on case study methodology, including 41 cases within 12 target organisations in Australia and Germany. As a former ICT change agent, the researcher of this Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) study applied mixed research methods, also incorporating her ICT project experiences by using an individual reflection model. From this investigation emerged that change agents’ roles are embedded in components (organisational structure, project stages) and processes (ICT diffusion, informal networks). These findings underpin the model of ICT change agents who perform the multiple linker roles of these components and processes in order to deliver set project outcomes. The model is designed to inform practice by providing guidance for advanced ICT change agents’ training in public and private sector settings.
Description:
"The aims of this research were to investigate the association between air pollution and respiratory health effects using a spatial approach, and to derive a composite indicator of ambient air pollution."
Description:
Master of Information Technology by Research
Description:
"The aims of this research were to investigate the association between air pollution and respiratory health effects using a spatial approach, and to derive a composite indicator of ambient air pollution."
Description:
Master of Information Technology by Research
Description:
"'Too close for comfort?' explores the challenges of working and living in Australian rural communities for a group of health and welfare professionals. Personal and professional role overlap is a key concern particularly as it has implications for ethical practice. This project [...] used a qualitative grounded theory approach to develop a theory about the adoption and management of professional role boundaries within ethical service delivery. "
Description:
"'Too close for comfort?' explores the challenges of working and living in Australian rural communities for a group of health and welfare professionals. Personal and professional role overlap is a key concern particularly as it has implications for ethical practice. This project [...] used a qualitative grounded theory approach to develop a theory about the adoption and management of professional role boundaries within ethical service delivery. "
Description:
The theory of abstract convexity generalizes ideas of convex analysis by using the notion of global supports and the global definition of subdifferential. In order to apply this theory to optimization, we need to extend subdifferential calculus and separation properties into the area of abstract convexity.
Description:
The theory of abstract convexity generalizes ideas of convex analysis by using the notion of global supports and the global definition of subdifferential. In order to apply this theory to optimization, we need to extend subdifferential calculus and separation properties into the area of abstract convexity.
Description:
Several quantitative measures of spiritual well-being were developed with primary and secondary school students and teachers, and university education students, namely the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure, Feeling Good, Living Life, and the Quality Of Life Influences Survey. Spiritual dissonance was revealed by comparing respondents’ ‘ideals’ with ‘lived experiences’ in four domains of spiritual well-being. Teachers and university education students reported a decline in help being provided in schools to develop the relationships which foster school students’ spiritual well-being.
Description:
Several quantitative measures of spiritual well-being were developed with primary and secondary school students and teachers, and university education students, namely the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure, Feeling Good, Living Life, and the Quality Of Life Influences Survey. Spiritual dissonance was revealed by comparing respondents’ ‘ideals’ with ‘lived experiences’ in four domains of spiritual well-being. Teachers and university education students reported a decline in help being provided in schools to develop the relationships which foster school students’ spiritual well-being.
Description:
FrameNet is used to enhance the performance of semantic QA systems. FrameNet is a linguistic resource that encapsulates Frame Semantics and provides scenario-based generalizations over lexical items that share similar semantic backgrounds.
Description:
FrameNet is used to enhance the performance of semantic QA systems. FrameNet is a linguistic resource that encapsulates Frame Semantics and provides scenario-based generalizations over lexical items that share similar semantic backgrounds.
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:
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:
Arid areas are often overgrazed and dysfunctional with poor recruitment of desirable species, diminished control over resources and altered soil properties. Restoration ecology re-establishes these valued processes. State-and-transition models summarise knowledge of vegetation dynamics and tools for restoration, and encourage the incorporation of new information. The model developed here for semi-arid woodlands of north-west Victoria highlighted the unknown cause of observed, natural recruitment and the need for a technique, other than direct seeding and handplanting, for enhancing the recruitment of desirable species. I pursued these knowledge gaps for two dominant, woodland trees: Allocasuarina luehmannii and Casuarina pauper. Natural recruitment of juvenile C. pauper was found to be limited and primarily from root suckers. Extensive recruitment of A. luehmannii was shown to be mostly seedlings established following substantial reductions in grazing pressure since 1996. Seedlings were associated with areas devoid of ground flora near a female tree. The importance of competition between seedlings and ground flora, spatial variation in soil moisture and individual variation in the quantity of seed produced deserves further investigation to enhance future restoration success. Root suckers of both C. pauper and A. luehmannii can be artificially initiated, albeit in low numbers and this was found to be a feasible, new tool for restoration. Suckers are preceded by the growth of callus tissue on exposed or damaged, living, shallow roots. Both male and female trees can produce suckers and spring treatments may be more successful. Genetic fingerprinting of mature A. luehmannii and C. pauper trees in six populations did not identify any clonal individuals indicating that recruitment in the past has been from seedlings. Despite this, the high level of gene flow suggests that the impact of introducing small numbers of root suckers into existing populations is unlikely to impact negatively on the population genetics of these species.
Description:
Arid areas are often overgrazed and dysfunctional with poor recruitment of desirable species, diminished control over resources and altered soil properties. Restoration ecology re-establishes these valued processes. State-and-transition models summarise knowledge of vegetation dynamics and tools for restoration, and encourage the incorporation of new information. The model developed here for semi-arid woodlands of north-west Victoria highlighted the unknown cause of observed, natural recruitment and the need for a technique, other than direct seeding and handplanting, for enhancing the recruitment of desirable species. I pursued these knowledge gaps for two dominant, woodland trees: Allocasuarina luehmannii and Casuarina pauper. Natural recruitment of juvenile C. pauper was found to be limited and primarily from root suckers. Extensive recruitment of A. luehmannii was shown to be mostly seedlings established following substantial reductions in grazing pressure since 1996. Seedlings were associated with areas devoid of ground flora near a female tree. The importance of competition between seedlings and ground flora, spatial variation in soil moisture and individual variation in the quantity of seed produced deserves further investigation to enhance future restoration success. Root suckers of both C. pauper and A. luehmannii can be artificially initiated, albeit in low numbers and this was found to be a feasible, new tool for restoration. Suckers are preceded by the growth of callus tissue on exposed or damaged, living, shallow roots. Both male and female trees can produce suckers and spring treatments may be more successful. Genetic fingerprinting of mature A. luehmannii and C. pauper trees in six populations did not identify any clonal individuals indicating that recruitment in the past has been from seedlings. Despite this, the high level of gene flow suggests that the impact of introducing small numbers of root suckers into existing populations is unlikely to impact negatively on the population genetics of these species.
Description:
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) is marked by deficits in attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The current DSM-IV conceptualisation of AD/HD as comprising of separate, but related, Inattention (IA) and Hyperactivity/Impulsivity (H/I) dimensions have been supported in confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) studies. Despite being one of the most extensively studied childhood disorder, there is a lack of research on AD/HD in non-western populations. Research on AD/HD in Asian countries, particularly, is limited. To date, no study has comprehensively investigated the characteristics of AD/HD in a Malaysian sample. The current study had 4 major aims. The first aim of the study was to investigate how the IA and H/I symptoms groups vary by age, gender, and age by gender interaction. The second aim of the study was to obtain prevalence rates of DSM-IV AD/HD and the three subtypes (i.e., Predominantly Inattentive Type, AD/HD-IA; Predominantly Hyperactive/Impulsive Type, AD/HD-H/I; and Combined Type, AD/HD-C) within this population. This was examined for boys and girls separately, and together. The third aim of the study was to investigate the internal validity of DSM-IV AD/HD using single source confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), while the fourth aim of the study was to examine trait, source and error variance of the AD/HD symptoms using the CFA multitrait (IA and H/I) by multisource (parent and teacher) approach (CFA MT-MS). All the CFA and CFA MT-MS analyses were conducted separately for boys and girls and used scores recoded via the binary method, as opposed to the ordinal scoring method. The sample consisted of 934 Malaysian schoolchildren aged 6-12 years (436 boys: mean age 8.86 years; and 498 girls: mean age 9.02 years) [...] There was more source than trait variance for parent rated H/I and teacher rated IA for girls. Unique to the current study is the use of binary as opposed to ordinal data to run the CFA and MTMS analysis. The implications of the findings for the conceptualisation, assessment, treatment, psychometric properties of AD/HD rating scales and the recognition of AD/HD in the Malaysian population are discussed. Suggestions for future research are offered.
Description:
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) is marked by deficits in attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The current DSM-IV conceptualisation of AD/HD as comprising of separate, but related, Inattention (IA) and Hyperactivity/Impulsivity (H/I) dimensions have been supported in confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) studies. Despite being one of the most extensively studied childhood disorder, there is a lack of research on AD/HD in non-western populations. Research on AD/HD in Asian countries, particularly, is limited. To date, no study has comprehensively investigated the characteristics of AD/HD in a Malaysian sample. The current study had 4 major aims. The first aim of the study was to investigate how the IA and H/I symptoms groups vary by age, gender, and age by gender interaction. The second aim of the study was to obtain prevalence rates of DSM-IV AD/HD and the three subtypes (i.e., Predominantly Inattentive Type, AD/HD-IA; Predominantly Hyperactive/Impulsive Type, AD/HD-H/I; and Combined Type, AD/HD-C) within this population. This was examined for boys and girls separately, and together. The third aim of the study was to investigate the internal validity of DSM-IV AD/HD using single source confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), while the fourth aim of the study was to examine trait, source and error variance of the AD/HD symptoms using the CFA multitrait (IA and H/I) by multisource (parent and teacher) approach (CFA MT-MS). All the CFA and CFA MT-MS analyses were conducted separately for boys and girls and used scores recoded via the binary method, as opposed to the ordinal scoring method. The sample consisted of 934 Malaysian schoolchildren aged 6-12 years (436 boys: mean age 8.86 years; and 498 girls: mean age 9.02 years) [...] There was more source than trait variance for parent rated H/I and teacher rated IA for girls. Unique to the current study is the use of binary as opposed to ordinal data to run the CFA and MTMS analysis. The implications of the findings for the conceptualisation, assessment, treatment, psychometric properties of AD/HD rating scales and the recognition of AD/HD in the Malaysian population are discussed. Suggestions for future research are offered.
Description:
The main part of this thesis presents a new approach to the topic of conjugation, with applications to various optimization problems. It does so by introducing (what we call) G-coupling functions.
Description:
The main part of this thesis presents a new approach to the topic of conjugation, with applications to various optimization problems. It does so by introducing (what we call) G-coupling functions.