Digital Commons Network^™

Stories Of A War: Narrative And The Single Photograph, Gregory Battye

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Theoretical accounts of the communicative powers of photography characterise it, inter alia, as intrinsically a medium of the instant, depicting time only insofar as it depicts the moment of exposure. While a few special cases, such as time exposures or multiple exposures, are acknowledged as technical exceptions, the single unmanipulated photographic picture is generally held to exclude time. Since narrative, however defined or circumscribed, conveys information about the unfolding of sequential events over some period of time, it would initially seem that narrative and photography can have no common ground. This research seeks that common ground: a way of …

Intelligent Profiles: A Model For Change In Women's Lives, Pauline Lysaght

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The effectiveness of Intelligent Profiles as a model for enabling change in the lives of six women returning to study has been explored within a comparative case study framework. Traditional approaches to counselling and assessment have been challenged because they rest on accepted ideas about knowledge that underpin the subordinate position that women occupy in our society. These approaches subtly collude with society's discriminatory views of women by failing to address issues associated with their segregation within education and the workplace. Intelligent Profiles is presented as an alternative model of counselling and assessment that enables mature-age female students to appraise …

Teaching And Learning, Professional Development And Computer Technology: An Action Research Case Study Of Five Classroom Environments, Glen Patterson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This study documents the evolving form of the collaboratively designed professional development programs and the changes that took place in five classrooms when computers and related technologies were available and integrated into the teaching and learning environment. It also investigates the impact that this had on the teacher's view of how students "learn best" and what implication this has for future learning.

Furthermore, the study investigates changes in student learning outcomes and tracked changes in classroom climate and student/student and student/teacher interactions within the classroom. It was anticipated that this data would assist as a further indicator of changes in …

The Role Of Goal Consensus And Teacher Endorsement In Policy Implementation, Kerrie M. Eyding

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This study begins as an investigation into the role of goal consensus and teacher endorsement in the implementation of education policy. The policy chosen as the focus of the study is a popular, firmly established, Commonwealth policy, administered by a State bureaucracy, which provides broad, ambiguous goals - The Equity Element of the National Equity Program for Schools.

The study was conducted within one discrete administrative education region. With input from teachers (by a questionnaire), principals and the government officers w h o oversee the implementation of the policy (by interview), information regarding school and workplace demographics, school climate and …

Isotopic Characterisation Of Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Federico Turatti

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Nitrous oxide is the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after CO2 and CH4 and contributes 6% of the total terrestrial radiative forcing due to greenhouse gases. It is closely involved in the depletion of stratospheric ozone by providing one of the main sources of NO radicals. Biological processes such as nitrification and denitrification are primarily responsible for N2O production. Despite its importance and years of research, the estimates of the global size of N2O sources and sinks remain highly uncertain, and its budget is not yet fully balanced.

Analysis of N2O isotopes can aid in reducing the large uncertainties …

The Use Of Conducting Polymer Sensors For Environmental Monitoring, Roderick L. Shepherd

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis details the development of conducting polymer (CP) sensors, and associated devices for monitoring chemical species of environmental significance. A key aspect of this work was the fabrication and testing of novel CP gas sensors, based on inexpensive polymer substrates with screen-printed carbon electrodes. These devices were used in electronic nose systems for the identification and discrimination of organic vapours, and on a small autonomous robot to detect, track and locate the source of ammonia vapour plumes. The possibility of modifying chemically deposited Polypyrrole (PPy) thin films post-polymerisation using solution based anion exchange methods was evaluated, in an attempt …

Landslide Hazard And Risk Assessment Along A Railway Line, Chit Ko Ko

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Various methods of landslide hazard assessment and zonation, have been developed in the past. Some research has also progressed towards the assessment of consequence and risk related to slope instability. This thesis is a contribution towards the development of rational and systematic approaches, qualitative and quantitative, for the assessment of landslide hazard and risk. Slope stability and the occurrence of landslides is an interdisciplinary area of study and inputs may be required from some or all of the following discipline areas: geomechanics, engineering geology, geomorphology, hydrology, hydrogeology, statistics and probability theory, and decision science.

In order to assess landslide hazard, …

Integral And Pulse Mode Silicon Dosimetry For Dose Verification On Radiation Oncology Modalities, Grigori I. Kaplan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Radiation oncology is an important part of cancer therapy. In 1996 a Committee of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council recommended that 50-55% of all the new cancers include radiotherapy as part of their treatment. Cancer patients are treated with different radiation oncology modalities and while most are treated by conventional x-ray therapy a growing number is treated by hadron therapies such as fast neutron therapy (FNT), brachytherapy, proton therapy, heavy ion therapy and boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). A new radiation oncology modality, microbeam radiation therapy (MRT), is currently under development. The outcome of radiation treatment in …

Synthesis Of Tribulusterine, A Potent Toxic Alkaloid From Tribulus Terrestris, Waya Sengpracha

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Synthetic approaches to tribulusterine (15), a suspected toxic alkaloid from Tribulus terrestris, have been investigated via nucleophilic and electrophilic substitution reactions, and the Pictet-Spengler cyclisation reaction. Nucleophilic substitution reactions of the 9-(N,A^-dimethylsulfamoyl)-p-carboline-A^-oxide (50) with the furyllithium (46a) yielded the new 1-substituted P-carboline, l-(3- furyl)methoxy-9-(A^,A/'-dimethylsulfamoyl)-(3-carboline (52). Bromination of the Pcarboline derivative (51) afforded 1,3,6,8-tetrabromo-P-carboline and 3,6,8-tribromop- carboline as major products when the lithiated P-carboline (51) was treated with Nbromosuccinimide (NBS) and bromine, respectively. The Pictet-Spengler reaction approach may have yielded the required alkaloid, tribulusterine (15), based on some spectroscopic evidence. The new furan derivative, 3-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furaldehyde (66), required for the Pictet-Spengler approach, …

The Representation Of The Feminine, Feminist And Musical Subject In Popular Music Culture, Emma Mayhew

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The world of commercial popular music has been dominated by patriarchal representations of women and interpretations of female performance. This is certainly true even with the commercial success of female musical stars like Madonna and Alanis Morissette in the global marketplace. This thesis argues that women are still understood in terms of patriarchal categories and stereotypes within the mainstream music press. The femme fatale, androgyne, the little girl, the mother figure and the temperamental diva are all contemporary icons of feminine performance both visually and sonically. In particular this thesis analyses the popular music print media and the w a …

Ethnic Nationalism And The State In Pakistan, Adeel Khan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Nationalism is a way of dealing with a world where 'everything melts into thin air'. It is a form of self-love in which individuals elebrate their collective identity. And like all forms of self-love it gets its strength more from the hatred of others than its love for the self Here lies the secret behind some of the most intractable conflicts in the world.

Nationalism is, probably, the only form of self-love that gets its life-blood from an institution, the modem state. Had the state not been behind the self-love of the Germans, they would not have been able to …

Far Infrared Spectroscopy Of Some Impurities In Germanium, Richard Baker

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Quantitative piezo- and temperature dependent spectroscopy have been carried out on antimony in germanium. Here the behaviour of the unperturbed spectrum with temperature is followed in much more detail than previously. The changes in the energies and intensities of spectral lines with temperature show that the spacing of the chemically split ground state, 4Δ_C, is slightly temperature dependent. The variation in intensities of spectral lines from the split ground state to a common excited state is shown to obey the Boltzmann distribution for the relative populations of the two ground substates.

The application of stress along a direction …

Contributions To Fail-Stop Signature Schemes, Willy Susilo

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In an electronic world, a person can electronically sign a document such that the signature is verifiable by everyone. A problem may arise if an enemy who sees the electronic transaction has unlimited computational power: he can break the underlying computational assumption of the system and forge a signature. In this situation, there is no way to distinguish whether the signer is trying to deny his own signature, or someone else is trying to forge the signature. To protect against this problem, Fail-Stop Signature (FSS) schemes were introduced. A general construction proposed for FSS uses bundling homomorphisms. There has …

Unconditionally Secure Schemes For Distributed Authentication Systems, Huaxiong Wang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

One of the main goals of a cryptographic system is to provide authentication, which simply means providing assurance about the content and origin of communicated message. Historically, cryptography began with secret writing and this remained the main area of development until very recently. With the rapid progress in data communication, the need for providing message integrity and authenticity has escalated to the extent that currently authentication is seen as the more urgent goal of cryptographic systems. Traditionally, it was assumed that a secrecy system provides authentication by the virtue of the secret key being only known by the intended communicants; …

Assessment Of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 2 (Pai-2) As An Imaging And Therapeutic Agent Of Human Cancer, Minh-Thu Nguyen Hang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The plasminogen activation cascade is an important proteolytic pathway involved in the growth and spread of cancer. Potentially, an inhibitor of plasminogen activation could make an excellent cancer imaging agent or cancer treatment. The aim of this thesis was to assess whether plasminogen activator inhibitor 2 (PAI-2) can image or treat colorectal cancer. The first part of this thesis examined the ability of PAI-2 to bind specifically to the human colorectal cancer cell line HCT116. These experiments involved confirmation of u-PA expression by HCT116 cells and cell binding studies with 125I-PAI-2. The second part was examining the biodistribution and kinetics …

Lossless Medical Image Compression, Jian Wang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Lossless coding is widely applied in medical image compression because of its feasibility. This thesis offers two major contributions for lossless image compression; (i) the relationship between the minimum-mean-squared-error (MMSE) and the minimum-entropy-of-error (MEE) prediction in lossless image compression has been revealed, and (ii) novel methods of improving compression rates and operation using Shape-Vector Quantization (VQ) have been presented. These new schemes have a simpler implementation, more computational efficiency, and lower memory requirement than other lossless schemes have. The proposed schemes are capable of providing significant coding improvement over traditional predictive coders and adaptive predictive coders.

One major goal in …

Semantic Content-Based Video Retrieval, Lilac A. Al-Safadi

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The development in multimedia technology has brought the use of video documents to personal computers. The increased volume of multimedia data available in everyday lives has dramatically adopted these technologies for storing that multimedia data. Now these everyday live environments demand sophisticated systems for management and effective systems for the search and retrieval of multimedia data.

This thesis presents a semantic content-based video retrieval system. This work focuses on the semantic content of video documents and describes the implementation of a semantic-based video indexing and retrieval system suitable for the video-on-demand style applications.

This thesis addresses issues related to developing …

Analysis Of Aggregated Spatial Social Data, Gandhi Pawitan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

There is an increasing tendency to take a spatial perspective in analysing census or sample data. This thesis contributes to the development of spatial analysis and concentrates on methods for analysing data on social characteristics. The important case of aggregated census data will be considered.

If we are interested in spatial relationships, then we must consider how to analyse social data that have been obtained by methods of sampling or aggregation. There may not be a direct interest in spatial relationships, but the presence of spatial interdependence may still need to be taken into account in the analysis. There may …

Geohydraulic Aspects Of Dam Filters, Senanie Sujeewa Radampola

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In an earth dam, stored water will always try to escape by creating and developing channels of its own, using water load and flow through any available weak point; picking up whatever soil particles it can, resulting in its failure and catastrophe. To overcome this natural phenomenon, a core (base) of low permeability is located within the dam together with a downstream filter to capture any eroded particles from the core. This study investigates the geo-hydraulic parameters that affect soil filtration at the interface of core and filters of granular materials through an analytical model, which can predict the effective …

Hearing Their Voices: A Case Study On Workplace Stress, Neil Shaw Lindsay

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Occupational injury causes a significant loss of resources in Australia every year. Whilst the direct social and economic costs of stress can be measured, the personal costs to the individuals concerned may be less apparent. This thesis explores the meaning of occupational stress through the experience of thirteen case study respondents. The research method employed is the qualitative approach; data were primarily collected from personal interviews with workers who had made a claim for stress at work. The data were subjected to thematic analysis.

The major findings in the three broad areas of inquiry are presented. Firstly, the crucial role …

The Making Of "Middle-Man" Minority: The Experiences Of Chinese Women And Men Accountants In Accountancy In New Zealand, Soon Nam Kim

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Whilst the issue of racial disparity is becoming an important theme in accounting, the majority of previous research on this issue has focused mainly on ex-colonized ethnic minority groups, such as Afro-Americans, Hispanics or indigenous people, and has ignored non-white, non-black and non-indigenous ethnic minorities in accounting. Focusing on the experiences of Chinese women and men accountants, the foremost important non-white, non-black and non-indigenous ethnic minority group amongst previously ignored ethnic minority groups, in the New Zealand accountancy profession, this thesis endeavours to articulate the silences and omissions of issues of race/ethnicity in contemporary accounting literature especially aiming to critically …

The Times Of Our Lives: Women, Leisure And Postgraduate Research, Coralie Mccormack

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This study explores the interconnections between leisure and postgraduate research in the lives of six women. The author and the text draw the reader into interactions to create meanings as the women tell their stories. The value of this thesis derives from its time perspective — the simultaneous view of the women's everyday lives 'across time' (across each woman's lifetime) and 'in time' (during her time as a postgraduate researcher).

This research develops and documents a process I term storying stories as an alternative way to approach and re-present interview transcripts. In this three-stage process interview transcripts were viewed through …

Evaluation Of Parameters Effecting Blast Induced Vibrations, Leslie W. Armstrong

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The following research focuses on the effect of measuring blast induced vibrations and the effect of the monitoring equipment and procedure on the outcomes.

Mining and quarrying operations today are faced with ever increasing restrictions on their operations especially in the environmental field. Development applications for new operations have to contend with environmental issues such as dust, air pollutants, blast induced vibration and noise levels that at times restrict production outputs. Vibration monitoring has become an integral part of the mine/quarry operations and it is essential that the operators have confidence in the equipment that is used to measure these …

A Relational Model Analysis Of User Acceptance Of The Korean Ecid Card, Sang-Seon Park

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This study attempted to discover the factors which may impact on determination of the level of user acceptance of the card to effectively implement the ECJD card in Korean society. Sociotechnical theory, and the Technical Acceptance Model (TAM) were used as a methodology to identify and predict the relationship of these factors to implementation of the card. Through the preliminary survey in 1997, the key factors (e.g. awareness of the ECID card, confidence in government, information crimes, privacy concerns and electronic surveillance) were discovered, and the identified key factors were also tested to discover their relationship to user acceptance of …

Improving Statistical Education Through The Experience Of Reflective Practice, Anne Porter

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis is the recount of a study that began with the aim of unpacking the statistical expertise of the teacher and author, with the intent of improving statistics teaching and learning. In the process of doing this, the researcher examined the expertise of other experts through a case study of a statistics professor, concept mapping of ideas of statistics professionals and through an examination of statistical literature. As the researcher and teacher moved to a position of accepting that statistics is a study of variation, she discovered a failure by authors of many introductory textbooks to appropriately acknowledge variation …

Does Obesity Affect Foot Structure And Function, Foot Sensation And Plantar Pressure In Children?, Annaliese Dowling

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Childhood obesity is considered to be reaching epidemic proportions where obese children tend to become obese adults. As obese individuals have increased mass they are at greater risk of developing musculoskeletal dysfunction, which may in tum alter quality of life. One main musculoskeletal concern is the feet of obese individuals, as the feet are the foundation for stance and gait. Musculoskeletal foot pathologies have not been widely investigated in relation to childhood obesity. However, previous research has found a general trend for obese children to have flatfeet and generate higher pressures under the forefoot during gait. These high pressures in …

Pre-Employment Functional Capacity Assessment And Remedial Intervention Program For The New South Wales Police, Damien Peter Johnston

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Assessment of physical capacity prior to employment serves a vital function in ensuring police recruits have the physical capability to perform essential policing functions. In the past, law enforcement agencies have used a variety of physical assessments to exclude potential candidates. The assessment criterion that has been used has lacked appropriate validation with critics arguing that the tests are invalid, irrelevant and potentially discriminatory. Additionally, the tests that have been used have focused on the assessment of policing specific skills prior to any skill-based training. For many years, sports scientists have used physiological assessments to identify specific weaknesses in the …

Synthesis, Structures, Transport And Magnetic Properties In Zinc Doped La0.8sr0.2mno3 Perovskite Manganite, Emilia Velinova Sotirova-Haralambeva

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The La0.8Sr0.2Mn1-xZnxO3 system with x = 0, 0.01, 0,03, 0.05, 0.1,0.15, 0,3, 0.5 and 0.75 was prepared by the solid state reaction and investigated by structural, transport and magnetic properties measurements. X-ray powder diffraction results indicate a single orthorhombic phase over the whole range of x values and an increase in the lattice parameters (a, b, c) with an increase in zinc doping concentration in the studied system. Single phase is retained for x < = 0.3. SEM investigation shows that the average grain size of the La0.8Sr0.2Mn1-xZnxO3 system decreases from 3 um to less than 1 um with increases in the zinc doping level in the system. Results of transport measurements performed by the four-probe technique indicate that the insulator to metal transition temperature, Ti-m, decreases with an increase in the zinc substitution in the Mn site, while the resistivity of the La0.8Sr0.2Mn1-xZnxO3 system increases with an increase in the doping concentration for all doping levels.

Application Of Self Compacting And Self Curing Technologies In Concrete Water Tank Construction, Paul William Hutchinson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This study has been developed in order to address a number of difficulties currently experienced by a concrete product manufacturing plant. It has attempted to combine the technologies of self compacting concrete and self curing concrete in the application of water tank manufacture. Additionally, fibre reinforcement has also been used in order to address problems resulting from the use of conventional reinforcement in tank production. Following the mix design procedure developed by Okamura, a mix of sufficient fluidity and mechanical properties was developed before modification to account for fibre content. Once an appropriate level of fluidity had been reestablished, self …

An Evaluation Of The Seagrass Zostera Capricorni As A Biomonitor Of Metals Contamination In Lake Illawarra, Christina Howley

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The seagrass Zostera capricorni was evaluated as a possible biomonitor of metal contamination in coastal waters. Metal concentrations in Z capricorni leaves and rhizomes were analyzed for correlations with porewater and sediment concentrations from 7 locations within Lake Illawarra, a 35 km² lagoon located south of Wollongong, NSW (Australia). Concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, M n , Pb, and Z n in seagrass tissues collected near to an industrial complex including a steelworks and copper smelter, and adjacent to a former power station, were significantly higher than concentrations in seagrass collected from the lake entrance. Variations in metal concentrations …