Digital Commons Network^™

Leisure And Tourism Spaces Of The Illawarra Beaches: 1900-1940, Christine Metusela

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The Illawarra beaches of 1900-1940 were rapidly transformed by the emergence of promenading, bathing, sunbathing and surf lifesaving. In 1900, public daylight bathing was banned. Yet, by 1940, the practice of individuals clad in skimpy bathing costumes was considered normative behaviour. Conceptualising beach-making as the complex interplay of uneven social relationships stretched across different geographical scales, this thesis uses Foucauldian discourse analysis to critically examine transformations of the social relationships that forged the Illawarra beaches as a leisure and tourism space in a range of source materials. To form a beach archive, empirical materials were gathered from bank, surf club, …

Nutrition And Food Service Systems For Long Stay Elderly Patients: A Contextual Analysis : "Making Every Mouthful Count", Karen L. Walton

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The ageing Australian population and the increased need for health care services have influenced many changes to hospital food service systems in an attempt to make them more cost effective. Food service departments have traditionally been viewed as ‘non clinical, hotel style’ services, and as such are often targeted to make budget savings. It is known that older patients have more frequent and longer hospital admissions, which creates a higher demand on hospital services. Patients are often admitted to hospital with multiple co-morbidities, with some already malnourished and many others ‘at risk’. Early detection of malnourished patients is critical due …

Health And Service Use In Old Age: Longitudinal Population Based Studies In Taiwan, Chun-Min Chen

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In ageing societies such as that of Taiwan, the proportion of the population aged 65 years and older is growing faster than younger cohorts. The health and quality of life of elderly Taiwanese are therefore of increasing importance. The proportion of the population with poor health status increases with age, so the elderly are disproportionately higher users of health care services. Hence, it is becoming urgent to study the elderly population, with a focus on health status changes, the shortage of relevant health care services, and the consequential social impact. Little is known about the trends in, and the determinants …

Determinants Of E-Government Services Adoption In Developing Countries: A Field Survey And A Case Study, Omar Alhujran

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The rapid growth of investment in public service delivery through e-government has drawn attention to research on this area. However, both governments and academic researchers recognise the problem of low-level adoption of e-government services among citizens; the common problem in both developed and developing countries. E-government adoption, unlike most of IT adoption by employees in private-sector organizations, is voluntary and occurs often in turbulent social-political environments. Therefore, the problem needs to be addressed comprehensively from technological, social, political, and cultural perspectives. However, e-government adoption research currently lacks a comprehensive conceptual framework for explaining citizen adoption of e-government services. To fill …

Establishing An Electronic Health Records Systems Success Evaluation Framework In Taiwan, Yung-Yu Su

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The ultimate goal of this study was to develop an appropriate framework to evaluate Taiwanese EHR systems success. The two main research questions were: (1) What are the most appropriate elements in evaluating Taiwanese EHR systems, based on considerations of HIS success, end-user perspective and socio-technical perspective? (2) What are the causal relationships between elements in such a user-centred Taiwanese EHR systems evaluation conceptual framework? A framework consisting of four aspects (organizational, technological, human and organizational net benefits), a nine-element model (healthcare environment, organizational behaviours, system quality, medical data quality, service quality, safety quality, user use, user satisfaction and organizational …

Transient Behaviour Modelling Of Underground High Voltage Cable Systems, Muhamad Zalani Daud

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The behaviour of voltage and current transients when a high voltage (HV) cable is first energised is a problem of practical significance to utilities. Modelling of this behaviour on a suitable simulation platform is an attractive approach, in many cases, provided that the results closely match real-world behaviour. This thesis presents modelling and analysis of transients resulting from energisation of an unloaded cable using PSCAD®/EMTDC™ simulation software. An assessment of the applicability of existing frequency-dependent (FD) cable models is given. The impact of transients on a simulated cable system is also presented and discussed.

In cable system modelling, system components …

Phytoremediation Of Hydrocarbon Contaminants In Sub-Antarctic Soils, Jessica Bramley-Alves

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Accidental fuel spills on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island have caused considerable contamination. Due to the island‘s high latitude position, its climate, and the fragility of its ecosystems, traditional methods of remediation are unsuitable for onsite clean up. However, if left untreated, even minor to moderate fuel spills could take decades before natural attenuation reduces the petroleum to environmentally acceptable concentrations. Currently, low cost, low disturbance in-situ methods to enhance biodegradation of fuel products, such as nutrient additions and air sparging, are under examination on Macquarie Island. This study investigated the potential of the sub-Antarctic native tussock grass, Poa foliosa, to …

The Analysis Of Policies To Promote Economic Growth And Alleviate Poverty, Edgar James Wilson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

A collection of eighteen articles have been purposely chosen to demonstrate the development of the original and significant contributions of my research over the period 1990 to 2008. Despite the relatively large number of articles, which cover a range of related issues, there is a surprisingly consistent theme, namely the critical analysis of policies to promote economic growth and alleviate poverty. The first of three major issues in this dissertation analyses macroeconomic policies which increase national savings, investment and productivity in order to promote economic growth. In this context, the second issue evaluates policies which alleviate poverty by increasing agricultural …

An Investigation Into The Relationships Between Policies, Ideologies And Practices In The Teaching Of Esl In Hong Kong Secondary Schools, From The Perspective Of The Teachers And Their Students, Hung Yi Cho

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This study investigates the relationships between Hong Kong secondary ESL teachers’ beliefs and practices and government policies in the teaching of English as a Second language (ESL). Three broad questions guided and framed the study. These were:

• What is the nature of the relationship between three case study teachers’ beliefs and their practices with respect to teaching English in Hong Kong?
• How do the English language curriculum and examination policies affect these teachers’ choices of teaching approaches, their assessment practices and their understanding of students’ learning English in Hong Kong schools?
• How do the three teachers go about making sense …

Integration Of Cns And Ans Indices Of Brain Function In A Sequential Processing Approach To The Psychophysiology Of Cognition, Jacqueline A. Rushby

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis examined putative event-related potential (ERP) indices of the phasic and tonic orienting reflex (OR) in three different paradigms. The classic single series habituation paradigm was utilised for Study 1, the ERP-style dishabituation paradigm for Studies 2, 3 and 5, and the classic two-tone oddball paradigm for Study 4. In this thesis the OR is operationalised in terms of the sequential processing approach to stimulus-response elicitation described in Preliminary Process Theory (PPT) (Barry, 2006). It was expected that the late positive complex (LPC) of the ERP would represent a CNS correlate of the phasic skin conductance response (SCR) OR-yardstick. …

Using Principles Of Information Architecture To Organise And Present The Information Elements Of Strategic Planning, James Mckee

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis describes the development of a strategic planning reference model that comprises a process reference model and an information architecture reference model. The purpose of the information architecture reference model is to provide a succinct and unambiguous presentation of the most important pieces of information that makes up a strategic plan. A strategic plan that is more easily understood and used would assist the staff of an organisation to better manage the organisation and also assist the information systems developers provide information systems better aligned to the organisations needs. To validate the information architecture reference model a normative research …

Jordanian Cybercrime Investigations: A Comparative Analysis Of Search For And Seizure Of Digital Evidence, Alaeldin Mansour Safauq Maghaireh

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Over the past half of a century, international society, particularly across the industrially developed world, has experienced an unprecedented technological transformation. The ubiquity of digital technology and its smooth integration with human activities has brought tremendous advantages. Simultaneously, diverse new activities called ‘cybercrimes’ have emerged in association with this technological revolution. Legal scholars have addressed these crimes and delivered initially controversial arguments regarding the adequacy of the traditional substantive and procedural laws to effectively criminalise and deal with them. Many developed countries, such as Australia and the USA, responded to the problem of cybercrime in a variety of ways. By …

Louis Zukofsky: Sources Of Us Modernism, Timothy Morgan Cahill

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis examines the poetry and critical writings of the US Modernist poet, Louis Zukofsky (1904-1978), focussing on his conflation of the ideas of Spinoza and Marx in his poetic practise. It surveys Zukofsky’s poetic and critical writings, but pays specific attention to the long poem, “A”, that spanned the majority of Zukofsky’s writing life. The contention of this thesis is that “A” develops a Marxist politics that derives from his reading of Marx through the critical lens of Spinoza. This thesis differs significantly from the current critical discourse surrounding Zukofsky’s work, which argues that while he is evidently and …

A Window Of Opportunity? Australian Foreign Policy Change Towards East Timor 1998-99 And Solomon Islands 2003, Joakim Eidenfalk

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis examines Australian foreign policy change towards East Timor in 1998-99 and towards Solomon Islands in 2003. The thesis demonstrates the complexity of foreign policy decision-making through an analysis of these two cases. A new theoretical model of foreign policy change is presented and applied. It argues for the importance of investigating both domestic and international factors that influence foreign policy decision-making, as well as for the interaction between these producing a combined influence or pressure on decision makers. Of equal importance is the key decision-makers themselves in as much as they must perceive that a “window of opportunity” …

Nothing On Earth & Sparsely Furnished Worlds : Narrative Fiction And The Problem Of Incompleteness, Thomas Gibson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Part A: Creative component

Nothing on Earth

The novel tells the story of an amnesic voyager, or ‘fugueur’, who is trying to retrace his own forgotten journey through the island of Madagascar. As he attempts to uncover what he has been doing in the country, and thus what might have compelled him to travel there, he finds himself repeatedly delayed by the people he meets along his way. But although these encounters on the road distract him from his search, they ultimately prove to be no less important to it than the clues he manages to recover. Raising as they …

The Old Man Trick And The Neurotic In Nana: A Study Of Textual Sexual Dynamics, Luke Mathew Johnson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

You must give yourself credit for some things, old man. Give yourself credit for your driving. Or if you are too modest to give yourself credit for your driving and your long hours, then how about giving yourself some credit for your knot-tying? Surely you are the goddamned knot-tying champion of New South Wales and Queensland put together. Them Americans probably have a name for knot champions like you. Something decent and salt-of-the-earth-sounding. Rope-wranglers. Or knuckle-ringers. You should have asked your brother about it when you had the chance. You could have asked him how to get one around your …

Material Pleasures: The Still Life In The Fiction Of A. S. Byatt, Elizabeth Hicks

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis explores the ways in which English writer A. S. (Antonia) Byatt’s veneration of both realism and writing informs her use of ekphrasis, investigating the prominence of the still life in her fictional output to 2009. In doing so it distinguishes between visual still lifes (descriptions of real or imagined artworks) and what are termed for the purposes of the study ‘verbal still lifes’ (scenes such as laid tables, rooms and market stalls). This is the first full-length examination of Byatt’s adoption of the Barthesian concept of textual pleasure, demonstrating how her ekphrastic descriptions involve consumption and take …

Personal Construct Prediction Of Families' Experiences Of Caring For Relatives With A Serious Mental Illness: Tnwo Approaches To Identity, Relationships, Locus Of Control And Personal Growth, Catherine Louise Bentley

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

I designed a cross-sectional prediction study for which forty-nine Australian family mental health carers were recruited as participants. The variables used to predict the Positive and Negative Experiences of Caregiving were: Identity Coherence and Identity Diffusion; Good and Bad Identity Scales; Positive Interpersonal Relationships; Perceived Locus of Control; and Personal Growth. My study was innovative in that I explored Senses of Identities in family carers and used Personal Construct Psychology as a framework. My use of both the measures, Content Analysis Scales and Modified Rating Repertory Grids was new. Seven case studies were completed. I developed and tested a personal …

Nationality Matters: Indonesian Foreign Domestic Workers In Contemporary Taiwan, Anne Loveband

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Nationality is too often introduced and then forgotten in literature on foreign domestic workers (FDWs). The concept of nationality is complex, both at a theoretical and an empirical level, particularly as it is manifested in the lived experience of these workers. This thesis constitutes an analysis driven by questions of nationality, national identity and citizenship. In short, nationality is elevated to the position of critical analytical variable. Drawing on field research, nationality is systematically explored through the analysis of a series of relationships which underwrite the lived experiences of Indonesian FDWs in Taiwan. These relationships, which begin in Indonesia and …

Effects Of An E-Postcard Intervention To Reduce Alcohol Consumption In Australian University Students Who Are Heavy Episodic Drinkers, Ranjani Utpala-Kumar

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Heavy episodic drinking (HED), also commonly referred to as “binge drinking”, has been identified as a problematic drinking pattern among young people in many countries, including Australia. It is a leading cause of unintentional injury and death among 18-24 year old college students in the USA (Hingson, Heeren, Zakocs, Kopstein & Wechsler, 2002). Over one third of Australian university students report that they have sustained an injury as a result of their drinking (Roche & Watt, 1999). It has been proposed that most college students overestimate the amount that their peers drink and this misperception of the norm tends to …

The Effect Of Outdoor Education And Physical Education Physical Activity Programmes Upon Male Adolescents, Stephen Jelley

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The promotion of physical activity (PA) and the prevention of low levels of adolescent health-related fitness (HRF) and self-esteem (SE) associated with physical inactivity, are issues central to current and future global health priorities. Previous research has shown that obese adolescents tend to track into being obese adults (Booth, Chey, Wake, Norton, Hesketh & Dollman, 2003). Recent reports have indicated that the prevalence of obesity in childhood and adolescence has been increasing at an alarming rate (Angelopoulos, Milionis, Grammatiki, Monschonis & Manios, 2009). Therefore such issues warrant further investigation and continued research efforts. The types of physical activities being offered …

Midnight Jack And Houston: A Novel, [And] Lesbian Families In Children's Literature, Vivien Tait

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis has two parts: A novel - Midnight Jack and Houston; and Lesbian Families in Children’s Literature - a research gathered and analysed the opinions of Parents, Booksellers, Primary School Librarians and Public Children’s Librarians in the lives of children aged 9-12 about ‘why or why not’ children should have access to literature showing lesbian-parented families and/or other diverse family types.

Selling Sun Protection To A Youth Audience: Best Practice Guidelines For Social Marketing Initiatives, Keryn Marie Johnson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Skin cancer is viewed as a major public health issue throughout the western world. In Australia, skin cancer dominates cancer incidence, causing over 1,500 deaths per year, and costing the health system around AUD$300 million. Public health interventions and campaigns directed at decreasing skin cancer rates have focused on limiting people’s ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure through increasing their sun protection behaviours. Adolescents are a key target group for sun protection interventions, as this demographic has the lowest compliance with sun protection recommendations leaving many at high risk for skin cancer in later life.

Social marketing is a program planning process …

Mosfet Dosimetry: Moskin Dosimetric Characteristics In A 6mv X-Ray Beam, David Zahra

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Real time in vivo dosimetry is a major challenge in modern radiotherapy. One promising candidate for such dosimetry is the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) dosimeter. The advantage of MOSFET dosimeters is that they offer real-time dose determination, along with a very small dosimetric volume. At the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP) a new design of the MOSFET dosimeter called MOSkin, is being developed to measure the dose delivered to the basal layer (0.07 mm below the skin surface). This thesis discusses pre-clinical characterization of a new version of the MOSkin dosimeter and optimisation …

Sports Bra Design And Bra Fit: Minimising Exercise-Induced Breast Discomfort, Deirdre Mcghee

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Background: Exercise-induced breast discomfort is a barrier to females participating in physical activity and has been associated with excessive vertical breast displacement. Sports bras have been designed to provide external breast support in order to minimise vertical breast displacement and, in turn, reduce exercise-induced breast discomfort. Adequate breast support during physical activity, however, requires both a supportive bra design as well as correct bra fit.

Research Question: The overall aim of this thesis was to systematically investigate factors affecting the fit and design of bras worn during physical activity in order to develop breast support strategies to minimise the exerciseinduced …

A Study On Undeniable Signatures And Their Variants, Xinyi Huang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In an ordinary digital signature scheme, the verification of a signature requires the associated message, the signer’s public key and other public information (e.g. public parameter). Anyone in the system can verify the validity of the digital signature. This property is useful, as it has many applications. However, it is undesirable for some situations where signer’s privacy is a concern, especially in personally and commercially sensitive applications. In this thesis, we investigate several special signature schemes that accommodate the signer privacy.

In undeniable signatures, the most distinctive feature is that the signer is able to choose who can be convinced …

Indigenous Diasporic Literature : Representations Of The Shaman In The Works Of Sam Watson And Alootook Ipellie, Kimberley Mcmahon-Coleman

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis attempts to bring together postcolonial and diaspora theories to look at the work of two Indigenous writers. It explores how complexities of postcolonial representation may be analysed by viewing Indigenous populations in Canada and Australia as members of intra-national diasporas, with the mission sites being fashioned as diaspora spaces. The figures that populate these spaces are never quite at home in their host communities, and are also unable to return completely to the homelands of their imaginations. This thesis argues that the defining features of Indigenous diasporic literature are the creation of maban realism and queer figures. Indigenous …