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Cultural Transformation And Modernity: A Samoan Case Study, Deborah Colleen Gough

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Understanding the impact of global influences on the ‘local’ is fundamental to the study of social and cultural transformation. Using Samoa as a case study this research seeks to engage in this debate by critiquing the impact of contemporary globalisation on an indigenous culture. Samoa was chosen as a case study because of its global engagement and because its culture, fa’aSamoa, is celebrated for resilience. The Samoan people, like many Pacific Islanders, are renowned for their mobility. After World War II sojourns turned into more permanent journeys, however, when increasing numbers of Samoans responded to offshore opportunities. What resulted was …

Pollination Ecology And Molecular Systematics Of Diuris (Orchidaceae), James Otto Indsto

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The Australian terrestrial orchid genus Diuris is currently recognised to contain at least 61 species, with numerous new taxa expected to be recognised in the near future. Species are restricted to Australia, with the exception of Diuris fryana, which is endemic to Timor. Species of Diuris are well represented in the southern parts of western and eastern Australia, separated by the Nullarbor Plain, with a few species found in tropical Queensland. The eastern and western species mostly fall into morphologically distinct groups suggestive of distinct phylogenetic lineages. Despite considerable variation between and even within species, Diuris species share certain important …

Pragmatic Action, Imaginative Action, Annihilating Action: The Quest For Self-Realization In Three Major Dramatic Phases Of The West (Elizabethan Renaissance, European Nineteenth Century, And The Theatre Of The Absurd), Bahee Hadaegh

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis argues that the quest for self-fulfillment is the recurrent motif of the three major dramatic eras of Western tragedy. This theme is a continuous but transforming tradition in which tragic heroes endeavor to approximate a more complete degree of self-realization respectively through outward action, inner imagination and an inaction that is also a reflective struggle to find meaning. Discussions of tragic theatre in the West have generally concentrated on a degenerative process of Western tragedy in terms of progressively atrophied dramatic action and gradual manifestation of passivity, nostalgia and nihilism. This thesis aims to show that, although the …

Characterization Of The Performance Of The New Moskin Dosimeter As A Quality Assurance Tool For Pulsed Dose-Rate (Pdr) Prostate Brachytherapy, And The Effect Of Rectal Heterogeneity On The Dose Delivered To The Rectal Wall, Ian S. Kwan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Brachytherapy is a common treatment modality used for treating prostate cancer. The radiation is emitted from within the prostate, which focuses the damage on the tumour rather than the surrounding healthy tissue. However, due to the close proximity of the rectum to the prostate, there is a possibility that the rectum will receive too much radiation dose during prostate treatment. This may lead to post-treatment rectal complications that range in severity from general rectal discomfort and bleeding, to the development of a rectal fistula that may require surgical intervention. Currently, there is no real-time quality assurance tool used to verify …

Habitat Associations Of The Long-Nosed Potoroo (Potoroos Tridactylus) At Multiple Spatial Scales, Melinda A. Norton

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) is a threatened, ground-dwelling marsupial known to have been highly disadvantaged by changes brought about since European settlement in Australia. Key threats to the species are believed to be fox predation and habitat loss and/or fragmentation. In order to conserve the species, the important habitat elements for the species at both the coarse and fine scale need to be identified and managed appropriately. The aims of this study were to examine the coarse- and fine-scale habitat preferences of the long-nosed potoroo, using a variety of techniques, in two National Park reserves (Barren Grounds Nature Reserve …

Environmental Impacts And The Ecology Of Sponges And Ascidians In South-Eastern Australian Coastal Lakes And Lagoons, Peter Brendan Barnes

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Estuaries worldwide are under threat from urbanisation and development and will need effective management for their successful conservation. Coastal lakes and lagoons have been identified as one of the estuary types most susceptible to human impacts largely because of their isolated nature and slow flushing times. Management of estuaries will be most effective when based on a sound scientific understanding of the patterns of distribution, biology and ecology over the full range of biodiversity of these systems, however, such an understanding is lacking for many systems and many taxa. Studies of sponges and ascidians in coastal lakes and lagoons are …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

Metal-Cell Interactions: Investigation Of The Mode Of Toxicity Of Copper To Microalgae In Plankton And Biofilms, Jacqueline Levy

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Microalgae are sensitive indicators of environmental change and, as the basis of most freshwater and marine ecosystems, are widely used in the assessment of risk and the development of environmental regulations for metals. However, inter-species differences in sensitivity to metals are not well understood and laboratory-based toxicity tests with planktonic microalgae are often criticised for their lack of environmental relevance. One such criticism is that algae do not exist in isolation in the field, interacting with bacteria and other algal species, as well as higher order organisms, both in the plankton and when attached to substrates in the form of …

Invariant Measures On Multifids Of Convex Polytopes, Brian Michael Bray

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Some convex polytopes are studied from the viewpoint of Geometric Probabilities. The probabilities calculated in this thesis all involve -randomness. This type of randomness is the only form based on invariant measures. Under this type of randomness, if a convex body, & is contained in another convex body ., the probability of hitting &, given that it hits the parent body does not depend on the orientation or position of &. This property reduces the complexity of the mathematics. In two dimensions this invariant measure is length, leading to calculations involving the perimeters of various embedded polygons. In three dimensions …

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” …

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 …

Minerals Processing Reactions Induced By Electrical Discharge Assisted Mechanical Milling, Damon Bishop

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Spark Milling (Electrical Discharge Assisted Mechanical Milling) utilises a novel chemical reactor which combines the features of mechanical milling and transferred-arc plasma processing. This combination of techniques has shown great promise in inducement of chemical reactions whilst simultaneously controlling powder morphology. During synthesis reactions, orders of magnitude increases in reaction rates are experienced compared to mechanical milling in the absence of a plasma arc.

Recent work has extended the application of Spark Milling to the inducement of reduction reactions in a commercial grade mineral concentrate. This has identified the need to undertake further experimentation. Firstly, to assess the possibility of …

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 …

Acceptance And Commitment Therapy With The Police Force: Evaluating Its Efficiency And Mechanisms For Change, Linda L. Bilich-Erich

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Police officers experience a high level of stress that results from operational and organisational pressures associated with their professional occupation (Hart & Cotton, 2002). This can result in harmful consequences for the individual, the workplace and their family, with a plethora of literature outlining the increase in work / family conflict for police officers. The police and stress literature also indicates that police officers can be prone to utilising unhelpful coping skills, such as avoidance, to manage their stress.

The current research project describes the implementation and investigation of a worksite stress management intervention called Mindfulness-based Emotional Intelligence Training (MBEIT) …

Experimental And Numerical Modelling Of Flow And Sediment Characteristics In Open Channel Junctions, Kalyani Dissanayake

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Open channel confluences are present in many natural and man-made waterways. The dynamics of the flow in and around the junction are complex; in particular, immediately downstream of the junction, the flow develops a zone of separation on the inner wall, with accompanying secondary re-circulation patterns. The structure of this complex flow is a function of several parameters such as flow rates in both channels, angle of confluence, channel geometry including longitudinal slope and bed discordance, boundary roughness and intensity of turbulence and has a major influence on bed erosion, bank scouring, etc. If in addition, one or both streams …

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 …

Mercury Investigations In Remote Oceania: Wet Deposition And Bio-Accumulation On Tutuila Island, Peter Peshut

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Mercury was investigated in multiple environmental compartments of the remote oceanic island of Tutuila in southern Polynesia, to examine prevalent lines of thought on how Hg is distributed in the environment at the global scale. Research shows that Hg is highly mobile in the environment, and that the atmosphere is the principal reservoir from which Hg is ultimately deposited to aquatic systems. Since the poisonings at Minamata and Niigata fifty years ago, Hg is a highly studied element, and the neurotoxicity and accumulation of Hg in the biosphere at levels that pose risks to human health are well documented. The …

Bioactive Compounds From Boerhavia Erecta L. : An African Medicinal Plant, Ari Satia Nugraha

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

A protocol was developed for the extraction of the traditional African medicinal plant Boerhavia erecta L. and this resulted in eight compounds being isolated. From the less polar fraction, four constituents were isolated using thin layer chromatography techniques but only one was fully characterised and was elucidated as β-sitosterol. This sterol was previously reported from the same species. The remaining three constituents were only partially identified due to insufficient material but are likely to also be sterols. From the polar fraction four glycosides were isolated using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. Only two of the four isolates were …

In Terms Most Familiar: Technologies Of Whiteness In Australia And Canada: A Comparative Analysis, Colin Salter

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis explores the implications of colonial whiteness in the actions of communities supporting the struggles of First Peoples in Australia and Canada. Exploring how whiteness manifests itself, how it permeates as epistemic blank spots into the actions of those promoting respect and recognition, is used as a basis to reflect on social justice in contemporary society. The emerging field of critical whiteness studies provides a solid foundation to engage with whiteness. Scholarship on the hegemony of technological discourse is drawn from to extend on this foundation. The notion of human history as a history of progress and the associated …