Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond The Moons Of August, Beatriz Copello

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

"Beyond the Moons of August" was born from my angst about recording and understanding my past. While writing this manuscript, I submerged myself in the depths of my mind, by conjuring the dead and finally putting them to rest, and rescuing from my memory stories, people and events long buried in this invisible cemetery. Through writing this novel I recreated my past, I re-interpreted events long gone, I sought revenge and forgiveness. Catharsis and creativity went hand in hand with the writing of "Beyond the Moons of August".

This book represents an era of my life which, like a shadow, …

"Rekindling The Spirit Of Adventure: Through Participation In The Expedition Component Of The Duke Of Edinburgh's Award : The Value Of This Challenge For The Participant", Peter L. Bailey

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Each year thousands of students are involved in the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The Award is divided into four components: community service, a physical recreation pursuit a personal skill development and the expedition component. The expedition component requires a two day one night preliminary expedition and a two day and one night qualifying expedition. This research explores the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award Expedition in terms of active involvement, cooperative teamwork, self-confidence, social effectiveness, stress management and time efficiency during these expeditions.

This research involves a case study of the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award program at Southern Highlands …

Creating Engaging Self-Learning Opportunities For Out-Of-School Children In Sri Lanka: Employing Constructivist Design Principles For Distance And Open Learning, Nandawathie Wanniarachchi Kankanange

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Education plays a vital role in improving people's quality of life and is an essential part of social and human development. Addressing the issue of access to quality education is a matter of urgency, and yet the formal education system has not tended to provide education for all. For out-of school children, therefore, distance and open learning methodologies have been adopted by developing countries as an alternative path to address their educational needs. The challenge is h o w to develop suitable programs and learning materials to motivate and engage learners to learn.

The purpose of this study was to …

Domestication Of The Tuna Industry In The Pacific Islands: An Analysis Of National And Regional Strategies, Vina Ram-Bidesi

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Domestic development of the tuna industry has been a high priority for the small Island States of the Pacific over the past three decades. The extended maritime zones of jurisdiction allowed under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention heightened the aspirations of the Pacific Island States to derive greater benefits from their tuna resources. A number of strategies aimed at providing increased linkages to local economies through direct participation in shore-based development and harvesting of resources have been implemented. Using a regional and two national case studies, the study demonstrates that, despite previous failures and criticisms, many Pacific Island …

The Physical Education Curriculum In Post Independence Sri Lanka, Ranaweera Marasingha

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis examines the historical development of the Sri Lankan physical education curriculum in the context of the many different foreign and local social, political, economic and educational forces which have impacted on physical education in the country. Three major research questions framed the study: How has Physical Education in Sri Lanka been shaped as a school subject by foreign and local influences since Independence in 1948? What are the major issues in Physical Education in Sri Lanka? How can knowledge of the construction of Physical Education Curriculum in Sri Lanka inform future directions for curriculum developments?

The research questions …

Investigating The Basis Of Leptin Resistance, Shu Lin

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Obesity is a major predisposing factor for a variety of life threatening diseases such as Type II diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart diseases, resulting in enormous financial costs. Although recent research has demonstrated the importance of the central regulation of body energy balance, information on the development and maintenance of chronic cliet-induced obesity is still sparse. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the progressive course of development of chronic high fat diet-induced obesity. To achieve this goal, Experimental Section A was conducted to feed the mice with a high or low fat diet for up to 19 weeks …

Synthesis And Characterisation Of Novel Conducting Polymers, And Their Application For Hydrogen Generation Or Photovoltaic Devices, J. Chen

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The development of new materials has greatly expanded the application of energy conversion technologies. Conducting electroactive polymers, such as polypyrrole and polythiophenes, containing specific groups represent a new class of electroactive semiconducting materials with great potential application in a number of areas, including hydrogen gas generation and photovoltaic devices.

A range of novel conducting electroactive polymers have been synthesized and characterized in this work. A new electrolytic cell system for hydrogen gas generation and a new solar cell system for photovoltaic (energy conversion from sunlight to electricity) applications have been devised.

Conducting electroactive polymers, polypyrrole and polythiophene, containing pendant group …

Nanyo Colonialism/Postcolonialism: A Comparative Literary And Cultural Study On Representations Of The Pacific In Japanese And English Language Fiction, Naoto Sudo

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In this thesis, Said's and Bhabha's concepts are applied to its analysis of Japanese colonial discourses on the Pacific. Japanese Orientalism vis-à-vis the Pacific is an important concept here called 'Nanyo-Orientalism'. Both Japanese colonialists' construction of a Pacific Island Other and their anxiety towards, as well as their fantastic dreams of, Japan's Pacific Island colonies will be highlighted in my discussion.

Executive Function Deficits In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Episode Or Trait Markers, Shelley Bannon

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

There is considerable research to suggest that a neurobiological deficit might underpin obsessive-compulsive symptoms or be responsible for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Deficits in executive functions are commonly reported in OCD and are believed to be mediated by the frontal lobes, the broad site of this neurobiological deficit. This thesis comprised of five studies that collectively attempt to address several key questions that required clarification within the executive function literature of OCD. Study 1 assessed executive functions of inhibition, set shifting, working memory, planning, and verbal fluency in OCD subjects (n = 20) compared to a clinical control group of Panic …

Understanding Magistrates' Work, Garry Francis Hiskey

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Magistrates hear about 98% of the criminal cases and about 90% the civil cases in courts in Australia.

This thesis examines the understanding magistrates have of their work. It provides an analysis of what magistrates do in court and their understanding of this work. The core data is based on reflections by and discussion with magistrates about what they do in court and the data identifies three core aspects of their daily work experience: decision-making, communication and work environment. The thesis shows how these concepts are themselves interlinked.

The thesis examines some (very little) 'official' or 'objective' information on what …

Adaptation To Renal Transplantation: An Exploratory Qualitative Study, Edwin Maurice Bouvet

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Knowledge of individual client's emotional and psychological reactions to renal transplantation is essential for the effective delivery of preoperative and post-operative nursing care. In this study six recipients of donor kidneys were each interviewed over a period of six months at two monthly intervals.

The interviews were unstructured, almost conversational, and the qualitative data collected was analysed based on the principles of phenomenology and organized into eight basic themes. After close examination of the material collected, significant issues of concern were identified and these became the focus of further and more intense study. This culminated in chapter six with three …

Correction Of Transmission Contamination In ⁶⁷Ga, Subhash Chand Kheruka

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) is a tomographic technique used for measurement of radiotracer concentration in vivo. The effect of attenuation and Compton scatter severely impacts the quantitative accuracy of SPECT images. Direct measurement using a transmission technique is the most accurate way of compensating for attenuation. This thesis cover SPECT study using ^^Ga, but has relevance to other radionuclides with multiple energies. Since post-injection transmission is required, the transmission and emission data are acquired simultaneously using ^^^Gd and ^^Ga respectively. The disadvantage of simultaneous acquisition is the contamination of transmission data by the spillover from the 93.5 keV …

Evaluation Of An Eight Week Modified Exercise Program For Overweight Children, Brodie Cambourne

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The incidence of overweight and obesity amongst Australian children is high and steadily increasing. Reasons offered for this trend in childhood obesity include increase in availability of foods high in fat and decreased opportunity to participate in regular exercise. Recent research is bringing light to the difficulties overweight children have participating in daily living tasks. These difficulties are a result of the excess weight carried by these children and include a decreased range of motion, impaired balance and co-ordination and increased energy expenditure during daily tasks. A solution for combating this increase in childhood obesity, may be to provide children …

The Effect Of Novel Distractors On Physiological Responses To Pain, Ran D. O'Donohue

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis reports a psychophysiological examination of the effects of distractors on pain in the cold-pressor test (immersion of a limb in ice-cold water). Visual distractor stimuli at two levels of novelty were compared with no distraction in a between-group design.

Carbon Based Anode Materials For Lithium-Ion Batteries, Yueping Yao

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

A systematic investigation of carbon based anode materials has been made in this Master’s thesis project. The physical, structural and electrochemical properties of these anode materials have been characterized by a variety of techniques. A literature review summarizes the principles of lithium-ion battery operation, cathode materials, anode materials and electrolytes. Multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, using nanocrystalline iron powders as the catalyst. The diameter of the as-prepared MWNTs is about 20-50nm. Electrochemical testing shows that the MWNT electrodes had a reversible lithium storage capacity of 340-350mAh/g. The kinetics of Li-ion insertion in carbon …

Seam Position Detection In Pulsed Gas Metal Arc Welding, Hao Shen

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Lack of fusion is a commonly occurring defect in Pulsed Transfer Gas Metal Arc Welding. Under optimum process parameter settings, such defects are mainly caused by positional error of the torch in relation to the joint profile. This project investigated relationships between seam tracking error and welding process parameters in order to detect lack of fusion. Using digital signal processing techniques, it was found that there existed consistent linear relationships between torch standoff and process variables in both the time and frequency domains. In the time domain, when the torch standoff increases, the mean values of both current power decrease, …

Conventional Versus Computer-Based Administration Of Measures Of Cognitive Ability: An Analysis Of Psychometric, Behavioural, Experiential And Relativity Of Equivalence, Brooke L. Smith

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Test equivalence can be evaluated in terms of four aspects: psychometric, behavioural, experiential and individual differences (i.e., relativity of equivalence) (Honaker, 1988). This thesis comprises two studies designed to explore the equivalency of scores obtained on conventional versus computerised measures of cognitive ability in terms of all four criteria. In addition, this thesis provides theoretical clarification of the link between computer anxiety and performance. This objective was achieved by developing a theoretical model for exploring the effect of computer anxiety on computer based test (CBT) performance and test equivalence. The first study was conducted in an organisational setting and employed …

Radiation Hardness Study Of High Purity Silicon And The Development Of A Radiation Damage Monitoring System For Silicon Devices In Mixed Radiation Fields, Mark Reinhard

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis describes an experimental study into the radiation hardness of high purity silicon. This material is principally used in the manufacture of silicon based microstrip detectors and other similar devices. Radiation detector test structures which had been fabricated on the base of different types of silicon were exposed to ~1 MeV neutrons. This was done to determine the role of different impurities in the formation of radiation induced crystallographic defects within the silicon lattice. Oxygenated silicon, nitrogenised silicon and silicon containing the standard residual impurities was investigated. The effect of the deep level states associated with the defects on …

Securing Digital Images, Chandrapal Kailasanathan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

With the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web, images are being transferred over insecure channels from different parts of the world. Those who receive images may not exactly know where they have originated from or who their sender was. In those circumstances, determining the authenticity of received images would be extremely difficult and therefore providing authenticity to images has been considered as an essential area of image security research. On the other hand, processing images for storage reduction, noise removal, or quality enhancement, is also essential in many computer applications, because images are inherently larger than text and …

Solar Activity And Recent Climate Change: Evaluating The Impact Of Geomagnetic Activity On Atmospheric Circulation, Daniel R. Palamara

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Solar-climate studies have a long and controversial history and the relevance of solar activity to recent climate change remains unclear. Despite prevalent scepticism and uncertainty, recent developments in both solar and atmospheric sciences warrant the reinvestigation of possible solar-climate relationships. The advent of public access to enormous databases of solar and atmospheric variables encourages the reinvestigation of possible solar-climate relationships, particularly those involving solar-modulated geomagnetic activity variations. If further studies demonstrate that climate change has been influenced by geomagnetic activity then research can progress to predicting, modelling, and quantifying the effect. Conversely, if a geomagnetic-activity influence on climate change can …

Harmonic Management In Mv Distribution Systems, Duane Robinson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

With many distribution customer loads being sensitive to excessive harmonic voltage distortion, electricity distribution network service providers should now be looking towards preventative measures to ensure that voltage distortion levels remain within limits set by the appropriate standards. Measures will need to be taken at the planning stage to ensure distribution systems are able to meet harmonic limits recommended by standards as distortion due to loads increases. This thesis describes the development of harmonics planning and analysis tools that allow effective system modelling and comparison with standards, particularly in the planning phase where details of loads are usually not accessible. …

Analysis Of Growth Data For Breastfed Infants And Its Relevance To Breastfeeding, Emer Cooper

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Monitoring infants growth in the first year of life is a complex issue. It has been almost twenty years since the last Australian research was published on the topic of infant feeding methods and growth and no studies have compared Australian breastfed infants with the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) 1977 reference longer than three months. The NCHS Hamill et al. (1977) standard is the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) recommended guideline currently accepted in Australia. It was decided to explore a sample of breastfeeding women of European descent and their infants from metropolitan Sydney and semi-rural NSW. The …

Cathodic Materials For Nickel-Metal Hydride Batteries, Caiyun Wang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The properties of nickel hydroxide, in particular ?-phase nickel hydroxide and spherical nickel hydroxide, were studied. ?-phase nickel hydroxide was prepared by an improved chemical co-precipitation method, while a spray drying technique was employed to obtain spherical shaped particles. The possible use of this new type of solid polymer electrolyte in Ni/MH batteries was also investigated in this work. The element Al was chosen to stabilize the structure of ?-phase nickel hydroxide, that is turbostratic disorder. The content of Al in Al�substituted nickel hydroxide, Ni(subscript 1-x)Al(subscript x)(OH)(subscript 2)(CO3)(subscript x/2) . nH(subscript 2)O, was x = 0.10, 0.20, 0.25 and 0.33. …

Australian Press Coverage Of The Armenian Genocide 1915-1923, Vahe Georges Kateb

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Under the cover of WWI, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire deported and exterminated the Armenian population from historical Armenia (Eastern provinces of modern day Turkey) and surrounding regions. However, since then, successive Turkish governments have denied any wrongdoing and blamed Armenians for their fate. The Australian press, as the only mass medium of the period, covered extensively the extermination of the Armenians. However todays press often refers to the same events ambiguously, using the word alleged and giving equal coverage to the Turkish denial of the events. In addition, young turk has become a complimentary phrase. This …

Improving The Modelling Of The Distributional Properties Of Financial Time Series - An Application Of Dynamic Models Within The Context Of Conditional Variance Of Basis Risk, Riccardo Biondini

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The thesis investigates the problems involved in effectively modelling the (time-varying basis risk (the risk of large movements in the relationship between the spot price and the derivatives price) and the subsequent calculation of effective hedge ratios. The specific purpose of this research involves the identification of conditional variance models that accommodate the time series properties commonly encountered in many spot and futures return series, by targeting changes in basis volatility over time. The research analyses the problem of incorporating conditional basis variance into the time series model by extending popular specifications to include long-run (cointegration) information. The analysis investigates …

Intelligent Knowledge Acquisition Using Case-Based Reasoning: Knowledge Sharing And Reuse, Seung Hwan Kang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This research aims to investigate the feasibility of using techniques in case-based reasoning for the knowledge acquisition phase in the development of knowledge management systems to allow knowledge sharing and reuse. Case-based reasoning is one area of artificial intelligence that allows us to deal with situation that are similar to the current ones and use them to solve new problems. The application of case-based reasoning techniques allows the knowledge management systems to acquire new knowledge by adopting the knowledge gained in new cases and reusing the old ones in the case repository. This way, it allows old knowledge to be …

A Comparison Of Binaural Ultrasonic Sensing Systems, Benjamin D. Stanley

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Autonomous robotic systems have been under development for a number of years. This development is being driven partly by the need to explore the processes and logic that humans use in accomplishing repetitive tasks and partly by the need to provide probes and vehicles in environments that present threats to humans. It is this need to send robots into harsh environments which has provided the impetus for this thesis to explore the use of binaural ultrasonic sensors for robotic agents thereby enabling them to take the place of living agents. In all, five sensor systems were built and investigated. Two …

Characteristics Of A Supportive Context For Distributed Learning: A Case Study Of The Implementation Of A New Degree, Geraldine E. Lefoe

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In 2000, the University of Wollongong opened a new campus and two education access centres on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The Faculty of Arts implemented a new degree, the Bachelor of Arts (Community and Environment), as part of this initiative and the first year of implementation of this new degree is the focus of the study. The purpose of the study was to inform policy and practice at the University of Wollongong and to contribute to the small body of research in the area. A qualitative case study approach was used to investigate the experience of …

Membrane Lipid Composition And Its Effect On Sodium Pump Molecular Activity: A Comparative Study, N. Turner

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The basal metabolic rate (BMR) or energy turnover of animals varies dramatically, being several fold higher in endotherms compared to ectotherms, and much greater, on a mass-specific basis, in smaller vertebrates compared to larger vertebrates. Despite this large variation in metabolic rate between vertebrate species, a significant and relatively constant proportion of metabolism is associated with membrane-linked energy consuming processes, regardless of the absolute level of BMR. The majority of these membrane-linked processes are mediated by membrane-bound enzymes, and in general, membranes with increased levels of polyunsaturation are associated with elevated activity in these processes and subsequently increased metabolism. It …

Electrophysiological And Behavioural Indices Of Simulated Recognition Memory Impairment, Hilarie P. Tardif

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis examined the use of event-related potentials as a means of detecting feigned recognition memory impairment. In seven studies, undergraduate students were instructed either to complete a recognition memory test to the best of their abilities, or to simulate accident�related memory loss. These studies extended previous research by investigating electrophysiological differences between the control and malingering tasks (1) for stimuli which differed in linguistic frequency, (2) in tests which varied the format of word presentation, (3) during the initial encoding of the stimuli, and (4) using ERP components not previously considered in studies investigating the detection of malingering. The …