Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

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 …

A Total Approach: The Malaysian Security Model And Political Development, Andrew Humphreys

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In this thesis I argue that a security-based approach to an analysis of Malaysia offers a new perspective on that country’s politics and political system. Since colonialism, Malaysia has been a state obsessed by its own security, particularly the internal dimension of its security. I focus on the impact of security issues and, particularly, security policy on Malaysia’s political development. In terms of policy, Malaysia has developed what I call the Malaysian Security Model. The Model represents a ‘total approach’ to security that attempts to eliminate threats both physically and ideologically. The Model thus has two main functional tools, one …

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 …

Lean Production Practices In Bangladesh: An Investigation Into The Extent Of Practices And The Existence Of Enabling Environments For Lean Implementation, Farhana Ferdousi

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Lean Production has overcome the perception of being another management fad. An increasing number of organizations in developing countries are implementing lean production in order to generate improvements in performance and remain competitive. A sample of nine garment companies (seven companies from the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) and two companies from outside of the EPZ) of Bangladesh was chosen to conduct the study. A field survey with a semi-structured questionnaire, interviews and site visits was conducted to gather necessary information from the companies. These companies were selected purposively to ensure the best possible scenario of lean practices in Bangladesh.

The …

The Process Of Implementing Aspirational Place Brands, Gregory Mark Kerr

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

There is increasing interest on the part of governments and associated agencies in place branding - the practice of applying marketing and brand principles to geographic entities. While existing literature advocates the need and benefits of place branding, there is a call for more empirical research particularly into the process of implementing a place brand. Contemporary authors refer to the similarities between the more developed literature on corporate brand and that of the place brand. However, in both domains there remains a need for greater understanding of the process of engaging and harmonising multiple stakeholders towards the acceptance of an …

The Impact Of Claim Diagnosticity On Consumer Scepticism To Corporate Social Responsibility Advertising Claims, Alan Pomering

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

A considerable body of literature on consumers’ responses to information about firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives has been published over the past decade. To date, however, little if any of this research has looked at consumer reaction to such information communicated via the medium of advertising, despite the increasing use of such corporate societal advertising appeals. While scepticism is a common cognitive response toward advertising, how scepticism toward non-economic corporate image claims might be promoted or inhibited through message elements has not been the focus of research attention. This thesis seeks to address this knowledge gap by investigating the …

Measurements And Modelling Of Emissions From Biomass Burning In Australia, Clare Paton-Walsh

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis describes work aimed at improving our knowledge of emissions to the atmosphere from Australian vegetation fires. The thesis contains three main parts. First there is a study to characterise the emissions from forest fires in southeast Australia. This uses ground-based Fourier transform infrared solar absorption spectroscopy, coupled with ultra-violet/visible spectroscopy, to explore the properties of smoke plumes from Australian forest fires that passed over the observation site at Wollongong, in New South Wales, Australia (34.4°S, 150.9°E). The particulate loading in the smoke plumes is characterised by the aerosol optical depth, measured at visible wavelengths. Vertically integrated amounts of …

Matrix Converter Technology In Doubly-Fed Induction Generators For Wind Generators, Benjamin J. Harris

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Wind generator technologies have been widely researched and documented. Modern wind generator systems are now being implemented with an output power of up to 5 MVA. They adopt power electronic control systems which allow the system to operate with a wide range of turbine shaft speeds, as well as with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms to maximise the energy delivery to the power system.

Despite the extensive development, maximum power transfer from the total available power in the wind gusts to the grid is limited by the mechanical and electrical losses in the generation process. A Doubly-Fed Induction Generator …

Fiscal Policy And Private Saving In Australia: Ricardian Equivalence, Twin Deficits And Broader Policy Inferences, Shane Anthony Brittle

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Concern in the United States over fiscal and current account deficits during the 1980s led to arguments that these deficits were linked, or “twins”. The Reagan Administration conducted an expansionary fiscal policy by cutting taxes, which was not accommodated by monetary policy. This placed upward pressure on US interest rates – which subsequently boosted the US dollar. The exchange rate appreciation led to a fall in net exports and a rise in the US current account deficit. Under these circumstances, the current account appeared to mirror the fiscal position, leading to the popularisation of the twin deficits hypothesis. Similar concerns …

Exploring Novel Radiotherapy Techniques With Monte Carlo Simulation And Measurement, Heidi Nettelbeck

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This work is the first comprehensive investigation of potential changes in the radiobiological effectiveness of clinical photon beams caused by a redistribution of electrons in a magnetic field. It is also a fundamental study of both the influence of magnetic fields on the peak-to-valley dose ratio of microbeams and the accuracy of theoretical modelling for dose planning in Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT).

The application of a strong transverse magnetic field to a volume undergoing irradiation by a photon beam can produce localised regions of dose enhancement and dose reduction. Results from Monte Carlo PENELOPE simulation show regions of enhancement and …

On The Reception Of Aboriginal Art In German Art Space, F. Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

German art history and ethnology have led to a binary reading of art that has inhibited the exhibition of Aboriginal art as contemporary art in the twentieth and early twenty-first century. This thesis addresses the question of how Australian Aboriginal art is displayed in the institutional spaces of art galleries and museums in Germany. I argue that there is an underlying current in Germany that divides the representation of art into European and “other”, particularly Aboriginal art. Within German culture, ethnological museums are ranked differently from art institutional spaces. The art museum or gallery is at the top of the …

Encounters In Vanuatu: Process And Interactions In Visual Arts, Catherine Kay

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The Master of Creative Arts Research investigates cross-cultural interactions with Vanuatu between 2003 and 2008. Several fieldtrips to the island of Efate the main island, site of the capital Port Vila enabled meetings with the visual art milieu of craftspeople, artists, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and Museum, the two Art Foundations Michoutouchkine and Susanne Bastien, as well as commercial outlets. It confirmed my interest in setting up conversations between my own art practice in Australia with individual artists in Vanuatu through two conferences, firstly the Pacific Arts Association IXth International Symposium Musée du quay Branly in 2007 in Paris and …

Complete Interoperability In Healthcare : Technical, Semantic And Process Interoperability Through Ontology Mapping And Distributed Enterprise Integration Techniques, Amanda Joanne Ducrou

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Interoperability in healthcare is a requirement for effective communication between entities, to ensure timely access to up-to-date patient information and medical knowledge, and thus consistent patient care. This thesis focuses on the development of an interoperability solution for health by employing design science research methods to arrive at a final solution.

First, background topics including Health Informatics standards and formats are covered, which leads to three major Health Informatics standards being used throughout the remainder of this work – HL7 for messaging, openEHR for patient records, and SNOMED CT as a standard terminology to facilitate clarity of information, and to …

A Conceptual Model Of Information System Implementation Within Organisations, Thomas Michael Matthias

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Information technology (IT) enabled information systems (IS) are widely used within most organisations today. Since the introduction of IT enabled IS in the 1980’s, there have been numerous reports of problematic and failed implementations. The implementation stage has been emphasised as the stage in the IS life cycle where a large number of issues arise, and the implementation phenomenon has been widely studied. Despite this research focus, there is still not a consensus within the IS research community about what factors lead to implementation failure, and what factors facilitate implementation success. There are many studies that examine the use of …

Corroded Memories, A. Hull

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis seeks to examine the concept of the corroded memory, an idea that has driven the development of a large body of original creative work which includes performances, compact disk recordings, audio walks and video installations. I have completed this work during the last four years of part time study as a Master of Arts - Research student, enrolled at the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Creative Arts. In this thesis I examine, analyse and provide a context for a variety of publicly presented sound andvideo works. The conceptual framework and intent, together with the compositional techniques employed in …

The Study Of Fossil Faunas In The Walanae Basin, Indonesia, Suyono

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The main purpose of my research was to reconstruct the morphology and phylogenetic history of Celebochoerus heekereni, an endemic pig species known from Pliocene fossil deposits in the Walanae Basin of Southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia. An important part of this research was to refine the age range of C. heekereni and to reconstruct its paleogeographic context on the basis of Southeast Asian plate tectonics and eustatic sea-level changes. This study has implications for the history of other animal species on Sulawesi, and for Southeast Asian biogeography generally. Associated fieldwork in the Walanae Basin included the description of fossil sites, the recording …

Studies Of Structures, Transport And Magnetic Properties Of Doped Novel Three-Dimensional Perovskite Compounds, Mohammad Mehdi Farhoudi

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Perovskite oxide compounds have generated a great amount of interest over the past twenty years, as they exhibit exotic magnetic, electric, and magnetoelectric properties, which, apart from their intrinsic interest, would have a wide range of applications in industry, with special utilization in the engineering of data storage devices.

Starting with a general definition of the perovskite structure of ABO3 materials, the magnetic and transport properties of cobalt and manganese based compounds are reviewed. The objective of this thesis is focused on the investigation of the structures, and the magnetic and transport properties of some typical cobalt or manganese based …

Security Enhanced Agent Systems, Qi Zhang

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Software agents are useful for distributed systems and electronic commerce. However, to fully deploy software agents in practice, a number of challenging issues, especially security and privacy, need to be addressed. In general, software agents can be classified into mobile agent and multi-agent, which have different security requirements.

Mobile agents are mobile in the sense that they can move in the defined computer network. Due to this nature, security and privacy become critical. When a mobile agent travels in a hostile environment or migrates to an untrusted platform, its security and privacy can be easily compromised. In particular, the remote …

Some Mathematical Models Arising In Nano- And Bio-Technology, Yue Chan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In this thesis, three mechanical models arising from nanoscale and biological systems are investigated, namely the dynamics of various nanostructures, the axial buckling of carbon nanotubes and nanopeapods, and the worm-like chain model for stretched semi-flexible molecules and the utilization of such a model for investigating molecular stretching in the connective tissue extracellular matrix. In nanomechanics, we investigate the motion of both a carbon atom inside a carbon nanotube and a C60 fullerene inside a carbon nanotube. We assume a continuous model for which the atoms are assumed to be smeared across the surface of the molecule, so that the …

Characterisation Of Antibiotic Resistance Gene Clusters And Their Mobility Within A Collection Of Multi-Drug Resistant Salmonella Spp, Xiulan Liu

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

One hundred and thirty-six Salmonella enterica strains, isolated from humans, animals, environmental and plant sources in Australia from 23 serovars, were examined for the streptomycin resistance gene strA and strB, the sulfonamide resistance gene sul2, and the tetracycline resistance gene tetA(A) and tetA(B). Thirteen strains were identified as containing the strA-strB genes located on the transposon Tn5393. S. enterica serovar Hadar accounted for 11 of these strains, 6 of which were isolated from humans and 5 were from ducks. This investigation is therefore the first report of the Tn5393 transposon being detected in bacterial strains from a human source in …

Natural Resource Management Policy Implementation At The Local Level: Tensions And Contradictions In And Around A Thai National Park, Aree Suwanmanee

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis traces the influential global conservation concepts playing various roles in the Thai natural resource conservation system. The overall purpose of this study is to investigate the intersection of conservation policies and cultures in and around national park management in Thailand. The objectives of this study are to look at approaches, concepts, and models of natural resource conservation in practices and discourses of the central agencies, local park officials, other official agencies, NGOs and indigenous people. The thesis highlights tensions and contradictions at the local level as national policies are implemented. The thesis results inform proposed strategies for future …

The Controlled Release Of Neurotrophic Proteins From The Conducting Polymer Polypyrrole To Improve The Nerve/Cochlear Implant Interface, Brianna C. Thompson

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The cochlear implant has restored hearing to hundreds of thousands of profoundly deaf individuals since the early 1980s. The implant works by providing electrical stimulation directly to the auditory nerves, bypassing the damaged sensory processes. As the electrodes of the cochlear implant are required to directly stimulate the auditory nerves, the interface between these electrodes and the nervous system is a vital part of the function of the bionic device. However, in cases of long-term hearing loss the auditory nerve degenerates and auditory nerve processes, or neurites, retract away from the cochlea and the intra-cochlear electrodes. This leads to a …

Investigation Of Chemo-Mechanical Actuation In Polymer Gels, Salvador Enrique Lobato Larios

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The objective of this thesis is to investigate chemically – driven gel actuators and their usefulness to perform mechanical work. The thesis work has mainly concentrated on chitosan as the gel actuator material. Chitosan is a widely used biopolymer that shows a large volume transition through changing pH. The pH induced actuation behaviour of polymer gels makes these materials analogous to a biological muscle. From a mechanics viewpoint, polymers gels are very compliant, unlike more common engineering material such as metals or ceramics or even most polymers. The mechanical work output of an actuation system is determined from a combination …

Water And Wastewater Systems Sustainability In Remote Australia, Melanie Werner

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This research examines the sustainability of small water and wastewater systems for remote settlements in Central Australia, and develops a multi-criteria assessment framework to compare the performance of technologies for use in such systems. The sustainability of water and wastewater systems has been the subject of considerable research, for both centralised and decentralised systems in developed and developing countries. The use of Multi Criteria Assessment (MCA) to solve sustainability-oriented water and wastewater problems has also been the subject of prior research in a variety of settings. Both these fields have emphasised the need for locally determined definitions of sustainability and …

Building Babel: Freeing Multimedia Processing And Delivery From Hard-Coded Formats, Joseph Alfred Thomas-Kerr

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The amount of multimedia content available via the Internet, and the number of formats in which it is encoded, stored and delivered continues to grow rapidly. So too the number and diversity of the devices and software applications which produce, process and consume such content. This constantly changing landscape presents an increasing challenge to interoperability, since more and more software and hardware must be upgraded as new formats are developed. However, many of the operations performed on multimedia content are similar across coding formats. In recognising this, this thesis proposes several approaches to format-independent media processing, with an emphasis on …

Poverty And Inequality In Nepal: An Analysis Of Deprivation Index 2003-04, Chirangivi Bista

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Poverty in Nepal is widespread, complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Both the incidence of poverty (31%) and income inequality (0.37%) is high. This is the result of rapid urbanization process coupled with extended internal conflict and political instability. And, this has serious consequences especially in urban areas where the gaps between ‘haves’ and ‘haves not’ is highly elevated. On the contrary, rural inequality is declining gradually. The key macro economic indicators for the country show generally poor economic conditions. A huge amount of resources is being injected in the form of nation wide poverty alleviation programmes. However, the achievement level has …

Insoluble Oxide Product Formation And Its Effect On Coke Dissolution In Liquid Iron, M. Chapman

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

A significant body of work exists around coke dissolution into liquid iron, however there are key aspects of this important reaction that are not well described. This study was focused on gaining the answers to the questions “How does the coke mineral matter behave during coke dissolution?” and “Can the effects of sulphur and oxide layer formation on the dissolution rate be separated and quantified?”. Issues that must be addressed if the understanding of the kinetics of this reaction is to be advanced and coke's use in the blast furnace further optimised. To this end, a detailed investigation was conducted …