Digital Commons Network^™

Potential Of Sorghum Polyphenols To Prevent And Treat Alzheimer's Disease: A Review Article, Nasim Rezaee, Warnakulasuriya Mary Ann Dipika Fernando, Eugene Hone, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Stuart K. Johnson, Stuart Gunzburg, Ralph Martins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the excessive deposition of extracellular amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) and the build-up of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles containing hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. This leads to neuronal damage, cell death and consequently results in memory and learning impairments leading to dementia. Although the exact cause of AD is not yet clear, numerous studies indicate that oxidative stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction significantly contribute to its onset and progression. There is no effective therapeutic approach to stop the progression of AD and its associated symptoms. Thus, early intervention, preferably, pre-clinically when the brain is not significantly affected, is a …

Circulation Of Orhan Pamuk’S Benim Adim Kirmizi [My Name Is Red] In Contemporary Chinese-Indonesian Literature, Sebnem N. Karali, Alberta Natasia Adji

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article is an exploration of contemporary Turkish and Chinese-Indonesian literatures with regards to a mid to late 18th Century literary niche: the it-narrative. Thinking (noesis) back and forth between centuries and different literary genres makes (poiesis) the conversation possible, which addresses the socio-literary imagination of the last four centuries. The authors re- examine the genre of it-narrative outside 18th Century studies and reassess the encounter of Turkish author Orhan Pamuk and Chinese-Indonesian author Alberta Natasia Adji within the socio-cultural and historico-political context of modern Turkey and Indonesia. The question is how Pamuk’s use of prosopopoeia in his 1998 novel …

A Survey To Evaluate The Association Of Covid-19 Restrictions On Perceived Mood And Coping In Australian Community Level Athletes, Caitlin Fox-Harding, Sarah A. Harris, Shane L. Rogers, Shayne Vial, Philipp Beranek, Mitchell Turner, Travis Cruickshank

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Australian community level athletes faced unprecedented changes to their training andcompetition options as the global COVID-19 pandemic took a stronghold. This disruptionwas predicted to have a negative impact on emotional well-being as communitiesbraced through periods of social isolation and physical distancing requirements. Thisstudy provides an Australian perspective on the emotional well-being of communitylevel athletes and the extent to which they coped during the COVID-19 pandemic.Emotional well-being and coping were measured using the Brief Emotional ExperienceScale and the 28-item Brief Cope Scale. Both instruments were administered alongwith other questions pertaining to participant demographics and training status via anonline survey between April …

The Fringe Or The Heart Of Things? Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Musics In Australian Music Institutions, Clint Bracknell, Linda Barwick

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Teetering on the fringe of Australian music scholarship and knowledge institutions, research and teaching of local Indigenous musics hold a marginal place, belying the positioning of Indigenous music-makers at the centre of international representations of Australian culture, and the dynamic local connections of Indigenous music-making to Australian landscapes and social realities. Music’s ubiquity and diversity worldwide show its potential as a tool to manage the changing world in societies of the past and present, yet this potential is largely neglected in contemporary Australia, and our theories and evidence base are limited by the narrow western focus within our knowledge institutions. …

Visual Culture As A Teaching Practice In Visual Arts Education In Turkey: Practitioner Inquiry, Ebru Güler

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The present research investigates the experiences of pre-service visual arts teachers in the planning and application phase of a course focusing on visual culture in the special teaching methods course. This course in Turkey provides information about how and with what type of methodologies arts-related topics should be taught in visual arts education. During the first semester, the course was conducted theoretically, and in the second semester the researcher focused on the application of these theories. In this research, visual culture is discussed as one of the special teaching methods of visual arts education. A total of five visual arts …

Scale Development And Validation Of Anime Tourism Motivations, Shang Liu, Dan Lai, Songshan (Sam) Huang, Zhiyong Li

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Anime tourism has emerged as an important form of tourism resulted from both online and offline human activities and interactions. However, investigations into anime tourism motivations remain limited. Using Chinese anime tourists as study subjects and employing a mixed methods approach, this study develops a five-dimension anime tourism motivation scale with sufficient reliability and validity. The five motivational factors are anime authenticity seeking, novelty, escape/relaxation, socialisation, and anime cultural exploration. The results help understand unique anime tourist behaviours, expand the current knowledge of media-induced tourism, and extend contemporary cultural …

Temporal Digital Control: Theorizing The Use Of Digital Technologies To Provide A Temporal Autonomous Space, Nicola F. Johnson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© The Author(s) 2019. Screen time once referred to television. Nowadays, it includes various screen sizes that are internet-enabled devices, and the pervasive smartphone. Regardless of what kind of screen is used, screen time comprises much of life itself. Being online and offline is now fairly blurred because of the ubiquitousness of technologies, Wi-Fi and screens. This paper puts forth the notion of ‘temporal digital control’ to explain the choice of when and why smartphones and other portable digital devices are used in today’s cultural milieu, and it theorizes the ‘why’ of contemporary smartphone use is so prominent suggesting it …

Inside The Movie Roadshow: A Critical Approach To Media Events In China, Min Xu, Stijn Reijnders, Sangkyun Kim

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Although face-to-face events starring film professionals have become increasingly popular, they have rarely been studied, especially from the perspective of production. Focusing on the phenomenon of Chinese movie roadshows, this study explores the motivations and techniques used to produce popular media events in the Chinese film industry. Based on expert interviews with 15 media practitioners, the results showed that roadshows are staged as ritualized events that are centered on the performance of a symbolic boundary between “inside” and “outside” the media. Film industry professionals embrace …

Resisting Marginalisation And Reconstituting Space Through Lgbtqi+ Events, Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta, Anne Hardy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The field of event studies has attracted a breadth of research on the triple-bottom line of economic efficiency, environmental integrity and social equity. The focus of many studies related to event tourism, however, has fallen upon the economic and environmental dimensions of events with far less attention on “social equity.” The potential of events tourism to facilitate justice and equity for marginalised and minority groups has been especially overlooked. LGBTQI+ communities utilise gay events, such as pride parades, as mediums to communicate their identities and seek support from broader society. This paper examines a unique festival space where LGBTQI+ communities …

A Fish Out Of Water: Developing Intercultural Understanding Of Students In Higher Education, Nicole Leggett

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Experiential learning is a critical, dynamic and powerful element of learning in Higher Education. Often named international and domestic study trips or study tours, this educational strategy has the potential to transform the lives of students through engagement with another community or culture. This qualitative study explored the effects of experiential learning during a two-week study tour to Italy, involving two groups of students from an Australian University during 2017 and 2018. Students enrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood/Primary) degree, who were in their third year of studies, could enrol in the elective course entitled ‘Intercultural Understandings’ which …

Finding The Familiar In The Strange: Transcultural Learning As Rihla رحلة At An Australian University, T. Dobinson, Maggie Mcalinden, P. Mercieca, T. Bogachenko

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Diverse university campuses present an ideal context for fostering transcultural learning. Despite the potential that this diversity presents, universities in Australia have yet to make use of this opportunity. The pilot study described here investigates an informal learning experience created by the hosting of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) funded Arab Film Festival Australia (AFFA) on an Australian university campus. By imagining and exploring new ways in which universities can encourage transcultural learning and bring students and academics together, this …

Tripping Over The Other: Could Psychedelics Increase Empathy?, Emily Blatchford, Stephen Bright, Liam Engel

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

There is increasing evidence that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is effective for a range of psy-chological conditions. There are likely numerous mechanisms of action that contribute to these clinicaleffects. One such mechanism of action might involve psychedelics increasing levels of empathicfunctioning. This paper synthesises research concerning the relationship between psychedelics andempathy, emphasising neuroscientific and clinical contexts. We conclude that neuropsychological andclinical evidence imply psychedelics could lead to increased empathic functioning. The effects of psy-chedelics on the 5-HT system, default mode network, neural connectivity and ego dissolution areimplicated in these changes. Changes in empathic functioning also likely relate to increases in thepersonality trait …

Factors In Agency Development: A Supervisory Teaching Perspective, Paul Crowhurst, Linley Cornish

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Promoting student agency is an emerging priority in education. Supervisory teaching is a potentially useful approach for supporting agency development. This approach includes two characteristics, namely, tutorial learning conversations between the teacher and a group of one to four students, and students learning independently for extended periods of time. Supervisory teaching lessons in three primary-school classrooms were observed over a period of five months and teachers were interviewed as part of the data collection process. Five key factors were found to support students to have more agency in their learning: independence and ownership, scaffolding, students as teachers, joyfulness, and reflection. …

Asian Students' Perceptions Of How They Are Seen In 'The West': A Case Study At An Australian University, Toni J. Dobinson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Australian universities attract increasing numbers of students from the Asia-Pacific region. It is important, therefore, that academics have meaningful understandings of these students in order to provide them with a supportive learning environment. This article suggests that part of this understanding is being aware of the ways in which some of these students perceive they are seen by those in the receiving countries and the discourses which may feed these perceptions. The qualitative study reported here outlines the perceptions of 10 Vietnamese offshore postgraduates (VOPs) and nine Asian onshore postgraduates (AOPs) from different Asian countries at an Australian university. All …

Traumatic Dances Of The ‘Non-Self’: Bodily Incoherence And The Hysterical Archive, Jonathan Marshall

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

"We seem to be living in hysterical times. A simple Google search reveals the sheer bottomless well of “hysterical” discussions on diverse topics such as the #metoo movement, Trumpianism, border wars, Brexit, transgender liberation, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and climate change, to name only a few. Against the backdrop of such recent deployments of hysteria in popular discourse––particularly as they emerge in times of material and hermeneutic crisis––Performing Hysteria re-engages the notion of “hysteria”. Performing Hysteria rigorously mines late 20th- and early 21st-century (primarily visual) culture for signs of hysteria. The various essays in this volume contribute to the multilayered …

Indonesian Migrant Workers In Hong Kong: Smartphone Culture And Activism, Irfan Wahyudi, Panizza Allmark

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article focuses on contemporary smartphone culture and activism performed by female Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. There are around 330.000 migrant workers in Hong Kong, and wherein 150.000 originated from Indonesia. Most of the Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong work in the domestic sectors: housemaid, babysitter, and career. They are obliged to live with their employer and start working from five mornings until late at night for six days a week. The smartphone is their primary medium in keeping a connection with friends and families back home and reduces social isolation. Interestingly, Indonesian migrant workers also …

Aesthetic-Ethical-Political Movements In Professional Learning: Encounters With Feminist New Materialisms And Reggio Emilia In Early Childhood Research, Stefania Giamminuti, Jane Merewether, Mindy Blaise

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Professional learning is considered essential for early childhood teachers, and is frequently associated with childhood outcomes and dominant constructs of quality which perpetuate neoliberal ideals and position early childhood teachers within a framework of rationality, privileging discourses of masculinity and power. By engaging with feminist new materialist perspectives, with the concept of ‘movement’, and with the theory-practice of the educational project of the city of Reggio Emilia, Italy, this paper extends understandings of professional learning to include nonhuman others as worthy interlocutors, and puts forth …

Refugees’ Dreams Of The Past, Projected Into The Future, Carmen Jacques, Kelly Jaunzems, Layla Al-Hameed, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article is about refugees’ and migrants’ dreams of home and family and stems from an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, “A Hand Up: Disrupting the Communication of Intergenerational Welfare Dependency” (LP140100935), with Partner Organisation St Vincent de Paul Society (WA) Inc. (Vinnies). A Vinnies-supported refugee and migrant support centre was chosen as one of the hubs for interviewee recruitment, given that many refugee families experience persistent and chronic economic disadvantage. The de-identified name for the drop-in language-teaching and learning social facility is the Migrant and Refugee Homebase (MARH). At the time of the research, in 2018, refugee and forced …

Enchanted Animism: A Matter Of Care, Jane Merewether

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© The Author(s) 2020. Jean Piaget, whose work continues to be very influential in early childhood education, associated young children’s animism with their ‘primitive thought’ claiming children remain animists until they reach a more advanced and rational stage of development. This article proposes a rethinking of the Piagetian view of animism, suggesting instead that children’s animism be conceived as a ‘matter of care’ which may then offer possibilities for living more responsively and attentively with non human others. Drawing on two recent research projects involving two-to-eight-year-old children, the article contends that children’s playful and speculative ‘enchanted animism’ can create a …

School Librarians As Literacy Educators Within A Complex Role, Margaret K. Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Librarians in schools are expected to play an important role as literacy educators, and have a positive impact on young people’s literacy learning. However in the context of their diverse workload, relatively little is known about how this aspect of their role sits within its competing demands, and the exact scope of the literacy educator requirements. Using a hybrid approach to content analysis, this article analyses 40 recent job description documents to identify the nature and prevalence of different aspects of the role, and to explore the literacy educator aspect of this profession. Findings suggest that while the literacy educator …

Intercultural Communication Competence In Upper Primary Students: International Collaboration Case Studies Using Web 2.0 Technologies, Rebecca Louise Duyckers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Globalisation has seen our world become increasingly interconnected through the rapid expansion of digital technologies. Intercultural communication competence is a key aspect of global competence for young people to develop their skills, values and behaviours as global citizens. The rapid expansion of the social web (Web 2.0) enables teachers to create rich authentic learning experiences that foster the development of students’ intercultural communication competence through synchronous and asynchronous web tools. The inclusion of these learning experiences engage students beyond the traditional classroom, enabling them to improve and advance 21st Century skills of collaboration, critical and creative thinking, perseverance, interpretation and …

Understanding Pro-Environmental Binning Behaviour Of National Park Visitors: A Cross-Cultural Study, Kourosh Esfandiar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The growing importance of people’s pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) in relation to reducing their negative impacts and/or increasing their positive impacts in natural areas has attracted considerable research interest. Visitor engagement in pro-environmental activities is one of the key elements in maintaining and improving a national park’s ecological and biological resources. These resources are often the main components of tourism products developed in nature-based destinations.

A specific concern for many national park managers is the generation of litter by visitors. A PEB to solve the problem of litter management in national parks is binning i.e. putting litter in a bin. As …

Innovating Authentically: Cultural Differentiation In The Animation Sector, Susan Standing, Craig Standing

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper examines the concept of authentic innovation and the development of the animation industry in Malaysia. Authenticity is a concept that has been investigated from philosophical and institutional perspectives in the quest to explain the role of self-fulfillment and decision-making. It links with systems thinking because authenticity as a strategy requires a holistic approach since it is based upon values that influence action. The desire for authenticity can create expression outside the norms and produce innovation. We present interpretations of authenticity, explain the concept of authentic innovation and relate this to three case studies of Malaysian animation studios. We …

Fake It ‘Til You Make It: The Virtual Orchestra In New Electronic Music, Michael Terren

Sound Scripts

This paper describes a variety of audio technologies under the neologism “the virtual orchestra,” their relationship with neoliberal capitalism, and four electronic music works that utilise these technologies to highlight this relationship. The virtual orchestra comprises digital technologies that emulate orchestral performances, ranging from the ersatz sounds of General MIDI in the 1990s (often used in computer game soundtracks), to orchestral sample libraries, which can be virtually indiscernible from a well-recorded orchestral performance. It is suggested that the virtual orchestra emerged as part of a cultural movement that privileges individualism and control, and that this has precedence in the structure …

Wild Swans By Elena Kats-Chernin: The Journey From The Australian Ballet To The Uk Dance Charts, Helen Rusak

Sound Scripts

In 2003 composer Elena Kats-Chernin collaborated with choreographer Meryl Tankard to produce Wild Swans, a ballet based upon the theme of Hans Christian Anderson’s enduring tale evoking the sufferings of Eliza’s fate to save her brothers from the evil curse of their stepmother. It resulted in a score rich with a wide range of musical sources underscoring a tableaux of dance and images beautifully evocative of the tale. The work was premiered by the Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House on 29 April 2003. This paper looks at the unexpected journey that one of the musical movements from the …

Youth Matters: Shedding Light On Displacement In Syrian Girls' Memoirs, Alberta Natasia Adji

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In the face of war and political crisis, fleeing a country seems to be the best choice to get on with life. Among many refugee memoirs, so far young adult refugee texts have received little attention. This article analyses two young Syrian girls’ memoirs by Nujeen Mustafa and Yusra Mardini to investigate their experience of displacement. I argue that both Nujeen and Butterfly are prime specimens of young displacement memoir phenomena which act as a venue for identity negotiation. This point has much to do with their navigating the tensions between personal and collective selves to disclose their trauma and …

Coral Microbiome Database: Integration Of Sequences Reveals High Diversity And Relatedness Of Coral-Associated Microbes, Megan J. Huggett, Amy Apprill

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Coral-associated microorganisms are thought to play a fundamental role in the health and ecology of corals, but understanding of specific coral-microbial interactions are lacking. In order to create a framework to examine coral-microbial specificity, we integrated and phylogenetically compared 21,100 SSU rRNA gene Sanger-produced sequences from bacteria and archaea associated with corals from previous studies, and accompanying host, location and publication metadata, to produce the Coral Microbiome Database. From this database, we identified 39 described and candidate phyla of Bacteria and two Archaea phyla associated with corals, demonstrating that corals are one of the most phylogenetically diverse animal microbiomes. Secondly, …

Collaborative Coteaching (Cct): Practitioner Learning Through Shared Praxis, Joanne Yoo, Keith Heggart, Nina Burridge

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores the benefits of coteaching a philosophy and ethics subject for final year Australian primary preservice education students. It depicts the learning experiences of two early career academics, who were the coresearchers and coauthors of this article. A third author acted as a critical friend who facilitated reflective discussion around their coteaching practices. The coteachers adopt the living theory methodology to investigate collaborative coteaching as an effective model of instruction in higher education through a case study of their own practice. The primary data sources include both coteachers’ weekly journals, an interview discussion with a critical friend, informal …

Does A “Science, Technology And Social Change” Course Improve Scientific Habits Of Mind And Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues?, Muammer Çalik, Faik Özgür Karataş

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The study aimed at exploring whether a “Science-Technology-Social Change” course improved pre-service social studies teachers’ (PST) scientific habits of mind and attitudes towards socio-scientific issues. Within a pre- and post-course experimental design, the study was conducted with 135 second-year PST (68 males and 67 females) from two classes at Department of Social Studies Teacher Education in a large-size university, Turkey. Two different Likert type scales, Scientific Habits of Mind Scale and Attitudes towards Socioscientific Issues Scale, were employed to collect data before and after the course. The data were imported to SPSS 15^TM for descriptive and inferential statistics in …

Democratic Contribution Or Information For Reform? Prevailing And Emerging Discourses Of Student Voice, Jennifer Charteris, Dianne Smardon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While a range of typologies frame and critique the scope, purpose and power relations of different student voice approaches, it is timely to look at the direction that student voice literature has taken in recent years and map dominant discourses in the field. In the article the following questions are addressed: (a) What are the dominant discourses in student voice literature? (b) What are the ways forward, to ensure there is both systemic quality assurance and democratic (if not radical) student participation? The discourses named and interrogated in this article include: governmentality; accountability; institutional transformation and reform; learner agency; personalising …