Digital Commons Network^™

Parental And Carer Responses To Angelman Syndrome And Prader-Willi Syndrome, Allyson K. Thomson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research project undertaken as part of this thesis was designed to assess family stress levels and the use of coping strategies among the carers of people with an intellectual disability caused by Angelman syndrome (AS) or Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Both syndromes are genomic imprinting disorders that arise from disruptions in genes located within human chromosome 15q11-q13. Although the disease phenotypes are quite distinct, the genetic mechanisms involved are common to both syndromes but involve paternally-derived mutations in PWS as opposed to maternal mutations in AS. Previous investigations in Western Australia (WA) indicated that people with AS and PWS experience …

Toward A Better Understanding Of Motivations For A Geotourism Experience: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective, Mamoon Allan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Motivation theories and studies play a vital role in understanding why tourists travel and the kind of activities they engage in whilst away from home. By reviewing the literature, it is apparent that previous tourism studies pay scant attention to the issue of why people travel to geosites and this important issue is still an undeveloped area of study. Therefore, investigating the motivations of tourists undertaking a geotourism (geology and tourism) experience reflects an urgent need to bridge the gap in the geotourism literature. The purpose of this study is to explore the different motivations behind tourists engaging in a …

Philosophy For Teenagers: Finding New Relevence In Old Concepts, Andrea Monteath

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In 2008, the Curriculum Council of Western Australia launched a formal curriculum of philosophy and ethics education for upper secondary students. This thesis is a writing project that provides a new teaching text in support of this course. The thesis is composed of two components, a creative project and an essay. The creative project is a work of non-fiction entitled, Philosophy for Teenagers: Finding New Relevance in Old Concepts, and has been researched and designed employing the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) Philosophy and Ethics course model. Philosophy for Teenagers aims to provide an innovative introduction to concepts such …

The Relationship Between Residential Satisfaction, Sense Of Community, Sense Of Belonging And Sense Of Place In A Western Australian Urban Planned Community, Kylie M. Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Residential satisfaction is important as it contributes to a person‟s psychological wellbeing and quality of life. Residential satisfaction develops due to physical factors such as the provision of parks and amenities within a community, social factors such as a feeling of belongingness to the community and social support within the community and personal factors such as homeownership and length of residence. Sense of community, sense of belonging and sense of place also influence residential satisfaction; however, the extent that these contribute is unclear. As a result, this study investigated the contribution of these constructs to the development of residential satisfaction …

Adapting To Change: An Exploration Of Students' Transition Experiences In A Senior College In Western Australia, Linda Rogerson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research sought to explore the experiences of students during their transition to a senior college. The senior college was established in response to the amendments to education policy in Western Australia that made it compulsory for students to remain in full-time education, training or employment until the age of 17 years (Department of Education and Training, 2008). Senior colleges were established to teach Years 11 and 12 exclusively, to promote a school environment that suited the maturity of senior students. Students attending senior colleges experience an additional transition during their senior school years and, as previous research has shown, …

Incarcerating Indigenous People Of The Wongatha Lands In The Eastern Goldfields Of Western Australia : Indigenous Leaders’ Perspectives, Stephen J. Bedells

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Wongi

people are Indigenous to the Goldfields region and account for just 10 per cent of the population; yet they make up 90 per cent of the prisoners. With Indigenous incarceration rates above 8,000 per 100,000 adult male population in Western Australia, imprisonment is clearly a common experience for Indigenous men and women that profoundly affect the lives of their families. Gaols are meant to be used as a sentence of last resort when the severity of the offence requires severe punishment and prevention of further offences requires close confinement. For this research, Wongi leaders were interviewed about their …

“Make A Bomb In Your Mums Kitchen”: Cyber Recruiting And Socialisation Of ‘White Moors’ And Home Grown Jihadists, Robyn Torok

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

As a consequence of the war on terror, al-Qaeda and associated jihad groups have evolved and made increasing use of internet technologies for cyber recruitment. Recently, there has been an increasing focus on recruiting home grown terrorists who can more easily escape the scrutiny of cross border entries. Case study analysis indicates that links do exist between cyber tools, radicalisation and terrorism, however, the strength and nature of these relationships is generally unclear. Evidence does seem to support that cyber tools are most significant in the initial phases of recruitment and radicalisation. Coupled with this is the strong evolution of …

Chemical Plume Tracing By Discrete Fourier Analysis And Particle Swarm Optimization, Eugene Jun Jie Neo, Eldin Wee Chuan Lim

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

A novel methodology for solving the chemical plume tracing problem that utilizes data from a network of stationary sensors has been developed in this study. During a toxic chemical release and dispersion incident, the imperative need of first responders is to determine the physical location of the source of chemical release in the shortest possible time. However, the chemical plume that develops from the source of release may evolve into a highly complex distribution over the entire contaminated region, making chemical plume tracing one of the most challenging problems known to date. In this study, the discrete Fourier series method …

Criminal Intelligence Career Development – Supporting The Case For Integration And Inclusion, Wayne Snell

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

The implementation of a developmental continuum for intelligence professionals, based on a traditional competency model may be ubiquitous across the breadth of intelligence. This paper argues that specialised contextual and cultural education and training and subsequent recognition of those skills, knowledge and attributes, is an essential element in achieving organisational and individual objectives for criminal intelligence professionals. The full integration of criminal intelligence operations into police and law enforcement decision making at the tactical, operational and strategic levels is an aspirational step in achieving a multidisciplinary operational environment. The delineation of intelligence practitioners based on employment status, facilitated by the …

Countering Home-Grown Terrorists In Australia: An Overview Of Legislation, Policy And Actors Since 2001, Michael G. Crowley

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

This article explores the impact of counter-terrorism legislation and policy in Australia. In particular it explores how legislation facilitated prosecution and conviction of persons involved in home-grown terrorism, including analysis of investigation and prosecution policy surrounding the ul-Haque and Haneef cases. Particular attention is given to the terrorism trials involving Benbrika & Ors and Elomar & Ors. What makes these trials intriguing is the fact that most of those convicted could be more easily described as more vulnerable than menacing. Sentencing of those convicted was cognate with no policies for rehabilitation. The small number of convictions under the legislation when …

Hearts And Minds, Psuedo Gangs And Counter Insurgency: Based Upon Experiences From Previous Campaigns In Kenya (1952-60), Malaya (1948-60) & Rhodesia (1964-1979), Bill Bailey

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

Pseudo gangs form the steely side of Hearts and Minds and were used with great effect in counter-insurgency campaigns in Kenya (1952-60) Malaya (1948-60) and Rhodesia (1964-1979). Although the use of pseudo gangs was not new to counter-insurgency tactics, with the British using a similar tactic in the Boer war (1899-1902), the use of such gangs was certainly perfected during these later campaigns producing good results. The Kenya Police Special Branch re-instigated this concept, developing its use during the ‘Emergency’. The principal concept was to ‘turn’ or co-opt insurgents through a series of inducements to change sides and join the …

Organisational Resilience: A Propositional Study To Understand And Identify The Essential Concepts, Bruce Braes, David Brooks

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Increased exposure to turmoil has raised business, social and governmental concerns over the ability of organisations to anticipate and respond positively to disruptions. Organisations are spending increased sums of money to raise levels of security; however, Organisational Resilience is a vague, multidisciplined and diverse philosophy, requiring a multiplicity of skills and knowledge that reaches far beyond security alone. The resilience domain is still developing and expanding; however, early embodiments of Organisational Resilience, originating in the United Kingdom and the United States, were nothing more than a rebranding of business continuity management strategies, put together as a ‘resilience processes’, or ‘resilience …

Assessing Vulnerabilities Of Biometric Readers Using An Applied Defeat Evaluation Methodology, David Brooks

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Access control systems using biometric identification readers are becoming common within critical infrastructure and other high security applications. There is a perception that biometric, due to their ability to identify and validate the user, are more secure. However, biometric systems are vulnerable to many categories of attack vectors and there has been restricted research into such defeat vulnerabilities. This study expands on a past article (Brooks, 2009) that presented a defeat evaluation methodology applied to high-security biometric readers. The defeat methodology is represented, but applied to both fingerprint and back-of-hand biometric readers. Defeat evaluation included both physical and technical integrity …

National Security: A Propositional Study To Develop Resilience Indicators As An Aid To Personnel Vetting, David Brooks, Jeff Corkill, Julie-Ann Pooley, Lynne Cohen, Cath Ferguson, Craig Harmes

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Within the National Security domain there is a convergence of security responsibility across the national security agencies, law enforcement and private security sectors. The sensitivity of this environment requires individuals operating in the domain to be honest, trustworthy and loyal. Personnel vetting is a formal process used to determine an individual’s suitability for access to this domain. Notwithstanding this process, significant breaches of trust, security, and corruption still occur. In psychology, resilience is a well researched phenomenon that is considered a multidimensional construct where individual attributes, family aspects and social environment interact in aiding individuals to deal with vulnerability. There …

Terrorism In Australia: A Psychometric Study Into The Western Australian Public Perception Of Terrorism, Richard Sargent, David J. Brooks

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Terrorism is not a new concept, as historically terrorist organisations have used the threat of violence or actual violence to generate fear in individuals, organisations and governments alike. Fear is a weapon and is used to gain political, ideological or religious objectives. Past terrorist attacks have raised concerns around the world, as governments ensured that their anti-terrorism security strategies are adequate. Domestically, Australia upgraded its capacity to respond to terrorism events through security enhancements across many areas and with new initiatives such as the 2002 public counter terrorism campaign. Nevertheless, there has been restricted research into how terrorist events have …

Influence Operations: Action And Attitude, William Hutchinson

Australian Information Warfare and Security Conference

This paper investigates the relationships between attitudes, behaviour and influence. The major objective of influence operations is predominantly to exert soft power and in doing this there is an assumption that it will change attitudes. It is assumed that by changing attitudes favourable to the influencer that behaviours will be changed. However, this is a problematic assumption. Influence operations whose messages seem to contradict the real behaviour of the influencer tends to nullify the message; and, in fact, might reinforce the attitudes and behaviours of the foe and begin to alienate friends. Messages should be based on a credible reality; …

Information Leakage Through Online Social Networking: Opening The Doorway For Advanced Persistence Threats, Nurul Nuha Abdul Molok, Shanton Chang, Atif Ahmad

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The explosion of online social networking (OSN) in recent years has caused damages to organisations due to leakage of information by their employees. Employees’ social networking behaviour, whether accidental or intentional, provides an opportunity for advanced persistent threats (APT) attackers to realise their social engineering techniques and undetectable zero-day exploits. APT attackers use a spear-phishing method that targeted on key employees of victim organisations through social media in order to conduct reconnaissance and theft of confidential proprietary information. This conceptual paper posits OSN as the most challenging channel of information leakage and provides an explanation about the underlying factors of …

Review: Disillusionment With Radical Social Groups, Kira J. Harris

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

Disengagement from radical social groups is a complex process initiated by the experience of a crisis, or disillusionment causing a re-evaluation of involvement. This paper provides a review of the experiences that hinder group involvement and increases the likelihood of disengagement. Utilising the categorisation by Klandersman (2005) and Demant et al. (2008a), the factors are discussed under the themes of normative, affective, and continuance. Normative factors rely on the ideological premise to ensure membership is viewed as a moral obligation, while the affective factors incorporate the social and organisational aspects facilitating emotional attachment to the group, and continuance factors are …

International Relations And Cyber Attacks: Official And Unofficial Discourse, Kay Hearn, Patricia A H Williams, Rachel J. Mahncke

Australian Information Warfare and Security Conference

The potential for cyberwarfare is vast and is of concern to all nations, and national security defence. It appears that many countries are actively trying to protect their computer networks, whilst looking for ways that might bring down the networks of other countries, although this is not officially acknowledged. Bringing down another nations computer networks could give the attacking national intelligence and control. These kinds of interactions are now a part of the way in which international relations are played out, and the internet is also a place in which international relations are contested. As such the internet plays a …

Information Warfare: Time For A Redefinition, Patricia A H Williams

Australian Information Warfare and Security Conference

Information warfare has become an increasingly diverse field. The changes to its composition have been primarily driven by changes in technology and the resulting increased access to information. Further, it has been the progressively more diverse methods available for communication that has fuelled expanding applications for information warfare techniques into non-military environments. In order for younger generations of students to understand the place of information warfare in the larger security picture, there is a need to shift the emphasis from many of the military underpinnings to its relevance in modern society and the challenges in the commercial environment. This paper …

New Music Audiences: The Generative Impulse, David Tham

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper looks at how the net neutrality debate relates to the music recording industry and considers how new media audiences consume music as social experience and with generative impulse. As the Internet appears to force the music recording industry to re-evaluate its function and change its approach to distributing music and making money, music artistes seem to no longer need to rely on ‘record deals’ to launch or build a music career; and music audiences no longer have to rely on Top-40 radio to be told what is popular listening. This phenomenon has serious implications for new and emerging …

What Happens To Your Thesis After Examination?, David L. Howard

Graduate Research School Scholarly Works

What happens to your thesis once the examiner reports are back and you have made your corrections? This session will help prepare candidates for the penultimate step in their research journey - including their thesis in the university library collection. From the beginning of 2011, ECU will move to digital retention of the final thesis and no longer require a bound copy. There are also changes being made to making ECU theses available online. David Howard, Manager of Library Collections and Access, will outline what digital format is required by the library for inclusion in the collection. He will also …

What Do Primary School Principals From The Yamaji Region Or Mid West Education District Say About Their School's Bullying Prevention And Management Guidelines And Practices And How They Support The Strengths And Needs Of Aboriginal Students And Their Families?, Dionne Paki

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Australia‟s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are over represented in poor health and education outcomes. Little is known about the bullying experiences of Aboriginal school age children and young people. This Master's study aimed to investigate the policies and practises school principals use for bullying prevention and management in primary schools located in the Yamaji region or Midwest Education District of Western Australia.
This study was conducted in conjunction with the Child Health Promotion Research Centre‟s Solid Kids, Solid Schools project. Solid Kids, Solid Schools is a four-year study that aimed to contextualise the bullying experiences of Yamaji school-age …

Making Information Security Acceptable To The User , Andrew Jones, Thomas Martin

International Cyber Resilience conference

The security of information that is processed and stored in Information and Communications Technology systems is an ongoing problem that, as yet, has not been satisfactorily resolved. Software developers, system architects and managers all aspire to use technology to provide improvements in the protection of information that is processed and stored on these systems. However, they are working in an environment where the threats to the information, the technologies in use and the uses to which the technologies are being employed are changing at a pace which is faster than can be effectively addressed. This paper looks at the underlying …

The Use Of Governance To Identify Cyber Threats Through Social Media, David M. Cook

International Cyber Resilience conference

Identifying which website, Facebook page or Linked-in connection could lead to an engagement with a terrorist group is beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. Differentiation of one website from another in terms of cyber threat is a complex problem in terms of separating those that encourage and sponsor radicalization and those that do not. These claims usually exist without evidence, and almost always without the opportunity to know where social justice and human-rights support ends, and reaction, dissidence and subversion begins. By overlaying the new modes of governance (NMG) framework against sites and connections that may be subject to ongoing …

E-Partnerships: Library Information Acquisition In The Comfort Of Students’ Digital Homes, Julia Gross, Eva Dobozy

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper presents a case study of how a university lecturer and a faculty librarian built upon their shared concerns about first-year students’ lack of information literacy. It describes in some detail their underlying beliefs, which led to this experimental intervention design and the strategic e-partnership. Embedded library podcasts were used to push library information to students. The potential and actual impact of this e-partnership on personalised support for a diverse student body is explored and an argument is presented for e-partnerships among university staff in an effort to better assist first-year higher education students.

Moral Disengagement: Exploring Support Mechanisms For Violent Extremism Among Young Egyptian Males, Paul S. Lieber, Yael Efreom-Lieber, Christopher Rate

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

This study applied Bandura’s (1986) eight mechanisms of moral disengagement to a sample of young, Egyptian Muslim males (N=660). Findings uncovered two distinct scoring groups, likewise a statistically significant (p<.01) relationship between higher reported levels of moral disengagement and age. For this sample, younger individuals were likewise more apt to possess higher levels of moral disengagement. Findings argue for additional analyses exploring these relationships, likewise employing counter-violence, communication interventions derived specifically from Bandura’s identified mechanisms.

The Internet As Ideological Battleground, Anne Aly

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

Recent global events that have brought to light the use of new technologies by terrorist groups have focused attention on the role of the internet in the radicalisation of vulnerable individuals and groups towards a violent extremism. In 2007, the case of Abdul Basheer, a law graduate in Singapore arrested for attempting to join the Taliban in Afghanistan drew attention to the use of the Internet as a source of inspiration and information for would be terrorists. More recently Sydney man Belal Khazaal became the first person to be convicted on the charge of making a document connected with assisting …

The Experiences Of First Time Fathers In Western Australia: A Qualitative Analysis Into The Transition To Fatherhood, Ian D. Clayton-Smith

Theses : Honours

According to critical life events framework, the transition to parenthood can be filled with anticipation and excitement, yet it can be extremely difficult for some. The transition to parenthood begins during pregnancy when the parents begin to form emotional bonds with the unborn child, and continues for some time after the birth of the baby, ending when the infant reaches two years of age. There exists a vast amount of research on the experiences of the female transition, but there is little in comparison about the experiences of the male transition to becoming a father for the first time. The …

The Pipeline Project: Trajectories Of Classroom Behaviour And Academic Progress : A Study Of Student Engagement With Learning, Max Angus, Tim Mcdonald, Chris Ormond, Rudy Rybarcyk, Anthea Taylor, Anne Winterton

Research outputs pre 2011

The Pipeline Project addresses three questions concerning the relationship between the classroom behaviour of students and their academic performance. First, to what extent does classroom behaviour explain why students fall behind and fail to meet acceptable standards in literacy and numeracy; second, if student classroom behaviour does influence academic performance, what forms of classroom behaviour are of most significance; and third, are the students whose behaviour has contributed to their underperformance in literacy and numeracy likely to ever catch up?