Digital Commons Network^™

Novel Molecular Approaches To Diagnostic And Epidemiological Analyses Of Cryptosporidiumspp.Implicated In Clinical Infection, Jennifer K. O'Leary

Theses

Cryptosporidium remains an underestimated, yet highly prevalent, parasitic agent of gastrointestinal illness worldwide. In clinical settings, diagnosis has previously relied on microscopic techniques. However, enteric parasite targeting molecular tools, such as real-time PCR panels, have superseded microscopy in recent years. This body of work examines the nature, implications and opportunities of this paradigm shift. This thesis is divided into seven chapters that consist of a literature review chapter, five experimental chapters focusing on the molecular diagnosis and epidemiological analysis of Cryptosporidium spp., and a final summary chapter. Chapter I provides the contextual narrative and supportive reasoning behind the research undertaken …

Robust Control Strategies For Optimal Operation Of Distributed Generation In Smart Microgrids, Chi-Thang Phan-Tan

Theses

The high penetration of PV systems and fast communications networks increase the potential for PV inverters to support the stability and performance of smart grids and microgrids. PV inverters in the distribution network can work cooperatively and follow centralized and decentralized control commands to optimize energy production while meeting grid code requirements. However, there are older autonomous inverters that have already been installed and will operate in the same network as smart controllable ones. This research proposes a decentralized optimal control (DOC) that performs multi-objective optimization for a group of PV inverters in a network of existing residential loads and …

Aims: Action Against Infirmity And Malnutrition In Seniors, Maeve Lorraine Mary O'Connell

Theses

Aim: The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between nutrition and frailty in Irish older adults. The nutritional status, dietary quality and perceived barriers/motivators to nutrition were also examined, and a frailty intervention protocol was designed. Methods: Cross-sectional study in Irish community-dwelling adults aged ≥65 years. Nutritional status, dietary intake, functional mobility and food choice motivators/healthy eating barriers were assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment – Short Form (MNA-SF), a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and a custom designed 2-item questionnaire, respectively. Frailty was defined as three or more of …

Without Hindrance Or Fear Of Reprisals: The Attitudes And Experiences Of Doctors With A Conscientious Objection To Abortion In New South Wales And Victoria, Anna Walsh

Theses

This thesis explores the phenomena of conscience from the perspective of doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion. Its focus is a novel empirical study on the attitudes and experiences of 35 doctors who self-identify as having a conscientious objection to abortion and who practice in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Findings include the reasons for their objection and the types of actions they refuse to perform, whether and how the law has limited the free expression of their beliefs in the workplace, and what they would change to achieve a more reasonable accommodation of their conscientious objection in …

The Golden Age Of The Economics Of Bureaucracy, Chang-Yeh (Michael) Wu

Theses

The economics of bureaucracy (EOB) is a field of research that emerged from the public choice movement in the mid-1960s through to the early 1970s. It entailed applying traditional economic theories and modelling techniques to study decision-making in non-market hierarchies that are often referred to as bureaucracies. The field was pioneered and codified by Gordon Tullock, Anthony Downs, and William Niskanen in what may be called the ‘golden age’ of EOB. Establishing EOB as a bona fide research domain was a challenging intellectual enterprise due to the absence of a pre-existing conceptual framework to readily model bureaucracies within the economics …

The Personal And Professional Experiences Of Female Principals In Catholic Education Western Australia (Cewa) Composite And Secondary Schools, Maria Loreta Outtrim

Theses

The purpose of this research was to explore the personal and professional experiences of female principals in Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) composite and secondary schools. The study investigates factors that encourage female educational leaders to become principals, the expectations and demands of being a female principal, factors that support and sustain female principals, and the challenges that female principals face in CEWA composite and secondary schools (CCSS).

The review of literature highlighted four areas which formed the conceptual framework in this research. The four areas were relevant to female principalship in CEWA composite and secondary schools. These areas included …

'Ice In The Family' : Exploring The Experiences Of Close Family Members When Another Family Member Is Using Methamphetamine, Douglas Greg Gordon

Theses

Worldwide, the impact of illicit methamphetamine use has been increasingly recognised over the past two decades. Emergency Department presentations and physical and mental health effects have led to a focus on developing effective treatments for methamphetamine users. Little research has explored the impact, specifically of methamphetamine, on family members. Methamphetamine itself possesses unique differences from other drugs in both its direct effects and its mental and physical health impact on the user.

To this end, this longitudinal qualitative study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand the lived experiences of family members of methamphetamine users. The study was conducted in Bunbury …

Implementing Quality Improvement Strategies In Real-World General Practice- A Study Focused On Cardiovascular Disease, Charlotte Hespe

Theses

Introduction

General practitioners (GPs) are central to cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and management. However, multiple studies show they have sub-optimal assessment and management of CVD risk. The central question addressed in this thesis was: How do we translate preventive care guidelines into the real world of Australian general practice through Quality Improvement Collaboration (QIC)?

Methods

The research comprised of four studies. The first examined the experiences of stakeholders participating in a quality improvement collaboration (QIC) intervention undertaken in Australian primary care [the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives [APCC] program], and the second assessed implementation of the 2012 CVD risk management guidelines …

Multilayered Agency And Religion: A Study Of The Catholic Bishops Conference Of The Philippines (1986–1998), Christian Santos

Theses

The present thesis examines the core issue of how to understand and situate the agency of a religious actor in International Relations (IR). This is investigated through a case study of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in two comparative policy contexts: agrarian land reform and family planning. The CBCP is a permanent institution within the Catholic Church as a collective of the bishops of the Philippines. The research employs analytic eclecticism as the method to integrate select works from four principal scholars: Colin Wight, Adrian Pabst, Atalia Omer and Mariano Barbato. Wight’s tripartite multilayered framework of agency …

The Synthesis And Biological Assessment Of Novel Ursolic Acid Derivatives As Potential Chemotherapeutic Agents For Cancer, Julie Rose Mae Mondala

Theses

Glioblastoma (GBM) is considered to be the most biologically aggressive type of brain tumour accounting for approximately 48% of all malignant primary brain tumours. GBM patients diagnosed have poor prognosis with a low five-year survival rate of

The aim of this study was to develop novel UA derivatives to enhance its bioavailability. Nine novel UA derivatives: three different diamine linkers, with Boc-protected and deprotected ends, and with folic acid were designed and synthesized to improve compound activity and/or delivery. The structures of the newly synthesised compounds were confirmed using mass spectrometry, FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The structural activity …

Geospatial Analysis Of Wildland Fire Impact On Surface Air Pollution Utilizing Data Fusion, Ashlyn Lee Shirey

Theses

As vehicular and industrial impacts on air pollution continue to decrease over the continental United States (CONUS), smoke from wildland fires has become the major contributor to particulate matter pollution (PM2.5). With the frequency of wildland fires expected to increase, there is considerable interest in quantifying their impact on PM2.5 pollution. For the first time, this work estimates smoke impact on PM2.5 pollution over CONUS using direct observations of presence of smoke at the surface made by trained observers. These observations are combined with in situ observations of PM2.5 and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) smoke forecast fields to …

Differentiating Oil Palm Plantations From Natural Forest To Improve Land Cover Mapping In Ghana, Jacob C. Abramowitz

Theses

Tree crops like oil palm present a unique challenge in land cover mapping, as they are often misclassified as natural forest. The area cultivated with oil palm in Ghana has rapidly expanded since 2000, and production is expected to continue to increase. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite data was used to map mature, closed-canopy oil palm extent in 2019 around a known oil palm mill in a Ghana study area that includes both industrial plantations and smallholders. The combination of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 inputs outperformed either input alone for mapping industrial oil palm. A separate accuracy assessment for this combined input …

A Case For Simple, Low-Cost Autotuning Heuristics For Efficient Performance Of Irregular Algorithms, Phillip Allen Lane

Theses

Irregular algorithms (i.e., algorithms that make irregular memory accesses) are notorious for being difficult to optimize on parallel architectures due to load imbalance in the number of computational operations and memory access overheads. However, they are critically important as they include algorithms for sparse linear algebra and graph algorithms. Common optimizations include schedulers, orderings, and data structures that try to mitigate workload imbalance across computational units. Many current mitigations of this problem necessitate expert tuning by high-performance engineers. Methods for autotuning, which do not require an expert, are developing a trend towards large complex heuristics that are expensive in both …

Assessing Flaw Detection Capability Of Laser Powder Bed Fusion In Situ Monitoring, Erin Lanigan

Theses

Monitoring systems developed for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) metal additive manufacturing (AM) can be useful in qualifying parts. Aerospace applications often require nondestructive evaluation (NDE) as part of a damage tolerance approach. However, AM poses a challenge for NDE due to the typical part size and complexity. In situ monitoring can potentially take advantage of the layer-wise manufacturing process to inspect the part as it is built. This requires correlating indications in the monitoring data with the formation of flaws in the finished part. To develop this correlation, LPBF samples were made with seeded voids. Destructive serial sectioning metallography …

The Fountain Formula. Damien Hirst’S Use Of Marcel Duchamp’S Readymade Controversy, Grayson Nader

Theses

Controversial art challenges the norms of society, by pushing boundaries to expose what is comfortable and uncomfortable. It inevitably garners attention and demands discourse. Marcel Duchamp was an innovator of controversy. He was angered by the status quo and material greed of the art industry of the early 1900s and rebelled against it with his now-famous readymade, Fountain. In Fountain, Duchamp created a formula that used controversy to garner attention from the public, the media and the art world. This formula was used by various artists throughout the past century. Contemporary artist Damien Hirst was disillusioned by the monotony of …

The Use Of Differential Reinforcement Of Other Behavior To Decrease Scripting, Kathleen Egbert, Robbie Hanson

Theses

Vocal scripting is a behavior commonly targeted for reduction with individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when it occurs at a rate or severity that interferes with learning (e.g., Koegel & Covert, 1972). Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) has been shown to be effective for reducing scripting in previous research, however additional replications of these results would add to the research literature to continue to support its use for this issue. The purpose of this study was to implement a DRO schedule with a young girl with ASD to reduce vocal scripting. The results showed a slight decrease in …

The Effects Of Preference Assessments On The Duration Of Independent Play For A Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Elise Amo, Robbie Hanson

Theses

Plays skills are important within typical development and independent play has shown to lead to the development of other skills, such as increased social interactions (Edwards et al., 2018). Previous research has demonstrated increases in independent play for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who display skill deficits in this area. However, research has been largely lacking for increasing independent play for individuals with ASD who simply display a preference for interacting with adults. The current study examined the effectiveness of incorporating a multiple-stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessment to increase the duration of independent play for a child with …

The Effects Of Behavioral Skills Training On Staff Member Implementation Of Behavior Intervention Plans, Riley Young, Robbie Hanson

Theses

Behavioral skills training (BST) is a well-researched and empirically validated teaching method that typically involves the use of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback to improve staff and client performance (Leaf et al., 2015). Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of BST across a wide variety of populations and skill sets, including within educational environments (Kirkpatrick et al., 2019). However, limited research exists on the use of BST to improve staff member implementation of behavior intervention plans (BIPs), particularly for staff members who have a history of incorrect implementation. The current study examines the effectiveness of in-person BST in a school …

The Discovery Of Lilly Pulitzer And Her Business Of Fashion, Susan Mallott

Theses

This thesis will be an investigative look at fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer. The significance of this project is based on the discovery of Lilly Pulitzer as one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in the fashion industry. Despite Lilly Pulitzer’s success, not much has been written about her. The few articles found written about her restated the same information. The writings about her talk of her privileged background and her social status but do not delve into who she was as a person or the social stigmas that she dealt with by being a businesswoman during the 1960’s. The purpose …

An Investigation Of Registered Nurses’ Knowledge And Decision-Making Processes In Relation To The Management Of Adults With Diabetic Ketoacidosis, Megan Alice Westphalen

Theses

Introduction: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is an acute complication of diabetes. Registered nurses (RNs) knowledge with regard to DKA has never been investigated in any depth, nor has their decision making ever been examined in this specific context.

Research Significance: Nursing research literature acknowledges that nurses have an important role in the management of patient with DKA. However, there is very little empirical evidence available to support this claim. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence of the level of knowledge, the decision-making processes and the factors that influence nurses’ decision making whilst managing patients with DKA.

Methodology: A …

Architecture And Students' Physical Activity In Learning Environments, Rachel Marie Tindall

Theses

‘Architecture and Students’ Physical Activity in Learning Environments’ is a doctoral thesis that aims to understand how the physical activity behaviours of Australian children are influenced by school architectural environments. Physical activity (movement) and sedentary behaviour (sitting) play a major role in the overall health of children, yet Australian children are failing to meet the government recommendations (Active Healthy Kids Australia (AHKA) 2016). As most children spend a significant amount of their time in schools, it is important to understand how the learning environments influence them. The architecture of schools is perhaps the least changed architectural typology within contemporary society, …

Participation Of Tanzanian Nurses And Midwives In The Implementation Of Millennium Development Goals 4 (Reduction Of Child Mortality) And 5 (Improvement Of Maternal Health): A Case Study, Peter Taratara

Theses

In 2000, the United Nations (UN) developed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as an international framework to address poverty, promote sustainable development, and improve global health. The framework was translated into 8 goals with goals 4 and 5 targeting the reduction of child mortality and the improvement of maternal health. The UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) encouraged nurses and midwives to participate in the implementation process of the MDGs, and each country had the responsibility of formulating its own implementation policies and plans. The encouragement to participate was from the understanding that nurses and midwives are the backbone …

‘Burnt Out Lamps’: Exploring The Impact Of Occupational Stress And Burnout On The Wellbeing Of Intensive Care Nurses In A Tertiary Hospital, Swapna Mathew

Theses

Occupational stress and burnout are commonly experienced by nurses in the intensive care unit and contribute to poor nursing practice. A study in the United Kingdom revealed that approximately one-third of the intensive care unit team members were at a ‘high risk’ for burnout syndrome. Research suggests that multiple factors contribute to occupational stress and burnout, including nursing shortages, staff turnover, high workloads, workplace conflicts, and bullying. Research suggests that the wellbeing of nurses is imperative in ensuring the best delivery of care to patients, which further results in positive health outcomes for patients.

This study was conducted in a …

A Study On Post-Burn Healing: Optimising Scar Outcome Through The Use Of A Silicone-Based Film-Forming Wound Dressing, Fiona Poelchow

Theses

Introduction

The development of scarring is a normal physiological response during burn wound healing for any except the most trivial of injuries. Burn scarring can cause considerable functional and psychological anguish in burn survivors. Prolonged wound healing has been shown to affect scarring outcomes. Superficial cutaneous wound injuries carry a risk of scarring and altered pigmentation after the wound has healed. The primary aim of this study was to explore the effects of topical silicone on the rate of wound healing in superficial wounds. Secondary aims included investigation of scar and pain outcomes.

Methods

This thesis presents two studies which …

Do The Safeguards In The Victorian Assisted-Dying Legislation Adequately Account For The Experiences Of Other Nations?, Heath Harley-Bellemore

Theses

In 2017 the Victorian State Parliament passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017, making it the first Australian jurisdiction since 1996 to pass assisted dying legislation. The Victorian model was hailed by the Government of Victoria as the ‘safest and most conservative in the world’, and had the benefit of drawing on over 20 years of voluntary assisted dying experiences of other jurisdictions for its development. This thesis examines the experiences of other jurisdictions and how they informed the development of the Victorian model. It examines available data, reports, and criticisms of international experiences and applies them to the Victorian …

The Accuracy And Validity Of Self-Reported Throwing Loads And The Characteristics Of Throws By Elite Cricket Players In Australia, Zachariah G. Hoyne

Theses

Objectives: To determine the relationship between elite cricket player’s self-reported and independently observed throwing volume. Examine whether sex, playing position, or time to upload self-reported data post training influences the accuracy of self-reported throwing loads. Describe the type and number of throws performed during elite cricket training, and identify characteristics such as type, distance and accuracy of throws.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: A total of eight female and 18 male professional cricket players participated in the study. Overarm throws from 12 training sessions during the 2020-21 cricket year were observed. Player self-reported throwing volume data were retrieved …

Assess, Address, Progress: An Online Approach To Evaluate And Develop Teacher Education Students’ Numeracy Capability, Kate Hartup

Theses

For as long as numeracy has been assessed as a major domain in Australia (since 2003), Australian school students’ numeracy levels have been declining (Thomson et al., 2019). This decline is evident despite it being a national requirement for teachers to teach numeracy skills across all subject areas at all year levels (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA), n.d.). Although there are several definitions of numeracy, fundamentally it is the application of mathematics and the ability to interpret and utilise mathematical information (Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), 2017). Given that teachers’ mathematical knowledge has been shown to affect their …

Experiences Of Emergency Department Nurses Caring For Individuals At Risk Of Suicide In The Wheatbelt: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Tendai Makanyanga

Theses

The prevention of suicide is a complex and challenging subject that can evoke fear and anxiety in health professionals who provide support for individuals at risk. Nurses working in the emergency department (ED) are at the forefront of supporting individuals at risk of suicide who present to hospital. While empirical evidence regarding ED nurses and their perceptions of the support of those at risk is available, to date, a Wheatbelt, Western Australian (WA)-specific study has not been conducted. The present study aims to understand the experiences of Wheatbelt ED nurses caring for individuals at risk of suicide. More specifically, this …

"That All May Justice Share: Sydney Catholics In The Interwar Years 1919-1929, Monica Van Gend

Theses

While the years immediately following Australia’s participation in World War I have received much academic attention, the churches in the post-war era have been largely overlooked. Responding to Michael McKernan’s claim that Australian churches became less relevant to Australian society after the war, this thesis examines the response of the Catholic Church in Sydney to life after the war. Utilising a dual methodology of religious history and social history, this thesis analyses the role of the Church at this time by examining its works and activities, drawing on primary sources in Archdiocesan archives and the archives of specific Catholic lay …

Raising The Curtain: A History Of Patch Theatre Company, 1939 - 1950, Elizabeth Leong

Theses

This thesis investigates the social history of one of Perth’s oldest and longest-running amateur theatres, the Patch Theatre Company, from when it was founded in 1939 by Ida and Edward Beeby until their departure from the company in the late 1940s. The Beebys’ strong partnership and dynamic personalities helped build Patch into a successful company and thriving community. It was a school of music, drama, and dance, and one of the most popular amateur theatres in Western Australia during and after the Second World War. The development, operation and impact of Patch has been largely overlooked in Western Australian histories. …