Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2006

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 15781 - 15810 of 16308

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

The Experience Of The Transition To An Aged-Care Facility: A Qualitative Exploration, Jenny M. Smith Jan 2006

The Experience Of The Transition To An Aged-Care Facility: A Qualitative Exploration, Jenny M. Smith

Theses : Honours

The transition from one's place of residence to an aged-care facility may be a daunting prospect, with many factors relevant to the degree of ease in which this change occurs. Whilst this is a significant life event, qualified information about older adults' experience of it is limited, with little found about Australia. Much of what is available focuses on the caregivers' and relatives' viewpoints or their interactions with staff and do not pertain to the transition period itself, but to aged care in general. The main findings from the available literature suggest that the way a new resident perceives their …


Electoral Professionalism And The 2004 Australian Federal Election Campaign, Ryan Boyd Jan 2006

Electoral Professionalism And The 2004 Australian Federal Election Campaign, Ryan Boyd

Theses : Honours

Electoral professionalism, a. term first coined by Panebianco (1988), explains the changing organisational structure of modern political parties and changes to the way parties engage with the electorate. This thesis demonstrates the extent to which electoral professionalism was prevalent during the 2004 Australian federal election campaign. Australian democracy has undergone a process of professionalisation in recent decades. The Liberal Party and the Labor Party's ability to adapt to these changes has enabled Australia's two major parties to remain relevant and come to dominate Australia's political system. Campaign professionals skilled in areas such as polling, marketing, media management, computer technologies, direct …


The White Death: Representations Of Salt Affected Landscapes In The Wheatbelt, Grant Currall Jan 2006

The White Death: Representations Of Salt Affected Landscapes In The Wheatbelt, Grant Currall

Theses : Honours

This exegesis examines the significance of salt-affected landscapes in Western Australia's Wheatbelt, particularly sites affected due to pastoral settlement. It explores ways in which landscape imagery has been constructed and controlled by cultures to represent a particular relationship between settlement and the land. A focus on both American and Australian photographic practitioners and their understanding of landscape aesthetics will be incorporated to reveal how unconventional subject matter like dryland salinity can be re-presented to provide an alternative perspective of cultures relationship with nature in the Wheatbelt. Finally, an enquiry into the impact of national identity on landscape will also explore …


The Influence Of Genetics And The Environment On Human Personalities, Relationships And Experiences, Patrice Smith Jan 2006

The Influence Of Genetics And The Environment On Human Personalities, Relationships And Experiences, Patrice Smith

Theses : Honours

It's no mystery that our genetic make-up plays an integral part in the outcome of our lives, but to what extent exactly are our personalities, relationships and experiences pre-determined by this genetic code? There are two forces that contribute to the outcome of these aspects of our lives. Genetics and Environment. The significance of the environment, i.e., our upbringing, lifestyle and the world around us is often emphasized by psychologists as the more dominant force, however our genes are just as, if not more, influential on our lives. My choreographic process is directly in relation to the group of artists …


The Filmmaker, The Subject And The Audience : A Dialectical Exploration Of Documentary Performance, Ben Stewart Jan 2006

The Filmmaker, The Subject And The Audience : A Dialectical Exploration Of Documentary Performance, Ben Stewart

Theses : Honours

Documentary filmmakers 11 engage directly in the study of the phenomena of life that surrounds us. We hold the ability to show and elucidate life as it is, considerably higher than the occasionally diverting droll games that people call theatre, cinema etc." (Vertov, 1984, p. 47). The ability to 'show and elucidate life as it is' is a controversial claim that the majority of academic documentary discussion is concerned with. I intend to add to this discussion through an exploration of performance and its pertinence to the ability of documentary to represent reality truthfully. The reception of documentary is significantly …


The Classical Guitar In Paris: Composers And Performers C.1920-1960, Duncan Robert Gardiner Jan 2006

The Classical Guitar In Paris: Composers And Performers C.1920-1960, Duncan Robert Gardiner

Theses : Honours

The rise in status and popularity, and even the acceptance of the classical guitar, is a twentieth-century phenomenon which owes much to the labour of the famed Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia. It is because of the talents of Segovia and his contemporaries that the classical guitar has a wealth of first-class repertoire to call its own. Since the conception of the first twentieth-century work composed specifically for the classical guitar by Manuel de Falla, and because of the efforts of Segovia, a great interest in the instrument-and a large body of guitar music has come out of France. This dissertation …


Tacticians, Talent, Transmitters And Targets : The Power Of Pictures In The Howard Prime Ministership, Richard Goodwin Jan 2006

Tacticians, Talent, Transmitters And Targets : The Power Of Pictures In The Howard Prime Ministership, Richard Goodwin

Theses : Honours

After a decade as Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard has attained a substantial place in the nation's political history. His success can be measured in numerous ways: four successive victories for his Liberal National Party Coalition in general elections since 1996, five opponents in turn at the head of the rival Australian Labor Party and consistently high approval ratings in opinion polls for his performance as prime minister. He has also dominated the political discourse of Australia. His views and policy positions have become progressively entrenched. This is especially true in the areas of international affairs, military engagement and …


Death Lilly : Performing The 'Flower Girl' Role In The Age Of Consumption, Catherine Gomersall Jan 2006

Death Lilly : Performing The 'Flower Girl' Role In The Age Of Consumption, Catherine Gomersall

Theses : Honours

This self-reflexive photomedia project interrogates the 'flower girl' role as a cultural fetishism of 'innocent' white-girl femininity, which I claim is perpetuated in the bridal fantasy. In my photomedia work the theme of 'death' and the uncanny is explored as well as the themes of 'wildness' and 'violence' in order to subvert the dominant discourse of ideal white femininity which is defined in popular culture by a sanitised bourgeois aesthetic. I attack the bourgeois surface of the bridal magazine in my artwork as I perform the 'flower girl' role in the context of popular culture and capitalism. The flower girl …


An Attitude And Perception Study Of Wireless Network Usage In Home Environments, Patryk Szewczyk Jan 2006

An Attitude And Perception Study Of Wireless Network Usage In Home Environments, Patryk Szewczyk

Theses : Honours

Research on the use of 802.11 wireless networking and wireless security has in the past focused predominantly on corporations who generally have access to resources specifically allocated to computer and network security. Research has also focused on identifying the flaws in wireless network security, and developing stronger and safer methods which may be incorporated. To date there has been a lack of research into determining what the individual at home perceives towards wireless security. As broadband Internet connections are now predominantly chosen, the amount of available bandwidth open to exploitation is significantly higher than the now becoming obsolete dialup connection. …


"Advertopia" : The Ethical Ramifications Of Advertising To Children, Matthew Jackson Jan 2006

"Advertopia" : The Ethical Ramifications Of Advertising To Children, Matthew Jackson

Theses : Honours

In this thesis I explore the ethical ramifications inherent in advertising to children. In particular the affect of commercial information on the psychological development of contemporary Western youth and I explore these issues in relation to my painting practice.


That's Freakin' Sweet: The Collecting Of Family Guy, Matthew Knight Jan 2006

That's Freakin' Sweet: The Collecting Of Family Guy, Matthew Knight

Theses : Honours

The animated series Family Guy (1999-2006) has been cancelled twice and resurrected twice mainly because of the efforts of viewers. It is worth asking, however; why has Family Guy attained a level of fanaticism that repeatedly rescues it from permanent cancellation? Arguably, the Family Guy audience is made up predominantly of members of generation y and as such, the way they view the program and their relationship to it will differ to that of previous generations. In short, Family Guy was cancelled due to poor ratings, however, these ratings were a result of erratic scheduling that was not conducive to …


Financial Philanthropy Towards Australian Public Art Galleries By Individual Benefactors: Some Empirical Evidence From The National Gallery Of Victoria, Elisha London Jan 2006

Financial Philanthropy Towards Australian Public Art Galleries By Individual Benefactors: Some Empirical Evidence From The National Gallery Of Victoria, Elisha London

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study is to examine why individuals philanthropically contribute finances to public art galleries in Australia. As· government funding decreases philanthropy is becoming an increasingly attractive option for public art galleries as alternative sources of revenue need to be sought. A thorough understanding of the factors that influence giving is imperative for any organisation that engages in philanthropy as a revenue stream. This study examines these factors using a fundraising campaign conducted by the National Gallety of Victoria as a case in point. The motivations and characteristics of donors who gave to this campaign are examined using …


Time In Kyrgyzstan, Robert Mcpherson Jan 2006

Time In Kyrgyzstan, Robert Mcpherson

Theses : Honours

The topic of the exegesis is travel documentary photography. The exegesis is based on previous written academic work on travel documentary photography and it is related to my own experience when photographing the people and the landscapes of Kyrgyzstan. In the exegesis I argue that travel documentary photography is highly subjective and ambiguous. There is no such thing as a purely objective representation of the 'Other'. Rather it is and illusion of objectivity that emerges through the eye of the photographer. In travel documentary photography I argue that we make the 'Others' seem less like us than they are because …


Critical Literacy In A Global Context: Reading Harry Potter, Jill Reading Jan 2006

Critical Literacy In A Global Context: Reading Harry Potter, Jill Reading

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Millions of adolescents across the globe eagerly await and read each new Harry Potter fictional novel. As a series, the novels can be assumed to participate influentially in the production of adolescent literacies and subjectivities. Situated in politically conservative times, however, the texts may support readings in simple accord with culturally pervasive conservative views which favour conventionally masculinist, martial views of the individual and of society. Such readings potentially confirm ancient prejudices built out of differences which themselves may be associated with the socio-cultural reproduction of violent conflicts. Nevertheless, contemporary conditions such as planetary climate change and globalised political fear …


A Bell In The Storm: Persistent Unexplained Pain And The Language Of The Uncanny In The Creative Neurophenomenal Reference, David A. Buchanan Jan 2006

A Bell In The Storm: Persistent Unexplained Pain And The Language Of The Uncanny In The Creative Neurophenomenal Reference, David A. Buchanan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A Bell in the Storm - Persistent unexplained pain and the language of the uncanny in the creative neurophenomenal reference is a doctoral work comprised of three parts. Part 1 is an exegesis Persistent unexplained pain and the language of the uncanny in the creative neurophenomenal reference; Part 2 is The Plays, A Bell in the Storm (produced by deckchair theatre in May, 2005) and the radio play To Fall Without Landing (produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission for Radio National in October 2005); and, Part 3 the book of monochord poems, Secrets of the Driftwood.


Controlling And Constraining The Participation Of The Hepatitis C-Affected Community In Australia: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The First National Hepatitis C Strategy And Selected News Media Texts, Judith D. Pugh Jan 2006

Controlling And Constraining The Participation Of The Hepatitis C-Affected Community In Australia: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The First National Hepatitis C Strategy And Selected News Media Texts, Judith D. Pugh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The construction of texts that place hepatitis C-positive persons at social risk (Candlin, 1989, p. ix), informs this study of the ways in which public health policy makers and journalists in Australia communicate about hepatitis C. The institutions of public health and the news media form part of the cultural context within which persons construct their illness narratives. The privileged perspectives and framing of public health policy and news media discourses; the discursive practices associated with the institutions of public health and the media around hepatitis C and hepatitis C-positive persons, the “objects” of knowledge (Foucault, 1969/2002, p. 81); and …


An Investigation Into A Community Information Database System In The Northeast Of Thailand: Community Empowerment Through Community Learning Centres, Chumnong Wongchachom Jan 2006

An Investigation Into A Community Information Database System In The Northeast Of Thailand: Community Empowerment Through Community Learning Centres, Chumnong Wongchachom

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Following the economic downturn in the late 1990s the Government of Thailand restructured the economy resulting in rapid economic recovery. The society now needs developments to project it into the Information Age. This study is but one creative response to this need. To initiate the study, an extensively validated Questionnaire was implemented with a snowball sample comprising 500 representative, non-randomised respondents from the four provinces of the Inpeng Community Network (ICN). The purpose of the Questionnaire was to ascertain levels of information needs and local knowledge, and to identify ten local experts from ICN for subsequent In-depth Interviews. Data obtained …


Grid-Partition Index: A Hybrid Approach To Nearest-Neighbor Queries In Wireless Location-Based Services, Baihua Zheng, Jianliang Xu, Wang-Chien Lee, Dik Lun Lee Jan 2006

Grid-Partition Index: A Hybrid Approach To Nearest-Neighbor Queries In Wireless Location-Based Services, Baihua Zheng, Jianliang Xu, Wang-Chien Lee, Dik Lun Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditional nearest-neighbor (NN) search is based on two basic indexing approaches: object-based indexing and solution-based indexing. The former is constructed based on the locations of data objects: using some distance heuristics on object locations. The latter is built on a precomputed solution space. Thus, NN queries can be reduced to and processed as simple point queries in this solution space. Both approaches exhibit some disadvantages, especially when employed for wireless data broadcast in mobile computing environments. In this paper, we introduce a new index method, called the grid-partition index, to support NN search in both ondemand access and periodic broadcast …


Constraints To Youth Participation In The Current Federal Political Environment, Judith G. Bridgland Sorenson Jan 2006

Constraints To Youth Participation In The Current Federal Political Environment, Judith G. Bridgland Sorenson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research explores the constraints to youth participation through the mechanism of the National Youth Roundtable. In 1999 the National Youth Roundtable was established as the centrepiece of the Federal Government's `Voices of Youth' initiative, designed to go to the grass roots of the youth population and seek their participation on matters of policy development. This was to be the new interface between young people and the Australian government, replacing the peak body for youth affairs as a more effective participation mechanism.


Silenced Voices: Experiences Of Grief Following Road Traffic Crashes In Western Australia, Lauren Breen Jan 2006

Silenced Voices: Experiences Of Grief Following Road Traffic Crashes In Western Australia, Lauren Breen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Despite the introduction of road safety measures and media campaigns, crashes are a leading cause of death in Western Australia. While economic costs of crashes are relatively easy to determine, their psychosocial burden remains appreciably under-studied, as are the social, cultural, historical, temporal, and political contexts within which grief experiences are housed. As such, I explored the experience of grief resulting from losing a loved one in a crash in Western Australia and described the influence of contextual factors on those grief experiences.


An Investigation Of Physics Instructors' Beliefs And Students' Beliefs, Goals And Motivation For Studying Physics In Thai Rajabhat Universities, Anusak Hongsa-Ngiam Jan 2006

An Investigation Of Physics Instructors' Beliefs And Students' Beliefs, Goals And Motivation For Studying Physics In Thai Rajabhat Universities, Anusak Hongsa-Ngiam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Students' interest in physics seems to be decreasing at all levels of education in most countries including Thailand. This problem is likely to be influenced by physics teaching and learning processes. Instructors' beliefs influence teaching strategies whereas students' beliefs, goals and motivation influence learning strategies. The investigation of factors influencing teaching and learning will provide useful information for improving the teaching and learning of physics. This research aims to explore physics instructors' beliefs about teaching and learning physics, students' beliefs, goals and motivation for studying physics in Thai Rajabhat universities. A questionnaire was administered to instructors who teach introductory physics …


Transformation Theory And E-Commerce Adoption, Mark P. Brogan Jan 2006

Transformation Theory And E-Commerce Adoption, Mark P. Brogan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis investigates business transformation on the Internet; particularly the nature and significance of Cyber transformation theory and the Marketspace Model as a framework for E-commerce adoption. E-commerce can raise a firm's productivity, transform customer relationships and open up new markets. The extent to which nations become adopters of E-commerce is set to become a source of comparative national competitive advantage (or disadvantage) in the twenty first century.


Teachers' Implicit Theories Of Expression In Visual Arts Education: A Study Of Western Australian Teachers, Diana J. Brown Jan 2006

Teachers' Implicit Theories Of Expression In Visual Arts Education: A Study Of Western Australian Teachers, Diana J. Brown

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examines the differences in the beliefs of primary (elementary) class teachers about the role of expression in visual arts education. The focus is on the relationship between primary teachers implicit theories, and expression in their visual arts lessons. Expression here, refers to the manifestation of an individual students interests or views through visual images. Students' expression of their personal responses through visual images, is a central intended outcome of the visual arts curriculum in Western Australia (Curriculum Council, 1998).


The Agricultural Co-Operative Business Structure In Context: A Western Australian Study, Elizabeth Cheong Jan 2006

The Agricultural Co-Operative Business Structure In Context: A Western Australian Study, Elizabeth Cheong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Agricultural co-operative businesses are the focus of considerable academic research overseas, particularly from the perspective of agricultural economics. Research on Australian agricultural co-operatives, however, is very limited. This exploratory study investigates agricultural co-operatives at two inter-related levels. Firstly, the thesis examines the broader political economy shaping the agricultural co-operative sector, specifically policy and institutional arrangements affecting agricultural co-operatives. Secondly, the thesis considers how this external world influences the internal behaviour of the agricultural co-operative business. The study adopts a qualitative research methodology, principally using the case study method. Over 50 in-depth interviews were conducted with actors associated with the agricultural …


Thai Popular Music: The Representation Of National Identities And Ideologies Within A Culture In Transition, Lamnao Eamsa-Ard Jan 2006

Thai Popular Music: The Representation Of National Identities And Ideologies Within A Culture In Transition, Lamnao Eamsa-Ard

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Thai popular music always reflects and reproduces the concerns of Thai people in changing times especially in regard to issues relating to identity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the preservation of Thai identity and the ideologies surrounding it and the adoption of Western innovation in Thai popular music. The issues surrounding the identity and ideology of Thais, such as class, gender and ethnicity are explored within the area of Thai popular music. I use ethnography as the major tool for gathering and analysing the research data. Using triangulated ethnographic techniques, involved in-depth interviews, focus …


Discrepancies In Intimate Violence Reporting For Men And Women's Violence: A Meta-Analysis, James L. Herbert Jan 2006

Discrepancies In Intimate Violence Reporting For Men And Women's Violence: A Meta-Analysis, James L. Herbert

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The report of intimate violence is often taken on face value in research. With no gold standard existing, one partner's report is often an accepted measure of violence in the relationship. This discrepancy in reporting between intimate partners has been thoroughly examined, yet researchers still debate the reliability of single partner reporting. The current study extends upon the Archer (1999) meta-analysis of intimate violence discrepancy reporting, and includes current studies, instruments and research methods in the analysis. This study examines the discrepancy effect among thirty-four samples from studies of heterosexual intimate violence, finding that the discrepancy in general was sizeable …


Networks And Narratives: An Exploration Of Their Relationship And Potential For Understanding The Actual Experiences Of Women With Hiv/Aids, Purity N. Irungu Jan 2006

Networks And Narratives: An Exploration Of Their Relationship And Potential For Understanding The Actual Experiences Of Women With Hiv/Aids, Purity N. Irungu

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study set out to examine literature relating to social network theory and narrative theory in order to explore how their potential connection could be used in future to understand and improve the actual life-experiences of women infected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The thesis was done entirely by library research using secondary sources but is original in its intent. It includes a critical examination of some of the work of earlier researchers, including Lockhart's (2000) anthropological study of the social construction of `risk' of AIDS in urban Tanzania. Much previous research studied …


Confined Space Fatalities, Ciaran Maccarron Jan 2006

Confined Space Fatalities, Ciaran Maccarron

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The extent of work related fatal accidents has been analysed statistically by agencies throughout the world. As a result of this analysis there is a wealth of information available categorised by industry types, sub-industry, occupation, sex, age, nature of occurrence, bodily location, agency of occurrence and mechanism of injury. It is however extremely difficult to identify information pertaining to confined space fatalities such as contributory factors, mechanisms of injury and other data of an epidemiological nature.


The Integrated Sound, Space And Movement Environment : The Uses Of Analogue And Digital Technologies To Correlate Topographical And Gestural Movement With Sound, Jonathan A. Mustard Jan 2006

The Integrated Sound, Space And Movement Environment : The Uses Of Analogue And Digital Technologies To Correlate Topographical And Gestural Movement With Sound, Jonathan A. Mustard

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis investigates correlations between auditory parameters and parameters associated with movement in a sensitised space. The research examines those aspects of sound that form correspondences with movement, force or position of a body or bodies in a space sensitised by devices for acquiring gestural or topographical data. A wide range of digital technologies are scrutinised to establish what the most effective technologies are in order to achieve detailed and accurate information about movement in a given space, and the methods and procedures for analysis, transposition and synthesis into sound. The thesis describes pertinent work in the field from the …


The Obstacles In Women's Pathway To Principalship, Mahshid Pirouznia Jan 2006

The Obstacles In Women's Pathway To Principalship, Mahshid Pirouznia

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research problem is to investigate the obstacles of women seeking the principalship in public education; and also to explore major changes of different obstacles to women's principalship because women's roles have changed over time. Different obstacles in women's pathway to principalship are: low self-image; lack of encouragement; myths about women's work; sex stereotyping; lack of aspiration; role conflict; low self-esteem; family responsibilities; lack of mobility; and hiring and promoting practices. The research questions are: 1. what are the barriers for women who did not obtain a principalship or assistant principalship. 2. what are the barriers for women who obtained …