Digital Commons Network^™

A New Age Of Goddess Worship In New Wave Feminism : Witch Way Forward? : A Qualitative Study, Joanne Kostopoulos-Riganello

Theses : Honours

This research investigates the question: Are women who are currently engaged in a Goddess religion, such as Wicca, practising a new wave of feminism, one that has its roots in a uniquely female order? This is grounded in a qualitative interpretive paradigm, using a feminist poststructuralist methodology. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken, drawing on relevant material from the areas related to the topics of the Goddess, feminism, thealogy, witches and Wicca. Five High Priestesses of Wicca were interviewed using one-on-one unstructured interview techniques. All five interviews were guided by open-ended questions focussed on participants' experiences and perceptions of Goddess …

Exploring The Practice Of Members Of The College Of Forensic Psychologists: A Step Towards Conceptualising Forensic Psychology In Australia, Brooke Harvey

Theses : Honours

Australia is moving towards the proposed National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for Health Professionals, which would entail a unified national registration system for various health professions including psychology. Under this scheme, the Council of Australian Governments has indicated that specialist title in psychology may exist at a national level for the first time. As specialist areas are likely to align with the Australian Psychological Society's (APS) Colleges, forensic psychology is likely to be recognised as a specialty. This raises the question of what model of forensic psychology will be adopted at a national level. Currently the model of forensic psychology …

Medical Conditions In Children With Down Syndrome: A Literature Review ; Changes Over Time In Medical Conditions And Service Use By Children With Down Syndrome, Kelly Thomas

Theses : Honours

Background: Children with Down syndrome experience an array of medical conditions and health care problems. Although there have been vast improvements in the medical management of these conditions, they still significantly impact on quality of life for families and children with Down syndrome. However, despite the magnitude of this problem limited literature has described the overall health status of children with Down syndrome. Aim: The purpose of this review was to describe the medical conditions commonly experienced by children with Down syndrome and to consider the clinical implications of this knowledge. Methods: Databases Medline, CINHAL and PsychINFO were electronically searched …

Leisure Participation For School-Aged Children With Down Syndrome, Alinta Oates

Theses : Honours

Background. A review of existing literature is necessary to determine the future directions required in research exploring friendships and leisure for school-aged children with Down syndrome. Purpose. This review examines research published in peer-reviewed journals describing participation in friendships and leisure for school-aged children with Down syndrome. The review is guided by the theoretical framework of the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF ). Methods. Electronic searches of PubMed, PsychInfo, CINAHL, SportsDiscus and ERIC were conducted using the key terms Down syndrome, leisure and friendships. Keywords identified while using the ICF framework to explore factors …

Powered Mobility As An Intervention For Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review ; The Smart Wheelchair: Is It An Appropriate Mobility Training Tool For Children With Cerebral Palsy?, Sarah Mcgarry

Theses : Honours

Purpose. To systematically review the effectiveness of powered mobility training interventions in improving driving skills and psychosocial outcomes in children with cerebral palsy. Method. Electronic searches of CINAHL, Medline and Meditext were conducted. Using two assessment tools, two independent reviewers assessed the quality of selected studies and level of evidence. Studies were included if a powered mobility training intervention was described, at least one participant had cerebral palsy and if the majority of participants were aged between 18 months and 18 years old. A narrative analysis was conducted. Results. Seven articles were eligible for inclusion. Intervention protocols included computer simulator …

Attitudes Toward Asylum Seekers: The Role Of Beliefs In Procedural Fairness, Lisa Palamountain

Theses : Honours

This study investigated the relationship between beliefs in procedural fairness, humanitarian values, and attitudes toward asylum seekers amongst a sample of first year university students in Western Australia (N = 148). Beliefs in procedural fairness were measured in terms of beliefs in the fairness of decision making and beliefs in the fairness of treatment. Findings supported the hypotheses, in that beliefs in procedural fairness were significantly related to attitudes and humanitarian values. Regression analyses revealed that beliefs in the fairness of treatment and humanitarian values made unique contributions in predicting attitudes. However beliefs in the fairness of decision making did …

Children's Exposure To Lead And Nickel In Esperance - A Case Study, Matthew Tristan Winters

Theses : Honours

This is a cross-sectional study of lead and nickel exposure of children aged 2-12 years living at varying distances from a point source of pollution in Esperance. Esperance was an ideal case study location because of previous environmental contamination with lead and nickel above background levels. Non-invasive biological samples of hair, toenails and urine were collected from participating children, and environmental samples, including house dust, soil and drinking water were also sampled from each participant household. Exposure was assessed by measuring the concentration of metals found in the biological samples, and determining their relationships with the environmental samples from each …

Anglo-Australians' Attitudes Towards Asylum Seekers And Egalitarianism, Antonietta Matrone Faulkner

Theses : Honours

Research has found that generally Australians hold negative attitudes towards asylum seekers. These negative attitudes appear to be influenced by perceptions of threat and false beliefs. The current study explored the attitudes of Anglo-Australians towards asylum seekers and how attitudes are related to the concept of Australian egalitarianism and fair go. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted for this study. Three main themes were identified through thematic content analysis: characterising asylum seekers, responses to asylum seekers in Australia, and constructing fairness.' Characterising asylum seekers represented the informants' constructs of asylum seekers as being genuine asylum seekers, or boat people …

E-Help: Community Perspectives On Help-Seeking Using Electronic Forms Of Communication, Jacqueline D. Myles-Pallister

Theses : Honours

The provision of mental health services using telephones, the Internet, and mobile phones (e-help), has been widely recommended as part of a solution to closing the gap between high prevalence of mental illness and low rates of service uptake. However, little is known about how potential users of these services view them. To address this gap, three focus groups (N = 17, age 17 - 69 years) were conducted to explore general community perspectives on using e-help. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified three themes with related subthemes: (1) awareness; (2) trust and feeling safe when seeking and using e-help; (3) it …

Gross Motor Abilities And Interventions In Girls And Women With Rett Syndrome: A Literature Review ; Longitudinal Video Analysis Of Gross Motor Abilities Of Girls And Women With Rett Syndrome, Kitty-Rose R. Foley

Theses : Honours

Objective: To explore research relevant to an understanding of gross motor abilities and highlight possible directions for gross motor intervention in girls and women with Rett syndrome. A secondary objective was to describe mouse model research which has the potential to add to an understanding of gross motor abilities in this population. Methods: Electronic searches of five databases, manual searches of an external resource library and manual searches of reference lists were undertaken. The key words imputed during these searches included; mobility, Rett syndrome, functioning, mouse model, therapy and intervention. Search terms were truncated, exploded and adjusted to achieve optimum …

Trauma Practitioners' Lived Experience Of The Impact Of Therapy On Trauma Recovery Outcomes, Francess M. Day

Theses : Honours

Much has been written about evidence-based treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A number of treatment guides have been written (e.g. AMCPH, 2007; Briere 2006; Foa Keane, & Friedman, 2000;). Medicare criteria based on empirical research and outcome measures stipulate which treatments and practitioner qualifications will be funded. However, little is known about the relationship between these guidelines and what clinicians actually utilize in trauma treatment and use as indicators of good outcomes. The research studies compromise external validity by excluding the majority of typical PTSD clientele, necessitating exploration of treatment effectiveness in diverse real-life populations (Spinazzola, Blaustein, & van …

Evaluating Mental Health Services To Promote Recovery-Oriented Practice: A Literature Review ; And, Resident Perceptions On Recovery-Orientation At A Supported Residential Unit For People With Severe Mental Illness, Lydia Forbes

Theses : Honours

Topic: A literature review was conducted to describe and critically examine the research evidence for evaluating the recovery-orientation of mental health services. Purpose: Evaluating recovery-orientation within mental health services is a critical part of quality improvement, and the eventual widespread adoption of recovery-oriented practice. This review aimed to recommend future directions for research, highlight positive changes resulting from recovery-focussed evaluation, and facilitate more effective, consumer-driven evaluation in the future. Sources Used: Electronic databases CINAHL, Psycinfo, Medline and Meditext were searched. Articles were restricted to the English language, and included if they discussed the evaluation or exploration of recovery-oriented practices within …

Making The Invisible, Visible : Exploring Liminality Of Mind And Body Through Glass, Naomi Hunter

Theses : Honours

It is through the discipline of visual arts that I research the subject of the mind-body relationship and the notion of liminality- this is the space in-between. To that end, the aim of this research is to investigate and construct a visible means of exhibiting liminal space. This creative work will be used as a metaphor for the synergy between body and mind, which I contend occurs within an internal liminal space. I investigate these concepts through the double articulation of creative practice and a written exegesis, based on the following research questions: 'In what ways can glass be used …

Using Decision Analytic Modelling To Simulate Pregnancy, Jeffrey Cannon

Theses : Honours

Decision analytic modelling enables decision makers to assess the cost-effectiveness associated with a proposed change in a cunent system without physically implementing the changes. This can be achieved by formulating a mathematical model that represents all the major events occuning in the system through fmmulas and algorithms, and estimating the likely outcomes along with their costs. This type of modelling has been identified by the State Health Research Advisory Council (SHRAC) of the Western Australian Depmiment of Health as an asset for the plmming of health care investments in the future. One such area in which the Western Australian Department …

Australian Refugee Policy And Party Rhetoric In Contrast: A Study Of The Hawke/Keating And Howard Governments, Paul Mercieca

Theses : Honours

Australia's acceptance of refugees has a long and controversial history. As a nation, we have at times accommodated and accepted multitudes of various individuals of differing faiths, ethnicity and cultures into our society. Australia is indeed a cosmopolitan community of indigenous and immigrant Australian citizens that have displayed periods of welcoming refugees from war-torn states as under Malcolm Fraser's leadership in the late 1970s. Concurrently, we have actively discriminated, sometimes implicitly, although not always, against certain immigrants, including refugees from China and Papua and New Guinea during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The community's perception of refugees has often …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Women Firefighters' Experience In The Western Australian Volunteer Bushfire Service, Cindy Branch-Smith

Theses : Honours

Recent events have shown how invaluable Australia's volunteer firefighters are to communities, for example, Black Saturday. Volunteer numbers appear to be declining nation-wide and a majority of volunteer fire services report under-representation of women in operational roles. To ascertain an understanding of experiences and issues faced by women in volunteer fire services, the aim of the current study was to explore female volunteer firefighters' experience, and how their experiences impact on their perceptions of themselves as firefighters. A qualitative research methodology was employed, which enabled investigation of issues and challenges related to the firefighting experience. A total of 12 women …

The Cultural Landscape Of Perth's Cemeteries, Daniel J. Mcdonald

Theses : Honours

All communities face the issue of what to do with the bodies of the deceased and a wide variety of methods have been employed around the world. Since Perth was founded, the use of cemeteries to fulfil this function was made mandatory by authorities. Although this function has not changed, the form and appearance of cemeteries shows dramatic change over time. Old, traditional cemeteries with their regulated grid layouts and rows of large monumental works have been replaced with new park-like cemeteries with neither religious demarcation nor headstones. This research investigated these changes to the form and spatial organisation of …

Loss, Gain, Survival: Women In Bangladesh, Caitlin Harrison

Theses : Honours

This dissertation explores the changing public and private paradigms of Bangladeshi women in a modernising society, and investigates the aspects of modernisation that are driving such change. It argues that there is a rising level of violence against women, as traditional patriarchal paradigms meet modernisation and the Western hegemony. While modernisation has been instrumental in encouraging the integration of women into the public sphere, the Western assumption that modernisation will increase women's empowerment in an incremental manner ignores the new issues and tensions that modernisation creates. ·In both the public and private spheres, women's empowerment in Bangladesh is a constant …

The Success And Sustainability Of Improvisation In A Live Performance Context, Ashleigh Rose Berry

Theses : Honours

I am interested in investigating the value improvisation holds when placed in a live dance performance context. I am discussing improvisation in terms of it being an individual exploration of one's movement potential to create a personal movement language. Within this, I place focus on the body as a source of knowledge and the embodied movement possibilities that inevitably make up each individual dancer's personal movement language. I am also interested in the audience's perceptions of what defines successful dance and the dancer and audience relationship that forms during the duration of a performance. Can the practice of improvising be …

The Perception Of Peer Support By Young Stroke Survivors, Katherine E. Mcgurk

Theses : Honours

Social support buffers against the negative effects of significant life events, and peer support is particularly beneficial for individuals experiencing serious health concerns. Stroke is one such event, and often results in a variety of physical and psychological impairments that negatively affect quality of life. Although considered primarily as a condition of the elderly, approximately 20% of strokes occur in people younger than 55. Despite facing significant psychological challenges including negative body image, pressure to return to work, anxiety, isolation, and depression, few younger stroke survivors access peer support services. This study explored young stroke survivors' perceptions of peer support …

Ministering With Millennials: A Complete Report On The 180 Symposium, Roger Dudley, Allen Walshe

All Books

Millennials in your community range in age from 15 to 32. The youngest are in the early years of high school and the oldest may or may not be married with families. One important Millennial generation attribute is delayed commitment. Ministering with Millennials starts with a complete overview of this interesting and important generation.

Papers presented at the 180 Symposium covered five major ministry themes:

• The Search for Identity
• Relationships are the Key
• Spirituality is Essential
• There is a Call for Leadership
• A Theme of Service

Among the 25 papers included in Ministering with Millennials, you will find powerful …

Christ, Salvation, And The Eschaton: Essays In Honor Of Hans K. Larondelle, Daniel Heinz, Jiří Moskala, Peter M. Van Bemmelen

All Books

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of Victim-Centrism: Victim Participation At The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It has been claimed - though not proved - that victims will be benefited by participation in international criminal tribunals. This article interrogates this claim in the context of victim participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Based on interviews with Cambodian victims and Tribunal affiliates, it examines why and how the Tribunal permits victims to intervene as les parties civile, pulling together the normative and legal basis for this mode of victim participation. This article does not purport to generalize with confidence about Cambodian victims in general, …

Law School And The Making Of The Student Into A Lawyer: Transformation Of First Year Law Students In The National University Of Singapore, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper examines the impact of legal education and law school on the student's moral development and conception of professional identity, through an empirical study of first year law students of the Class of 2010 at the National University of Singapore. The project aims to increase consciousness of how law school remakes students and develops the moral and professional identity of future lawyers, and to facilitate a dialogue that reshapes legal education to achieve its aims. Given that legal education in Singapore is similar to that in other law schools in common law jurisdictions, the analysis is, with allowances for …

Modelling Situation Awareness For Context‐Aware Decision Support, Yu-Hong Feng, Teck-Hou Teng, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Situation awareness modelling is popularly used in the command and control domain for situation assessment and decision support. However, situation models in real-world applications are typically complex and not easy to use. This paper presents a Context-aware Decision Support (CaDS) system, which consists of a situation model for shared situation awareness modelling and a group of entity agents, one for each individual user, for focused and customized decision support. By incorporating a rule-based inference engine, the entity agents provide functions including event classification, action recommendation, and proactive decision making. The implementation and the performance of the proposed system are demonstrated …

Web Social Mining, Hady W. Lauw, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Tuning On-Air Signatures For Balancing Performance And Confidentiality, Baihua Zheng, Wang-Chien Lee, Peng Liu, Dik Lun Lee, Xuhua Ding

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we investigate the trade off between performance and confidentiality in signature-based air indexing schemes for wireless data broadcast. Two metrics, namely, false drop probability and false guess probability, are defined to quantify the filtering efficiency and confidentiality loss of a signature scheme. Our analysis reveals that false drop probability and false guess probability share a similar trend as the tuning parameters of a signature scheme change and it is impossible to achieve a low false drop probability and a high false guess probability simultaneously. In order to balance the performance and confidentiality, we perform an analysis to …

Quc-Tree: Integrating Query Context Information For Efficient Music Retrieval, Jialie Shen, Dacheng Tao, Xuelong Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we introduce a novel indexing scheme-query context tree (QUC-tree) to facilitate efficient query sensitive music search under different query contexts. Distinguished from the previous approaches, QUC-tree is a balanced multiway tree structure, where each level represents the data space at different dimensionality. Before the tree structure construction, principle component analysis (PCA) is applied for data analysis and transforming the raw composite features into a new feature space sorted by the importance of acoustic features. The PCA transformed data and reduced dimensions in the upper levels can alleviate suffering from dimensionality curse. To accurately mimic human perception, an …

Filipino Youth's Views On Mental Health, Angeles Guanzon-Lapena, Maria Caridad H. Tarroja, Maria Andrea S. Tirazona, Katrina Fernando

SDRC Publications

Many adults see adolescents as different, at times deviant and difficult to understand.  People refer to youth's experiences as generally being part of development.  Experiences of Filipino youth are seen as developmentally similar to the experiences of their peers in other parts of the world; Filipino youth experience problems and concerns typical of other teenagers.  Whereas many past studies try to understand how adolescents' problems generally affect them in ways that need intervention to help them cope with and solve their problems, this research sought to find out how Filipino youth give meaning to, describe, and understand their problems, and …

The Youth Speak: Forms, Facilitators And Obstacles To Their Political Engagement, Madelene Sta. Maria, Jose Maria Diestro, Jr.

SDRC Publications

The voices of the Filipino youth in response to the current issues in society and in governance, such as corruption, child abuse, armed conflict or poverty, seem to remain subdued.  For those who believe that it will be the purity and sincerity of these young people's voices that will rouse and provoke the rest of us into action for moral and social change, their silence is disturbing.  Many see the silence to be caused by an underlying apathy and cynicism the youth have for present social and political institutions.  Johnson in 2005, for example, documented the concern of scholars regarding …