Digital Commons Network^™

Accessibility Of Thai University Websites: Awareness, Barriers And Drivers For Accessible Practice, Rattanavalee Maisak

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Governments and organizations have to respond to a range of legislative and policy initiatives intended to promote equal opportunity for all. The Thai government has passed a number of laws which aim to protect its citizens from discrimination and from breaches of their human rights by government departments and agencies. The Persons with Disabilities Education Act B.E. 2551 (2008) and the Thailand Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy Framework (2011-2020) required government agencies to delivery equal education and access to online information for all Thais. Most Thai universities receive government subsidies, and therefore have an obligation to contribute to national …

A Neuro-Genetic Hybrid Approach To Automatic Identification Of Plant Leaves, Oluleye Hezekiah Babatunde

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Plants are essential for the existence of most living things on this planet. Plants are used for providing food, shelter, and medicine. The ability to identify plants is very important for several applications, including conservation of endangered plant species, rehabilitation of lands after mining activities and differentiating crop plants from weeds.

In recent times, many researchers have made attempts to develop automated plant species recognition systems. However, the current computer-based plants recognition systems have limitations as some plants are naturally complex, thus it is difficult to extract and represent their features. Further, natural differences of features within the same plant …

I See A Spark And Blow On It: Drama Practice In Year 1 And The New Australian Curriculum In The Arts, Christine Lovering

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

New educational directives have an effect on the practice of teachers in schools. This study is propelled by the introduction of a national Australian Curriculum and subsequent changes to the Arts curriculum. As one of the five arts subjects, drama has been included in the primary school curriculum in Western Australia since 1997, however, its inclusion and the teaching of drama has not been consistently realised.

Teacher perspectives and beliefs about specific Learning Areas influence their planning and practice; often this is related to past experiences. This study aims to determine Year 1 teachers’ perspectives of, and practices in, drama. …

The Role Of Awareness Of Repetition During The Development Of Automaticity, Emma Shadbolt

Theses : Honours

Investigation into the influence of contextual information on performance of an automatic task has found inconsistent results. The majority of studies have investigated whether changing the context of a simple cognitive task can inhibit an automatic response, but do not review whether context can help the development of automatic responding. The current study examined whether bringing awareness to the context of a simple numerosity task could aid the development of automaticity. It also examined whether participants were aware of when automaticity developed for them via a post-test interview. The numerosity task used in this study was a simple counting task …

Development Of An In-Field Voltammetric Method For The Determination Of Barium, Samantha N. Ridgway

Theses : Honours

This work presents a reliable, cost-effective, rapid and infield voltammetric method for the detection of barium. The optimized method consists of an ultrathin mercury film deposited in-situ on a glassy carbon electrode in 0.02 M potassium chloride without deoxygenation; a deposition potential of -2500 mV, pulse height = 50 mV, step duration = 10 ms and a scan rate of 100 mV/s using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DP-ASV).

The linear working range for barium was determined to be 5 – 80 μg/L (r² = 0.997), and limit of detection (LOD) was 1.6 μg/L, for 30 sec deposition time. …

Resting Energy Expenditure Using Indirect Calorimetry In Individuals With Moderate To Low Burns: A Pilot Study Of Associated Factors, Patient Acceptability And Comparison With Predictive Equations, Janica Bell

Theses : Honours

Background: Energy expenditure increases following a burn injury. The extent of hypermetabolism is dependent on a range of factors including burn total body surface area. Moderate to low burn injuries (< 15% TBSA) represent majority of hospital admissions for burn injuries however, their energy expenditure remains unpublished. While indirect calorimetry (IC) is the gold standard for determining energy requirements, less accurate predictive equations are often used in practice. Acceptability of IC from a burn patient perspective has not been published.

Aim: To describe the resting energy expenditure (REE) of patients with a moderate to low burn injury using IC; compare measured REE to predictive equations; and determine the patient acceptability of IC.

Methods: Demographic, anthropometric and dietary data were collected for five male and three female burn patients. REE was determined using indirect calorimetry (Ultima CPX) and five predictive methods (Schofield, Harris-Benedict, Toronto and the Ireton-Jones …

Ambiguous Optimistic Fair Exchange: Definition And Constructions, Qiong Huang, Guomin Yang, Duncan S. Wong, Willy Susilo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Optimistic fair exchange (OFE) is a protocol for solving the problem of exchanging items or services in a fair manner between two parties, a signer and a verifier, with the help of an arbitrator which is called in only when a dispute happens between the two parties. In almost all the previous work on OFE, after obtaining a partial signature from the signer, the verifier can present it to others and show that the signer has indeed committed itself to something corresponding to the partial signature even prior to the completion of the transaction. In some scenarios, this capability given …

Semiparametric Analysis In Conditionally Independent Multivariate Mixture Models, T. Wrobel, Denis H. Y. Leung, J. Qin, T. Hettmansperger

Research Collection School Of Economics

The conditional independence assumption is commonly used in multivariate mixture models in behavioral research. We propose an exponential tilt model to analyze data from a multivariate mixture distribution with conditionally independent components. In this model, the log ratio of the density functions of the components is modeled as a quadratic function in the observations. There are a number of advantages in this approach. First, except for the exponential tilt assumption, the marginal distributions of the observations can be completely arbitrary. Second, unlike some previous methods, which require the multivariate data to be discrete, modeling can be performed based on the …

Special Section: Economics, Electronic Commerce, And Competitive Strategy, Eric K. Clemons, Rajiv M. Dewan, Robert John Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The title of this year;s special section of selected papers, whose initial versionswere presented at the “Economics and Electronic Commerce,” and “Information Technologyand Competitive Strategy” mini-tracks of the 2001 Hawaii International Conferenceon Systems Science (HICSS), reflects the increasing convergence of ideas fromEconomics and Information Systems (IS) research. This convergence has been occurringover the last several years and is related to the developments in e-commerce. ISresearch has been rapidly coming of age, driven by the ever-increasing importance ofinformation technology (IT) in the marketplace, and the need for managers, investors,policy-makers, and the public to understand how to more effectively navigate in ourhighly …

Improving Internet Security Through Mandatory Information Disclosure, Qian Tang, Andrew B. Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although disclosure has long been considered as a solution to internalize externalities, mandatory security information disclosure is still in debate. We propose a mandatory disclosure mechanism based on existing data. The information is disclosed as straightforward rankings of organizations for users to understand, interpret, and make comparisons. As a result, the disclosure can influence organizations through reputational effects. We created a public website to disclose information regularly and conducted a quasi-experiment on outgoing spam to test the effectiveness of our mechanism on four matched country groups. For each treated country, we released the ranking list of top 10 most spamming …

Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (Mimo) Communication With Distributed Antenna Systems In Wireless Networks, Karthikeyan Sundaresan, Mohammad Khojastepour, Sampath Rangarajan, Jie Xiong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A system and a method are provided. The method includes deploying a plurality of antennas of an access point or a base station as a distributed antenna system. The method further includes configuring the distributed antenna system for multi-user wireless transmissions by applying medium access techniques and power-balanced pre-coding at the access point or the base station. The method also includes providing device localization for devices communicating with the distributed antenna system by applying time-difference-of-arrival techniques to antenna pairs from among the plurality of antennas at the access point or the base station.

Designing A Portfolio Of Parameter Configurations For Online Algorithm Selection, Aldy Gunawan, Hoong Chuin Lau, Mustafa Misir

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Algorithm portfolios seek to determine an effective set of algorithms that can be used within an algorithm selection framework to solve problems. A limited number of these portfolio studies focus on generating different versions of a target algorithm using different parameter configurations. In this paper, we employ a Design of Experiments (DOE) approach to determine a promising range of values for each parameter of an algorithm. These ranges are further processed to determine a portfolio of parameter configurations, which would be used within two online Algorithm Selection approaches for solving different instances of a given combinatorial optimization problem effectively. We …

Solving Uncertain Mdps With Objectives That Are Separable Over Instantiations Of Model Uncertainty, Yossiri Adulyasak, Pradeep Varakantham, Asrar Ahmed, Patrick Jaillet

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Markov Decision Problems, MDPs offer an effective mechanism for planning under uncertainty. However, due to unavoidable uncertainty over models, it is difficult to obtain an exact specification of an MDP. We are interested in solving MDPs, where transition and reward functions are not exactly specified. Existing research has primarily focussed on computing infinite horizon stationary policies when optimizing robustness, regret and percentile based objectives. We focus specifically on finite horizon problems with a special emphasis on objectives that are separable over individual instantiations of model uncertainty (i.e., objectives that can be expressed as a sum over instantiations of model uncertainty): …

Improving Software Quality And Productivity Leveraging Mining Techniques: [Summary Of The Second Workshop On Software Mining, At Ase 2013], Ming Li, Hongyu Zhang, David Lo, Lucia Lucia

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The second International Workshop on Software Mining (Soft-mine) was held on the 11th of November 2013. The workshop was held in conjunction with the 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) in Silicon Valley, California, USA. The workshop has facilitated researchers who are interested in mining various types of software-related data and in applying data mining techniques to support software engineering tasks. During the workshop, seven papers on software mining and behavior models, execution trace mining, and bug localization and fixing were presented. One of the papers received the best paper award. Furthermore, there were two invited talk …

Are Features Equally Representative? A Feature-Centric Recommendation, Chenyi Zhang, Ke Wang, Ee-Peng Lim, Qinneng Xu, Jianling Sun, Hongkun Yu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Typically a user prefers an item (e.g., a movie) because she likes certain features of the item (e.g., director, genre, producer). This observation motivates us to consider a feature-centric recommendation approach to item recommendation: instead of directly predicting the rating on items, we predict the rating on the features of items, and use such ratings to derive the rating on an item. This approach offers several advantages over the traditional item-centric approach: it incorporates more information about why a user chooses an item, it generalizes better due to the denser feature rating data, it explains the prediction of item ratings …

Blurring And Deblurring Digital Images Using The Dihedral Group, Husein Hadi Abbas Jassim, Zahir M. Hussain, Hind R.M. Shaaban, Kawther B.R. Al-Dbag

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A new method of blurring and deblurring digital images is presented. The approach is based on using new filters generating from average filter and H-filters using the action of the dihedral group. These filters are called HB-filters; used to cause a motion blur and then deblurring affected images. Also, enhancing images using HB-filters is presented as compared to other methods like Average, Gaussian, and Motion. Results and analysis show that the HB-filters are better in peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and RMSE.

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Unit For Damping Enhancement Of A Wind Farm Generation System, Embaiya Salih, Stefan Lachowicz, Octavian Bass, Daryoush Habibi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system containsa high inducting coil and combines with power conversion system can act as a constant source of direct current. SMES unit connected to a power system is able to absorb and store both active and reactive power from this system and to inject these powers into the power system in the demand periods. These injected powers are controlled by changing both the duty cycle of the dc-dc chopper switches and its operation modes. This paper presents an efficient design based on an SMES unit controlled by the artificial neural network (ANN) to improve …

A Comparison Of Two Gluteus Maximus Emg Maximum Voluntary Isometric Contraction Positions, Bret Contreras, Andrew D. Vigotsky, Chris Beardsley, John B. Cronin

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background. The purpose of this study was to compare the peak electromyography (EMG) of the most commonly-used position in the literature, the prone bent-leg (90°) hip extension against manual resistance applied to the distal thigh (PRONE), to a novel position, the standing glute squeeze (SQUEEZE). Methods. Surface EMG electrodes were placed on the upper and lower gluteus maximus of thirteen recreationally active females (age = 28.9 years; height = 164 cm; body mass = 58.2 kg), before three maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) trials for each position were obtained in a randomized, counterbalanced fashion. Results. No statistically significant (p …

Butyrylated Starch Intake Can Prevent Red Meat-Induced O6-Methyl-2-Deoxyguanosine Adducts In Human Rectal Tissue: A Randomised Clinical Trial, Richard K. Le Leu, Jean M. Winter, Claus T. Christophersen, Graeme P. Young, Karen J. Humphreys, Ying Hu, Silvia W. Gratz, Rosalind B. Miller, David L. Topping, Anthony R. Bird, Michael A. Conlon

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Epidemiological studies have identified increased colorectal cancer (CRC) risk with high red meat (HRM) intakes, whereas dietary fibre intake appears to be protective. In the present study, we examined whether a HRM diet increased rectal O⁶-methyl-2-deoxyguanosine (O⁶MeG) adduct levels in healthy human subjects, and whether butyrylated high-amylose maize starch (HAMSB) was protective. A group of twenty-three individuals consumed 300 g/d of cooked red meat without (HRM diet) or with 40 g/d of HAMSB (HRM+HAMSB diet) over 4-week periods separated by a 4-week washout in a randomised cross-over design. Stool and rectal biopsy samples were collected for …

Malaysian Equities: A Sector Analysis Of Risk And Normality, Robert J. Powell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study uses Value at Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) metrics to measure the relative riskiness of sectors for Malaysian equities. VaR is a widely used volatility measure, but only measures risk below a specified threshold, whereas CVaR looks at risk beyond that threshold. The study finds that the relative risk of sectors changes with changing economic circumstances as measured by VaR, but remains significantly the same as measured by CVaR. Parametric (normally distributed) measures of VaR are compared to nonparametric measures, and it is found, consistently across all sectors, that parametric measures are not suitable measures …

Answering Research Questions Without Calculating The Mean, Guillermo J. Campitelli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In an important theoretical article Speelman and McGann (2013) indicated that psychological researchers tend to use statistical procedures that involve calculating the mean of a variable in an uncritical manner. A typical procedure in psychological research consists of calculating the mean of some dependent variable in two or more samples and to present those means as summaries of the samples. The next step is to use some statistical technique (e.g., t -test, ANOVA) in order to be able to determine the probability of finding the observed differences between means in those samples given that the difference between the means of …

Reduced Cardiovascular Capacity And Resting Metabolic Rate In Men With Prostate Cancer Undergoing Androgen Deprivation: A Comprehensive Cross-Sectional Investigation, Bradley Wall, Daniel A. Galvao, Naeem Fatehee, Dennis Taaffe, Nigel Spry, David Joseph, Robert Newton

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objectives. To investigate if androgen deprivation therapy exposure is associated with additional risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic treatment-related toxicities. Methods. One hundred and seven men (42-89 years) with prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy completed a maximal graded objective exercise test to determine maximal oxygen uptake, assessments for resting metabolic rate, body composition, blood pressure and arterial stiffness, and blood biomarker analysis. A cross-sectional analysis was undertaken to investigate the potential impact of therapy exposure with participants stratified into two groups according to duration of androgen deprivation therapy (≥3 months). Results. Maximal oxygen uptake (26.1 ± 6.0 mL/kg/min …

Supporting Positive School Culture Through Interpersonal Engagement: Phase One Report: Kinross College December 2015, Geoffrey Lummis, Graeme Lock, Julia Morris

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The Industry Collaboration Project, ‘Supporting Positive School Culture Through Interpersonal Engagement’ is a joint project between Edith Cowan University, Hampton Senior High School, Kinross College and Mindarie Senior College. The project aims to empower school leaders to co-create, implement and evaluate professional learning programs that promote enhanced staff relationships. Supporting school leaders to improve staff relationships is important because staff (both teaching and school support) are key stakeholders in children’s educational outcomes (Stringer, 2013). Ensuring school staff feel valued in their school community is also of ongoing importance, particularly as staff accountability and burnout rises in the teaching profession both …

Seagrass Meadows As A Globally Significant Carbonate Reservoir, I Mazarrasa, N Marbà, O Serrano, C E. Lovelock, Paul S. Lavery, J W. Fourqurean, H Kennedy, M A. Mateo, D Krause-Jensen, A D. Steven, C M. Duarte

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

There has been growing interest in quantifying the capacity of seagrass ecosystems to act as carbon sinks as a natural way of offsetting anthropogenic carbon emissions to the atmosphere. However, most of the efforts have focused on the particulate organic carbon (POC) stocks and accumulation rates and ignored the particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) fraction, despite important carbonate pools associated with calcifying organisms inhabiting the meadows, such as epiphytes and benthic invertebrates, and despite the relevance that carbonate precipitation and dissolution processes have in the global carbon cycle. This study offers the first assessment of the global PIC stocks in seagrass …

Forensic Analysis Of A Sony Playstation 4: A First Look, Matthew Davies, Huw Read, Konstantinos Xynos, Iain Sutherland

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The primary function of a games console is that of an entertainment system. However the latest iteration of these consoles has added a number of new interactive features that may prove of value to the digital investigator. This paper highlights the value of these consoles, in particular Sony's latest version of their PlayStation. This console provides a number of features including web browsing, downloading of material and chat functionality; all communication features that will be of interest to forensic investigators. In this paper we undertake an initial investigation of the PlayStation 4 games console. This paper identifies potential information sources …

Psychological Perspectives On Expertise, Guillermo Campitelli, Michael H. Connors, Merim Bilalić, David Z. Hambrick

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

No abstract available

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities In Medical Devices: A Complex Environment And Multifaceted Problem, Patricia A.H. Williams, Andrew J. Woodward

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The increased connectivity to existing computer networks has exposed medical devices to cybersecurity vulnerabilities from which they were previously shielded. For the prevention of cybersecurity incidents, it is important to recognize the complexity of the operational environment as well as to catalog the technical vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity protection is not just a technical issue; it is a richer and more intricate problem to solve. A review of the factors that contribute to such a potentially insecure environment, together with the identification of the vulnerabilities, is important for understanding why these vulnerabilities persist and what the solution space should look like. This …

Failure Of Science, Death Of Nature, H.F. Recher

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

As a people, Australians have lost contact with the world of nature, Risking the collapse of civilization. One factor in the alienation of nature in Australia is the failure of the scientific community to take responsibility for the technology created by the knowledge generated from scientific research. Science has failed to protect Australia's flora and fauna. Scientists must communicate more widely with society, but need to be educated on how to communicate and on their ethical responsibilities to others and other species. Government needs to show leadership in environmental management and nature conservation, while conservationists need to 'invert the paradigm', …

Volume Reduction Of Municipal Solid Wastes Contaminated With Radioactive Cesium By Ferrocyanide Coprecipitation Technique, Y. Fujikawa, H. Ozaki, H. Tsuno, P. Wei, A. Fujinaga, R. Takanami, S. Taniguchi, S. Kimura, R.R. Giri, Paul Lewtas

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Municipal solid wastes (MSW) with elevated concentrations of radioactive cesium (rad-Cs hereafter) have been generated in some areas of Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1 hereafter) accident. Both recycling and final disposal of the contaminated MSW have become a difficult problem in the affected areas, resulting in accumulation of treated residues in the treatment facilities. The rad-Cs in MSW, especially fly ash, often showed a high leaching rate. Extraction of contaminated MSW with water or hot oxalic acid followed by selective removal of rad-Cs from the extract using ferrocyanide (Fer hereafter) coprecipitation technique could …

Segmental Musculoskeletal Examinations Using Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (Dxa): Positioning And Analysis Considerations, Nicolas H. Hart, Sophia Nimphius, Tania Spiteri, Jodie L. Cochrane, Robert U. Newton

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Musculoskeletal examinations provide informative and valuable quantitative insight into muscle and bone health. DXA is one mainstream tool used to accurately and reliably determine body composition components and bone mass characteristics in-vivo. Presently, whole body scan models separate the body into axial and appendicular regions, however there is a need for localised appendicular segmentation models to further examine regions of interest within the upper and lower extremities. Similarly, in-consistencies pertaining to patient positioning exist in the litera-ture which influence measurement precision and analysis out-comes highlighting a need for standardised procedure. This paper provides standardised and reproducible: 1) positioning and analysis …