Digital Commons Network^™

Relationship Between Strength And Power Production Capacities In Trained Sprint Track Cyclists, James Vercoe, Mike R. Mcguigan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between strength and power capabilities in trained sprint track cyclists. Ten participants including six women and four men (age: 22.1±6.8 years, body height: 176.1±6.7 cm, body weight: 72.1±7.9 kg) performed isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP) and isokinetic sprint tests. Variables measured included peak force (PF), peak rate of force development (PRFD) for the IMTP and maximal torque and maximal power (Pmax) for the isokinetic sprint test. There was a strong relationship between PF on the IMTP and maximal peak torque values across five isokinetic sprints (r=.890-.925). Strong relationships were also shown …

Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Heusler Materials: Synthesis, Microstructure Characterization And Magnetostructural Properties, Riaz Ahamed Ahamed Khan, Reza Ghomashchi, Zonghan Xie, Lei Chen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

An overview of the processing, characterization and magnetostructural properties of ferromagnetic NiMnX (X = group IIIA-VA elements) Heusler alloys is presented. This type of alloy is multiferroic-exhibits more than one ferroic property-and is hence multifunctional. Examples of how different synthesis procedures influence the magnetostructural characteristics of these alloys are shown. Significant microstructural factors, such as the crystal structure, atomic ordering, volume of unit cell, grain size and others, which have a bearing on the properties, have been reviewed. An overriding factor is the composition which, through its tuning, affects the martensitic and magnetic transitions, the transformation temperatures, microstructures and, consequently, …

An Explanation Of Apology Acceptance Based On Lay Peoples’ Insights, James Strickland, Katie Martin, Alfred Allan, Maria M. Allan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Apologies play an important role in forgiveness, but the pathway from apology to forgiveness is unclear. Many researchers use Goffman’s model of the corrective interchange, or models derived from it to guide their research. This model is based on the assumption that offenders apologise to victims who accept these apologies and that this leads to forgiveness. The acceptance of the apology is therefore central in this model, so we undertook a systematic literature review to determine how researchers conceptualise and measure apology acceptance and found a lack of clarity around the construct. We addressed this theoretical uncertainty by exploring whether …

Biometrics Based Privacy-Preserving Authentication And Mobile Template Protection, Wencheng Yang, Jiankun Hu, Song Wang, Qianhong Wu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Smart mobile devices are playing a more and more important role in our daily life. Cancelable biometrics is a promising mechanism to provide authentication to mobile devices and protect biometric templates by applying a noninvertible transformation to raw biometric data. However, the negative effect of nonlinear distortion will usually degrade the matching performance significantly, which is a nontrivial factor when designing a cancelable template. Moreover, the attacks via record multiplicity (ARM) present a threat to the existing cancelable biometrics, which is still a challenging open issue. To address these problems, in this paper, we propose a new cancelable fingerprint template …

Conspicuously Concealed: Revision Of The Arid Clade Of The Gehyra Variegata (Gekkonidae) Group In Western Australia Using An Integrative Molecular And Morphological Approach, With The Description Of Five Cryptic Species, Luke Kealley, Paul Doughty, Mitzy Pepper, J. Scott Keogh, Mia Hillyer, Joel Huey

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The methods used to detect and describe morphologically cryptic species have advanced in recent years, owing to the integrative nature of molecular and morphological techniques required to elucidate them. Here we integrate recent phylogenomic work that sequenced many genes but few individuals, with new data from mtDNA and morphology from hundreds of gecko specimens of the Gehyra variegata group from the Australian arid zone. To better understand morphological and geographical boundaries among cryptic forms, we generated new sequences from 656 Gehyra individuals, largely assigned to G. variegata group members over a wide area in Western Australia, with especially dense sampling …

Scoring Analysis Of The Men’S 2014, 2015 And 2016 World Championship Tour Of Surfing: The Importance Of Aerial Manoeuvres In Competitive Surfing, Brendon Ferrier, Jeremy Sheppard, Oliver R.L. Farley, Josh L. Secomb, Joanna Parsonage, Robert Newton, Sophia Nimphius

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of aerial manoeuvres on scoring in professional surfing. 23,631 waves were analysed for the number and types of aerial manoeuvres performed from the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Men’s World Championship Tour. Additionally, the awarded score, timing and order of the aerial was also analysed. Descriptive statistics and Two Way ANOVA’s were performed with Sidak Multiple Comparisons Post Hoc analysis. Results were a significantly higher score being awarded (P ≤ 0.0001) when including an aerial in competition across all three seasons. In 2015 surfers were awarded a significantly larger score …

Millennial-Scale Trends And Controls In Posidonia Oceanica (L. Delile) Ecosystem Productivity, Carman Leiva-Dueñas, Lourdes López-Merino, Oscar Serrano, Antonio Martínez Cortizas, Miguel-Angel Mateo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Posidonia oceanica is a marine phanerogam that buries a significant part of its belowground production forming an organic bioconstruction known as mat. Despite Posidonia seagrass mats have proven to be reliable archives of long-term environmental change, palaeoecological studies using seagrass archives are still scarce. Here we reconstruct four millennia of environmental dynamics in the NE coast of Spain by analysing the carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic composition of P. oceanica sheaths, the proportion of different seagrass organs throughout the seagrass mat and other sedimentological proxies. The palaeoenvironmental reconstruction informs on long-term ecosystem productivity and nutrient loading, which have been linked …

Image Analysis Of Periapical Radiograph For Bone Mineral Density Prediction, Rini Widyaningrum, Sri Lestari, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease. Parameter from any bone site in the body has possibility to be developed as a predictor of osteoporosis. The alteration in the mandible trabecular bone is visible in periapical radiographs. The aim of this study was to correlate the area parameter and the integrated density of periapical radiograph with bone mineral density. Image analysis of periapical radiograph i.e. measurement of area parameter and integrated density was done on Region of Interest (ROI) by using canny edge detection method. Result of this study showed that the area parameter has asignificant (α < 0.05) negative correlation with the bone mass density (BMD) of the lumbar spine (r = -0.371) and T-score of the lumbar spine (r = -0.383). The linear regression test showed that the area parameter only can be used to predict T-score of the lumbar spine (F=5.822, α < 0.05). The integrated density showed a significant (α < 0.05) negative correlation with T-score of hip (r = -0.332) and T-score of lumbar spine (r = -0.377). It can be concluded that the area parameter can be used as one of input parameters for computer-aided system of osteoporosis early detection by using periapical radiograph.

What Drives Food Insecurity In Western Australia? How The Perceptions Of People At Risk Differ To Those Of Stakeholders, Lucy M. Butcher, Maria M. Ryan, Therese A. O'Sullivan, Johnny Lo, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Food insecurity is considered a “wicked” problem due to the highly complex and at times undefined casual factors. Although many stakeholders are working to address the problem, a possible divergence exists between their views on food insecurity and those of the people who are actually experiencing the problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a difference between the opinions of those “at risk” and stakeholders. A total of seven focus groups (two stakeholder groups n = 10, five “at-risk” groups n = 34) and three interviews (stakeholders n = 3) were conducted to ascertain perceptions. …

A ‘Better’ Education: An Examination Of The Utility Of Boarding School For Indigenous Secondary Students In Western Australia, Mary-Anne Macdonald, Eyal Gringart, Terry Ngarritjan Kessaris, Martin Cooper, Jan Gray

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Over the past 10 years, great improvements have been observed in the Year 12 attainment rate of Indigenous Australians. This has been due, in part, to government funding of programmes aimed at improving education opportunity for Indigenous Australian students, including funding of scholarships for students from remote areas to attend boarding schools. The current qualitative study investigated the perspectives of school leaders and Indigenous secondary students across the Australian state of Western Australia, on the utility and impact of this boarding provision. Students identified that boarding education allowed them to achieve a dual goal of meaningful career pathways and improved …

An Entropy-Histogram Approach For Image Similarity And Face Recognition, Mohammed Aljanabi, Zahir Hussain, Song F. Lu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Image similarity and image recognition are modern and rapidly growing technologies because of their wide use in the field of digital image processing. It is possible to recognize the face image of a specific person by finding the similarity between the images of the same person face and this is what we will address in detail in this paper. In this paper, we designed two new measures for image similarity and image recognition simultaneously. The proposed measures are based mainly on a combination of information theory and joint histogram. Information theory has a high capability to predict the relationship between …

Development Of An Australian Nursing Critical Thinking Tool Using A Delphi Process, Elisabeth R. Jacob, Christine M. Duffield, Darren Jacob

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aim: To develop a critical thinking assessment tool for Australian undergraduate nurses. Background: Critical thinking is an important skill but difficult to assess in nursing practice. There are often many responses a nurse can make to a clinical problem or situation. Some responses are more correct than others and these decisions have an impact on a patient's care and safety. Differences in a response can relate to the depth of knowledge, experience and critical thinking ability of the individual nurse. Design: This study used a Delphi process to develop five clinical case studies together with the most appropriate clinical responses …

An Investigation Of Mobile Phone Use While Driving: An Application Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Sokunthea Kruy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Mobile phone use while driving has been an emerging issue for road safety in recent years. The development of new technology has meant that users are more connected to their devices than ever before. This has led to use while driving despite the illegality of this behaviour. In this research, three mobile phone use behaviours were investigated: making/receiving calls; creating/sending text messages, and accessing social media. Through application of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), an online survey was developed. Five hundred and fifty-nine university students including 193 young respondents (aged 17 – 25) responded to investigate attitudes, subjective norms, …

Seed Morphology, Dormancy And Germination Of South-West Australian Ericaceae, Michael Just

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Ericaceae in South West Australia contains species with difficult to germinate seeds, including many species with deep intractable dormancy. A better understanding of seed biology and species specific dormancy, and germination mechanisms is required to overcome these difficulties. Land clearing, salinity and disease has resulted in over 125 species within 15 genera being listed as rare, highly restricted, threatened and endangered (Western Australian Herbarium 1998–). The present study examined the seed biology of eight species of Ericaceae native to Western Australia, exploring fruit and seed morphology, dormancy and germination. Cold and warm stratification was used in combination with gibberellic …

Automated Optical Mark Recognition Scoring System For Multiple-Choice Questions, Murtadha Alomran

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Multiple-choice questions are one of the questions commonly used in assessments. It is widely used because this type of examination can be an effective and reliable way to examine the level of student’s knowledge. So far, this type of examination can either be marked by hand or with specialised answer sheets and scanning equipment. There are specialised answer sheets and scanning equipment to mark multiple-choice questions automatically. However, these are expensive, specialised and restrictive answer sheets and optical mark recognition scanners.

This research aims to design and implement a multiple-choice answer sheet and a reliable image processing-based scoring system that …

The Cryopreservation Of Human Semen, And Subsequent Evaluation Of A Commercially-Available Device To Isolate Motile Sperm, Callum Andrew Robinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The cryopreservation of human semen is a vital asset in assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Although advances have been in the freezing of sperm, further refinement is both necessary and ongoing. Computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) has been increasingly utilised in both research and diagnostic however there are a range of variables that must first be controlled in order to produce reliable measurements. Following thawing, sperm must be isolated from both the original seminal plasma and the cryoprotectants; the two most used isolation methods include density gradient centrifugation (DGC) and the swim-up method.

The present thesis sought to investigate the following areas …

Braking Ground Reaction Force During 90deg Sidestep Cut And Its Relationship To Leg Muscle Strength, Walter Yu

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Previous studies on change of direction (COD) have reported that braking is an important factor for COD performance. However, previous studies have focused on the plant step and the penultimate step (PEN), thus little is known about deceleration before these steps. This study compared ground reaction forces (GRF) of two braking steps, the PEN and the step prior to PEN (PEN-1), the entry and exit velocity of the COD, and muscle function measures (leg press and leg curl one-repetition maximum, isometric and isokinetic strength, and drop jump performance) between faster and slower participants for a 90^o sidestep cut. This …

Ultrasound Measurements On The Inferior Vena Cava By Renal Nursing Staff For Assessment And Management Of Intravascular Volume Status In Haemodialysis Patients, Ulrich Steinwandel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Title: Ultrasound measurements on the inferior vena cava (IVC-US) by renal nursing staff for assessment and management of intravascular volume status in haemodialysis patients.

Aims: The primary aim of this thesis was to provide evidence that renal nurses could safely and efficiently perform IVC-US on haemodialysis patients to obtain objective assessment of intravascular volume status and potentially reduce adverse events and morbidity. The secondary aims for this study were: (1) conduct a systematic literature review to identify evidence if renal nurses have previously used this method for intravascular volume assessment; (2) teach a renal nurse through a staged educational programme, …

The Potential Synergistic Behaviour Of Inter- And Intra-Genus Probiotic Combinations In The Pattern And Rate Of Short Chain Fatty Acids Formation During Fibre Fermentation, Warnakulasuriya M. A. D. B. Fernando, Steve H. Flint, K. K. D. S. Ranaweera, Arthur Bamunuarachchi, Stuart K. Johnson, Charles S. Brennan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study compared the rate of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production by different probiotic combinations of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium to determine any synergistic effects. Six different fibre fractions were fermented with nine combinations of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LR), Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA), Bifidobacterium longum (BL) and Bifidobacterium breve (BB) for 0, 6, 24 and 48 h. SCFAs were quantified by gas chromatography. Inter-genus combinations of bacteria produced more SCFA, especially BB + BL + LR, compared to intra-genus that yielded the lowest SCFA production. Acetate was the most abundant, while propionate and butyrate were the most utilised. The SCFA formation was …

Antibiotic Resistance In Gram Negative Bacteria Isolated From Fish Sold In Western Australia, Hannah Kathleen Robinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background Information The global misuse and overuse of antibiotics in human medicine and the animal production industry is contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. This is a serious threat to modern medicine and public health. Antibiotic resistant organisms can cause severe infections in humans which are difficult to treat, and in some cases impossible to resolve which can lead to premature death. Several studies have been conducted across the globe to assess the use of antibiotics in the seafood industry and the associated health risks, however, limited studies have recently explored this risk in an Australian setting. …

Organic Chemistry 1 Lab, Steelman Library, Ralph N. Salvatore Dr.

Syllabus Repository

No abstract provided.

Developing A Unified Approach To Sustainable Consumption Behaviour: Opportunities For A New Environmental Paradigm, Vivienne Byers, Alan Gilmer

Articles

Politicians and national policy makers seek to encourage individuals to engage in a wide range of pro-environmental practices to address both discrete environmental problems and major global challenges such as climate change. Theoretically, the field of behavioural management in environmental consumption which seeks to change holarchic open human systems, is much contested. This paper proposes to develop a synthesized conceptual framework embracing a unified approach that addresses the systematic, structural, and institutional perspectives on how consumption, through public policy initiatives, can be developed and changed to reflect a deeper ecological foundation. This approach considers the debate regarding policy and behavioural …

The Link Between Spatial Skills And Engineering Problem-Solving, Gavin Duffy, Sheryl Sorby, Presentacion Rivera Reyes, Tom Delahunty, Lance Perez, Jayashri Ravishankar

Conference papers

Well-developed 3-D spatial skills are correlated with engineering success. However, most studies examining the link between spatial skills and engineering success have been conducted at the macro level, i.e., the link between spatial skills and course grades or between spatial skills and graduation rates. In this research, a more refined approach has been taken. Relationships between spatial skills and success in solving certain types of problems that engineering students commonly encounter are examined. It was found that high levels of spatial skills predict success in solving certain types of engineering problems but not in all types of problems. Data gathered …

Smokers And Ex-Smokers Have Shared Differences In The Neural Substrates For Potential Monetary Gains And Losses, Liam Nestor, Ella Mccabe, Jennifer Jones, Luke Clancy, Hugh Garavan

Articles

Despite an increased understanding of nicotine addiction, there is a scarcity of research comparing the neural correlates of non-drug reward between smokers and ex-smokers. Long-term changes in reward-related brain functioning for non-drug incentives may elucidate patterns of functioning that potentially contribute to ongoing smoking behaviour in current smokers. Similarly, examining the effects of previous chronic nicotine exposure during a period of extended abstinence may reveal whether there are neural correlates responsible for non-drug reward processing that are different from current smokers.

A Blueprint For Knowledge Management In The Biopharmaceutical Sector, Paige Kane

Doctoral

This research examined current industry Knowledge Management (KM) methodologies and capabilities in order to gain insights into the level of maturity and understanding of KM within the biopharmaceutical sector. In addition, the researcher has developed models, tools and processes that can assist the sector to gain greater clarity of the value and merits that KM can offer to organizations. The researcher proposes that a systematic KM program can be used to “unlock” the knowledge and organizational capabilities necessary to convey real competitive advantage, but more importantly for the patient, to enable organizations to successfully develop and deliver the next generation …

A Wikipedia Powered State-Based Approach To Automatic Search Query Enhancement, Kyle Goslin, Markus Hofmann

Articles

This paper describes the development and testing of a novel Automatic Search Query Enhancement (ASQE) algorithm, the Wikipedia N Sub-state Algorithm (WNSSA), which utilises Wikipedia as the sole data source for prior knowledge. This algorithm is built upon the concept of iterative states and sub-states, harnessing the power of Wikipedia's data set and link information to identify and utilise reoccurring terms to aid term selection and weighting during enhancement. This algorithm is designed to prevent query drift by making callbacks to the user's original search intent by persisting the original query between internal states with additional selected enhancement terms. The …

Quantitative Fine-Grained Human Evaluation Of Machine Translation Systems: A Case Study On English To Croatian, Filip Klubicka, Antonio Toral, Victor Manuel Sanchez-Cartagena

Articles

This paper presents a quantitative fine-grained manual evaluation approach to comparing the performance of different machine translation (MT) systems. We build upon the well-established Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) error taxonomy and implement a novel method that assesses whether the differences in performance for MQM error types between different MT systems are statistically significant. We conduct a case study for English-to- Croatian, a language direction that involves translating into a morphologically rich language, for which we compare three MT systems belonging to different paradigms: pure phrase-based, factored phrase-based and neural. First, we design an MQM-compliant error taxonomy tailored to the relevant …

Relating Group Size And Posting Activity Of An Online Community Of Financial Investors: Regularities And Seasonal Patterns, P. Racca, R. Casarin, Pierpaolo Dondio, F. Squazzoni

Articles

Group size can potentially affect collective activity and individual propensity to contribute to collective goods. Mancur Olson, in his Logic of Collective Action, argued that individual contribution to a collective good tends to be lower in groups of large size. Today, online communication platforms represent an interesting ground to study such collaborative dynamics under possibly different conditions (e.g., lower costs related to gather and share information). This paper examines the relationship between group size and activity in an online financial forum, where users invest time in sharing news, analysis and comments with other investors. We looked at about 24 million …

Experienced Mental Workload, Perception Of Usability, Their Interaction And Impact On Task Performance, Luca Longo

Articles

No abstract provided.

Pseudorehearsal In Actor-Critic Agents With Neural Network Function Approximation, Vladimir Marochko, Leonard Johard, Manuel Mazzara, Luca Longo

Articles

Catastrophic forgetting has a significant negative impact in reinforcement learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate how pseudorehearsal can change performance of an actor-critic agent with neural-network function approximation. We tested agent in a pole balancing task and compared different pseudorehearsal approaches. We have found that pseudorehearsal can assist learning and decrease forgetting.