Digital Commons Network^™

The Use, Integration And Perceived Value Of Performance Analysis To Professional And Amateur Irish Coaches, Denise Martin, Alan Swanton, Jonathan Bradley, Denise Mcgrath

Articles

Research into the perceptions, practices and engagement of coaches with performance analysis is fundamental to informing the continued development of the discipline and its practitioners. The aim of this study was to survey a large sample of coaches of varying profiles, regarding their use and integration of performance analysis, to explore its perceived value and barriers to its use. Survey data were analysed from 538 Irish coaches qualified at Level 1 and above (82% male), from 37 sports. A spectrum of coaches’ engagement with performance analysis, ranging from no formal performance analysis (49%), to coaches doing their own analysis (coach-as-analyst, …

Using Traditional Rituals In Hospitality To Gain Value: A Study On The Impact Of Feng Shui, Madeleine Ogilvie, Danny Ng, David Xiang, Maria M. Ryan, Jaime L.P. Yong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Superstition and the rituals used to support such beliefs remain an important part of Chinese business society. With the advance of globalisation and the normalisation of many business practices this study explores the importance these rituals continue to play in the contemporary hospitality setting. The paper examines the prominence of Feng Shui in business today in a qualitative study using Chinese restaurants to explore associated business behaviours and perceived value of use. Findings from 20 phenomenological interviews from across four different Asian communities are discussed highlighting the core elements of this ritualistic practice. Results indicate that these practices continue to …

Legal Jurisdiction And The Deterritorialization Of Data, Paul Schiff Berman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Electronic data—everything from e-mails and text messages to Facebook and Instagram posts to Twitter pronouncements to drone warfare data to search algorithms to financial transactions to cloud data storage—travels around the globe with little relationship to physical territory. In addition, all of this data is often in the custody and control of data intermediaries such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, private military contractors, and so on.

Three important consequences flow from this ubiquitous technology-enabled, data-driven global societal activity. First, the territorial location of data becomes increasingly arbitrary and substantively unimportant. If I, as a U.S. citizen based in …

Emerging Policy And Practice Issues (2018), Steven L. Schooner, David Berteau

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper/chapter, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2017), attempts to identify the key trends and issues in U.S. federal procurement for 2017. Consistent with prior practice, this chapter offers extensive coverage of the federal procurement, grant, and defense spending trends and attempts to predict what lies ahead, particularly with regard to legislative and executive activity. The paper discusses, in addition to a deep dive into the spending data, the surprisingly slow pace of acquisition regulation promulgation, lack of progress with regard to infrastructure, changes to DoD's acquisition leadership and the USD(AT&L) reorganization, the OFPP …

Tale Of Three Regulatory Regimes -- Dynamic, Distracted And Dysfunctional: Sweden, The United Kingdom And The United States, Christopher R. Yukins, Andrea Sundstrand, Michael Bowsher Qc

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times -- a year marked by genuine progress in public procurement law in some nations, and partial paralysis in others. This article presents the experience of Sweden (as part of the European Union), the United Kingdom (which is slated soon to depart from the EU, via “Brexit”), and the United States (in the first year of the Trump administration). While Sweden and other members of the European Union continue to develop a vital and evolving body of public procurement law, the United Kingdom has been distracted by Brexit, and …

False Claims Act: Greater Doj Scrutiny Of Frivolous Qui Tam Actions?, Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This short piece discusses recent (internal) Justice Department guidance for attorneys handling False Claims (FCA) Act cases. In a dramatic policy and practice shift, the memorandum recommends that “when evaluating a recommendation to decline intervention in a qui tam action, attorneys should also consider whether the government’s interests are served. . .by seeking dismissal pursuant to 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c)(2)(A).” The essay applauds DOJ's apparent acknowledgement that its attorneys have more than a pro forma duty to consider moving to dismiss frivolous qui tam suits.

The essay discusses DOJ's new rubric or menu of factors for deciding whether to dismiss …

The Fourth Year Of Forgetting: The Troubling Expansion Of The Right To Be Forgotten, Dawn C. Nunziato

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In its famous "right to be forgotten" decision, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in 2014 that search engine operators must, upon request from a data subject, remove links that result from searches for an individual’s name when those results are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes… carried out by the operator of the search engine.” The initial implementation of the right to be forgotten was limited in several ways. First, it was limited in geographical scope to European domains of search engines. Google—the primary search engine affected by the …

A Theory Of Civil Problem-Solving Courts, Jessica K. Steinberg

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article is the first to develop a problem-solving theory for the civil justice system. Drug courts pioneered the problem-solving model in the 1990s to pursue therapeutic goals as an alternative to “assembly line” sentencing. This Article explores the potential for migration of the drug court framework into the two most commonly adjudicated civil cases: rental housing and consumer debt.

Three structural conditions in the civil courts—high-volume dockets, systemic lack of counsel, and corporate capture of the small claims process—routinely position vulnerable classes of individuals on the losing end of litigation. In the aggregate, these conditions have rendered the civil …

Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity Contracts: Time To Correlate Practice And Policy?, Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This short piece discusses recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) data chronicling an increase in the Defense Department's reliance on indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (or IDIQ) contracts. The data also indicates that, despite the clearly established preference for multiple awards, about three-quarters of the IDIQ awards made by DoD were to a single contractor, rather than multiple contractors.

Based on GAO's data, the essay describes the dramatic difference between current IDIQ practice and the process described in the the regulations, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the supplemental regulations promulgated by DoD (including the DFARS and the PGI).

The essay concludes with two …

Unbundling Populism, David Fontana

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Populism is having its moment on our constitutional center stage, but the way we are treating this moment is adding to the risks that populism poses to our liberal democratic constitutional order. Populism has primarily been defined in our public discussions by the loudest self-identifying populists active in democratic politics at the moment. Populism has therefore often been treated as a bundled-together concept, merging not just anti-establishment sentiments, but also authoritarian and xenophobic ones as well. Populism is an eight-letter word that is then treated like a pejorative four-letter one. Populism, though, is a they, and not an it. The …

Cost-Plus Patent Damages, Michael B. Abramowicz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article assesses recent proposals to use risk-adjusted costs of producing an invention as a basis for either setting patent damages or valuing patents taken by eminent domain. In theory, cost-plus damages can address one of the central challenges of patent law: ensuring that a patentee does not obtain excessive rents for an invention. But cost-plus damages have three principal problems. First, risk may be difficult to estimate, and estimates may be infected by hindsight. Second, if the permitted rate of return is too low, there may be insufficient incentives to invent.

Indeed, even a rate of return that seems …

The Golden Years, Gray Divorce, Pink Caretaking, And Green Money, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article considers the impact of changing family structures on aging in contemporary America. It looks at two critical and interrelated aspects of aging—economic security and caretaking—and offers policy suggestions on how to improve the financial stability of and caretaking possibilities for elders. The core thesis is that our current social, legal, and economic structure for growing old is organized around the nuclear family with respect to both caretaking and financial security. As family structures change in terms of partnering (and re-partnering and non-partnering) and number of children, and with the increase in economic inequality, support for old age needs …

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, …

Comparative Pairs Judgements For High-Stakes Practical Assessments, Hendrati Nastiti

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Assessment of practical tasks, as opposed to that of theoretical tasks, has been considered to be problematic, mainly because it is usually resource intensive and the scoring is subjective. Most practical tasks need to be assessed on site or involve products that need to be collected, stored, or transported. Moreover, because practical tasks are generally open-ended, and therefore subjective, there is concern over the reliability of the scores. In high-stakes assessment, these problems are even more challenging. There is a need for an assessment method that could overcome these problems. In this study, such a method that will be referred …

Holistic Health: Shaping Women’S Experiences Of Positive Body Image, Helen Elizabeth Monks

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This PhD thesis seeks to contribute to a nuanced understanding of positive body image and how it is expressed among a group of women participating in holistic health culture in a modern Western society. Qualitative data were collected from in-depth ethnographic interviews with 25 women in Perth, Western Australia, to illuminate an understanding of their holistic health beliefs and practices, perceptions of appearance and health ideals, as well as their understandings of positive body image. Thematic analysis of the data through Nvivo revealed several overarching themes, demonstrating how certain aspects of holistic health culture may encourage or dissuade the development …

An Investigation Into Trust And Security In The Mandatory And Imposed Use Of Financial Icts Upon Older People, David Michael Cook

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Care needs to be taken to reduce the number of people who are fearful and mistrustful of using ICT where that usage is forced upon them without choice or alternative. The growing incidence of mandatory and imposed online systems can result in confusion, misuse, fear, and rejection by people with only rudimentary ICT skills. A cohort where a high percentage of such people occur is older people, defined in this study as people over the age of 60 Examples of compulsory ICT interactions include some banks limiting bank statement access through online rather than paper-based options. Other examples include the …

Design, Implementation And Evaluation Of The Impact Of A Body Image Professional Development Program For Early Childhood Educators, Karen Lombardi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Poor body image is a serious public health concern globally, and may lead to the development of poor mental and physical health, as well as eating disorders. Body image concerns were once believed to arise during puberty, though it is now reported children as young as three years of age present with such problems. Early intervention is therefore an important strategy to improve mental and physical health outcomes for very young children, and educators are an obvious conduit to build confidence, self-esteem and resilience of such children. In order for them to adequately fulfil this role, educators must first understand …

Young People Who Fireset In Western Australia: Peer Group Influences And Impulsiveness Trump Consequences, Catherine Analise Timms

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The paradoxical character of fire is perfectly captured by the juxtaposition between the initial ease and excitement of lighting fires, and fire’s destructive and uncontrollable nature. Australia is fire prone with its hot, dry climate, volatile vegetation and urban sprawl surrounded by bushland. Since an estimated 50% of fires lit in Australia are deliberate (Stanley & Read, 2016) the problem of intentional firesetting cannot be overstated. This thesis argues that youth firesetting requires both macro- and microlevel approaches to appreciate the complexities of the problem, and aims to identify applicable and directed responses to minimise youth firesetting. Study one analysed …

A Framework For Social Media Use In Project Management, Muralitheran V. Kanagarajoo

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There has been rapid adoption of social media (SM) in business functions such as marketing and advertising. This being primarily due to its capability to communicate information. There has been less widespread adoption of SM for other business functions and the potential of SM is not comprehensively understood. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the potential of SM for project management and to understand some of the difficulties that arise from SM use. The research specifically investigated how SM is being used for project activities and the maturity of the management processes that govern SM use. Implications for …

Selling The Modern Day Tribe: The Commodification Of Rave Culture, Duncan Martin Barnes

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines youth and rave culture from the late 1980s to the present. It considers the history as well as the global and local impact of rave. I provide a visual ethnographic study from 1999-2014, based on my work as a commercial photographer of the Perth, Western Australian scene. While critically reflecting on existing subcultural research this thesis adds another dimension – the effect that global corporations have had in reshaping subcultural practices, specifically the commodification of rave culture in the form of the contemporary electronic dance festival.

The research incorporates both qualitative and quantitative data to interrogate media …

Meeting Place An Exhibition – And – Locating The Country: An Australian Bricoleuse’S Inquiry An Exegesis, Annette Nykiel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This practice-led PhD research investigated alternate forms of articulation to relate stories of place-making, as narrative or object, and added threads to the complex meshwork and herstory of the Country. The research was conducted in ‘The Country’, of the north-eastern Goldfields and Yalgorup Lakes in Western Australia. These two non-urban sites provided unique experiences of the bush, local people’s stories and understandings of time. The research investigated the implications of non-urban spaces as studios in relation to the concepts of place, time and narrative.

This research was, in part, experiential and drew on an absorbed embodied awareness of notions of …

Exploring Poor Outcomes From Quality Assurance Programs – An Analysis Based Around The Concept Of Mechanisms And The Theory Of Constraints (Toc) Thinking Process (Tp), Layla M. M. B. Al-Hameed

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Quality programs have been used by organisations since their advent in the 1930s and continue to be implemented to achieve various goals. For example, according to the International Organization for Standardization (2015) and the CASRO Institute for Research Quality (2016), organisations aim to reduce costs, gain a competitive advantage, improve the quality of their processes and products, and enhance profitability through attaining such accreditations. ISO accreditations have also been used to ensure compliance with market requirements (Williams, 2004). However, a major challenge in implementing these programs, referred to in this thesis as ‘Quality Assurance Programs’ (QAPs), is the gap that …

Epidemiological Model Of The Transmission And Spread Of Hepatitis B Pandemic In Ghana, Kwaafo Akoto Awuah-Mensah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The world's attention to the burden and spread of hepatitis B has increased signicantly in the recent past. A number of interventions by way of treatment and immunisation have been initiated to fight the pandemic, especially in high prevalence regions such as Africa and Asia. Lack of good quality information about hepatitis B is a major hindrance to policy direction and comprehensive implementation of interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa designated as an endemic region. Limited studies on hepatitis B, coupled with lack of adequate health care systems and infrastructure, have led to ignorance or misconceptions and stigmatisation about the disease and …

Does Facial Physiognomy In The Context Of Anoccupational Safety And Health Message Predict Outcomes?, Ian Parker

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Physiognomy, the practice of looking to another person’s outward facial appearance to unmask the inner character of that person, has had a diverse historical impact within art, medicine, theology, anthropology, law, criminology, political history, psychology, psychiatry, and popular culture, since it was conceptualised in Greece during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C (Physiognomy, 1999-2009, 2009a). Aristotle, the prominent Greek philosopher, penned many chapters on physiognomic properties and touched upon strength/weakness, genius/stupidity, and other trait characteristics and their opposites in so far as such characteristics were associated with facial form (Physiognomy, 2006, 2009b).

In more modern times, facial recognition and evaluation …

No-One Was Watching: A Collection Of Short Fiction And Stories Beyond The Gates: An Exegesis, Ann Elizabeth Horner

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research project asserts the primacy of creative practice as a key method of enquiry and explores how fictional stories, re-imagined from historical events of the mid-twentieth century, may provide different ways of viewing a world which was inhabited by once-silenced children, now known as the ‘forgotten Australians’. To this end, the thesis is made up of a creative component in the form of a book-length collection of short fiction that is accompanied by a critical component positioning the thesis contextually, theoretically and methodologically. The research reveals overwhelming evidence of a culture of endemic abuse within Australian child welfare organisations …

Comparing Live To Recorded Music And Stories Using Multiple Psychoneuroendocrine And Psychological Measures, Ronniet Orlando

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Listening to music brings health benefits, according to an expanding opus of empirical research. Studies to date cover a wide range of music interventions and outcome measures. Music has been applied to healthy participants, as well as clinical populations to target anxiety and pain. But little is known about whether live music is more effective than recorded music as an intervention for these common symptoms.

This exploratory study sought answers with the emerging science of saliva analysis, which focuses on biomarkers that indicate stress and immune function. In this case salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, immunoglobulin-A, interleukin- 1beta, and pH levels were …

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 …

Evolving Gameplay Elements Into Virtual Terrains, Andrew Pech

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With advancements in technology, consumers are expecting higher quality and more detailed video game content. This puts a strain on video game companies and their developers as they are required to manually design and create increasingly complex video game content. Procedural content generation can alleviate this burden by using technology to automatically generate video game content, effectively reducing development time and budget. This thesis presents a novel approach towards procedurally generating video game terrains that meet a set of gameplay requirements as specified by the user. This approach uses a genetic algorithm to evolve a set of modifications that, when …

I Am Here Now: A Play – And – Polyvocality, The Unhomely, And The Methods Of Mike Leigh In Playwriting: An Exegesis, Michael Mccall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The aim of the research was to investigate how the devising methods of theatre and film director Mike Leigh might generate material for a new play text and what the implications were in regards to authorship. Central to the research was an exploration of the collaborative devising processes of Leigh as a point of origin and how this might lead to an intended and deliberate case for a plurality of voices in a written play text. It was conducted with a focus on utilising many voices. In this instance the ‘voices’ were young participants from Perth’s African Australian community. The …

Optimisation Of Stand-Alone Hybrid Energy Systems For Power And Thermal Loads, Barun Kumar Das

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Stand-alone hybrid energy systems are an attractive option for remote communities without a connection to a main power grid. However, the intermittent nature of solar and other renewable sources adversely affects the reliability with which these systems respond to load demands. Hybridisation, achieved by combining renewables with combustion-based supplementary prime movers, improves the ability to meet electric load requirements. In addition, the waste heat generated from backup Internal Combustion Engines or Micro Gas Turbines can be used to satisfy local heating and cooling loads. As a result, there is an expectation that the overall efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of …