Digital Commons Network^™

Characteristics Of Rural Stem Clubs And Implications For Students With Disabilities, Karin M. Fisher, Peggy Shannon-Baker, Kelly Brooksher, Kania Greer

Elementary & Special Education: Faculty Publications

There are many benefits for students to participate in extracurricular science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities or clubs. It is also known that students with disabilities (SWD) do not participate as much as their peers without disabilities (SWOD). However, there is a lack of research on SWD and their participation in STEM clubs. This sequential explanatory mixed method study explored teachers’ perceptions of the types and characteristics of STEM clubs and their participants, and their professional development (PD) to work with SWD in their clubs. Findings suggest a variety of STEM clubs are offered with an average of 20 …

Acupuncture And Oxytocinergic System: The Promising Treatment For Autism, Tangfeng Su, Lei Pei

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Aphasia Therapy, Depression And Quality Of Life In Post-Stroke Patients After Rehabilitation At 12 And 26 Weeks After Stroke: A Verse Sub-Study, Alia Rashid Khan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Depression is a common consequence of stroke, and people with aphasia (PWA) post-stroke have a higher risk of developing depression compared to stroke survivors without aphasia. However, current stroke interventions featuring aphasia therapy tend to neglect the effect of the treatment on mood. There is also a lack of evidence on the impact of stroke education and counselling on PWA in early stroke recovery. Additionally, the research on post-stroke depression often excludes or insufficiently describes PWA in study populations. The influence of direct aphasia therapy on depression in PWA is undetermined. This sub-study investigated: i) the effect of …

Task-Generic And Task-Specific Connectivity Modulations In The Adhd Brain: An Integrated Analysis Across Multiple Tasks, Roselyne J. Chauvin, Jan K. Buitelaar, Emma Sprooten, Marianne Oldehinkel, Barbara Franke, Catharina Hartman, Dirk J. Heslenfeld, Pieter J. Hoekstra, Jaap Oosterlaan, Christian F. Beckmann, Maarten Mennes

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Cost-Effectiveness Of Exercise Medicine For Prostate Cancer, Kim Edmunds

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is associated with numerous adverse effects that impact on quality of life and contribute further to the cost burden of prostate cancer (PCa) via treatment and supportive care. Exercise medicine is effective in slowing PCa progression, reversing treatment adverse effects and improving quality of life and survival of patients, however, no economic analyses have been conducted to determine whether exercise is cost-effective in this population.

Objectives

Firstly, to examine the adverse effects of ADT for PCa and the evidence supporting the use of exercise medicine in their management. Secondly, to conduct the first economic evaluations …

Applications Of Béla Bartók's Techniques Of Pitch Organisation To Jazz Improvisation, Niran Jay Dasika

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The music of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881-1945) reconciles hauntingly lyrical beauty with harsh, atonal dissonance, appealing to music fans, musicians, and theorists alike for over a century and suggesting a rich resource of inspiration for improvising musicians. The composer Pierre Boulez commented that “Whether it is in a brutal violence animating a sound material in fusion, or in a tranquil gentleness glowing in a halo of grating sounds and colours… Bartók is incomparable and remains unique”. Informed by Bartók theorists Elliott Antokoletz, János Kárpáti, Erno Lendvai, and by Bartók’s own writings, this research identifies four melodic techniques: ‘mistuning’, ‘chromatic …

Disordered Eating, Food Insecurity, And Weight Status Among Transgender And Gender Nonbinary Youth And Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Using A Nutrition Screening Protocol, Whitney R. Linsenmeyer, Ian M. Katz, Jamie L. Reed, Andrea M. Giedinghagen, Christopher B. Lewis, Sarah K. Garwood

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Does Brief Focused Attention And Open Monitoring Meditation Affect The Attentional Blink?, Paul Sharpe, Ben Whalley, Chris J. Mitchell

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Vocabulary Builder Model For Autistic Children, Maryam Rastikazerooni

Student Works (2020-2029)

Most children with autism suffer from impairments in specific cognitive processing styles, social skills, and communication skills, which affect the academic performance of those children in pre-school. The difficulties in language comprehension and communication skills result in the lack of motivation, attention, satisfaction, and interaction in this population, thus causing the children to encounter deficits in learning and especially learning vocabulary. Many Mobile-Based interventions (MBI) have been developed to address the deficits in this population. However, there are very few vocabulary builders’ software which focus on improving the vocabulary learning skills as well as providing consistent motivation for autistic children. …

A Machine Learning Approach For The Factorization Of Psychometric Data With Application To The Delis Kaplan Executive Function System, J.A. Camilleri, S.B. Eickhoff, S. Weis, J. Chen, J. Amunts, A. Sotiras, S. Genon

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Cognitive Dysfunction After Analgesia And Sedation: Out Of The Operating Room And Into The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Ashley D Turner, Travis Sullivan, Kurt Drury, Trevor A Hall, Cydni N Williams, Kristin P Guilliams, Sarah Murphy, A M Iqbal O'Meara

Open Access Publications

In the midst of concerns for potential neurodevelopmental effects after surgical anesthesia, there is a growing awareness that children who require sedation during critical illness are susceptible to neurologic dysfunctions collectively termed pediatric post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS-p. In contrast to healthy children undergoing elective surgery, critically ill children are subject to inordinate neurologic stress or injury and need to be considered separately. Despite recognition of PICS-p, inconsistency in techniques and timing of post-discharge assessments continues to be a significant barrier to understanding the specific role of sedation in later cognitive dysfunction. Nonetheless, available pediatric studies that account for analgesia …

Decoding Neural Activity In Sulcal And White Matter Areas Of The Brain To Accurately Predict Individual Finger Movement And Tactile Stimuli Of The Human Hand, Chad Bouton, Nikunj Bhagat, Santosh Chandrasekaran, Jose Herrero, Noah Markowitz, Elizabeth Espinal, Joo-Won Kim, Richard Ramdeo, Junqian Xu, Matthew F Glasser, Stephan Bickel, Ashesh Mehta

Open Access Publications

Millions of people worldwide suffer motor or sensory impairment due to stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, diabetes, and motor neuron diseases such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). A brain-computer interface (BCI), which links the brain directly to a computer, offers a new way to study the brain and potentially restore impairments in patients living with these debilitating conditions. One of the challenges currently facing BCI technology, however, is to minimize surgical risk while maintaining efficacy. Minimally invasive techniques, such as stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) have become more widely used in clinical applications in epilepsy patients since they can …

Is Left-Behind A Real Reason For Children's Social Cognition Deficit? An Fnirs Study On The Effect Of Social Interaction On Left-Behind Preschooler's Prefrontal Activation, Keya Ding, Chuanjiang Li, Huibin Jia, Mingming Zhang, Dongchuan Yu

Open Access Publications

The left-behind phenomenon, caused by parent out-migration, has become a common social issue and might lead to long-term and potential risks for children in rural areas of China. It is important to investigate the effect of social interaction on prefrontal activation of left-behind children in China because of possible effects of parent out-migration on children's social cognition. We recruited 81 rural Chinese preschoolers aged 52-76 months (mean = 64.98 ± 6.321 months) preschoolers with three different statuses of parental out-migration (including non-, partially, and completely left-behind children). Using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), we compared behavior and brain activation and in …

A Representational Similarity Analysis Of Cognitive Control During Color-Word Stroop, Michael C. Freund, Julie M. Bugg, Todd S. Braver

Open Access Publications

Progress in understanding the neural bases of cognitive control has been supported by the paradigmatic color-word Stroop task, in which a target response (color name) must be selected over a more automatic, yet potentially incongruent, distractor response (word). For this paradigm, models have postulated complementary coding schemes: dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC) is proposed to evaluate the demand for control via incongruency-related coding, whereas dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) is proposed to implement control via goal and target-related coding. Yet, mapping these theorized schemes to measured neural activity within this task has been challenging. Here, we tested for these coding schemes relatively directly, …

Towards An Evidence-Informed Differentiated Learning Consolidation Process To Support Classroom Instruction, Nicola Carr-White

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Despite many years of teaching experience, the differentiation and consolidation of classroom learning presented challenges for the researcher. In response, a Differentiated Learning Consolidation Process (DLCP) was developed through informal classroom-based action research over several years. Using low cost and accessible resources, it developed into a manageable supplementary intervention to support individual student needs and the retention of classroom instruction. Increasing interest from colleagues led the researcher to provide professional development on the instructional design and implementation of the DLCP. Through this experience, it became apparent that the DLCP theoretical assumptions were largely unknown. The current study was pursued to …

Factors Associated With Intimate Partner Homicide In A West Australian Context, William Anthony Thompson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Domestic Violence (DV) is prevalent within Australian society with one in four women experiencing some form ofDV (ABS 2017) in their life. The Australian homicide rate is about 250 deaths per year, of which 52% are domestic related (Virueda & Payne 2010). Domestic homicides include Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH), where the victim and offender shared, or formerly shared an intimate relationship (for example married, defacto and ex partners; Bryant & Cussen 2015). This study analysed the factors of West Australian (WA) IPHs from 2012-2017 inclusive. The aim was to identify aetiologies of IPH offending across ethnicity and gender to understand …

The Youth Work Career: Exploring Long-Term Careers Of Professional Youth Workers In Western Australia, John Sutcliffe

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this research was to explore the meaning and experiences of the long-term careers of youth workers. This study selected a Western Australian sample group of 10 degreequalified youth workers who had graduated between 1990 and 1999 and had experienced careers in youth work spanning 20 years. The existing literature pertaining to long-term youth work careers was sparse in certain aspects, which established the primary need for the research focus. The related literature was found to represent a negative image of youth work as a career. Youth work was considered lacking in professional identity and was most commonly …

Digital Enhancement Of Senior Secondary Dance Assessment, Maria Gamble

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research examined the use and effects of digital technology in supporting and enhancing practical high stakes assessments in a senior secondary dance course in Western Australia (WA). The participants comprised twenty students from one school who were enrolled in ATAR Dance for 2016/17 and ten WA secondary dance education experts. A mixed method embedded design allowed for the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative results to gain perspective and understanding of using digital technology to facilitate the current Western Australia Certificate of Education (WACE)/Australia Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) dance examination as well as the preparation for it and marking …

Power Network And Smart Grids Analysis From A Graph Theoretic Perspective, Hossein Parast Vand

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The growing size and complexity of power systems has given raise to the use of complex network theory in their modelling, analysis, and synthesis. Though most of the previous studies in this area have focused on distributed control through well established protocols like synchronization and consensus, recently, a few fundamental concepts from graph theory have also been applied, for example in symmetry-based cluster synchronization. Among the existing notions of graph theory, graph symmetry is the focus of this proposal. However, there are other development around some concepts from complex network theory such as graph clustering in the study.

In spite …

The Characteristics And Effectiveness Of Treatment For Young Sex Offenders In Australia And New Zealand: A Systematic Review, James Finney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Sexual offending by young people presents a serious and devastating issue effecting victims, families, and wider society. This has led investigative efforts to understand the efficacy of treatment programs to cease or at minimum reduce sexual recidivism. Evaluations examining treatment efficacy have predominately been conducted in the United States and Canada, with limited research focused exclusively on young sex offenders in Australia and New Zealand. To address the paucity of information, a systematic review of young sex offender treatment research in Australia and New Zealand was conducted. The systematic review employed a comprehensive search strategy and rigorous vetting procedure, which …

Affordance Learning For Visual-Semantic Perception, Chau Nguyen Duc Minh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Affordance Learning is linked to the study of interactions between robots and objects, including how robots perceive objects by scene understanding. This area has been popular in the Psychology, which has recently come to influence Computer Vision. In this way, Computer Vision has borrowed the concept of affordance from Psychology in order to develop Visual-Semantic recognition systems, and to develop the capabilities of robots to interact with objects, in particular. However, existing systems of Affordance Learning are still limited to detecting and segmenting object affordances, which is called Affordance Segmentation. Further, these systems are not designed to develop specific abilities …

Identity: A Crisis Of Confidence? Or Is It Resemblance? An Exploration Of The Different Approaches By Which Eyewitness Evidence Can Be Obtained From Lineups, Dominic T. Jordan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Research has shown that eyewitness identification decisions are fallible and often mistaken. Although considerable attention has been afforded to identification decision accuracy and its improvement, mistaken identification decisions continue to contribute to costly errors at the evidentiary stage of the criminal justice system process (i.e., wrongful convictions). Several prominent researchers have suggested, by way of explanation, that the existing framework for obtaining eyewitness evidence from lineups, namely, identification, is inadequate. Indeed, the assumption that witnesses when presented with a lineup, can make reliable identification decisions (i.e., can reliably determine that a lineup member is the same unfamiliar person seen previously …

Paying Attention To Water Relations: Poetic Inquiry And Pedagogical Documentation As Curious Practices, Claire O’Callaghan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project explores climate pedagogies with particular interest in Western Australia’s current water crisis. Human and more-than-human relations are explored with young children and educators from an early learning centre in Perth, Western Australia, with a view to reimagining education in the context of rapid environmental change. The project is grounded in feminist new materialist knowledge and is framed by an attentive focus to amplify the non-binary nature of both human and more-than-human counterparts. The research focuses on challenging colonial ways of knowing water, by decentring the child, unsettling norms, and reinstating reciprocity between human and more-than-human others (Nxumalo & …

Creative Constraints: Developing A Method For Restrictive Jazz Composition, Harry Mitchell

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research aimed to develop a method of jazz composition that utilises data-based restrictions to facilitate the composition process. An analysis rating tool (ART) was developed based on methodologies created by Aaron Stroessner and Jan LaRue to extract elements of melody, harmony, rhythm and form from compositions on Seamus Blake’s album Bellwether and Will Vinson’s album Stockholm Syndrome. The ART then facilitated a practice-led composition process in which the data from the analysis were used as the primary source of creativity to generate and record a set of 10 compositions. Through an iterative process of composing with and refining the …

Cannabis-Induced Hypodopaminergic Anhedonia And Cognitive Decline In Humans: Embracing Putative Induction Of Dopamine Homeostasis, Kenneth Blum, Jag Khalsa, Jean Lud Cadet, David Baron, Abdalla Bowirrat, Brent Boyett, Lisa Lott, Raymond Brewer, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, Gregory Bunt, Shan Kazmi, Mark S Gold

Open Access Publications

Over years, the regular use of cannabis has substantially increased among young adults, as indicated by the rise in cannabis use disorder (CUD), with an estimated prevalence of 8. 3% in the United States. Research shows that exposure to cannabis is associated with hypodopaminergic anhedonia (depression), cognitive decline, poor memory, inattention, impaired learning performance, reduced dopamine brain response-associated emotionality, and increased addiction severity in young adults. The addiction medicine community is increasing concern because of the high content of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) currently found in oral and vaping cannabis products, the cognitive effects of cannabis may become more pronounced in young …

Down The Rabbit Hole: An Exhibition – And – Alice In Wonderland Engaging With The Reflexive Project Of The Self: An Exegesis, Shana James

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a culturally significant text that is widely known across many cultures. In this Victorian story, a little girl follows the talking White Rabbit down a rabbit hole to uncover a fantastical parallel world. Alice in Wonderland has remained in print for over 150 years, highlighting its continued relevance to generations of readers. This exegesis investigates the making of visual artwork that responds to this significant story, exploring the symbology and metaphorical nature of the text and seeing the story as a “reflexive project of the self” (Giddens, 1991, p. 5).

I began this research having …

Mindsets Matter: Early Childhood Teacher Perceptions Of Mindset, Fiona Boylan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research study investigated early childhood teacher perceptions of mindset theory and how teachers can be supported to incorporate the teaching of mindset theory in early childhood contexts. Teachers are pivotal in extending children’s passion for learning to help them aim high and pursue their goals. Substantial research has shown that students with a growth mindset are better positioned for success in learning and in life. The development of a growth mindset to support student learning is recommended as it leads to greater motivation, self-regulation and academic achievement to develop agile and confident 21st century learners. While the literature identifies …

Mindfulness Practices In Secondary Schools: Exploring Teachers’ Attitudes, And The Barriers And Facilitators To Achieving Teacher Buy-In To A Whole-School Approach, Willow Jefferies

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Mindfulness practices are increasingly being introduced into schools as a whole-school approach, with teachers often responsible for implementing the exercises with their students. The aim of this research project was to explore the attitudes secondary teachers hold towards mindfulness practices and determine the barriers to and facilitators of teachers buying-in to a mindfulness initiative. A qualitative research methodology was utilised with twelve semistructured interviews conducted across three Perth metropolitan secondary schools. Interview questions were devised using both attitudinal constructs and the Revised Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF-R). In order to separately explore both teachers’ attitudes towards mindfulness practices and the barriers …

Headteachers In Difficult Circumstances: A Study Of School Leaders In Post-Conflict, Post-Disaster Nepal, Rupak Dahal

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

School leadership in developing countries, with a particular focus on post-conflict and post-disaster, is an area of increasing importance to education researchers. However, this research has often been limited to the areas of educational achievement and outcomes, government policies and their impact on school systems, and comparing schools irrespective of their vastly different contexts.

This thesis reports on research into school leadership within Nepali government secondary schools, typically referred to as community schools. As a developing country, The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (Nepal), faces crucial educational challenges due to its cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity, and associated socio-economic …

Through A Lens Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence: A Case Study Of The Children’S Court Drug Court In Perth, Suzanne Ellis

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Children’s Court Drug Court (CCDC) has operated for 20 years in Perth as an alternative Court for drug-using young offenders who present at the Children’s Court. Despite the CCDC’s relative longevity, researchers have examined neither the inner workings of the Court nor the experiences of its actors. The current study aimed, not to evaluate the CCDC, but to identify measures needed to refine CCDC processes to enhance the experiences and outcomes of young people who participate in the CCDC. It argues that despite the CCDC’s foundations in contentious therapeutic jurisprudence principles, on balance, the actors – young people, their …