Digital Commons Network^™

What Are The Experiences Of Supportive Care In People Affected By Brain Cancer And Their Informal Caregivers: A Qualitative Systematic Review, C. Paterson, C. Roberts, J. Li, M. Chapman, Karen Strickland, N. Johnston, E. Law, R. Bacon, M. Turner, I. Mohanty, G. Pranavan, K. Toohey

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: To critically synthesise qualitative research to understand experiences of supportive care in people affected by brain cancer and their informal caregivers. Methods: A qualitative systematic review was conducted according to the Joanna Briggs methodology and has been reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Guidelines. Electronic databases were searched by an expert systematic review librarian for all qualitative studies irrespective of research design. All publications were double screened by two reviewers using a pre-determined exclusion and inclusion criteria. The review was managed using Covidence systematic review software. Methodological quality assessment and data extraction …

Afghan Immigrants In Western Australia: Divisions Within The Community And Integration Within The Society, Omid Rezaei, Vicki Banham, Hossein Adibi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The integration process for immigrants is a multi-dimensional concept, influenced by a wide range of structural and individual factors, including social connections that immigrants make in the host society. An important part of this social connection can be developed with other co-nation immigrants within the immigrant community. However, this sometimes can be challenging due to the divisions that might exist within communities. Drawing on data with a mixed-method design, this study focuses on the Afghan community in Western Australia to understand, firstly, the relationship between Afghan immigrants’ social connections within their community and successful integration within Australian society, and secondly …

Influence Of Entry Pathway And Equity Group Status On Retention And The Student Experience In Higher Education, Ian W. Li, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Expansionary policies to widen participation in higher education have led to a growth in alternative entry pathways into university. This study considers the experiences and retention outcomes of those entering Australian universities through different pathways, and how these vary across diverse student groups. Data were drawn from linked student administrative records for 81,874 students from sixteen Australian universities who commenced a Bachelor degree in 2015, with academic enrolment status tracked over five years, as well as data from a national survey of student experience conducted in 2019. Students from alternative pathways were associated with lower retention outcomes in the first …

No Time To Read? How Precarity Is Shaping Learning And Teaching In The Humanities, Helena Kadmos, Jessica Taylor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Humanities educators are frequently frustrated by students’ poor engagement in reading. The contemporary student experience is characterised by disruption and precarity. Similarly, is that of teachers who work in casual employment. This discussion is located within broader conversations around the neoliberal university, but aims to make more visible ways that teaching and learning are increasingly shaped by precarity, and consequences for the humanities. It describes what precarity in higher education looks like and considers the kinds of strategies that students and their teachers are positioned to develop by virtue of engaging in education under such conditions, amid chaos, making these …

Mhair: A Dataset Of Audio-Image Representations For Multimodal Human Actions, Muhammad Bilal Shaikh, Douglas Chai, Syed M. S. Islam, Naveed Akhtar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Audio-image representations for a multimodal human action (MHAiR) dataset contains six different image representations of the audio signals that capture the temporal dynamics of the actions in a very compact and informative way. The dataset was extracted from the audio recordings which were captured from an existing video dataset, i.e., UCF101. Each data sample captured a duration of approximately 10 s long, and the overall dataset was split into 4893 training samples and 1944 testing samples. The resulting feature sequences were then converted into images, which can be used for human action recognition and other related tasks. These images can …

Multimodal Fusion For Audio-Image And Video Action Recognition, Muhammad B. Shaikh, Douglas Chai, Syed M. S. Islam, Naveed Akhtar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Multimodal Human Action Recognition (MHAR) is an important research topic in computer vision and event recognition fields. In this work, we address the problem of MHAR by developing a novel audio-image and video fusion-based deep learning framework that we call Multimodal Audio-Image and Video Action Recognizer (MAiVAR). We extract temporal information using image representations of audio signals and spatial information from video modality with the help of Convolutional Neutral Networks (CNN)-based feature extractors and fuse these features to recognize respective action classes. We apply a high-level weights assignment algorithm for improving audio-visual interaction and convergence. This proposed fusion-based framework utilizes …

Changes In Sleep Effort Mediate Insomnia Severity In Older Adults Following Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Yvonne Kutzer, Lisa Whitehead, Eimear Quigley, Mandy Stanley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background

To examine treatment mechanisms of digitally delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), this study assessed the mediating effects of dysfunctional beliefs, hyperarousal, locus of control, self-efficacy, sleep effort, and safety behaviours on self-reported insomnia severity in older adults before and following the completion of a self-guided, online CBT-I program.

Methods

The baseline and follow-up measurements were completed by 62 older adults (55 female, 89%). This was a two-condition within-participant design. Mediation analysis using a parallel mediation model was conducted using the MEMORE macro for repeated measure designs.

Results

Out of all the included mediator variables, only a reduction …

Blood Eosinophil-Guided Oral Prednisolone For Copd Exacerbations In Primary Care In The Uk (Starr2): A Non-Inferiority, Multicentre, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomised Controlled Trial, Sanjay Ramakrishnan, Helen Jeffers, Beverly Langford-Wiley, Joanne Davies, Samantha J. Thulborn, Mahdi Mahdi, Christine A'Court, Ian Binnian, Stephen Bright, Simon Cartwright, Victoria Glover, Alison Law, Robin Fox, Adam Jones, Christopher Davies, David Copping, Richard E. K. Russell, Mona Bafadhel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Systemic glucocorticoids are recommended for use in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations; however, there is increased harm associated with their use. We hypothesised that the use of eosinophil biomarker-directed oral prednisolone therapy at the time of an exacerbation of COPD was effective at reducing prednisolone use without affecting adverse outcomes. Methods: The studying acute exacerbations and response (STARR2) study was a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted in 14 primary care practices in the UK. We included adults (aged ≥ 40 years), who were current or former smokers (with at least a 10 pack year smoking history) with …