Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Attitudes And Perceptions Towards Privacy And Surveillance In Australia, Aleatha J. Shanley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Understanding attitudes towards privacy and surveillance technologies used to enhance security objectives is a complex, but crucial aspect for policy makers to consider. Historically, terrorism-related incidents justified the uptake of surveillance practices. More recently however, biosecurity concerns have motivated nation-states to adopt more intrusive surveillance measures. There is a growing body of literature that supports the public’s desire to maintain privacy despite fears of biological or physical threats.

This research set out to explore attitudes towards privacy and surveillance in an Australian context. Throughout the course of this endeavour, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged bringing with it a variety of track …

Social Disorganisation Theory And Violent Crime: A Spatial-Econometric Analysis Of Chicago And Sydney, Anthony N. Greening

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The spatialisation of violent crime is explored in two large case studies, Chicago and Sydney, using spatial econometric methods and macro-sociological variables derived from Social Disorganisation Theory.

Social Disorganisation Theory (SDT) is introduced in terms of its formulation in response to highly specific conditions arising in Chicago, as well as its adoption of methodological and theoretical developments from existing traditions. This specificity belies its breadth of application and enduring presence in criminology. With “Social Disorganisation Theory” hosting a wealth of highly nuanced academic dialogue conducted under its banner, current incarnations of SDT appear as branches on an evolutionary tree. This …

Web Content Management System And Accessibility Awareness: A Comparative Study Of Novice Users And Accessibility Outcomes, Fatima Artiba Diaz

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Since its creation, the Web has progressively developed and become a vital source of information in every domain and for almost all people. It is crucial to guarantee that the information contained on the Web is available for everyone, especially for people with special needs. Removing accessibility barriers is fundamentally based on tools, skills and support of all contributors, particularly the content creators, to ensure information is navigable and usable in the context of the end users experience. Web Content Management Systems play a significant role in structuring, storing and provision content to the Web and have evolved to address …

The Challenges Of Digital Legacy Management On The Value Of Digital Objects To Older Australians, Derani Nathasha Dissanayake

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

People spend a considerable amount of time and money in collecting digital objects. Nine out of ten Australians have a social media account but 83% of them have not discussed with their family members what should happen to their social media accounts when they die (Steen, D’Alessandro, Graves, Perkins, Genders, Barbera, Shi, McGrath & Davis, 2017). Only 3% of Australians who had a Will included social media accounts in their Wills. People collect digital objects yet little attention is paid to their preservation. 71% of Australians are unaware of what happens to their digital assets when they die (Ibid, 2017). …

Projected Sea Level Rise And The Conservation Ecology Of The Micronesian Megapode (Megapodius Laperouse Senex) In Palau, Micronesia, Paul M. Radley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Climate change has been a subject of numerous studies. While findings suggest that most biological taxa will be affected by its manifestations, aspects of a species life history may increase its susceptibility to climate change. Given their reliance on environmental sources of heat to incubate their eggs, I examined the vulnerability to climate change of the avian family Megapodiidae. I also assessed habitat use, susceptibility to sea level rise, and the effect of introduced rats and tourist presence, as added stressors to climate change, on the Micronesian Megapode (Megapodius

laperouse senex) in Palau.

Based on available literature, I …

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 …

Smart Home Energy Management: An Analysis Of A Novel Dynamic Pricing And Demand Response Aware Control Algorithm For Households With Distributed Renewable Energy Generation And Storage, Jamal Abushnaf

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Home energy management systems (HEMS) technology can provide a smart and efficient way of optimising energy usage in residential buildings. One of the main goals of the Smart Grid is to achieve Demand Response (DR) by increasing end users’ participation in decision making and increasing the level of awareness that will lead them to manage their energy consumption in an efficient way. This research presents an intelligent HEMS algorithm that manages and controls a range of household appliances with different demand response (DR) limits in an automated way without requiring consumer intervention. In addition, a novel Multiple Users and Load …

Resources, Race And Rights: A Case Study Of Native Title And The Adani Carmichael Coal Mine, Kate Arnautovic

Theses : Honours

This thesis examines the extent to which state institutions and government have taken into account Indigenous rights and interests during the approval process for a large mining development. This case study focuses on the various phases of approval for the proposed Adani Carmichael Coal Mine, a significant development that has challenged the native title system in Australia. It assesses the extent to which the rights and interests of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, the traditional owners that possess a native title claim over the region, have been upheld by the National Native Title Tribunal and the State and Federal Government. …

Unsupervised Monitoring Of An Elderly Person's Activities Of Daily Living Using Kinect Sensors And A Power Meter, Hossein Pazhoumand-Dar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The need for greater independence amongst the growing population of elderly people has made the concept of “ageing in place” an important area of research. Remote home monitoring strategies help the elderly deal with challenges involved in ageing in place and performing the activities of daily living (ADLs) independently. These monitoring approaches typically involve the use of several sensors, attached to the environment or person, in order to acquire data about the ADLs of the occupant being monitored.

Some key drawbacks associated with many of the ADL monitoring approaches proposed for the elderly living alone need to be addressed. These …

Boundaries Of Governance: Social Responsibility In Mining In Western Australia, Gemma L. Broderick

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigated the boundaries of governance of social responsibility in three multinational mining organisations based in Perth, Western Australia. The mining industry has economic, environmental and social impacts, both positive and negative. While most of the attention of the media and supporters in government seems to focus on the positive impacts, a growing concern regarding the social implications of mining is clearly evident in public discourse and the academic literature. In response to public concern, the mining industry has adopted terms such as ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable development’, ‘social licence to operate’ and ‘social responsibility’. Such phrases are widely used in …

An Appraisal Of Experiences Of Climate Change And Adaptive Response To Heat Stress By Farmers In Rural Ghana, Kwasi Frimpong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the increase in average global temperatures, heat-related illnesses and deaths have unfolded as occupational and health issues. Periods of high to extreme temperatures are becoming more common and are a leading cause of weather-related deaths in many countries. In agricultural settings of African countries, heat stress is a major concern as many smallholder farmers work outdoors with limited access to cooling systems even in their resting and living environments. This study, conducted in the Bawku East part of Northern-East Ghana in 2013, examines, in the context of climate change, the trends and impacts of heat stress on smallholder farmers, …

Intensity Based Interrogation Of Optical Fibre Sensors For Industrial Automation And Intrusion Detection Systems, Gary Andrew Allwood

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this study, the use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection and industrial automation systems has been demonstrated, with a particular focus on low cost, intensity-based, interrogation techniques. The use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection systems to secure residential, commercial, and industrial premises against potential security breaches has been extensively reviewed in this thesis. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensing is one form of optical fibre sensing that has been underutilised in applications such as in-ground, in-fence, and window and door monitoring, and addressing that opportunity has been a major goal of this thesis. Both security and industrial …

Judging Dread: A Quantitative Investigation Of Affect, Psychometric Dread And Risk Consequence, Melvyn Griffiths

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Risk is generally understood as a product of the likelihood and consequence of an event. However, the way in which estimations of consequences are formed is unclear due to the complexities of human perception. In particular, the influence of Affect, defined as positive or negative qualities subjectively assigned to stimuli, may skew risk consequence judgements. Thus a clearer understanding of the role of Affect in risk consequence estimations has significant implications for risk management, risk communication and policy formulation.

In the Psychometric tradition of risk perception, Affect has become almost synonymous with the concept of Dread, despite Dread being measured …

Impact Of Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements On Nteu Membership Density, Tulsi Laxman Panchani

Theses : Honours

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is the only union working entirely in tertiary education around Australia. The union has over twenty four thousand members comprising of academic and general staff. NTEU maintains membership records at three levels, national, state and branch. The information collected includes gender, age group, employment type and work classification. In late April 2005, Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) legislation was introduced by the Australian government. This legislation imposed restrictions on the interaction between the universities and the union and also curtailed an automatic involvement of the union in the resolution of workplace issues. The …

Where New Meanings Spring: The Relationship Between Indigenous Cultural Meanings For Freshwater Springs And Management Practices: Analysis Of Stories From Kalbarri, Western Australia, Tamara Lee Murdock

Theses : Honours

While Indigenous peoples' practices have been acknowledged to change and evolve, whether Indigenous cultural meanings invested in a specific place also change and/or evolve over time, and the affect these changes may have on land and water practices has generally been ignored. This study explores the relationship between Indigenous cultural meanings and land and water stewardship practices, and whether these change over time. A qualitative research design was employed in this study to emphasise the complex and dynamic nature of language and the relationship between people, culture and nature. This study utilised interviews collected from traditional Indigenous people concerning stories …

Website Accessibility Issues In Western Australian Public Libraries, Vivienne L. Conway

Theses : Honours

Website accessibility is a very real and pressing issue for public libraries internationally. Tim Berners-Lee credited with founding the Web, states "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." (Henry & McGee, 2010). There is wide-spread support for adherence to the Web Content Advisory Guidelines Version 1.0 and 2.0 (WCAG) throughout Federal, State and Local levels of government in Australia. The Guidelines have also been affirmed by the Australian Human Rights Commission, disability advocacy groups such as Vision Australia, and the Australian Library and Information Association. The Australian Government …

Using Decision Analytic Modelling To Simulate Pregnancy, Jeffrey Cannon

Theses : Honours

Decision analytic modelling enables decision makers to assess the cost-effectiveness associated with a proposed change in a cunent system without physically implementing the changes. This can be achieved by formulating a mathematical model that represents all the major events occuning in the system through fmmulas and algorithms, and estimating the likely outcomes along with their costs. This type of modelling has been identified by the State Health Research Advisory Council (SHRAC) of the Western Australian Depmiment of Health as an asset for the plmming of health care investments in the future. One such area in which the Western Australian Department …

Evaluating The Impact Of Peer Review And Participation Awareness In An Online Collaborative Document Authoring Environment, Greg Baatard

Theses : Honours

Online Learning Environments (OLEs) have been widely adopted by higher education facilities, offering distance education with the potential to support the social and collaborative aspects deemed crucial to modern constructivist pedagogy. Groupware, a form of software which aims to facilitate group work, has been the subject of much research, from both educational and enterprise perspectives. This research introduced Reportal, an online groupware system designed to facilitate the collaborative authoring of a document. Reportal's peer review and participation awareness features were the focus of this research, and their impact was measured against the elements of online collaboration, a typology established by …

Managing Mountain Bike Impacts In The South West Of Western Australia : Combining Biophysical Impact Studies With Rider Preferences For Better Trail Design, Ute Goeft

Theses : Honours

This thesis examines the environmental impacts of mountain bikes on trails in the southwest of Western Australia and the preferences, perceptions, trail use and demographics of mountain bike riders in that region. This information is important for resource managers and trail developers to ensure that the trails that are provided and planned for mountain bike use in the region are environmentally appropriate and acceptable to users. The environmental impacts were examined through biophysical studies, which investigated soil loss, soil compaction and vegetation damage on and adjacent to mountain bike trails over a period of six months. A mountain bike racing …

Constructed Wetland Design Criteria : A Study Of Their Role In Contaminant Removal From Urban Stormwater Runoff, A. J. Braid

Theses : Honours

This study was conducted to review effective design criteria for constructed wetlaads treating urban stormwater and to assess the design features of local constructed wetlands in relation to the theoretically ideal design features. The study was generated out of Water Authority of Western Australia (WAWA) concern that existing inconsistent design criteria may result in constructed wetlands not meeting contaminant removal objectives. Three components to the study involved: design criteria compiled from a critical review of relevant literature, field assessment of selected sites with significant differences in design, and a design critique of those sites based on the compiled design criteria. …