Sydney eScholarship
Not a member yet
31878 research outputs found
Sort by
Nutrition Counselling in Pharmacy Practice in Australia
No full textPoor nutrition is considered the underlying cause of various chronic non-communicable preventable diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These diseases impose a significant economic burden on Australian healthcare expenditure. Pharmacists are important members of the healthcare system and are highly accessible to patients. Counselling patients on medicines as well as lifestyle including nutrition, is part of their primary role in pharmacy practice. Pharmacists can play a prominent role in the provision of nutritional counselling, However, there are limited studies in Australia on the extent of nutritional counselling in pharmacy practice, including pharmacists’ attitude and confidence in this area
Gaslighting: Covert Control in Intimate Partner Violence
No full textGaslighting is a form of psychological abuse that undermines a victim-survivor’s confidence in their
perceptions, memories, and sense of self. Within the context of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), it is
especially harmful, as it creates dependency and restricts access to support. Despite growing public
attention, research on gaslighting remains limited. The thesis addresses the question, ‘how can
gaslighting be conceptually defined, empirically studied, and modelled to inform IPV research, policy,
practice, and public awareness?’
This thesis refines the concept of gaslighting by integrating existing literature with insights from
victim-survivors and professionals, examines factors shaping gaslighting in IPV, develops a model of
its dynamics, and investigates public recognition and cognitive impacts. A mixed-methods approach
was used. Qualitative analyses inform a proposed definition centred on behaviour, outcomes, intention, repetition, subsidiary tactics, and the role of power and intimacy. A conceptual model
outlines behavioural patterns, access to support, relationship dynamics, cultural influences, and both
immediate and long-term effects. Experimental studies show that public understandings are vague
and that partner-led challenges to shared memories can affect recall, confidence, wellbeing, and selfperception.
Overall, the thesis demonstrates that gaslighting operates through cognitive manipulation, normative
pressure, and social reinforcement, with significant impacts on autonomy and mental health. It
highlights persistent misconceptions and outlines implications for law, policy, and education. By
establishing gaslighting as a distinct and harmful form of IPV, it provides a foundation for future
research, prevention, and intervention
Targeting Pulmonary Bacterial And Fungal Infections With Inhalable Cannabinoids And Pentamidine
No full textPulmonary infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria and opportunistic pathogens remain a serious threat to immunocompromised and hospitalised patients. The rise of antibiotic resistance and the burden of infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) highlight the need for new therapeutic approaches. Drug repurposing offers a strategy to accelerate translation of existing medicines into novel delivery systems with known safety. Cannabinoids, particularly cannabidiol (CBD), have long been known for its neurological and anti-inflammatory properties. They have also demonstrated promising antibacterial action against Gram-positive infections such as MRSA. When combined with vancomycin, a first-line MRSA antibiotic, they have the potential to enhance bactericidal action and prolong antimicrobial activity. Yet, systemic delivery limits the effectiveness of both agents in respiratory infections. Similarly, while pentamidine is beneficial in PJP prophylaxis, it is not a commonly used therapeutic option due to the risks and clinical burden of nebulised therapy. Inhalable delivery, especially by dry powder inhaler enables targeted lung deposition at high concentrations while minimising systemic exposure, environmental contamination, and administration burden. Reformulating repurposed drugs into inhalable powders represents a practical strategy to improve treatment of respiratory infections. This thesis explores the antibacterial effects of cannabinoids on MRSA biofilms and the development of inhalable CBD–vancomycin and pentamidine powders as targeted therapies for MRSA lung infections and PJP, respectively. By integrating antimicrobial innovation with advanced pulmonary delivery technology, this work aims to address critical gaps in current treatment options for life-threatening lung infections
Financial Forecasting in the Data-Centric Era
No full textDeep learning (DL) has become an important tool in finance research, with applications ranging from asset pricing and portfolio allocation to risk management. However, empirical findings on its performance are often mixed, with DL frequently underperforming econometric or traditional machine learning methods. This work argues that a primary source of this inconsistency is the mismatch between the data-intensive nature of neural networks (NNs) and the data-scarce environments typical of many financial tasks. When trained at sufficient scale, NNs can deliver competitive or superior forecasts and can also inform theoretical research.
The first part of the thesis examines how data volume, model size, and architectural choice affect NN performance in financial forecasting. Using a dataset of more than 10,000 equities for volatility prediction, we find that performance gains from data scaling substantially exceed those from model scaling or architectural variation. We further demonstrate that a global training approach, which trains a single model across all assets, should be adopted as standard practice. The second part investigates the use of globally trained NNs as a tool for testing price discovery theories. We find that theory-driven variables effectively summarize the static state of the market but fail to capture temporal information in order flow. By training NNs on sequences of raw order book data, we provide empirical evidence against the Markovian assumption in traditional theory models. Finally, we show that NN performance can be further enhanced by hybridizing econometric and deep learning structures. We introduce the Realized Recurrent Conditional Heteroskedasticity (RealRECH) model, which augments the RealGARCH framework with a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network
Voices - Non Traditional Research Output (Dr Elizabeth Scott)
No full textIn collaboration with composer Ekrem Eli Phoenix and Pulsing Heart creative director Joren Dawson, conductor Dr Elizabeth Scott (Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney) workshopped and rehearsed this new work with twenty-five singers from VOX, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Each singer from within the ensemble was recorded using an individual microphone and each vocal stem was subsequently assigned to two separate audio outputs embedded within a fifty-element sculptural installation composed of suspended circular light tubes. This configuration allowed audience members to move through the installation, experiencing the choir as a unified whole or interacting with individual tubes to adjust the volume of specific voices through physical manipulation. In addition to recording the choral compositions, choristers contributed spoken responses to a series of questions about their personal histories and experiences. These recordings were integrated into the installation, enabling audiences to encounter individual narratives alongside the collective musical work
Reshaping Higher Education Designs and Futures: Postdigital Co-design with Generative Artificial Intelligence
No full textThis article examines how collaborative design practices in higher education are reshaped through postdigital entanglement with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). We collectively explore how co-design, an inclusive, iterative, and relational approach to educational design and transformation, expands in meaning, practice, and ontology when GenAI is approached as a collaborator. The article brings together 19 authors and three open reviewers to engage with postdigital inquiry, structured in three parts: (1) a review of literature on co-design, GenAI, and postdigital theory; (2) 11 situated contributions from educators, researchers, and designers worldwide, each offering practice-based accounts of co-design with GenAI; and (3) an explorative discussion of implications for higher education designs and futures. Across these sections, we show how GenAI unsettles assumptions of collaboration, knowing, and agency, foregrounding co-design as a site of ongoing material, ethical, and epistemic negotiation. We argue that postdigital co-design with GenAI reframes educational design as a collective practice of imagining, contesting, and shaping futures that extend beyond human knowing
The neuroimaging signature of cognitive automaticity and the role of the cerebellum
No full textDelegation of behaviours to automaticity is an evolutionary advantage, allowing for parallel processing and adaptive behaviour. In primates and humans, both motor and cognitive behaviours are automatised allowing for increasingly complex behaviours. Across these species, the cortico-cerebellar circuit has become exceedingly prominent, however the contributions of the cortico-cerebellar circuit to cognitive automaticity remains largely unknown. In this thesis, we attempt to characterise the role of the cortico-cerebellar circuit in cognitive automaticity and adaptation. Specifically, this thesis highlights distinct contributions from the cerebellum that facilitate adaptive behaviours. We reveal that the cerebellum serves unique contributions to cognitive automaticity during a mental rotation task. We demonstrate that expertise during sensorimotor adaptation is driven by increased dependence on the cerebellum and decreased dependence on the cerebral cortex. Then, we explore features of compositional cognition that facilitate adaptive behaviour. We breakdown compositional cognition into two systems: specialised components (i.e., existing behaviours) that mainly feature specialised cerebral regions, and recombination, a generalised process supported by the cortico-cerebellar circuitry. Lastly, we combine insights from complementary dimensionality reduction approaches to understand resting-state brain patterns in Parkinson’s disease patients with and without visual hallucinations. Together, this thesis illustrates the cortico-cerebellar circuitry as pivotal to cognitive automaticity, driving the development of adaptive, complex behaviours
Second Time's the Charm: Remarriage and Reform in the Nineteenth-Century Novel
No full textSecond marriage is an important and overlooked variation on the marriage plot of the nineteenth-century British novel. By situating remarriage within the historical context of law reform and the literary context of genre—always in dynamic interaction—this thesis argues that remarriage served as a focal point for the anxieties and concerns caused by the rapid pace of social and novelistic change in the nineteenth century. The genres depicting second marriage examined include the late Gothicism of Charlotte and Anne Brontë, who consider remarriage in the period prior to the seminal 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act; the sensation fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Ellen Wood, which developed in response to the passing of the Act; and the realism of Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot, which broadens the scope of remarriage to consider its relation to wider social issues including the impact of evolutionary theory and the vocation of women. This thesis argues that the notion of ‘reform’ underlies both marriage law and literary genre in the mid-nineteenth century, and that second marriage brings these together to formulate new ideas about progress, challenging our understanding of the canonical marriage plot and expanding it to include the complexity and diversity of remarriage
The Cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme: Australia’s Print‐Media Discourse
No full textThis paper examines the way that Australian newspapers have framed the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Introduced in 2013, the NDIS represented a major change in Australia's disability support policy, moving for the first time to a nationwide universal insurance model. NDIS costs have continued to exceed estimates, raising concerns about the sustainability of the scheme, as reflected in recent calls for reform. Media analysis provides an understanding of the public narrative surrounding key social issues. Using thematic analysis of n = 90 newspaper articles, five key themes were identified: cost as a problem, projections of cost, politicisation of cost, drivers of cost and the interests of stakeholders. The most dominant theme was cost as a problem , which contributed to a strongly negative portrayal of the cost of the NDIS that emerged across articles. This negativity was connected to discourse relating to the deservingness of participants receiving funding and the contribution of ‘undeserved’ support to the growing cost of the scheme. We explore the way such narratives obscure the original principles of the scheme—universal insurance and investment—and suggest that the framing identified instead reflects existing negative discourses surrounding targeted‐welfare systems and their recipients
Vere Gordon Childe and the Great War: a conflict of ambition and conscience
No full textAustralian-born Vere Gordon Childe was an archaeologist and prehistorian who died in 1957, after
three decades of international acclaim. Yet, his early career was notably undistinguished in the field
of archaeology. After an initial scholarly research publication in 1915, Childe had little further
engagement until 1925. Using a life-writing methodology, this thesis explores the early antipodean
background of Childe and his social and intellectual milieu, inquiring why he had such an odd
academic trajectory. From the outset, he had access to the tightly entwined political and legal elite of
Sydney, Australia and travelled to Britain in 1914 with their endorsement. During 1916, however, he
became an impassioned advocate against Britain’s new conscription laws. Notably, this activism
developed after his 1915 trip to Greece and the later revelations of the Gallipoli slaughter.
Intriguingly, only a few years after the 1918 Armistice, Professor JL Myres, his mostly-absent Oxford supervisor who had been an active member of British Intelligence in the Mediterranean during the
War, would assist Childe’s resumption of an academic career. Problematically, the contemporary
emphasis on academic specialisation may obstruct the interrogation of intricate connections between
early twentieth century polymaths, since these networks can straddle modern, disciplinary
boundaries. This thesis identifies previously overlooked linkages between people and events in
Childe’s first decades. With further investigation, they may refine our perspectives of his later oeuvre