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Ngala Kaditjiny ’Our Culture’
Get PDFIn this study I explored some of the key components of Noongar cultural practice that remain embedded within Noongar society today yet have adapted, changed, and evolved over time and demonstrate that there remains a sense of duty and commitment among Noongar women to follow cultural values and value systems that determine rights, responsibility, and obligation during the practice of disputes.
The target group for this inquiry is Noongar women, The target group is made up of nine Noongar women who shared their personal story, a group of senior Noongar women called the Kookaburra Club who guided me through the politics of Noongar culture in modernity and other senior women who wanted to offer their support for the research, as well as some Noongar men who were with their wives or partners during our discussion about dispute practice among Noongar women today and asked to be included. In Noongar culture senior women travel with their partners and/or husbands who supported the voice of the senior women and asked to be a part of the discussion
therefore I have accounted for their voices in parts of the discussion because the methodology here is reflective of ‘our culture’. Taking an Elders first approach within the methodology means to include men’s voice . Dispute practice among Noongar women is often misunderstood and can be perceived as aggressive, and sometimes violent, to the outsider. It is my observation that Noongar women today sometimes experience conflict between each other, with other family members, and with people outside the family, as they go about their daily business and are encouraged to participate in dispute practice following the notion of a cultural practice that is underpinned by Noongar values and value systems that remain embedded within Noongar society today. The ethnographic method used in the thesis, and the ways I implemented the study, makes an articulate contribution to Noongar cultural knowledge and practice in modernity.
The thesis makes a contribution to the articulation of Noongar cultural philosophy and is inclusive of Noongar values and value systems in today’s context. My understanding of culture was handed down to me through my father and is informed from his understanding of culture. My father’s learning of culture was taught to him through his father and his grandfather and his grandfather’s brother, who was mabarn, passing on knowledge to family members as is the custom of Aboriginal people throughout Australia. This research was initiated because I have ongoing questions about culture, particularly in the practice of disputes. This study explores the use of aggression during the practice of disputes among Noongar women who live in an urban environment and the relationship that this has with their understanding and meaning of their culture
A 7-item Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia in people with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome: Evaluation of structural validity, hypothesis testing, internal consistency and minimally important change
No full textBackground: The 17-item Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) is a commonly used patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) to assess kinesiophobia, but the measurement properties of the TSK in people with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) are unknown.
Objectives: 1) Revise the existing TSK by removing items, as needed, with inadequate functioning to optimise the TSK for people with FAIS, and 2) evaluate construct validity (both structural validity and hypothesis testing), internal consistency, and minimal important change.
Methods: Cross-sectional cohort study including 153 young adults with FAIS. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate structural validity and the TSK was revised to remove items with poor function, improving CFA model fit. Hypothesis testing, internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) and minimal important change (distribution-based method) were also evaluated.
Results: A 7-item version of the TSK provided the best CFA model fit with 10-items functioning poorly and needing to be removed. The 7-item TSK was uni-dimensional (single factor in EFA) and had adequate structural validity (Standardised Root Measure Square = 0.0771). The 7-item TSK had insufficient hypothesis testing with moderate correlations to 8/14 PROMs measuring different constructs. The 7-item TSK had adequate internal consistency (α = 0.783). The minimal important change of the 7-item TSK was 6.00 points (0–100 point scale).
Conclusion: We found that the ‘7-item TSK for FAIS’, had superior structural validity to the original 17-item scale, suggesting that it may be more appropriate for use in this population. Further studies should evaluate other measurement properties of the 7-item scale
Disputed times: reflections on religious education in Australian Catholic schools
No full textThis paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on the rationale and purpose of religious education (RE) in Catholic schools. RE in Australian Catholic schools has always been a feature of the curriculum and the expectation is that all students take part in this. Several salient features of contemporary culture that impact on faith-based schools are noted and these frame the overview of religious education that is given. These include the rise in both those expressing no religious affiliation and weaker levels of attachment amongst Catholics to the home tradition. Catholic schools, however, remain popular and this can be seen as a manifestation of secular religious competition. Several features of RE in Australian Catholic schools are given. These include; the preeminent emphasis on an educational approach, a recognition of various distinct but complementary goals for RE, and an acknowledgement of the importance of dialogue, engagement and pedagogical methodology
Optimizing plant disease classification with hybrid convolutional neural network - recurrent neural network and liquid time-constant network
No full textThis paper addresses the practical challenge of detecting tomato plant diseases using a hybrid lightweight model that combines a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN). Traditional image classification models demand substantial computational resources, limiting their practicality. This study aimed to develop a model that can be easily implemented on low-cost IoT devices while maintaining high accuracy with real-world images. The methodology leverages a CNN for extracting high-level image features and an RNN for capturing temporal relationships, thereby enhancing model performance. The proposed model incorporates a Closed-form Continuous-time Neural Network, a lightweight variant of liquid time-constant networks, and integrates Neural Circuit Policy to capture long-term dependencies in image patterns, reducing overfitting. Augmentation techniques such as random rotation and brightness adjustments were applied to the training data to improve generalization. The results demonstrate that the hybrid models outperform their single pre-trained CNN counterparts in both accuracy and computational cost, achieving a 97.15% accuracy on the test set with the proposed model, compared to around 94% for state-of-the-art pre-trained models. This study provides evidence of the effectiveness of hybrid CNN-RNN models in improving accuracy without increasing computational cost and highlights the potential of liquid neural networks in such application
Design-Build Discussions: Coordination Practices in Design-Build Education Projects
Get PDFDesign-build projects involve guiding a group of participants through the collaborative process of designing and constructing an architectural outcome while offering relevant learning opportunities. Guidance is often delivered intuitively through discussions between coordinators and participants, which integrate learning opportunities with activities that advance the development of the outcome. This study explores the discussion-based guidance practices of experienced coordinators, to address a gap in the literature on coordination practices.
As a step towards providing a more diverse range and detailed accounts of designbuild coordination practices, this study examines how experienced coordinators make sense of the design-build process and share their understanding with participants. The accounts of three experienced design-build coordinators from Australia and Brazil were collected using a narrative inquiry methodology and semi-structured interviews. To support an active interpretation of the similarities and differences among coordinators’ accounts the findings are presented in an instrumental case study using accounts from coordinators. Key findings are organised under five key themes: Describing the design-build process, thinking like a designer, thinking like a builder, resourcefulness, and accompanying explorations.
The findings offer detailed and practical insights into recurrent topics in design-build education. In contrast to existing literature that predominantly focuses on educational concerns, coordinators described design-build from an architectural perspective and in practical terms. Importantly, the responses highlight how learning opportunities are developed to be complementary to the design and construction process. Additionally, the findings revealed rich explorations that took place through discussions, which most often would remain unrecorded.
This study has implications for understanding and sharing the tacit practices developed within design-build education projects. Furthermore, the study provides valuable insights for a broader audience of emerging coordinators, educators, and designers
A national Australian Congenital Heart Disease registry; methods and initial results
No full textBackground: Although several National Data Registries for Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) exist, few are comprehensive and contemporary. A National Australian CHD Registry has been developed that aims to redress this by creating the first comprehensive data collection for CHD children and adults, initially across Australia.
Methods: We defined and collected a minimum dataset of demographics, diagnoses, and procedures from people with CHD presenting at participating quaternary CHD services Australia-wide. Data were collected from a range of clinical data sources. Diagnoses and procedures were standardised to the European Paediatric Congenital Code – Short List. Methodological limitations were carefully documented.
Results: From 8 participating institutions, an initial 359,084 patient records were assessed for eligibility and 68,234 unique individuals with structural CHD have been included in the current dataset. There were 20,395 (30 %) people with mild CHD, 25,157 (37 %) with moderate CHD, and 13,530 (20 %) with severe CHD (6 % unknown complexity). The most common diagnoses were Ventricular Septal Defect (16,781, 25 %), Atrial Septal Defect (6,607, 10 %), Aortic Valve Disorders (5516 8 %), Coarctation of the Aorta (5,321, 8 %), Tetralogy of Fallot (4,489, 7 %), Transposition of the Great Arteries (4,009, 6 %).
Conclusion: The data presented here represents the most comprehensive cohort collected for the Australian CHD population thus far and is comparable with the largest contemporary CHD registries around the world. This Registry represents a key resource for improved understanding of the CHD population and will drive better care and outcomes for people living with CHD
Clinical characteristics and outcomes of perinatal stroke in Australia: Population-based longitudinal study
No full textAim: Perinatal stroke is one of the main causes of hemiplegia and seizure disorder. This study aimed to analyse the clinical characteristics and outcomes of perinatal stroke in a cohort of Australian children for its early detection.
Methods: A population-based prospective longitudinal study on perinatal stroke up to 2 years of age, was conducted from 2017 to 2019.
Results: Eighty-seven children with perinatal stroke included 79% (69/87) acute and 21% (18/87) presumed perinatal stroke. Seventy-four per cent (51/69) acute symptomatic perinatal strokes presented in the first 3 days of life and 78% (14/18) presumed perinatal strokes presented by 6 months of age. 62% had an arterial stroke, 29% had a venous stroke and 5% had a combined arterial and venous stroke. Unexpectedly, 35% (24/69) acute symptomatic perinatal stroke had only respiratory symptoms and 50% (9/18) presumed perinatal stroke were asymptomatic. The incidence of cerebral palsy was 29% (20/69) with acute symptomatic perinatal stroke and 72% (13/18) with presumed perinatal stroke.
Conclusions: The first week of a child’s life is the most critical period in terms of lifelong disability from perinatal stroke. Recognising diverse clinical presentations will ensure early diagnosis and timely intervention treatments
Interleukin-15 and high-intensity exercise: Relationship with inflammation, body composition and fitness in cancer survivors
No full textPre-clinical murine and in vitro models have demonstrated that exercise suppresses tumour and cancer cell growth. These anti-oncogenic effects of exercise were associated with the exercise-mediated release of myokines such as interleukin (IL)-15. However, no study has quantified the acute IL-15 response in human cancer survivors, and whether physiological adaptations to exercise training (i.e. body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness) influence this response. In the present study breast, prostate and colorectal cancer survivors (n = 14) completed a single bout of high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) [4×4 min at 85–95% heart rate (HR) peak, 3 min at 50–70% HR peak] before and after 7 months of three times weekly high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on a cycle ergometer. At each time point venous blood was sampled before and immediately after HIIE to assess the acute myokine (IL-15, IL-6, IL-10, IL-1ra) responses. Markers of inflammation, cardiorespiratory fitness and measures of body composition were obtained at baseline and 7 months. An acute bout of HIIE resulted in a significant increase in IL-15 concentrations (pre-intervention: 113%; P = 0.013, post-intervention: 102%; P = 0.005). Post-exercise IL-15 concentrations were associated with all other post-exercise myokine concentrations, lean mass (P = 0.031), visceral adipose tissue (P = 0.039) and absolute V˙O2 peak (P = 0.032). There was no significant effect of 7 months of HIIT on pre- or post-HIIE IL-15 concentrations (P \u3e 0.05). This study demonstrates HIIE is a sufficient stimulus to increase circulating IL-15 and other myokines including IL-6, IL-10 and IL-1ra which may be clinically relevant in the anti-oncogenic effect of exercise and repetitive exposure to these effects may contribute to the positive relationship between exercise and cancer recurrence