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Understanding customer grief in brand relationships
No full textBrands are key in building customer-brand relationships, yet organisations change their product lines by reformulating or discontinuing brands. This results in negative customer emotions, including pain and grief. While identified in marketing, grief has received little academic attention. Thus, this research seeks to explore and develop an understanding of customer grief as pain. The empirical context is the change of a breakfast cereal. By applying netnographic research to eight customer-brand fora, this qualitative study analysed 4,080 online customer posts to understand customer grief. Applying the stages of the Kübler-Ross grief model, this study shows that grief is associated with a misalignment of customers’ expectations, practices, and emotions in response to an unexpected brand change. This generates a more fine-grained understanding of customer grief, providing theoretical and practical implications for organisations in managing their brand relationships.</p
A theoretical framework for the prediction of molecular transport in interacting biopolymer co-solute solutions
No full textA theoretical framework is presented that accounts for modifications to diffusive behaviour of a small molecule resulting from an interacting biopolymer in a liquid system. The equation makes use of the equilibrium association constant (K a ) to predict the fraction of bound ligand (θ), allowing for the weighted average diffusion of free and bound ligand to be calculated. θ is shown to be calculated effectively under all concentration regimes (ligand in excess, host in excess and equimolar) and it is demonstrated that even for relatively small K a values (weak interactions), there is still likely to be a non-negligible proportion of ligand bound to the host macromolecule. Modelling of the effective diffusion coefficient (D eff ) vs K a using the developed equation shows that, in a system with functional food/nutraceutical relevant molecular sizes for ligand and host (for example, 0.6 and 3.5 nm), the D eff values of the ligand can be reduced more than 5 fold with the presence of only a moderate ligand-host interaction (K a ∼2.5 x 103 M−1). The practical value of this approach is demonstrated by determining the fraction of bound ligand for an experimentally determined D eff . This work aims to demonstrate the importance of understanding the impact of molecular interactions in solutions for the design of novel delivery vehicles.</p
Influence of composition and tea infusion on physicochemical properties of pasteurised and concentrated Milk-Tea: Focus on protein-carbohydrate-fat interactions
No full textMilk-tea is popular for its flavour and health benefits, but the impact of its composition on physicochemical properties is understudied. This study examined the impact of varying tea infusion concentrations (1–5 % w/v) on pasteurised and concentrated milk-tea formulations. It explored different fat levels, casein-to-whey ratios (C:W; 80:20, 70:30, 60:40), and lactose-to-maltodextrin ratios (L:M; 90:10, 80:20, 75:25). Results showed a tea concentration-dependent increase in total polyphenolic content (TPC), with 5 % tea yielding the highest retention in both fat-filled milk-tea (FM-T) and skim milk-tea (SM-T). In FM-T, fat enhanced polyphenol stability via hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding, and allowing for greater retention of TPC after concentration despite L:M and C:W ratios. In contrast, SM-T showed a stronger polyphenol-protein binding, leading to aggregation at low L:M ratios, although maltodextrin helped preserve TPC through a hydration shell formation. Overall, tea concentration, fat, and optimal C:W and L:M ratios influence polyphenol retention and milk-tea stability.</p
Topology Unknown (2025); Single Chanel Video
No full textTopology Unknown is an AI-driven experimental game prototype in which the player takes on the role of an explorer on the AI’s black-box expedition to traverse and map the uncanny, unsolvable multidimensional landscape. Unlike traditional first-person view games and existing generative game map design, where the map is persistent and constant once generated, Topology Unknown’s world is unstable and abstract with the player's controls directly influencing how the AI generates the landscape in real time. This pioneering solution is achieved by mapping players’ movements to AI's latent-space walk technique (Schaerf, 2024), driven by AI’s emergent properties. Therefore, the AI landscape will never be the same when viewed from different angles, at different moments, or during different play sessions: no two players will experience the same visuals and landscape. We observed that distributed agency, having moved from the designer to a triad designer/player/AI, produces conversational play with further possibilities of researching on human-machine connections through playful acts (Kac, 2004). In this context, embracing uncanny affordances as the introduction to the interpretative act of communication, rather than defects, expands possible pedagogical approaches to game aesthetics.</p
Challenges of multicultural healthcare practice in type 2 diabetes care: a qualitative study of Australian healthcare professionals
No full textObjectives: This study explores the challenges experienced by Australian healthcare professionals (HCPs) in delivering type 2 diabetes care to people of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. We examined how sociocultural, linguistic and health systems factors influence their clinical practice. Design: A qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews was conducted from April to October 2024. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes in HCPs’ experiences, guided by a constructivist perspective. Settings: The study was conducted in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, across primary and tertiary healthcare settings. Participants: A purposive sample of 11 Australian HCPs from diverse disciplines, including general practice, pharmacy, nursing, endocrinology, dietetics and podiatry, participated. All had provided type 2 diabetes care to people of CALD backgrounds within the previous 12 months. Participants included both male and female professionals, many from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Results: Three overarching themes were identified, reflecting HCPs’ perceived challenges to providing culturally responsive type 2 diabetes care to people of CALD backgrounds. These themes illustrated the multilevel challenges encountered by HCPs at the patient, organisational and provider levels, namely: (1) healthcare provision across diverse health literacy and cultural contexts, (2) navigating system gaps in multicultural clinical practice and (3) workforce preparedness gaps in culturally responsive care. Conclusions: HCPs remain committed to providing culturally responsive type 2 diabetes care but continue to face constraints, including limited cross-cultural training and exposure, inadequate interpreter access, time pressures and insufficient culturally adapted resources. Effective care in multicultural settings requires recognising patients’ culturally shaped beliefs about health and illness and embedding cultural humility, reflexivity and competence within professional practice, essential steps towards advancing equitable type 2 diabetes care across Australia’s diverse communities.</p
About the infinite windy firebreak location problem
No full textThe severity of wildfires can be mitigated using preventive measures like the construction of firebreaks, which are strips of land from which the vegetation is completely removed. In this paper, we model the problem of wildfire containment as an optimization problem on infinite graphs called INFINITE WINDY FIREBREAK LOCATION. A land of unknown size is modeled as an infinite undirected graph in which the vertices correspond to areas subject to fire and edges represent fire propagation from one area to another. A firebreak construction is modeled as removing the edge between two vertices. The number of firebreaks that can be installed depends on budget constraints. We assume that a fire ignites in a subset of vertices and propagates to the neighbors. The goal is to select a subset of edges to remove in order to contain the fire and avoid burning an infinite part of the graph. We prove that INFINITE WINDY FIREBREAK LOCATION is coNP-complete in restricted cases, and we address some polynomial cases. We show that INFINITE WINDY FIREBREAK LOCATION polynomially reduces to MIN CUT for certain classes of graphs like infinite grid graphs and polyomino-grids.</p
Peripheral Poetics: Trip 1-5
No full textPeripheral Poetics Original Films: PPSeries_1, PPSeries_2, PPSeries_3, PPSeries_4,Original Films: PPSeries_1, PPSeries_2, PPSeries_3, PPSeries_5</p
Infrastructure and accessibility implications of implementing x-minute city policies in low-density contexts
No full textAddressing priorities such as health, liveability, and climate resilience, many global governments are exploring x-minute city and x-minute neighbourhood policies. Addressing a lack of operational models for x-minute cities, we developed a model to assess accessibility and utilisation implications of their implementation, testing the model by applying it to the low-density city of Melbourne, Australia, where 20-minute neighbourhood (20MN) policy focuses on walkable access to daily destinations within 10 minutes (20 minute round trip), and applying the model to people living within 10-minute walking distance ‘catchments’ of mixed-use activity centres. We curated a list of 14 destination types (such as supermarkets and primary schools), and developed a method to model notional placement of additional destinations to place at least 80 % of people in each catchment within a 10-minute walk of each destination type. We extended accessibility considerations to cycling, based on a 10-minute one-way ride. Our results show improvements in accessibility across the city as a whole, particularly in inner urban areas; but with significant improvements in outer urban areas, characterised by low housing density, when cycling is promoted. Our utilisation analysis demonstrates feasibility challenges when implementing x-minute city policies in less densely populated locations. Our conclusions underscore the importance of supporting x-minute city policies with safe cycling infrastructure and careful urban densification strategies. Our findings are relevant to many cities seeking to implement x-minute city or neighbourhood policies worldwide, especially cities facing challenges of low density.</p
Assessment of strut discontinuities in additively manufactured lattice structures using thermoelastic stress analysis
No full textAdditively manufactured lattice structures present several advantages to engineering applications through their lightweight properties and efficient load transfer pathways. Structural damage during fatigue loading to components with integrated lattices, however, can result in strut discontinuities that impede their mechanical properties. In-situ identification of discontinuities in lattice structures is necessary to ensure the robustness of structural performance. The assessment of such discontinuities can be difficult, whereby methods of optical analysis present a viable technique to evaluate structural behaviour. This work utilises thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) as a method to rapidly identify strut discontinuities in lattice structures and assess the resultant alteration in load transfer pathways. TSA scans were performed on lattice tensile specimens under cyclic loading and calibrated using strain gauge rosettes, which were compared to numerical models obtained using the finite element (FE) method. Several lattice topologies were investigated with various tensile loading magnitudes to assess the applicability of the TSA method for several stress ranges and load transfer pathways. TSA was found to be an effective method for both qualitative and quantitative analyses of discontinuities in the lattice specimens, which agreed with the FE models. Furthermore, the TSA scans showed the change in load transfer pathways through stress redistribution, highlighting the evolution of critical lattice members and identifying potential failure sites. This approach of rapid stress assessment can be applied to the design and in situ failure analysis of lightweight aerospace and spacecraft structures under dynamic loading conditions.</p
The Flight of Women from the Information Technology Profession: Nuances and Global Perspectives
No full textResearch illuminating women’s experience working in information technology (IT) in different parts of the world is vital if we are to address the gender gap in IT. Based on a survey of women from 36 countries, we examine the factors that influence women’s intention to leave the IT profession by adopting the job demands–resources model and the individual differences theory of gender and IT to compare their experiences. We present a model that identifies how these factors affect women’s experience in the profession based on environmental, identity, and individual differences. Our findings can inform the design of targeted interventions that address the underrepresentation of women in IT.</p