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The Smallest Measure: Signifiers of Atmospheres in Transformation
No full textThe Smallest Measure: Signifiers of Atmospheres in Transformation is a transdisciplinary, practice-led research project that explores how slow artistic and expanded documentary practices, in conversation and collaboration with science and technology, can create new ways of addressing the slow emergency of global atmospheric change. Slow emergencies unfold gradually and often remain invisible, yet their impacts are acutely felt. This project responds to the challenge of how we might make visible the slow, incremental violence of the everyday through creative-practice research. Over the course of five years and drawing on audiovisual fieldwork at two key scientific sites—the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology’s Kennaook/Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Monitoring Station in lutruwita/Tasmania, and the CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Lab in Aspendale, Victoria—this research positions video, sound, and photographic technologies as both mediums and measuring devices. These sites, each a signifier of atmospheres in transformation, offer a framework through which to examine how we are interconnected through the shared, invisible matter of air and what is contained within it. This project contributes to growing conversations in environmental media and art-science collaboration by offering new ways of seeing, listening to, and sensing atmospheric change. It argues for the role of creative-practice research as a method for attuning to slow emergencies—making visible what is otherwise imperceptible and opening space for positive action on climate change.</p
Application of Knowledge Graphs with the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Assess Learners’ Willingness to Pursue Sustainability Education
No full textAim/Purpose The paper aims to identify opportunities within the Bachelor of Business (BBus) degree of RMIT for learners to gain sustainable and ethical knowledge. Background The paper explores how students are offered sustainable and ethical courses related to the BBus programme, particularly the courses in social impact. The paper seamlessly integrates the knowledge graph with the theory of planned behaviour to graphically present the relationships between learners’ attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and sustainability education choices.Methodology The paper adopts illustrative and case study approaches to describe the opportunities provided to learners to gain sustainable and ethical knowledge through the Social Impact major of the BBus degree. It shows a descriptive analysis of the list of courses offered for the award of the BBus of RMIT. The data used in this paper are collected from existing students’ records of RMIT and presented in tables and chart format. Contribution The paper steps beyond the traditional survey-based Theory of Planned Behaviour studies by incorporating structured and unstructured data sources for more robust analysis. The paper provides a framework that can be adapted to various educational contexts and sustainability domains, contributing to broader research on educational behavior modeling. Findings Bachelor of Business graduates of RMIT are identified to offer at least one Social Impact unit to enhance their sustainable and ethical knowledge. Attitudes influenced the willingness of students to acquire sustainability knowledge. Future Research The next part of this research will address the second and third research questions and integrate the knowledge graph with the theory of planned behaviour to offer dynamic models to predict learners’ willingness. This approach would provide actionable insights for targeted interventions.</p
The impact of technology frustration and consumer passion on consumer evaluation shift in case of mobile apps
No full textOnline consumer ratings play a crucial role in determining a product's long-term success. This study examines the direct impact of consumer technology frustration and consumer passion on app ratings and evaluations over time. Beyond these direct effects, we propose that consumer passion moderates the relationship between technology frustration and evaluations—specifically, passion amplifies the negative impact of frustration, making a double-edged sword. Using data from the Google Play Store, we tracked the top 20,000 Android apps over three months (September 29, 2023–January 1, 2024), constructing a panel dataset with 11,568 panels and 13,810 observations. Our disaggregated analysis—considering download volume, app age, price, and publisher rating—confirms the hypothesized effects. Remarkably, established apps and publishers are particularly vulnerable to the intensified negative substitution effect. Our findings suggest that new app developers should prioritize a functional, intuitive platform and enhance it over time to foster consumer passion. Meanwhile, established apps must actively minimize technological frustration, as passionate users' negative experiences can significantly impact ratings and future downloads.</p
In Vitro Radioenhancement using Ultrasound Stimulated Microbubbles
No full textRadiation Therapy (RT) is one of the core treatment options offered to patients with cancer. This treatment delivers therapeutic doses of ionising radiation to clinical targets in efforts to regain control over the hyperproliferative cells present in the disease, and/or, to irradicate all tumour cells entirely. However, as radiation is non-discriminatory in its action, a fine balance needs to be struck in leveraging radiation-induced cell killing of tumour cells whilst ensuring any unaffected normal/healthy cells in the vicinity do not suffer the same fate, giving rise to compromised organ and tissue functions and diminished quality of life for patients. There have been many attempts to enhance this balance using techniques that target the physical, chemical and biological phases of radiation action. One such agent that may have potential to enhance all three phases is the microbubble, which when stimulated by a suitably optimised ultrasound field, has been shown to enhance the uptake of other therapeutic agents commonly used in cancer treatment.
An extensive search of the literature showed that ultrasound stimulated microbubbles (USMB) could enhance the effects of radiation by acting as a biophysical disruptor of tumour vasculature, or by directly sensitising individual tumour cells to the effects of radiation. However, early in vitro research focussing on this second mechanism was plagued by inconsistencies in experimental conditions. Conflicting results were observed when cells were treated using low energy (kilovoltage, kV) compared to high energy (Megavoltage, MV) x-rays, and when cells were exposed in an adherent compared to a suspended cell culture state. Additionally, no research had been conducted in a lung cancer cell line, or a metastatic cell line, which is significant given the poor survival outcomes in primary lung cancer and the challenges of delivering radiotherapy to the lungs, a common site of metastatic disease.
This thesis therefore aimed to address these gaps by investigating the radiosensitising potential of USMB using both a primary lung cancer cell line (NCI-H727) as well as a secondary thyroid metastasis in the lung (FTC-238) and comparing results across both kV and MV x-ray energies, and the suspension and adherent cell culture state.
Following a preliminary investigation to determine suitable microbubble concentrations and ultrasound sonication parameters, along with cell viability assay optimisation, both NCI-H727 and FTC-238 cells were treated using a combination of 1.6% v/v microbubbles, ~90 s of 2 MHz ultrasound (mechanical index=0.8); and 0-6 Gy of kV or MV x-rays. No difference in effect was observed using kV compared to MV radiation. Cells treated with the combination of USMB and radiation showed decreased normalised survival compared to those treated with radiation only. However, Analysis of Variance found this to be statistically significant only in the NCI-H727 cells, highlighting the influence of cell type on results. Even within the same cell type, varying results were achieved in NCI-H727 cells when in a suspended or adherent culture state. The effect of USMB-alone on these primary cell lines was more pronounced when cells were in a suspended cell culture state compared to the adherent culture state, with no such differences observed for the metastatic cell line. Given a feature of metastatic cell lines is their capacity to travel in the suspended cell culture state to a secondary site, this similarity in results is not unexpected.
In light of these results observed with NCI-H727 cells, further investigation into the sonoporation effects elicited by USMB for these cells in a suspended versus adherent culture state was undertaken. Results from a Neutral Red Release (NRR) assay suggested that higher concentrations of USMB were required to compromise membrane integrity in adherent cells compared to suspended cells, highlighting another variable for consideration in this research area. However, the capacity to leverage these membrane effects for increased uptake of 1mM of gold nanoparticles appeared to be diminished. No discernible differences were observed in NCI-H727 cells in suspension treated with combinations of RT-alone, USMB-alone, gold nanoparticles-alone, or the presence of all three agents combined.
This research highlights the need to fully inform the experimental conditions used to investigate individual cell lines and cell culture states in preclinical in vitro studies. This is crucial to avoid misleading results that could significantly impact subsequent research and clinical applications. The insights gained from this thesis highlight the necessity of a systematic approach to parameter optimisation, particularly for USMB treatments alongside other radiosensitising agents, due to the number of individual treatment parameters requiring consideration.</p
Adoption and diffusion of Frontier technologies: Tracing global collaborative research networks on ChatGPT
No full textThe successful adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) frontier technologies is crucial for corporate and national sustainability, with knowledge transfer playing a key role in this process. Indeed, past research has demonstrated that global collaboration networks can generate innovative ideas and customised solutions to key development challenges across locations. This study explores global collaborative research networks related to 4IR frontier technologies. Specifically, we leverage the recent launch of ‘ChatGPT’, as a quasi-experiment to analyse globally collaborative networks among researchers. To do this we utilise bibliometric data from the Web of Science (WOS) over the period January to November 2023, 1 year after the launch of ChatGPT and apply social network analysis (SNA) to identify key knowledge disseminators, gatekeepers and ‘bridgers’ at the country, institutional and researcher levels. Our findings highlight the prominent role of the United States, United Kingdom, China and India, but also the increasing dominance of emerging nations like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Malaysia indicating the importance of geographical and cultural proximity in these relationships. Prestigious institutions such as the National University of Singapore, Imperial College London and Stanford University are found to be central hubs focusing on AI, natural language processing and chatbots. We also find the emergence of regional hubs focusing on specialised areas of research related to ChatGPT in the areas of health, education, communications and linguistics. Our findings provide new insights into how collaborations between developed and emerging regions facilitate 4IR frontier technology adoption and suggest strategies to enhance these connections.</p
WYANYB 2.0
No full textWYANYB 2.0, a revision of the earlier installation work titled “When You Are Not Your Body" (WYANYB) by the author, was selected by internationally renowned curators Gunalan Nadarajan and Yu-Chuan Tseng for the 2022 International Techno Art Exhibition "Mediating Asia," showcased at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. This artwork interrogates the complex dynamics of presence and absence, visibility and invisibility, and embodiment and disembodiment in the digital age. It challenges traditional notions of being and the world, particularly in the context of cybernetic.WYANYB 2.0 makes significant contributions to the discourse on digital embodiment, the ontology of the self in the virtual era, and digital spirituality. By presenting various ways the human body can appear and disappear within the digital realm, the artist provides to the audience a metaphysical experience that challenges conventional perspectives on death, being, and existence. The artwork introduces an "absurd proposal" where viewers experience a form of disembodiment, becoming perceptual monads rather than physical entities. This transformation allows audiences to empathize psychologically with their virtual selves, offering a unique viewpoint on existence in the immaterial digital world. The piece is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has heightened the pervasiveness of virtuality and necessitated a reexamination of concepts like body ownership, selfhood, and the cybernetic, networked self. Additionally, WYANYB 2.0 explores the concept of digital spirituality, encouraging viewers to contemplate the spiritual dimensions of their digital experiences and the nature of their digital souls.The installation is composed of:1 unit of CPU i5 to run custom-built software3 units of 35” LCD TV Monitor3 units of HDMI cable1 unit Logitech Webcam Pro 90001 unit of custom wooden case (2558mm (L) X 671.8mm (W) X 412.5 (H)) (size of the case is relational to the size of the size LCD TV available provided by the museum)1 unit of wooden cover (1033.2mm (L) X 665mm(W)) supported by hydraulic cabinet spring door lift</p
Final Report: National Date Labelling and Storage Advice – Phase 1
No full textFood waste is a significant issue, environmentally, socially and economically. Effective packaging with clear, consistent date labelling and storage advice plays a crucial role in reducing food waste. However, the current systems for storage advice and date labelling in Australia are unclear. Consumers are left unsure of the difference between “Use by” and “Best before” labels and not knowing if food is safe to eat or how long it can be safely stored using different methods. These uncertainties contribute significantly to household food waste There is a clear need for better, more consistent date labels and storage advice to assist consumers in their food management..</p
A streaming generation? Interrogating assumptions about Gen Z audiences, content discovery, and engagement with broadcast television
No full textWith the rise of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), Australian broadcasters have struggled to attract twenty-something Generation Z audiences, as reflected in recent television ratings and survey research. However, little is known about the factors driving Gen Z viewing choices or the diverse ways in which Gen Z audiences encounter broadcast television across terrestrial live streams, broadcast video on-demand (BVOD), and external platforms like YouTube. Drawing on a national survey and qualitative follow-up interviews, this article investigates the social function of broadcast television for Gen Z audiences with close attention to our participants’ routines and viewing behaviours. We find that, while many Gen Z viewers (especially those still living at home) are exposed to a substantial amount of broadcast television, this content is associated with low-intensity, social or forced viewing, rather than the more focused viewing typical of SVODs. Further, our Gen Z participants are interacting with BVODs in a functional way — for content retrieval — in contrast to their exploratory and discovery-oriented uses of SVODs. This suggests that Gen Z’s decreasing engagement with broadcast television is multifaceted, with different aspects changing at different speeds and intensities.Note: Article was submitted on December 16th and is currently under review at the journal Convergence. </p
Assessing the Effect of UTAUT2 on Adoption of B2B/C2C E -Marketplaces
No full textThis research intends to determine the key elements affecting the intention to use and the usage/adoption of B2C and C2C e-marketplaces in Saudi Arabia; drawing upon the theories of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and UTAUT2 model. There has been little research in the area of C2C e-marketplaces adoption particularly in Saudi Arabia. This research proposes a framework that aids in exploring those factors. For achieving these objectives, a quantitative approach has been utilized. Data for this study will be collected from active users of internet in Saudi Arabia via survey. Analysis will be made using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This research will also add to the e-marketplace literature through a theoretical framework which will also show the intention to use and the adoption/usage behavior of consumers in Saudi Arabia. The findings of this study are also going to be proved as helpful for the government as well as business organizations related to this area. Additionally, this research is also going to provide an empirically based model regarding factors affecting the intention to use and the adoption/usage of e-marketplaces. </p
Examining the Nexus Between Knowledge Management and Renewable Energy From the Supply and Demand Sides: The Case of Vietnam
No full textABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to examine the significance of previous, current, and future knowledge among stakeholders from the supply and demand sides in the renewable energy industry. Supported by the notions of the knowledge‐based view, this line of enquiry will develop a conceptual framework to illuminate the understanding of this two‐pronged view while contributing to the extant literature. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with Vietnamese CEOs and company managers, 12 from the supply side (e.g., equipment providers) and 12 from the demand side (e.g., end users, energy providers). The undertaken inductive analysis revealed 11 dimensions that highlight the significance of previous formal/informal knowledge acquisition, current knowledge to create efficiencies and build adaptive knowledge, and future knowledge to diversify renewable energy offerings and to “pre‐empt” future developments in the renewable energy environment. Theoretical and practical implications and insights associated with the findings and the developed framework will be discussed.</p