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Exploring mathematical wellbeing across cultures: insights from diverse students
No full textAcross many countries, including New Zealand, diverse groups including indigenous, migrant, and marginalised communities, are under-represented in mathematics, as evidenced by achievement disparities and disengagement from higher-level mathematics. Both research and policy have focused on developing equitable education outcomes for all students. A key aspect of this is wellbeing, including within mathematics classrooms, which includes identifying classroom environments that enable wellbeing. This study examines mathematical wellbeing (MWB) across different ethnicities and genders, with a case study focus on students from Pacific heritages. Analysing qualitative responses from over 12,000 diverse students revealed that positive relationships in the mathematics classroom were most commonly associated with students’ MWB. Accomplishment and cognitive factors, including mathematical accuracy, learning new things, and understanding, were also identified as important. Minor gender differences emerged, with female students emphasising mathematical understanding, accuracy, and relationships more than male students. The Pacific student case study highlighted the importance of both cognitive aspects (learning new things and understanding) and relationships (peer and teacher support), uncovering an alignment between cultural values and MWB. This study empirically confirms seven universal values supporting student MWB, previously identified in Australian and Chinese contexts, suggesting that teachers internationally may align pedagogical practices with these values to support most students’ MWB. However, the instrumental values serving these universal values appear culturally unique. This research contributes novel insights to the field by examining wellbeing with a subject-specific focus through student-generated responses, offering implications for developing more equitable and culturally inclusive mathematics classrooms.</p
The Agency of Architectural Appearances in Moscow’s Ambiguous Urban Culture: The Practice of Ginzburg Architects
No full textThis study is an attempt to define the nature of work of a contemporary architect in a highly contextual city through the example of Ginzburg Architects in Moscow. In carrying out the study, it was necessary to analyse the trajectory of Moscow's development over the past 150 years, to define the specific features of the urban fabric that exists today, and to explain both the complex transformation that the city went through in the twentieth century and the architectural discourse of the post-Soviet period. The first part of this text deals with the factors that influenced the author's set of views: his family’s history and the emergence of a private architectural practice at the moment when the Soviet system suddenly collapsed. A brief description of the practice’s body of work identifies its operational principles and explains the reasons for choosing the present research topic. This part also contains an analysis of three early projects executed by the firm. The selection of projects located in distinctive locations necessitated additional analysis of Moscow’s urban structure. A comparison was made between the various approaches to working on buildings as elements that ‘complete’ the existing context of the city in a particular way. This is followed by a description of the process by which research was conducted; it should be said that work on the research project took longer than expected due to interruptions caused by major changes in the work of Ginzburg Architects and in the author’s life. The second part of the research analyses a project in progress that was worked on during the PRS process. The practice’s architectural tactics are described and illustrated with examples of this project. Parts of conversations with different actors in the urban process show thinking regarding the Moscow context from different perspectives. In the third part the author shows the interaction between context as spacetime continuum and architecture. The firm’s methods of working in the specific circumstances of Moscow’s ambiguous public realm (ambiguous in the sense of lacking an overall contemporary style within a planned urban increment) are described. The author’s positioning of himself in the community of practice helps throw light on the specific character of how modern-day discourse regarding interaction with the urban fabric is evolving towards the architect paying more and more attention to the urban morphology of the historical city. Here the author summarises the main assertion made in this project (i.e. its contribution to knowledge), outlining the results of this study as well as its impact in modifying the firm’s working methods and approach. This is a transition from an empirical situational relationship with the context of the city to a reflective dialogue with the multidimensional structure of the city’s urban fabric and its public spaces. This section concludes with an epilogue – the author’s attempt to engage in dialogue with Moisey Ginzburg, his grandfather, in order to close the loop of reflections about the family’s architectural tradition. Here the author answers for himself the question of what was the aim of his research.</p
A correlation study on the game of badminton and techniques on shuttlecock durability
No full textBadminton shuttlecocks are often observed to break after several rallies in elite competitions. These change requests are frequent and considered disruptive to the game. The frequency of shuttlecock changes from 36 official matches from the Olympic Games and Super Series between 1997 and 2020 were observed. An Independent T-test and ANOVA were performed on the means of five relevant game characteristics including: format of play by structure (singles vs doubles) and categories (MS, WS, MD, WD and MD), scoring system (pre-2006 vs post-2006), the frequency of badminton shots (smash, attacking shots and rally) that resulted in shuttlecock changes and total time spent on changing shuttlecocks were analysed. The descriptive and frequency analyses found that singles matches resulted in almost 50% more change requests than doubles matches (18.52 ± 8.76 vs 10.73 ± 5.01) and that MS matches were found to have a disproportionately higher number of shuttlecock changes compared to all other categories of play (11.00 vs 3.57 – 4.80 per match). It was also observed that a considerable portion of game time was spent on changes shuttlecock (9.44% - 24.44%). It is believed that addressing shuttlecock durability will reduce disruption due to frequent shuttlecock changes and improve sustainability of the game.</p
Differential Dynamic Microscopy Studies of Bacterial Motility
No full textThis thesis investigates the use of Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) to measure bacterial motility, aiming to understand its advantages and limitations and to investigate its applications in microbial identification and in studying bacterial responses to environmental factors. The specific objectives are: (1) to optimize DDM for accurate and high-throughput measurement of bacterial motility; (2) to assess the ability of DDM to distinguish between different bacterial strains and species, including non-motile ones, based on their motility characteristics; (3) to investigate the effects of hypergravity on bacterial motility; and (4) to examine how antibiotics influence bacterial motility over time.
The research is presented in several stages that correspond to these objectives. First, the inherent biological variability between samples prepared from the same strain is investigated. It is found that variability can develop during the growth process, requiring careful normalisation before comparing samples batch to batch. Furthermore, it looks into the effects of time and concentration. The study found that oxygen depletion reduces motility in sealed samples. Bacteria fresh from the flask maintain their motility for approximately 2 hours, which is the upper limit for each batch. Higher bacterial concentrations result in reduced swimming speed, diffusivity, and variability due to increased cell-cell interactions. Second, DDM is used to study the differences in motility between different strains of E. coli (BAA-2523, 43888, and DH52), and different bacterial species, including motile species (Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Enterobacter cloacae; Bacillus cereus) and a non-motile species (Staphylococcus epidermidis). DDM was able to distinguish between different strains and species and revealed variations in their motility patterns. Third, DDM was used to understand the effect of hypergravity on Enterobacter cloacae motility. It was found that exposure to 3Xg hypergravity lead to a suppression of swimming speed, but that further increases in hypergravity had little further effect. Fourth, the impact of antibiotics on bacterial motility was studied. The addition of sub-lethal concentrations of tetracycline caused a systematic reduction in motility over time, without destroying the bacteria. This detailed examination validates DDM's efficacy as a valuable tool in microbiological research and shows that it could be used more broadly in clinical diagnostics and the study of bacterial responses to environmental stresses.</p
Advanced scattering techniques for characterisation of complex nanoparticles in solution
No full textNanoparticles are vital to a broad range of applications including commercial formulations, sensing and advanced material synthesis. Nanoparticles can come in a variety of shapes including cubes, polyhedra, rods, and prisms, and recent literature has demonstrated the importance of nanoparticle shape to downstream function (such as cellular uptake). While researchers routinely characterise nanoparticle shape using electron microscopy techniques, this generally requires drying of the samples. Many particles (e.g. lipid nanoparticles or polymer particles) change with drying, so complementary solution based techniques are needed. Scattering techniques can be used to characterise such nanoparticles in suspension, overcoming many of the limitations of other techniques. Here we review the current state of the art in the characterisation of complex nanoparticles (non-spherical and multi-layered) using advanced scattering techniques including light, X-ray, and neutron scattering. Recent improvements in instrument availability and data analysis makes these techniques much more accessible to researchers. This review provides an introduction to these techniques aimed at all researchers working with nanoparticles, in the hope that full characterisation of nanoparticles in solution becomes standard practice.</p
It hardly made a ripple: South Australia's <i>Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission Report </i>in rural news discourse
No full textIn January 2019, the South Australian Government released the report of its Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin, which investigated the implementation of the Basin Plan and allegations of water theft in upstream states. This study analyses the report and specialist rural media coverage of it. Previous research has found that rural media imaginaries of the rural space validate the ‘productive’ use of land and reinforce the discursive power of rural elites such as political actors, industry bodies and landholders, offering few opportunities for alternative voices. Drawing on the concepts of ‘agrarian imaginary’ and ‘settler common sense’ and adopting discourse analysis as a methodology, we found that while the report made a clear connection between settler activities and the ill health of the Basin, specialist rural media did not approach it as an opportunity to broaden the dominant rural imaginary but further cemented the productive use of land discourse.</p
The Design and Synthesis of Cathode Materials for High-Performance Li-S Batteries
No full textAmong different rechargeable batteries, Li-S batteries (LSBs) are considered as the potential alternative to Li-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high theoretical capacity (1675 mA h g-1) and energy density (2600 W h kg-1). Furthermore, sulfur is inexpensive and available in abundance compared to the commercial mixed metal oxide and olivine type (LiFePO4) cathodes which are being used in commercial LIBs whose energy density is also limited to 200 W h kg-1. However, the commercialization of LSBs is hindered by some of the fundamental challenges such as polysulfide dissolution and shuttle, sluggish conversion kinetics of polysulfides and volume expansion during the charge-discharge process in LSBs. These result in poor cycle life and Coulombic Efficiency (C.E.) of the batteries. This thesis investigates different sulfur host materials to address these issues with the aim to improve the cycle life of LSBs. Towards this objective, firstly, a nickel (II) phthalocyanine tetra sulfonate crosslinked polypyrrole was used as a sulfur host where the Ni2+ displayed strong electrostatic polyvalent interactions with LiPS intermediates and improved the performance of LSBs with a stable performance over 500 charge-discharge cycles. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) studies revealed strong interactions with different polysulfides which further supported the improved electro-chemical performance. Further, two organic redox-active small molecules based on diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) were synthesized with phenyl and pyridine substituents. The pyridine substituted DPP (PyDPP) possessed higher adsorption energy for lithium polysulfides due to the strong pyridinic N-Li interactions which also amplified the adsorption energy of carbonyl oxygen of DPP compared to that of phenyl DPP (PhDPP). Thus, LSBs with PyDPP outperformed PhDPP comprising batteries in terms of specific capacity, rate performance and long-term cycling stability. Also, the band edges of the radical anions of PyDPP and PhDPP are commensurate for efficient charge transfer with Li2S thus improving the sulfur utilization. Subsequently, a series of porous organic polymers (POPs) was synthesized with different functional moieties (acetylene, carbonyl and pyridine) to impart chemisorption for polysulfides and improve the electrocatalysis. Interestingly, the polymers possess similar pore size distributions which match the size of polysulfides, thus imparting physicochemical confinement for polysulfides and improving the cycling life of the LSBs with POPs. Among the four polymers, the polymer with both carbonyl and pyridinic N displayed the best performance with capacity close to 1000 mA h g-1 at 1C with stable performance over 600 cycles which is attributed to multiple polysulfide interacting groups which also improved their electrocatalysis. DFT studies also revealed the strong interactions between the polysulfides, and the functional moieties present in the POPs. Finally, the thesis summarizes the research findings and future directions for further advancement in the field of LSBs and their potential applications.</p
Optimization and biodynamic modelling of a 3D-printed honeycomb cushion and double-diamond seating suspension system for vibration isolation
No full textExtended periods of driving, lasting up to 8 hours, can have a severe impact on a driver's health due to the presence of low-frequency vibrations caused by uneven road surfaces. This paper presents a novel biodynamic system modelling method for investigating how the human body responds to low-frequency vibrations. The lumped biodynamic parameter model predicts time-domain head acceleration and frequency-domain transmissibility ratio. This paper's design innovation involves a three-dimensional printed cushion composed of honeycomb cells and a seating suspension system featuring six double-diamond isolators. Using the Design of Experiments, Response Surface Method, and Genetic Algorithm methods, the structural parameters of the seating suspension system and cushion in the model are optimized for the minimum peak transmissibility ratio. The uniqueness of this paper's approach lies in its sensitivity analysis and optimization of the seat cushion and seating suspension system design parameters within a quarter-vehicle suspension system environment, which sets it apart from other literature. Furthermore, this paper explores the connection between the negative Poisson's ratio and quasi-zero stiffness as a means of reducing vibration transmission.</p
Measurement of Psychological Resilience to Support Therapy Interventions for Clients in the Clinical Mental Healthcare Setting: A Scoping Review
No full textWaves of psychological research over 50 years have resulted in the development of scales to measure psychological resilience. Multiple psychological resilience definitions and factors have emerged during this time, making its measurement complex. The overall aim of the review was to identify and describe developments in the measurement of psychological resilience in the clinical mental healthcare setting. Specific objectives included (1) consideration of the validity and reliability of psychological resilience scales, (2) the effectiveness of the scales in clinical mental healthcare settings and (3) to identify the scope that resilience factors are addressed in the included scales. It provides a timely update regarding psychological resilience measurement tools and considers further developments that may be required. Between 2011 and 2024, databases were searched, and English-language, peer-reviewed papers with full text were extracted. Eligible studies were those reporting validated existing resilience measures or the outcomes of new measures for use in clinical mental healthcare settings. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. The review demonstrated that psychological resilience measures require further development, particularly focusing on the utility of measurement tools in clinical mental healthcare settings. In this review, we highlight an existing gap in resilience measurement and underscore the need for a new measure of psychological resilience that can effectively assess individuals' subjective experience of their psychological resilience in clinical mental healthcare settings. The currently available psychological resilience measures included in this review do not directly reflect all the factors that might impact a client's depression or anxiety and warrant further research.</p
Oral care practices and hospital-acquired pneumonia prevention: A national survey of Australian nurses
No full textBackground: Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) also known as non-ventilator associated pneumonia, is one of the most common infections acquired in hospitalised patients. Improving oral hygiene appears to reduce the incidence of HAP. This study aimed to describe current practices, barriers and facilitators, knowledge and educational preferences of registered nurses performing oral health care in the Australian hospital setting, with a focus on the prevention of HAP. We present this as a short research report. Methods: We undertook a cross sectional online anonymous survey of Australian registered nurses. Participants were recruited via electronic distribution through existing professional networks and social media. The survey used was modified from an existing survey on oral care practice. Results: The survey was completed by 179 participants. Hand hygiene was considered a very important strategy to prevent pneumonia (n = 90, 58%), while 45% (n = 71) felt that oral care was very important. The most highly reported barriers for providing oral care included: an uncooperative patient; inadequate staffing; and a lack of oral hygiene requisite. Patients' reminders, prompts and the provision of toothbrushes were common ways believed to help facilitate improvements in oral care. Conclusion: Findings from this survey will be used in conjunction with consumer feedback, to help inform a planned multi-centre randomised trial, the Hospital Acquired Pneumonia PrEveNtion (HAPPEN) study, aimed at reducing the incidence of HAP. Findings may also be useful for informing studies and quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving oral care to reduce the incidence of HAP.</p