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Immersive research catalysts: Exploring taxonomies, projections and tools
No full textThis research compendium documents a series of investigations led by the RMIT Architecture & Urban Design Immersive Futures Lab as part of the ACMI + RMIT Small Research Grant program. Situated at the intersection of architecture, gaming technologies, and immersive media, the research explores how speculative simulations and real-time design tools can catalyse new modes of architectural exhibition and engagement. Framed around three key "Catalysts": Taxonomy of Immersive Architecture, Fragments, Compositions and Form, and Gaming Environments as Immersive Tool for Exhibition Design, the project proposes hybrid workflows that integrate virtual and physical worlds through prototyping, site-specific experimentation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Drawing on the lab’s ongoing projects such as Future Naarm: First Light, the research develops a working taxonomy for immersive installations, explores the spatialisation of complex narratives, and tests gaming environments as design tools for immersive exhibition-making. The compendium foregrounds immersive design as both a mode of creative inquiry and a method for communicating complex spatial ideas to broader audiences, contributing to emerging discourse in speculative design, exhibition practices, and experiential architecture.</p
Hospital Leadership: The Impact of Social Identity on Perceptions of Leadership Effectiveness. An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis
No full textThe recent COVID-19 pandemic, which dramatically reshaped the global healthcare landscape, has underscored the critical importance of effective leadership and interprofessional collaboration within hospitals. Central to achieving sustainable healthcare outcomes is the ability of leaders to create a shared vision and to transcend entrenched professional boundaries. Existing literature on leadership and social identity suggests that leaders who are perceived as prototypical—those seen to represent the most influential group—are more likely to gain the support of their followers. In the hospital context, doctors are widely regarded as the most influential professional group, yet many Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) do not hold medical qualifications and therefore may not be perceived as prototypical leaders. This creates a significant challenge for non-medical leaders seeking to lead clinical professionals, particularly when they are seen as lacking the clinical credibility valued by the medical workforce. At the same time, many senior medical officers (SMOs) are reluctant to take on executive leadership roles due to competing clinical commitments, perceived loss of professional identity, or discomfort with administrative responsibilities. As a result, hospitals face a persistent leadership gap at the intersection of clinical and organisational domains.This research explores the lived experiences of 14 senior healthcare executives—both medical and non-medical—working in Australian hospitals. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study investigates how social identity influences perceptions of leadership effectiveness and uncovers the strategies that leaders employ to foster credibility and support in a context where professional identities are strong and often contested.The findings suggest that hospital CEOs who exhibit humility, engage in identity-aligned storytelling, and demonstrate a commitment to servant leadership are more likely to construct a shared identity, transcend professional divides, and promote meaningful collaboration across clinical and administrative domains. In doing so, they enhance perceptions of leadership effectiveness among diverse stakeholders.This study makes a theoretical contribution to the literature on social identity theory, healthcare management, and medical leadership by offering new insights into how leadership credibility is constructed in complex, professionalised healthcare environments. Practically, the findings inform the development of leadership training programs, medical school curricula, and organisational strategies aimed at cultivating more inclusive, collaborative, and effective healthcare leadership.</p
Identification of Resistant Starch-rich Sources from Selected Plants and Development of Low-calorie Food Products with Functional Properties
No full textA large portion of the global population suffers from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and obesity, often due to unhealthy eating habits. A major dietary contributor is the overconsumption of carbohydrate-rich foods. However, resistant starch (RS), a type of starch that escapes digestion, has gained attention for its health benefits, including lowering blood glucose levels, reducing cholesterol, exerting prebiotic effects, and potentially preventing cancer. Incorporating RS into foods helps reduce the glycaemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL), offering a functional strategy for improving food quality and health outcomes. This study focused on identifying RS-rich food sources and using them to develop low-calorie, functional food products. Initially, 14 plant-based sources such as tubers, cereals, pulses, root crops, and fruits were identified by resorting to an exploratory survey and subsequently analysed for RS content. Finally, potatoes, arrowroots, chickpeas, oats, and unripe bananas were found to be richest in RS within their respective categories. These samples were then subjected to different thermal-based cooking treatments (boiling and pressure cooking) at varying times to assess the degree of RS degradation. Results revealed a general increment in RS content with increased cooking time, except in chickpeas, where cooking to courses elevated RS content due to the starch retrogradation process.Based on the phenomenon of RS retention over the different cooking processes, potatoes and arrowroots were selected for further study. Specific boiling and pressure-cooking times were employed for each source, and subsequently, these sources were freeze-dried into powders. Six types of freeze-dried powders were obtained from the raw samples and cooked samples (FDRA, FDRP, FDBA, FDBP, FDPA, FDPP). Raw freeze-dried powders of potatoes (FDRP) and arrow roots (FDRA) tend to retain higher RS percentages than their cooked counterparts. Raw samples also exhibited finer particle size and lower solubility compared to cooked powders. These six freeze-dried powders were then incorporated into low-fat Greek yoghurt formulations to evaluate their functional impact. Thirteen yoghurt variants were developed using 1% and 3% flour concentrations, alongside a control without flour. Physicochemical characteristics such as whey separation, texture, colour, protein content, ash content, syneresis, viscoelastic properties, gelation, and microstructure were analysed. Shelf-life analysis was also conducted over 21 days at 5°C in 7-day intervals. Yoghurts with 1% flour addition showed improved texture, gel strength, and viscosity, attributed to enhanced water-binding capacities and protein network development, and these were facilitated by the added flour. In contrast, the 3% flour incorporated yoghurt formulations exhibited excessive syneresis and lower gel strength, as confirmed through confocal laser scanning microscopy. The 1% formulations demonstrated better shelf-life stability, making them suitable for further development.In the final stage, synbiotic Greek yoghurts were developed by incorporating both probiotics (Lactobacillus acidophilus) and RS-rich prebiotics (from the freeze-dried flour). The viability of probiotic cultures, including LAB strains (L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus), was assessed throughout shelf life and during simulated digestion. While RS did not significantly improve probiotic survival during storage, it positively influenced bacterial survival during digestion, indicating enhanced functionality under gastrointestinal conditions.In conclusion, this study highlights RS as a promising functional ingredient for food applications. The incorporation of RS-rich flours into Greek yoghurt improved textural and structural properties while offering potential digestive health benefits. The optimal incorporation level was 1%, which contributes to balancing the technological advantages while compromising sensory acceptability. The resulting synbiotic yoghurt represents a nutritious, low-GI food product with valuable commercial potential in addressing diet-related NCDs.</p
Online Flow: Individual Differences Regarding One's Absorbance by their Gaming Activity and their Translation to Real Life Information
No full textBackground: The recent rise of digital media has brought about significant advancements in entertainment and social interactions globally, with a notable increase in online gaming populations. In this evolving landscape, the concept of 'online flow', a state of deep immersive engagement during gameplay, is crucial for understanding player motivations and levels of involvement. This intense immersion, while enhancing gaming experiences, can also present risks. For a subset of gamers, excessive gaming habits influenced by flow states may lead to Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), often accompanied by significant mental health effects such as depression and anxiety. Previous research has explored the components of flow and depressive symptoms separately, but there is a pressing need to examine how variations in online flow correlate with depressive profiles and contribute to the spectrum of gaming behaviours. This understanding is vital for delineating the complex links between immersive experiences and the development of disordered gaming behaviours. Research objectives: This thesis with Publication overarching research objective (ORO) is to identify the framework of the online flow construct and explore its associations with problematic gaming and mental health outcomes. To achieve this, the thesis employs three objectives: first, to profiling gamers based on their flow experiences and differences in disordered gaming behaviours; second, to identify profiles of gamers based on their depressive behaviours and flow experiences; and third, determining the structure of the online flow construct and its potential contribution to disordered gaming patterns. Methods: Each of the three empirical studies used the same dataset gathered throughout this project consisting of 565 adult/adolescent participants (mean age = 29.3 years; SD = 10.6, males = 283, 50.1%). Participants were measured on their experiences of online flow, disordered gaming and depression symptoms. Empirical Study One used latent class analysis to identify flow profiles and evaluate their impact on disordered gaming. Empirical Study Two identified profiles based on depressive symptoms and flow experiences, examining their associations with disordered gaming. Empirical Study Three used network analysis to determine the structure of the online flow construct and explore interactions with disordered gaming symptoms. Results: For Empirical Study One, five distinct subgroups of online flow experience were identified. In Empirical Study Two, five depressive profiles were identified, with self-deprecation and lack of motivation emerging as key differentiators across profiles. Empirical Study Three established a stable network of online flow components, identifying ‘loss of sense of time’ as the central node with strong connections to other flow features and disordered gaming symptoms. Conclusion: The results of this thesis address the ORQ through the establishment of a stable online flow network used to explore the associations with disordered gaming behaviours and mental health outcomes. Specifically, Empirical Study One delineated five distinct online flow profiles, highlighting the 'loss of sense of control' as the most critical factor influencing disordered gaming behaviours across these profiles. This finding underscores the risk factors within immersive gaming environments that can escalate to IGD. Empirical Study Two extended these insights by demonstrating how depressive profiles interacting with elements of online flow can exacerbate disordered gaming behaviours. It notably identified self-value related depressive symptoms as a significant mechanism through which gaming may serve as a maladaptive coping strategy, aligning with the self-medication hypothesis and the compensatory internet use model. Empirical Study Three provided a granular analysis of the structure of the online flow construct, revealing the 'loss of sense of time' as a pivotal component tightly interconnected with other aspects of flow. This study mapped the network pathways that potentially link immersive flow experiences directly to the emergence and perpetuation of disordered gaming patterns.Originality/value: The thesis examines the structure of online flow through various methods, producing novel insights into its dual role in gaming, adding to the general understanding of how different flow features can either enhance well-being or foster disordered behaviours. The findings reinforce the importance of understanding the nuanced relationship between flow, gaming, and mental health. By categorising gamers into distinct profiles, the thesis provides a basis for developing personalised intervention strategies, contributing to the ongoing effort to mitigate the risks associated with IGD while recognising the cognitive and social benefits of healthy gaming.</p
Online Learning Methods for Vehicle Safety Applications in Autonomous Driving
No full textThe advances in sensor technology and computing capabilities have made it possible to move towards higher degrees of vehicle autonomy. Scenario-based development is an essential part of the validation and development of autonomous driving functionalities. In the realm of scenario-based development and validation for automated vehicles, the categorization of traffic scenarios emerges as a pivotal element. This problem requires an open-world learning approach but most of the machine learning methods used for traffic scenario categorisation work under the closed-world assumption. A closed-world model will classify all the inputs to one of the classes from the training data. An open-world learning method can identify, collect and cluster unknown traffic scenarios and incrementally add new scenario categories to the already existing ones. In this work, a hierarchical architecture for the open-world learning method is proposed. The open-world architecture consists of the following components: an openset recognition model, clustering method using known knowledge, class-conditioned generative models and representation learning model. The components in the architecture contain novel machine learning approaches to address the challenging open-world learning tasks, e.g., Extreme Value Theory (EVT) for open-set recognition, Random Forest Activation Patterns (RFAPs) for clustering, class-conditioned generative models for replay, and self-supervised pre-training for representation learning. The proposed architecture is tested using real-world and simulation-based datasets. The incorporation of open-world learning into scenario-based development provides a more realistic and comprehensive framework for validating automated vehicles. By acknowledging the possibility of encountering unknown scenarios, the proposed model not only classifies inputs into known but also engages in finding unknowns, clustering and incremental learning. This enhances the system’s capability to identify emerging patterns and seamlessly integrate new traffic scenario classes, thereby facilitating more robust and realistic scenario-based development processes.</p
Designing neighbourhoods to support early childhood development: Lived experiences of families living in growth areas of Melbourne: a case study
No full textYoung children benefit from neighbourhood environments that provide resources and opportunities for positive and stimulating experiences. Growth area suburbs on the urban fringe may lack essential services and infrastructure, raising concerns about how health-promoting they are for young children's health, development and wellbeing. We explored the lived experiences of parents of young children living in one growth area of Melbourne, Australia.</p
Thermoelectric Studies of Modified Cu2Se: Bulk and Thin Film for Waste Heat Recovery
No full textThe rising global emphasis on sustainable energy solutions has driven interest in thermoelectric (TE) materials, which enable the direct conversion of waste heat into electrical power. Among various thermoelectric materials, copper selenide (Cu₂Se) has emerged as a promising p-type material owing to its unique superionic behavior, inherently low thermal conductivity, and decent electrical transport properties. However, its thermoelectric performance still requires further optimization for practical applications, especially under the mid-temperature range and for flexible energy harvesting systems.
This thesis presents a comprehensive study on the development, modification, and optimization of Cu₂Se-based thermoelectric materials in both bulk and thin film forms, aiming to enhance their performance for waste heat recovery applications. Bulk Cu₂Se was synthesized using a cost-effective reduction method, ensuring phase purity and high yield. To further enhance its thermoelectric properties, nanocomposites were prepared by incorporating carbon-based additives, graphene, reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in varying concentrations (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 %). These additives were found to significantly improve electrical conductivity and carrier mobility, leading to a marked enhancement in the power factor and the figure of merit (ZT).
In parallel, Cu₂Se thin films were fabricated using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, where a systematic optimization was carried out by varying sputtering power, substrate temperature, and post-deposition annealing conditions. These parameters played a crucial role in tuning the film’s microstructure, crystallinity, and carrier transport properties, which directly influenced thermoelectric performance. The optimized thin films were further employed in the fabrication of a flexible thermoelectric generator (FTEG) prototype deposited on a polyimide substrate with 9 legs, which demonstrated stable output and mechanical robustness under bending cycles, highlighting their suitability for flexible and wearable energy harvesting devices.
Additionally, a custom-built thermal conductivity setup was developed for accurate measurement of thermal transport properties of bulk nanocomposites, enabling precise ZT evaluation. The combined approach of nanostructuring and thin film optimization presented in this research contributes valuable insights toward the design of high-performance, low-cost Cu2Se thermoelectric material for real-world applications.</p
WUISHOW: A digital collaborative wildfire evacuation platform
No full textThis paper presents the WUISHOW, a digital collaborative evacuation decision-making tool designed to assist wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire stakeholders in emergency management and response. The tool has been developed with a dual scope: 1) to allow assessment of end users needs and 2) to allow visualisation through procedural generation of the results of wildfire evacuation simulations. The WUISHOW is developed through a virtual reality game engine and represents an interface for collaborative decision-making, which enables different modalities and hardware deployments. The WUISHOW includes both a desktop version along with a multi-touch table version able to facilitate decision support for stakeholders by displaying interactive wildfire evacuation modelling results in VR related to real-world scenarios.</p
Journalistic cultural competence for health journalists: a systematic review and overview of reviews using concept analysis
No full textExisting conceptualisations of professional cultural competence primarily focus on health-related caregiving, leaving a gap in research on how these concepts can be adapted to enhance health news reporting. Building on existing literature involving cultural competence and journalistic competence, the study employs the method of concept analysis to define ‘journalistic cultural competence’ through analysing a total of 85 articles. The aim is to reconceptualise professional cultural competence in the context of health journalism and then utilise this construct to inform future empirical research related to cultural competence of health journalists. The outcomes of this study include identifying ‘journalistic cultural competence’ as an essential component of overall journalistic competence, rather than a standalone quality. Practical implication includes consistent application of this concept to advance journalism education, practice and research.</p
Resilient Distributed Secondary Control of Battery Energy Storage Systems in Islanded Microgrids
No full textThis study investigates the distributed secondary control of a network of interconnected battery energy storage systems (BESSs) in an islanded AC microgrid (MG) where an upper-bounded number of BESS units are subject to cyberattacks. Byzantine model of misbehaviour is considered, where the compromised BESSs can communicate contradicting and unbounded information to their neighbours in order to destabilise MGs operation. A new resilient distributed secondary control algorithm is proposed, whereby the data transmitted by a predetermined number of extreme neighbours is ignored by the normal BESSs. It is proved that the proposed algorithm guarantees resilient frequency regulation, active power sharing, and state of charge balancing, provided specific conditions regarding control parameters and the robustness of communication network topology are met. The theoretical results are supported by experimental results obtained using an OPAL-RT real-time simulator.</p