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Simultaneous Electrochemical Detection of Puerarin and Daidzein by Ag Nanoparticles and CuO Nanowires Coated ZnO Nanorod Arrays Self-Supporting Electrode
No full textIn this study, ZnO nanorods (ZnONR) were directly grown on carbon fiber paper (CFP), followed by the uniform chemical deposition of CuO nanowires (CuONW) and subsequent hydrothermal synthesis of Ag nanoparticles (AgNP) to form the ternary composite electrode AgNP-CuONW/ZnONR@CFP. When the prepared electrodes were investigated as a non-enzyme biosensor, two distinct and separated differential pulse voltammetric peaks for puerarin (PU) and daidzein (DAI) were observed, indicating that the simultaneous and selective detection of both isoflavones was feasible. The sensor exhibited a linear response across a broad concentration range of 0.01 to 30 μmol/L for puerarin (PU) and 0.05 to 15 μmol/L for daidzein (DAI), with detection limits of 4.0 nmol/L for PU and 17.8 nmol/L for DAI, respectively. Additionally, when used to detect puerarin (PU) and daidzein (DAI) in traditional Chinese medicine samples, the sensor performed excellently, yielding results that consistent with those obtained from high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis.</p
Factors influencing dementia identification, management, and patient outcomes: A retrospective cohort study of hospital patients with dementia in Australia
No full textBackground: Dementia is an important population health issue in Australia. In 2022, the estimated prevalence of Australians living with dementia was 487,500. This is expected to increase to approximately 1.1 million by 2058, which will have an increasing impact on Australia’s aged care and health systems. Hospital admissions for people with dementia are associated with adverse inpatient and post-hospital outcomes, high healthcare costs due to long lengths of stay, high mortality, and high likelihood of re-admission. Optimising health system outcomes and exploring if there is capacity to improve the care of hospitalised people with dementia requires longitudinal data. Historically, research in this area relied predominantly on short-term or cross-sectional studies of individual patient episodes. There remains a lack of longitudinal research following individuals over time, and a lack of knowledge around complex factors associated with the identification of dementia, which may result in adverse patient outcomes. Due to clinical coding issues within administrative data sets and the high prevalence of under-coding of dementia, there are no reliable estimates of how many people are living with dementia in the community, or when they were diagnosed. Utilising longitudinal data to assess the first diagnosis of dementia in hospital (index admission) provides a “starting point” to study a patients’ diagnosis and management journey. Medical records can also provide insight into discrepancies between identification of dementia and diagnosis in hospital. The overall aim of this thesis was to understand factors that influence dementia identification and patient outcomes, and to inform recommendations for improving identification and management.Method: A multiple methods study design was employed. This included a novel retrospective cohort study of linked, longitudinal Emergency Department and Admitted Patient data from 7919 people with an index hospitalisation with dementia and a matched cohort between 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2015 (and a five-year look-back period from 1 July 2001) in a regional health district in Australia. This research also included a medical records audit, and ongoing consultation from a collaborative partnership. Statistical methods comprised descriptive analysis of patterns of hospital utilisation before and after the index hospitalisation, regression modelling to assess the impact of dementia coding (as a proxy for clinical management) on patient outcomes, and trend analysis to investigate the impact of a change in Australian coding rules for chronic conditions.Results: Longitudinal data highlighted persistent problems across the care trajectory from pre-hospital diagnosis through to under-identification and under-management of dementia in subsequent admissions post-diagnosis. This includes lost opportunity for earlier diagnosis, consistent misidentification, and poor health outcomes (e.g., readmission). Findings also identified opportunities to improve identification and management across the care trajectory – including target interventions for specific conditions in the lead-up to a diagnosis (e.g., falls, urinary tract infections), across specific specialty areas (e.g., emergency medicine), and at the point of discharge or transfer (i.e., transitional care). Finally, evaluation of a change to coding rules in a local setting demonstrated that the quality of dementia data within hospital datasets can be improved, and clinician behaviour can be impacted.Conclusion: This PhD assessed patterns of hospitalisation in the lead-up to and following an index admission coded with dementia. It then investigated the impact of dementia identification and management on patient outcomes, and finally, assessed the impact of a change to coding rules through a medical records audit. Overall, this research contributed new understandings into the trends and challenges associated with dementia identification and management in hospital settings, and highlighted opportunities across the dementia trajectory (pre- and post-diagnosis) to improve identification and clinical management. In the short-term, key clinical findings can be utilised by clinicians to inform improvement to dementia care and outcomes, including through targeting specific clinical presentations to increase opportunities for earlier identification. There is also scope to implement findings more broadly at a systems level, such as through updates to hospital policy, and within local intervention studies. Finally, this PhD highlights that use of highly contextualised data and longitudinal findings is invaluable and will provide a foundation to inform future interventions to improve the experience of hospitalised people with dementia.</p
Reinforcing square high-strength concrete columns with GFRP equal angle sections: Proposal and behavior
No full textThe abstract for this item has not been populated.</p
Development of data-driven methods to enhance building energy efficiency and indoor air quality
No full textIndoor Air Quality (IAQ) impacts people’s productivity and well-being and is showing a significant need to be improved in the post-Covid era due to people’s rising indoor time. The maintenance of high IAQ relies on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, which require a large amount of energy and the building energy efficiency is therefore becoming increasingly critical. Due to the recent development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor technologies, a large amount of building data has been available and provided more opportunities to utilise data-driven methods to improve IAQ and building energy efficiency. This thesis aims to develop robust data-driven strategies to appropriately identify dynamic IAQ patterns and association rules that exist in building IAQ, energy use and HVAC operational data to comprehensively evaluate building IAQ and energy use performance and develop reliable and optimal control strategies for HVAC systems to enhance IAQ and minimise building energy consumption.</p
Investigating how Australian university teachers' use learning analytics as part of their teaching practice
No full textLearning analytics has emerged as a significant development in higher education, offering data-informed approaches to enhance teaching and learning. However, there remains limited empirical understanding of how university teachers actually use these tools in their daily practice. This study investigated how university teachers use learning analytics in their teaching practice and what influences this use, examining both their patterns of usage and the factors shaping their engagement with these tools.Using a qualitative case study approach informed by the Theory of Practice Architectures, this research study followed five university teachers from one Australian university across different disciplines as they integrated learning analytics into their teaching practice when teaching one subject in the time period of 2021 to 2022. Data collection included six interviews per participant spanning pre-session to post-session, teaching observations, and analysis of relevant artefacts. The study examined both how teachers used learning analytics in their practice and what influenced this use.Data analysis followed an iterative approach combining inductive and deductive methods. Each case was first analysed individually through detailed chronological accounts and identification of critical incidents in learning analytics use. Cross-case analysis then revealed common patterns while highlighting contextual variations. The Theory of Practice Architectures framework guided interpretation of how participants’ practices were shaped by and shaped cultural-discursive arrangements (ways of thinking and talking about analytics), material-economic arrangements (available tools and resources), and social-political arrangements (relationships and power structures). This layered analytical approach enabled rich insights into both the practical implementation of learning analytics and the complex factors influencing its use.The findings revealed three key insights about learning analytics use in higher education teaching. First, participants' use of learning analytics was deeply rooted in their intuitive expertise and established pedagogical habits rather than being driven primarily by institutional initiatives. Seven key practices emerged: getting to know students, monitoring student activity, assessment evaluation, feedback and communication, academic integrity and grade preparation, subject evaluation and improvement, and providing special attention to specific cohorts. Participants demonstrated sophisticated use of relatively simple analytics tools, following distinct temporal patterns throughout the academic session - from early relationship-building and intervention, through mid-session monitoring of engagement and assessment, to final grade compilation, while maintaining continuous adaptation of teaching approaches based on analytics insights. Second, significant hidden and often overlooked work underpinned participants' effective use of these tools, from interpreting student engagement patterns to making nuanced interventions based on analytics insights. Third, participants' use of learning analytics was shaped by a complex interplay of conditions in the site operating at individual, technological, and institutional levels. Enabling conditions included strong pedagogical expertise, advanced data literacy skills, built-in analytics features, and support from the central learning analytics team. However, several conditions constrained practice such as limited workload allocation for analytics-related tasks, fragmented institutional systems requiring manual data compilation, and insufficient structured opportunities for sharing analytics practices with colleagues.These findings challenge common assumptions about learning analytics implementation, suggesting that effective integration requires greater recognition of and support for teachers' existing practices. Rather than focusing solely on technical solutions or institutional metrics, successful learning analytics implementation needs to align with teachers' pedagogical approaches and practical needs.This study contributes to both theoretical understanding and practical implementation of learning analytics in higher education, providing insights for institutions seeking to better support teachers' use of learning analytics while extending theoretical frameworks for understanding how new technologies become integrated into teaching practice.</p
Caring as Human Resource Management practice: A theory of practice architectures examination of caring in practice in the early childhood education sector in Australia
No full textThis thesis explores how managers understand and enact caring as human resources management (HRM) practice. Caring as worker-centric HRM is important to all organisations given the increasing influence of psychosocial hazards, such as stress and workload, on workers wellbeing (Bartram et al. 2024). However, the enactment of caring in HRM in contemporary organisations can be difficult given the influences of neoliberalism on HRM, including managerialism, efficiency and focus on performance outcomes. This tension merits further investigation to explore how caring as worker-centric HRM is enabled, constrained and nurtured in organisations.This study investigates caring as an emerging and ongoing practice, maintaining that caring is not a static concept as previously proposed in the literature (Saks 2022). The term “caring” has several meanings within HRM, stemming from both mechanistic and humanistic management theory. Care in HRM is understood as worker-centred and welfare oriented, a duty and a form of strategy that can be explored using a Schatzki lens. By drawing on philosophies of care, this study highlights that caring has different aims, ends and logic to emphasise that caring practices are temporal and socially constructed, and always in the making. By using the theory of practice architectures (TPA), this study shows how these different forms of caring are enabled, and how they are constrained by “practice architectures” in organisational sites.</p
Evolution of Employee Work Preferences Amidst COVID-19: A Social Media Analysis
No full textRetaining and managing talent is critical for a firm's competitive advantage. While human resource management (HRM) literature suggests several configurations of bundles of ability(A), motivation(M), and opportunity(O) enhancing HRM practices for enhancing individual and firm performance, it fails to capture the dynamic contextual changes at an individual and organizational level, rendering a given bundle of HRM practices ineffective in managing talent. This study contributes, first, by temporally analyzing the structural shifts in employees' work preferences, tracking changes in their contextual environment at a large, global high-technology firm using Glassdoor reviews. Second, analyzing employee work preferences over a 3-year period from 2019 to 2022 (covering three distinctive periods: pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic) from a comprehensive dataset of 14,200 employee reviews, novel insights about structural shifts in employees' work preferences concerning compensation and work-life balance were uncovered. Third, this study highlights the value of mining employee reviews from public platforms like Glassdoor. Finally, it showcases innovative methods for qualitative analysis of large datasets.</p
Design and Implementation of a Digital Twin Visualization Platform for a Residential Building
No full textThe building sector has drawn global attention due to its high energy consumption and significant environmental impact, making its energy efficiency improvement a crucial research focus. This study developed a digital twin visualization platform for one residential building in Australia, aimed at optimizing users’ energy usage patterns by providing real-time insights into indoor environmental conditions, ultimately achieving energy-saving goals. By integrating Building Information Modelling and IoT technologies, the platform allows users to explore the 3D building layout and view realtime data, giving a full overview of the building's operation for better adjustments. The visualization platform includes a 3D building model and a user interface panel with three main modules: real-time data display, temperature trend charts for selected time ranges, and real-time temperature monitoring of different indoor areas. The latter two modules feature interactive options, enabling users to engage with the data. By showing real-time and historical data, the platform helps users make informed choices to lower energy use. Experimental results indicated that the system could enhance the accessibility and comprehensibility of building data, supporting energy-saving choices. This study demonstrates the potential of digital twin technology in improving building energy efficiency and user awareness, offering an effective future to achieve sustainable building operations.</p
Development and Testing of a Healthy Eating and Active Living Intervention for the Family Day Care Sector
No full textBackground In Australia, family day care involves educators providing care and education to children in their own homes under a service provider coordination unit. Research has demonstrated suboptimal nutrition and physical activity practices in family day care. Sector representatives have identified the need for resources to support the promotion of healthy practices and to adopt the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s ‘Munch & Move’ program. Munch & Move is available to all NSW child care services to encourage and support services to implement healthy eating and physical activity strategies. This thesis aimed to co-develop and test a website-based quality improvement tool for family day care to promote healthier nutrition and physical activity practices.Methods Firstly, a systematic literature review examined how website-based tools support health and education professionals with quality improvement. Then, a cross-sectional survey examined educators’ nutrition, physical activity and screen time practices and the relationships between Munch & Move training and professional development on these practices. Subsequently, a website-based tool was co-developed with stakeholders and formative evaluation was conducted. Finally, a randomised controlled trial assessed the extent to which nutrition and physical activity practices were incorporated into quality improvement planning using the tool.Results The systematic review included 20 studies. Digitalising existing quality improvement processes, identifying gaps in practice and contributing to professional development were common quality improvement aims. Reported facilitators to tool usage included relevance to practice, accessibility and facilitating multidisciplinary action. Reported barriers included being time-consuming, irrelevant to practice, difficult to use and lack of organisational engagement. Almost all tools were co-developed with stakeholders.NSW family day care educators (n=186) completed the cross-sectional survey. A significantly higher proportion of educators trained in Munch & Move offered information to families regarding food serving sizes, their nutrition policies, and children’s physical activity and screen time. Compared with those who had completed professional development once or more per year, a significantly higher proportion of educators who completed professional development less than once per year or never did not provide families with nutrition guidelines or resources.In formative testing of the tool, service providers (n = 3) and educators (n = 9) used the website-based tool for four weeks. All participants chose a rating of ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ across questions on perceived convenience, ease of use and helpfulness.Eight service providers and 22 educators participated in the trial. There was a significant difference in the quality of the Quality Improvement Plan (in relation to the incorporation of nutrition and physical activity practices) between the intervention and control groups at follow-up, with a mean score difference of 7.75 out of 17 (95% CI 4.54 to 10.96; p = 0.004), with a higher score indicating a better quality plan.Discussion This is the first known website-based tool developed for family day care to promote healthier nutrition and physical activity practices. The tool was feasible and effective in improving the incorporation of healthy practices into quality improvement planning. There are opportunities for the tool to be embedded in practice, including delivery of the tool as part of training for educators. Policy implications include helping service providers in meeting quality standards and facilitating the adoption of healthy practices into policies.</p
Contaminated Networks: Mercury Supply, Entrepreneurship, and Informal Gold Mining in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa
No full textHow does mercury infiltrate Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) locations, polluting the ecosystem and jeopardising human well-being, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, the most impoverished region where ASGM is widespread? The existing research, primarily rooted in environmental sciences, illustrates the multidisciplinary complexity in fully grasping the breadth of artisanal mining practices and their implications for mercury contamination.Through an interdisciplinary approach based on Mixed Method Grounded Theory and integrating environmental and social science perspectives, this thesis examines mercury contamination in ASGM with focus on its supply, entrepreneurship, and informal gold mining in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, using Côte d'Ivoire as a case study. Utilising a biogeochemical mercury model (GEOS-Chem) to simulate mercury emissions and atmospheric concentrations in West Africa, the significance of focusing on ASGM was established. Environmental assessments were then used to quantify mercury contamination in soil, tailings, sediments and air. The Global Production Network framework was used to delineate mercury supply flows and entrepreneurial relationships driving the mercury trade. Finally. the regulatory environment and policy initiatives such as the Minamata Convention were analysed, highlighting their limitations in addressing the ASGM mercury problem in Sub-Saharan Africa.The model results showed northern Côte d'Ivoire to be a hotspot for mercury contamination in West Africa. The environmental matrices analysis revealed mercury contamination in Côte d'Ivoire's ASGM sector, with elevated mercury concentrations in soils (from surface to bottom layers), processed tailings, sediments from adjacent rivers, and air, due to open burning of mercury-gold amalgams. Interviews performed for qualitative data collection showed that despite efforts to formalise ASGM and eliminate mercury use, informality persists due to factors such as bias towards large-scale mining, bureaucracy, corruption leading to high costs of obtaining licences, and the market that represents informal ASGM for mercury use. This informality facilitates mercury proliferation in ASGM, fuelled by finance suppliers and their networks within informal mining sites. The regulations and policies analysis indicated that the failure of ASGM anti-mercury legislation is driven by: (i) administrative gaps associated with a lack of understanding of the ASM ecosystem and environmental classifications applicable to artisanal and semi-industrial authorisations by officers in charge of the instruction process; (ii) subregional definitional context miscomprehension, particularly regarding the principle of free movement of people and goods; and (iii) challenges in domesticating multilateral environmental agreements due to border porosity and the lack of proven efficiency of mercury-free technologies related to income generation necessity.This thesis contributes to the methodological, technical, legal, policy and academic understanding of transboundary networks responsible for mercury supply in ASGM and associated environmental contamination. Through the elucidation of these complex dynamics, it informs more efficacious strategies for reducing mercury pollution whilst considering the socio-economic realities of ASGM communities. These endeavours constitute part of an ongoing process to achieve sustainable and inclusive ASGM practices in Sub-Saharan Africa.</p