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Evaluating the potential efficacy of high-intensity interval training within year 7 physical education classes: a non-randomised comparison trial
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 89-107.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Literature review -- Chapter 3. Methodology -- Chapter 4. Results -- Chapter 5. Discussion -- References -- Appendices.Although High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is perceived as an efficient way to meet health outcomes in Physical Education (PE), the effect HIIT has on students'motivation and the learning environment is unknown. This study compared two PE interventions lasting eight weeks and assessed the potential efficacy of embedding HIIT into a PE program to meet concurrent health and educative outcomes. Participants (N =166; mean age = 12.9 years) were assigned to one of two study conditions according to intact groupings: HIIT program (n = 84) and Dynamic Physical Education (DPE) program (n =82). Assessments were conducted at baseline and post-intervention. Intervention effects for each variable were examined using measures of central tendency, analysis of variance and effect sizes. Post-intervention analysis demonstrated increases in health indices of both groups and comparing the effect size of each intervention revealed no difference. The DPE group exhibited moderate intervention effects for motivation towards PE, while the mean value of the HIIT group did not change. Systematic direct observation revealed large intervention effects for the provision of feedback within the HIIT intervention when compared to the DPE intervention (d= 3.67). This study demonstrates HIIT interventions may elicit positive changes to PE settings, allowing health and educative outcomes to be achieved concurrently.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xi, 125 pages) table
Early childhood teachers' professional beliefs and the status of ICT practices in the Kenyan context
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 244-259.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2.Literature review -- Chapter 3. Resdearch design and methodology -- Chapter 4. Phase One: Findings from the two case studies -- Chapter 5. Results from Phase Two : Survey -- Chapter 6. Findings from Phase Three : Stakeholdres interviews -- Chapter 7. Discussion : linking results to research questions-- Chapter 8. Conclusions and implications -- References -- Appendices.Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) are currently receiving overwhelming attention in respect to innovation through technology. However, most research on the use of technology in ECDE is, to date, reported in developed countries. Much less research has explored the use of technology in the African context, including Kenya. This research aims to extend the parameters of this research through an investigation of how technology is integrated in Kenya‟s ECDE.The study raises three key questions: What are the professional beliefs of Kenyan early childhood educators about the use of technology in ECDE? What is the status of ICT practices in Kenyan preschools? In what ways are the professional beliefs of ECDE teachers in Kenya linked to their everyday practices and pedagogies in their educational settings?The study is significant because it acknowledges the voice of preschool teachers, teachers‟ trainers and ECDE policy-makers regarding integration of technology in ECDE. This was a three-phase, exploratory sequential mixed methods study with several data collection sources. Phase One included a case study involving 11 preschool teachers in two preschools, one public and one private. A survey was conducted in Phase Three with 508 preschool teachers. The participants for Phase Three included key ECDE stakeholders and other interested parties. The sets of data generated from the three groups of participants were analysed through use of qualitative and quantitative approaches.The results of this study revealed that preschool teachers, ECDE stakeholders and other interested parties held positive beliefs about the use of technology in ECDE. The study also found that Kenya lacked policy frameworks aimed at teachers‟ professional training on use of technology in ECDE. Additional findings of this study pointed to teachers‟ limited access, use and confidence in integration of technology in practice.Implications drawn from this study are focused on future research, policy, and professional training; learning and the role of the Kenyan Government in research and professional practice.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xxvi, 295 pages) table
The power of who you know: an explorative study of wasta and justice perceptions in Saudi universities
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 73-81.Chapter One: Introduction -- Chapter Two: Literature review -- Chapter Three: Introduction to the context of Saudi Arabia -- Chapter Four: Methodology -- Chapter Five: Findings and discussion -- Chapter Six: Conclusion -- References -- Appendices.Wasta is an Arabic word that refers to a reliance on personal relationships to achieve particular outcomes, and is problematic and controversial in Saudi Arabia. People form these relationships either directly, or through a waseet – a mediator who goes between the seeker of wasta and its provider. There are a few wasta relationship bases that encourage wasta to occur but do not necessarily result in it. These bases include immediate family, tribal relations, seniority, job status and social standing. Wasta is perceived negatively in the literature, whereas there is ambiguity surrounding every aspect of wasta in practice. This study uses qualitative and interpretative approaches to capture the perceptions of Saudi university faculty members regarding wasta and justice in their universities. Nine semi-structured interviews were carried out. The study found that inaccurate religious perspectives, unclear and insufficient regulations and ineffective management practices are factors that can explain the confusion around the acceptability of wasta and, thereby, its prevalence. Wasta is perceived to be unfair because it interferes with outcomes allocation processes and affects the accuracy and efficiency of management practices.1 online resource (87 pages
Cinematic containers: aspect ratio and creative filmmaking
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 537-41.Introduction -- Literature -- Methodology -- The perfect square : intimacy in Mommy -- Time capsule : the academy ratio in The Grand Budapest Hotel -- Splitting the split-screen : kinetic action in The man from U.N.C.L.E. -- Conclusion -- References.This research project investigates the creative implementations of aspect ratio in contemporary films. Specifically, it examines aspect ratio’s creative role in film narrative and aesthetics. Aspect ratio has traditionally been viewed as the standardised proportions of the cinematic frame and is not expected to contribute to the content of the film itself. However, with the rise of digital technology, the aspect ratio is no longer standardised but has been given the opportunity to contribute in a creative role.The research project is implemented using two forms: a written exegesis and a short film. The written thesis focuses on three contemporary films and their creative use of the aspect ratio. The short film places the aspect ratio into creative use to demonstrate how it can be used to tell a story. With these two approaches, the project aims to understand the creative role of aspect ratio from a creative filmmaking standpoint.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (41 pages) illustrations (some colour
Performing linguistic and cultural authenticity: contemporary Mongolian wedding ceremonies in Inner Mongolia
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: 160-165.Chapter One. Introduction and aims -- Chapter Two. Literature review -- Chapter Three. Methodology -- Chapter Four. Producing the perfect Mongolian wedding -- Chapter Five. Performing the wedding rituals -- Chapter Six. Staging language and genre choice during the wedding speech -- Chapter Seven. Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Appendices.This study examines the linguistic and cultural practices of contemporary Mongolian wedding ceremonies in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, where Mongols constitute around 11 percent of the population. Situated at the crossroads of minority linguistic and cultural revival, multicultural state policies and cultural commodification, contemporary Mongolian wedding ceremonies constitute a privileged window on linguistic and cultural change in the context of rapid socio-economic transformation. The study addresses three specific questions. First, what linguistic and cultural choices can be observed in Mongolian wedding ceremonies? Second, what ideologies are embedded in these semiotic practices? And, third, how do wedding practices and ideologies serve to produce and reproduce Mongolian “authenticity” and social hierarchies?To address these research questions, the study adopts a critical sociolinguistic ethnographic approach: a range of data were collected in Inner Mongolia in early 2016, including twenty-two video and audio recordings of wedding ceremonies, participant observation at weddings, interviews with “cultural entrepreneurs” involved in wedding planning and collection of wedding-related artefacts. Analysis focused on the discursive and material construction of a “perfect” Mongolian wedding; the ritual acts involved in weddings; and language and genre choice in wedding speeches.Findings show that contemporary Mongolian weddings are permeated by the hegemonic ideology of Mongolian tradition based on images of pastoralism, the imperial past, and the ideal of a “pure” Mongolian language. However, in actual practice, contemporary wedding ceremonies are heterogeneously constituted and range from monolingual Mongolian weddings through various bilingual and hybrid forms to Chinese-dominant weddings. Various forms of re-stylization, reflexivity and creativity contest the boundaries of tradition and modernity, minority and majority, local and global. The study also finds that material and linguistic indexes of authentic “Mongolian-ness” are only accessible to certain groups of Mongols, mostly well-educated middle-class urbanites. By contrast, rural farming Mongols are largely excluded from performing “Mongolian” weddings.The results of the study contribute to an improved understanding of Mongolian language and cultural change, maintenance, loss and revival in contemporary China. The research also makes a broader sociolinguistic contribution by complicating notions of minority language, culture and identity in the 21st century.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xiv,177 pages) colour illustration
Evaluating the test-retest reliability of a computerised assessment that measures cognitive ability to drive: Functional outcome assessment following treatment for brain tumour
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 46-54.1. Introduction -- 1.1 Brain tumour and the impact on driving -- 1.2 Brain tumours -- 1.3 Brain tumour and impact on cognition and quality of life -- 1.4 Outcome assessments -- 1.5 Brain tumour and driving -- 1.6 DriveSafe DriveAware -- 1.7 Tablet technology and the elderly -- 1.8 Summary -- 2. Aims of the Study -- 3. Methodology/Materials -- 4. Results -- 4.1 Population Sample -- 4.2 DSDA classification -- 4.3 DriveSafe scores -- 4.4 DriveAware scores -- 4.5 DriveSafe completion time -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusions -- 7. Future Research Recommendations -- References -- Appendices.INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate the test-retest reliability of a computerised assessment (DriveSafe DriveAware) that measures cognitive ability to drive. This was with a view to support future research to assess the suitability of DriveSafe DriveAware for use as a repeated measure of high-level cognition that can be quickly administered to brain tumour patients in a clinic or hospital setting. METHOD: DriveSafe DriveAware iPad version (DSDA) was administered to 40 healthy adults with a current drivers’ licence and then repeated 6 weeks and then 6 months later to determine test-retest reliability of scores or whether results changed due to factors such as a learning effect. RESULTS: A statistically significant improvement in DriveSafe (DS) score and DS completion time was demonstrated between tests 1 to 2. There was no difference between tests 2 to 3 potentially indicating an initial learning effect. The improvement in DS was greater in the participants over 70 years. DSDA completion time was approximately 10 minutes and the improvement in completion time was greater in participants under 70 years. DSDA classification and DriveAware scores remained stable across all three tests. CONCLUSION: DSDA is a reliable method for repeated assessment of cognition, albeit with a small learning effect between the 1st and 2nd test (but not subsequent testing) affecting the DS score. This effect manifests more noticeably in participants over 70 years of age and is most likely because of increasing familiarity with the technology and decreasing anxiety over repeated assessments rather than because of improved cognition. DSDA should be trialled as a measure to assess high-level cognition of brain tumour patients and as an indicator of whether more comprehensive neuropsychological testing may be warranted.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (vii, 56 pages) illustrations (some colour
Measurement of uPAR and αvꞵ6 for early stage colorectal cancer diagnosis
No full textTheoretical thesis.Includes bibliographical references.1. Introduction -- 2. Project outline -- 3. Methods -- 4. Results -- 5. Discussion.Colorectal cancer (CRC), characterised by tumours of the colon, rectum and appendix, is the 3rd leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The survival rate is dependent on the time of diagnosis, with early-stage detection leading to curative surgical resection. Despite this, a lack of accurate, sensitive and specific tests means that only ~30% of cases are diagnosed early enough to be cured (i.e., American Joint Committee on Cancer Stages I & II). To address this unmet clinical need, this thesis addressed developing a mass spectrometry (MS)-based assay for the detection and quantification of early-stage blood-based biomarkers of CRC. Here, we have developed targeted assays for the potential cancer biomarkers urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (μPAR) and integrin αvꞵ6. A growing portfolio of evidence implicates both proteins as important regulators of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a mechanism known to be critical in cancer proliferation, progression, invasion and eventual metastasis. The biggest challenge in detection and quantification of these biomarkers in plasma is their relatively low abundance (low ng/mL) compared to more highly abundant homeostatic proteins (high mg/mL). To circumvent this challenge, we developed a two-step assay that captures the proteins by affinity-based enrichment prior to quantitation by targeted multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) MS. Initial studies were aimed at determining the specificities of a range of monoclonal antibodies for their intended target. Subsequent studies using a surrogate parallel reaction monitoring (PRM)-MS established optimal peptide transitions, as well as each assay’s limits of detection. Collectively, the amalgamation of these two components (with the use of labelled peptide standards) will result in highly sensitive, specific and reproducible assays to detect and quantify μPAR and αvꞵ6 in control and diseased patient plasma. Early stage diagnosis will shift the percentage of CRCs detected towards the localized tumour stages (I and II), with consequential increased patient survival.1 online resource (74 pages : illustrations
Chemical and biological investigations of the Yaegl medicinal plant Alphitonia excelsa
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 54-63Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Evaluation of Previously Isolated Compounds and Fractions from Alphitonia excelsa -- Chapter 3: Chemical and Biological Investigations of A. excelsa Leaf Extracts -- Chapter 4: Experimental -- Chapter 5: Conclusion and Future Directions.Alphitonia excelsa leaves are used by the Australian Aboriginal people of Yaegl Country for the treatment of sores, wounds and skin infections. Structural elucidation of compunds previously isolated from the n-hexane and dichloromethane sequential extracts of A. excelsa leaves identified the well-known antibacterial and antioxidant compounds β-sitosterol, betulin aldehyde, betulinic acid, lupeol, quercetin and kaempferol. This is the first report og lupeol and betulin aldehyde in any Alphitonia species and the first report of β-sitosterol in A. excelsa. LC-MS studies of over 600 column chromatography fractions obtained from previous studies did not lead to any further compounds of interest. GC-MS analysis of freshly extracted leaves identified the bioactive compounds γ-sitoserol, nonanal, n-tetracontane, docosane, 1,54-dibromotetrapentacontane, tetradecane and hexadecane from the n-hexane and dichloromethane extracts. The dichloromethane extract also showed moderate activity against antibiotic sensitive and resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MIC 312.5 - 625 μg/mL) and promising antioxidant activity, while the n-hexane extract showed moderate antibacterial activity (MIC 1250 - 2500 μg/mL). Preliminary fractionisation of the n-hexane extract provided one active fraction against S. aureus and four semi-pure fractions. This study has extended the phytochemical and biological knowledge of A. excelsa and shown that it is a worthy plant for further chemical and biological investigations.xi, 73 pages illustrations 30 c
Oplax actions and enriched icons with applications to coalgebroids and quantum categories
No full textAt foot of title: Centre of Australian Category Theory (CoACT), Department of Mathematics.Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 169-172.Summary -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Comodules for Coalgebroids -- 3. Oplax Actions -- 4 Enriched Icons.This thesis is a formal treatise around the concept of bialgebroids and the alternative ways to describe them. There are two characterizations of bialgebroids due to Szlachányi which play a central role in our investigation; one as cocontinuous opmonoidal monads on the category of two-sided R-modules, and another as certain skew monoidal structures on the category of right R-modules. Lack and Street internalised Szlachányi's characterization to a suitable monoidal bicategoryM. In this way, they obtain an equivalence between opmonoidal monads on the enveloping monoidale induced by a biduality and right skew monoidales whose unit has a right adjoint in M. Such equivalence provides a characterization of the quantum categories defined by Day and Street. In the first two chapters, we focus on the simpler structure of a coalgebroid. In a monoidal bicategory M, coalgebroids generalise as opmonoidal arrows between enveloping monoidales. Chapter 2 has two main results. The first one, following Lack and Street's methods, is a characterisation of opmonoidal arrows between enveloping monoidales which leads to the new concept of oplax actions with respect to a skew monoidale. The second result involves the study of comodules. Comodules for coalgebroids are classically defined as comodules for the underlying coring; and in a monoidal bicategory M, opmonoidal arrows and oplax actions each admit a notion of comodule. We prove that these three ways to define comodules are equivalent. The equivalence between opmonoidal arrows and oplax actions mentioned above is analogous to that of opmonoidal monads and right skew monoidales. We formalise this statement in Chapter 3, and show along the way that monads of oplax actions are right skew monoidales whose unit has a right adjoint. The last chapter focuses on a different characterisation of bialgebroids: Moerdijk proved that a monad on a monoidal category is an opmonoidal monad if and only if the category of algebras has a monoidal structure such that the forgetful functor is strong monoidal. In other words, the 2-category OpMon of monoidal categories, opmonoidal functors, and opmonoidal natural transformations has Eilenberg-Moore objects for monads. We generalise this theorem in two directions: a multi-object version, and a version enriched in a monoidal bicategory. For the multi-object version, we replace OpMon with the 2-category Icon of bicategories, oplax functors, and icons. And for the version enriched in a monoidal bicategory M, we replace Icon with a bicategory Icon(M) of M-enriched bicategories, M-enriched oplax functors, and M-enriched icons. At this level of generality, the theorem asserts that the bicategory Icon(M) has Eilenberg-Moore objects for monads if M does.1 online resource ( 172 pages
Methane emissions and soil carbon in floodplain wetlands of the Macquarie Marshes
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 52-591. Introduction -- 2. Review of methane emissions ans soil carbon in wetlands in dry landscapes -- 3. Methane emissions and soil carbon in the Macquarie Marshes -- 4. Conclusion.Methane (CH₄) emission in wetlands is critical because CH₄ has 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide (CO₂), and wetlands play a critical role in global carbon cycling. Using flux chambers this research investigated CH4 emissions in three wetland zones in the Macquarie Marshes: reed bed, dry floodplain and dryland. Methane emissions were highly heterogenous and CH₄ production only occurred in the reed bed (1.73E+01 kg ha⁻¹ d⁻¹). In contrast, CH₄ was oxidised in the dry floodplain (-1.03E-03 kg ha⁻¹ d⁻¹) and there was no production or oxidation of CH₄ in the dryland. Methane flux was strongly correlated with in situ moisture content. The median isotopic signature of CH₄ (δ¹³C;-56.3±2.36 ‰) agrees with wetlands globally and can be used in regional mixing models. The reed bed (809.h ha) has the potential to release 4.97E-03 Tg yr⁻¹, and an equivalent area of dry floodplain could oxidise -2.97E-07 Tg yr⁻¹, yielding a net CH₄ flux of 4.97E-03 Tg yr¹. The results demonstrate for the first time that freshwater floodplain wetlands in dry landscapres can both sequester and emit CH₄, and that where freshwater floodplainwetlands emit CH₄ the rate is comparable to coastal mangroves.1 online resource (v, 68 pages : illustrations, maps