19683 research outputs found
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Metabolic, Transcriptomic and Gene Network Analyses of Nutrient Use in Cannabis sativa
No full textThis thesis is submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Northern University Interviews
No full textprojectThis project investigated integrated school-university-system partnerships intended to improve teaching education. The research questions were:1. What are the developmental trajectories of integrated partnerships and how are they designed to support work-based learning by beginning teachers?2. How are mentor teachers and tertiary educators affected by integrated partnerships and with what effects on their professional work and learning routines, habits and ways of asking questions?3. How does the entanglement of school, university and systems in global education policies and historic educational networks remake schools and with what effects on teaching workforce development?Four partnership case studiesThe project team invited participation from teacher educators in Victorian universities. In each university, a teacher educator, actively building school-university partnerships, acted as a point of contact and informant. In the four participating universities, these teacher educators facilitated access to one of their partner-primary-school.This recruitment strategy meant the project could access four school-university partnerships through ‘case study’ universities. The teacher educators facilitated institutional access to primary schools and to informants: in schools, the principal and two teachers; in universities, a leader or associate dean responsible for teacher education and the placement officer in each university.Interviews and data analysisInterviews were conducted with mentor teachers and principals in participating primary schools, and teacher educators, placement officers and teacher education leaders in participating universities.Questions probed each these informant’s involvement in professional networks, their motivations and involvement in school-university networks, their work-life experiences and retrospective reflections on their prior school-university partnership work.Interviews were conducted through 2019 and before March 2020, when COVID restrictions were introduced in Victoria.Data analysis occurred through 2020 and 2021, raising complex methodological and interpretive questions about the effects of pre- and post-COVID worlds. Assumptions about time, space, temporalities of place, contextualisation, and the lived experience of the COVID pandemic and its narrative recontextualisation of everyday life, prompted novel questions about methodology, interpretation of data and implications for teacher education – in the present, immediate and longer-term future.What interviews revealedThe interview transcripts showed school and university professionals engaged in complex partnership work and entangled institutional, professional, community and personal networks.These networks operated across different spatial and temporal horizons. They touched the people inhabiting different policy, professional and personal domains in different ways and with unpredictable effects.The professionals interviewed described challenging situations and complex partnership processes that relied on trust. They described and complained about rigid governance arrangements often determined at levels well beyond those tasked with the immediate and everyday work of building and sustaining partnerships. How professionals in schools, universities and government responded to these unpredictable challenges played into their troubleshooting work. Ultimately, personal values, professional commitments and levels of trust affected wider professional and institutional relationships, with major consequences for the trust that made partnerships productive and, even, possible.The methodological challengeWhen the researchers reviewed the interview transcripts, they were living with the effects and personal challenges of the COVID pandemic every day. They read transcripts as they were experiencing a world affected by COVID restrictions.In this unfamiliar emerging world, schools were closed. Students were expected to learn, and teachers to teach, online from their homes, where other family members were also living, working and navigating COVID challenges because many workplaces were closing and requiring their employees to work from home.Within teacher education, Student teachers were unable to meet the legislated standards to demonstrate their competence as teachers. This meant they couldn’t complete their teaching practice and so they couldn't graduate. Meanwhile policy makers, educational leaders, managers and workplace professionals struggled to find workable solutions to these unexpected developments, which showed no sign of easing.The methodology challenge lay in these different worlds:· Transcripts recorded informant’s descriptions of a pre-COVID world, which had remained reasonably stable and familiar since at least the 1990s.· Researchers reading transcripts could see both the terms and conditions of life that birthed TEMAG policy reforms AND how they were mutating into an uncertain and unpredictable COVID-world.Researchers’ subsequent discussions with the informant teacher educators revealed even more complexity. The teacher educators talked about their experiences in universities and schools as policy makers, institutional leaderships and professional educators in schools and universities did their best to respond to the unexpected crises that emerged within the COVID-driven context.The analysis of these fluid and unfamiliar circumstances became central to the analysis of interview data. The interpretation of interview data recognised the significance of time and space, tracing the temporal effects, professional judgment and action outcomes through the COVID-pandemic in schools, universities and the school-university partnership case studies. These analyses traced the policy and professional work that was re-making teacher education organised through school-university partnerships.These analyses have been published as:Seddon, Terri, Kostogriz, Alex, Barbousas, Joanna (Eds). (2021) Teacher Education Through Uncertainty and Crisis: Towards Sustainable Futures. London, Routledge.</p
Yarra University Interviews
No full textThe projectThis project investigated integrated school-university-system partnerships intended to improve teaching education. The research questions were:1. What are the developmental trajectories of integrated partnerships and how are they designed to support work-based learning by beginning teachers?2. How are mentor teachers and tertiary educators affected by integrated partnerships and with what effects on their professional work and learning routines, habits and ways of asking questions?3. How does the entanglement of school, university and systems in global education policies and historic educational networks remake schools and with what effects on teaching workforce development?Four partnership case studiesThe project team invited participation from teacher educators in Victorian universities. In each university, a teacher educator, actively building school-university partnerships, acted as a point of contact and informant. In the four participating universities, these teacher educators facilitated access to one of their partner-primary-school.This recruitment strategy meant the project could access four school-university partnerships through ‘case study’ universities. The teacher educators facilitated institutional access to primary schools and to informants: in schools, the principal and two teachers; in universities, a leader or associate dean responsible for teacher education and the placement officer in each university.Interviews and data analysisInterviews were conducted with mentor teachers and principals in participating schools, and teacher educators, placement officers and teacher education leaders in participating universities.Questions probed each these informant’s involvement in professional networks, their motivations and involvement in school-university networks, their work-life experiences and retrospective reflections on their prior school-university partnership work.Interviews were conducted through 2019 and before March 2020, when COVID restrictions were introduced in Victoria.Data analysis occurred through 2020 and 2021, raising complex methodological and interpretive questions about the effects of pre- and post-COVID worlds. Assumptions about time, space, temporalities of place, contextualisation, and the lived experience of the COVID pandemic and its narrative recontextualisation of everyday life, prompted novel questions about methodology, interpretation of data and implications for teacher education – in the present, immediate and longer-term future.What interviews revealedThe interview transcripts showed school and university professionals engaged in complex partnership work and entangled institutional, professional, community and personal networks.These networks operated across different spatial and temporal horizons. They touched the people inhabiting different policy, professional and personal domains in different ways and with unpredictable effects.The professionals interviewed described challenging situations and complex partnership processes that relied on trust. They described and complained about rigid governance arrangements often determined at levels well beyond those tasked with the immediate and everyday work of building and sustaining partnerships. How professionals in schools, universities and government responded to these unpredictable challenges played into their troubleshooting work. Ultimately, personal values, professional commitments and levels of trust affected wider professional and institutional relationships, with major consequences for the trust that made partnerships productive and, even, possible.The methodological challengeWhen the researchers reviewed the interview transcripts, they were living with the effects and personal challenges of the COVID pandemic every day. They read transcripts as they were experiencing a world affected by COVID restrictions.In this unfamiliar emerging world, schools were closed. Students were expected to learn, and teachers to teach, online from their homes, where other family members were also living, working and navigating COVID challenges because many workplaces were closing and requiring their employees to work from home.Within teacher education, Student teachers were unable to meet the legislated standards to demonstrate their competence as teachers. This meant they couldn’t complete their teaching practice and so they couldn't graduate. Meanwhile policy makers, educational leaders, managers and workplace professionals struggled to find workable solutions to these unexpected developments, which showed no sign of easing.The methodology challenge lay in these different worlds:· Transcripts recorded informant’s descriptions of a pre-COVID world, which had remained reasonably stable and familiar since at least the 1990s.· Researchers reading transcripts could see both the terms and conditions of life that birthed TEMAG policy reforms AND how they were mutating into an uncertain and unpredictable COVID-world.Researchers’ subsequent discussions with the informant teacher educators revealed even more complexity. The teacher educators talked about their experiences in universities and schools as policy makers, institutional leaderships and professional educators in schools and universities did their best to respond to the unexpected crises that emerged within the COVID-driven context.The analysis of these fluid and unfamiliar circumstances became central to the analysis of interview data. The interpretation of interview data recognised the significance of time and space, tracing the temporal effects, professional judgment and action outcomes through the COVID-pandemic in schools, universities and the school-university partnership case studies. These analyses traced the policy and professional work that was re-making teacher education organised through school-university partnerships.These analyses have been published as:Seddon, Terri, Kostogriz, Alex, Barbousas, Joanna (Eds). (2021) Teacher Education Through Uncertainty and Crisis: Towards Sustainable Futures. London, Routledge.</p
Intelligent Data-Driven Techniques for Distribution System State Estimation and Cyber-attack Resilient Fault Analysis
No full textA thesis jointly submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and, to the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Exploring Multi-Modal Therapeutic Strategies for Solid Tumours: Integrating Small Molecule-Induced Cell Death and CAR T Cell Based Immunotherapy Approaches
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.This thesis was a recipient of the Nancy Millis Award for theses of exceptional merit.</p
Women’s insights into choice, empowerment, and control in a subsequent pregnancy following a negative birth experience: A multimethod study
No full textBackground: Lack of control and choice contributes to women experiencing birth as negative or distressing. Wanting a different experience in a subsequent pregnancy following a negative experience is invariably uppermost in women’s minds. A woman-centred approach is associated with a more positive maternity care experience. Aim: To establish women’s agreement on elements of care that place them at the centre of their maternity care, following a negative birth experience and to identify enablers and constraints influencing perception of woman-centred care Methods: This multimethod study combined quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore women’s perspectives on aspects of woman-centred care. Fifty-seven multiparous pregnant women with a history of negative maternity experiences and/or fear of birth completed a survey assessing eleven co-designed elements of care identified in a modified Delphi study. Fourteen of these women participated in semi-structured interviews about their current maternity care. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data using content and thematic analysis. Findings: Women valued acknowledgment of previous experiences and comprehensive information supporting informed decision-making and control. Holistic care from known caregivers enhanced these outcomes, although some women felt centred in their care when supported by unknown clinicians who adopted woman-centred practices. Conclusion: Meeting women's values, preferences, and informational needs promotes a sense of control and empowerment. Continuity of care enhances woman-centred approaches, though relational care can also be provided within fragmented systems. Continuity during pregnancy should be prioritised for women who have experienced a negative birth experience and have a current fear of birth.</p
Characterising the gut microbiome of six Australian marsupials reveals captivity constrains microbiome
No full textBackground: The gut microbiome is an ecosystem of microbes that live within the host’s digestive tract and are a vital component of host health. An increasing number of studies are investigating microbiome differences in wild and captive-managed populations to assist in species conservation and improve captive welfare. The gut microbiota of Australian marsupials has not been extensively studied but has long been recognised as having an important functional role in the digestive physiology and health of those in care. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterise and compare the faecal bacterial communities of six species of Australian marsupials from captive or wild origins over a large temporal and spatial scale.Results: We found the microbiome of captive marsupials had significantly reduced microbial richness and diversity in two species, the brushtail possum and the Eastern grey kangaroo. Captivity also resulted in compositional changes in all six species, although the strength and independence of this effect varied among species. These compositional changes were accompanied by less pronounced seasonal variability in captivity.Conclusions: This study provides valuable baseline data and demonstrates that captivity significantly alters the gut microbiota, suppressing its natural seasonal variability. These findings enhance our understanding of the gut microbiome in Australian marsupials. Future research should focus on determining the functional importance of these microbial communities and develop strategies to address any microbiome deficiencies in managed populations. Such efforts could ultimately improve the success of captive rearing and reintroduction programs.</p
Expanding Viewpoints: Diversity, Inclusion and Conflict: A Proposal for Embodying a Conscious Connectivity Between Sociopolitical Context and the Contemporary Performance Practice of Viewpoints
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Improving Quality of Care Through Detection of Complexity Amongst Older People in the Community: ImPaCt Study
No full textThis thesis is submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the John Richards Centre for Ageing Research, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p