2,871 research outputs found
Playing with Fire: Understanding the Sunni-Shi'a Sectarian Lifecycle
No full textThis article discusses the ingrained impediments which are likely to stifle India's rise and growth - a phenomenon which has figured prominently in scholarly and official assessments, in India and outside, for over a decade now. Intriguingly India's rise as a global power has already been adjudged a certainty in these assessments, but the author contends that there exists an apparent disjuncture between how the world sees India and the prevailing internal impediments. Therefore, any assessment of India as a global power without incorporating these impediments would be incomplete, misplaced and hyperbolic. Of late, in the light of India's growing internal and external socio-economic and political difficulties, more and more writings and proclamations by Indian and international experts indicate emerging scepticism over India's potential as a global power. This paper takes a rollcall of India's internal impediments including, human development, institutional and security challenges which according to the author have already begun restraining India's global ascent.Griffith Business School, Griffith Asia InstituteFull Tex
Shellfish Patents Krill Research: Patent Law Defences and Technology Transfer of Genetic Materials and Knowledge in Aquaculture
No full textThe recent rise of access and benefit sharing (ABS) and patent laws concerning the use of aquatic genetic resources is creating increasing legal complexity and uncertainty for the aquaculture sector. The complexity and uncertainty comes at a time when the sector needs unprecedented access and exchange of genetic resources, technologies and knowledge for its early stages of domestication and scientific research and development. Arguably, the complexity largely stems from using the geographical origin of a resource to determine which ABS or stand-alone technology transfer obligations apply. This may suit transactions of terrestrial genetic resources whose origin can be determined within national jurisdiction. It is less suited to self-replicating aquatic genetic resources that can migrate between jurisdictional areas. It is also less suited to regulating derivatives such as the digital (knowledge) resource accessed independently from the physical genetic resource.
This thesis looks beyond the geographical origin to three underlying approaches that generalise how international instruments regulate ABS and technology transfer of genetic resources within three jurisdictional areas – proprietary (within national jurisdiction), stewardship (beyond national jurisdiction or the ‘deep sea’) and cooperative (in the Antarctic Treaty Area) approaches. The benefit of this categorisation is to understand the assumptions and principles underlying each instrument’s approach to technology transfer with a view to finding similarities and compatibilities between three shared legal challenges.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Griffith Law SchoolArts, Education and LawFull Tex
A Regulatory Study of the Australian Animal Welfare Framework for Queensland Saleyard Animals
No full textThis thesis attempts to identify barriers to improved (regulatory) outcomes in Australian farm animal welfare regulatory frameworks, particularly the Queensland saleyard framework. In the context of this work, I interpret ‘improved outcomes’ to include improved animal wellbeing, for the benefit of the animals themselves. Drawing on literature from the regulatory, animal law and animal protection sectors, and finally the fieldwork findings, the thesis looks at ways to address, help prevent and/ or remove the barriers. In summary, the thesis proposes small changes to the overarching Australian farm animal welfare framework design, legal structures, regulatory approaches, regulatory culture and regulation to improve outcomes for animals. More specifically, changes to the Queensland saleyard framework could include for instance, initiatives to boost enforcement of animal users’ duty of care obligations (under ACPA 2001 (Qld)) and welfare compliance, particularly that concerning the framework’s most vulnerable (e.g., injured) and lowest dollar value animals (e.g., unwanted bobby calves). Vulnerable and low dollar value animals in the saleyard system may also include: very young animals (e.g., born during transport to saleyard or at yard); culled production animals (e.g., animals past ‘prime’ production); captured unwanted animals (e.g., wild cattle or goats) and physically or psychologically compromised animals (e.g., injured, crippled, distressed, sick or weak animals).Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Griffith Law SchoolArts, Education and LawFull Tex
Walk the Line: Examining the Factors that Enable Peacemakers to Influence Their Local Security Environment
No full textThis thesis uses an ethnographic approach to investigate the microprocesses of a peace operation to understand whether peacekeepers on the ground can make a difference to their security environment. I examine the work of UNIFIL in South Lebanon since the implementation of Resolution 1701 in 2006 and describe the work of local actors in the UNIFIL mission and their engagement at three levels: the local, the national and the international. This thesis asked the following research questions: (1) How do peace operations influence their security environment? and; (2) What factors effect UNIFIL local engagement? This research has found that at the subnational or local level, UNIFIL is able to influence its security environment and thus contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security. It does this by sustaining local connections that serve to alert the mission to small incidents that it prevents from developing into bigger conflicts.
The area of operations has experienced peace for almost eight years and this would suggest that these activities at the micro level have helped to provide an environment conducive to peace. On a practical level, the UNIFIL mission has achieved this in three main ways: first by monitoring, reporting and intervening in Blue Line violations as part of a response mechanism, to avoid escalation. Second, through the preventative mechanisms of liaising between the IDF and the LAF to encourage local level cooperation and produce micro security agreements to prevent misunderstandings. Third, UNIFIL has a very comprehensive local engagement mechanism that enables the mission to maintain local consent and avoid being affected by intrastate conflict.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Griffith Business SchoolGriffith Business SchoolFull Tex
Self-Determination Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour Applied to Substance Abuse Treatment in a Therapeutic Community Setting
No full textIn the 21st century drug and alcohol abuse presents one of the most serious problems worldwide. Of particular concern is the strong relationship between drug use and crime. While law enforcement strategies, including incarceration, have been revealed to contribute little to break the vicious cycle of drug use and crime, substance abuse treatment has been shown to represent an effective form of intervention. Substantial research on the effectiveness of drug treatment has demonstrated the importance of motivation in predicting treatment retention and success. However, substance users are frequently coerced into therapy by external sources, including the criminal justice system, therefore, typically exhibiting little motivation to enter and remain in treatment long enough to overcome their substance addiction. Although past research investigating the effects of treatment-entry coercion indicates positive treatment results, the vast majority of these studies are seriously impeded by extensive conceptual and methodological problems, questioning the postulated value of coercion in substance abuse treatment. Following the call for a shift in the methodological focus of future studies made by some researchers, the author of the present study tested three models that were based on well-established theories. The first model was based on Self Determination Theory (SDT), a motivational theory, while the second model was based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), an expectancy-value theory. The third model consisted of a combination of the two theories, which was argued to provide a more complete and comprehensive model than each theory on its own. The testing of the models allowed the exploration of the dynamic interplay and relationships between a number of variables including perceptions of coercion, motivation, perceived autonomy support, and behavioural intentions in an effort to explain and predict retention and treatment outcomes amongst drug and alcohol abusers. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 involved the development of a 29-item instrument called the Perceived Coercion Questionnaire, which was designed to assess participants' perceptions of coercion to enter drug and alcohol treatment originating from six different sources. The scale was shown to be a valid and reliable measure of the coercion construct. Phase 2 involved the testing of the three models longitudinally by using a sample of 350 substance abusers from six therapeutic communities across Australia. Participants were asked to complete a battery of standardised measures within the first two weeks of treatment admission (Time 1), two months into treatment (Time 2), and at completion of the treatment program (Time 3). The models were tested cross-sectionally and longitudinally employing hierarchical multiple regression analysis. In addition, change scores were calculated to test whether changes in predictor variables would predict outcomes and changes in outcomes cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Analyses of Time 1 and Time 2 cross-sectional data revealed that the SDT model, compared to the TPB and the combined model, provided a better and more parsimonious account of the factors that influence outcomes in therapeutic community treatment. Given the complexity of the study, it was decided to resume the analysis by focusing on the investigation of the SDT model alone. To highlight some of the most important findings, results demonstrated that motivation was a key factor in the treatment and rehabilitation of substance users. As anticipated, intrinsic motivation was consistently predictive of retention and more positive treatment outcomes, while external motivation and amotivation were associated with more negative outcomes. Results also revealed that clients who entered treatment as the result of a legal mandate experienced substantially higher levels of legal coercion compared to clients who entered treatment voluntarily. Legal coercion, in turn, was found to exert a negative impact on substance users' motivation for treatment, thereby indirectly resulting in more negative treatment outcomes. In contrast, self coercion (i.e., feelings of pain and suffering) and health-related pressures seemed to facilitate the development of a more intrinsic motivational attitude towards treatment. Besides, perceptions of competence and control in relation to the therapeutic regime emerged as consistent and important predictors of motivation and treatment outcomes. Finally, findings suggested that treatment staff who employed more autonomous and non-coercive strategies that guided substance users through the change process directly influenced individuals' treatment motivation and thereby facilitated more positive treatment outcomes. In sum, findings provided support for the usefulness of the SDT model in predicting dropout as well as processes and outcomes in therapeutic community drug and alcohol treatment. Implications for residential substance abuse treatment were discussed, as well as the strengths and limitations of the study. The discussion concludes with implications for practice and suggestions for future research.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of PsychologyFull Tex
Evaluating the Implementation of Same Day Discharge Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
No full textBackground
Same day discharge (SDD) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a safe way to optimise hospital resource use through reducing length of stay and decreasing healthcare costs. However, the uptake of SDD is variable worldwide and strategies that support its implementation are lacking. This study was undertaken in an Australian tertiary hospital; its primary aim was to evaluate how SDD was implemented (a process evaluation), and its secondary aim was to determine the effects of implementation on patient and healthcare delivery (an outcome evaluation).
Methods
This study was informed by an effectiveness-implementation hybrid type III design and was guided by the Iowa Model of evidence-based practice. In the process evaluation (the primary component of the hybrid type III design), a convergent parallel mixed methods design was applied. Multiple data collection methods included observations, surveys, and interviews. Healthcare professionals (n=50) were observed in practice and field notes were taken. Quantitative data, including patient selection and healthcare professional guideline adherence, were collected through observations of clinical practice. Patients (n=39) and family (n=31) satisfaction was measured using surveys, and experiences of SDD were evaluated through patient (n=31) and family (n=23) phone interviews. Healthcare professional (n=26) semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore factors that influenced implementation (qualitative data).
Descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data about patient selection, healthcare professional guideline adherence, and patient and family surveys. Qualitative data from patient and family interviews, and from field notes and healthcare professional interviews, were analysed using inductive and deductive content analyses respectively; the latter was guided by the theoretical domains framework.
An uncontrolled before-after study design was adopted in the outcome evaluation (the secondary component of the hybrid type III design). This allowed comparison of two groups of outpatients who underwent PCI 6 months in the baseline and 6 months in the post-implementation periods. Data were extracted from the hospital-based data repositories and collected from electronic medical record when extraction was unavailable. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were undertaken.
Results
During the 6-month implementation, 308 patients underwent PCI; 22 were discharged home the same day, three of whom were inpatients. To provide context for the process evaluation, the outcome evaluation findings are reported first; no statistically significant differences were identified between the baseline (n=66) and post-implementation (n=82) groups in post-procedure complications and readmissions. Due to a small number of outpatients being sent home the same day (n=19), the effect of SDD on reduced healthcare costs or decreased length of stay was minimal.
The process evaluation findings demonstrated that the SDD patient selection criteria were more conservative than those reported in literature. Patients were often excluded from SDD due to being an inpatient, having a low estimated glomerular filtration rate, and femoral access; they could have been eligible for SDD if criteria from the literature were applied.
The overall guideline adherence rate for post-procedure care was 77.3%. The highest adherence rates were for tasks that were already routine practice: electrocardiogram performed, follow-up appointments with a cardiologist made, and patient seen by a cardiac rehabilitation nurse and a pharmacist before discharge. Poorer compliance was observed for tasks introduced for SDD, which included discharge preparation and next-day phone follow-up.
Analysis of the surveys and interviews with patients and families found that their involvement in the SDD process was suboptimal. However, most were satisfied with the process and described positive experiences.
Analysis of field notes and healthcare professional interviews revealed five domains closely linked to factors that influenced SDD implementation: beliefs about consequences, professional role and identity, resources, behaviour regulation, and optimism. Healthcare professionals considered SDD to have some benefits but also expressed concerns about its safety. They reported varying levels of involvement in the change process and felt roles and responsibilities were ambiguous. Inadequate resources and suboptimal communication also hampered implementation. Enablers included having a daily nursing huddle, healthcare professionals holding a positive attitude towards SDD, and maintaining optimism about the achievement.
Conclusion and recommendations
This was the first study to examine SDD implementation; it highlights opportunities to improve the guideline elements and also the implementation process. Recommendations for future practice centre on development of strategies to improve patient selection criteria and promote the involvement of patients and families in care.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of Nursing & MidwiferyGriffith HealthFull Tex
Effects of Relational Outcomes on Customer Loyalty
No full textCustomer loyalty in services is the focus of the research. The research problem sought to determine both indirect and indirect effects of relational outcomes on customer loyalty, conceptualised as a psychological state. Relational outcomes are defined as: the thoughts, feelings, and relationships perceived by customers arising from the interaction with a service employee. This class of variable is differentiated from other relational factors such as the characteristics of the actors in the interaction and their behaviours. The effects of relational outcome antecedents were compared to service evaluation antecedents such as customer satisfaction, quality, and value. Customer loyalty was modelled as a psychological state and grounded in the unique characteristics of services. The pioneering work of Kingstrom (1983) was used as a basis for extending the literature. Customer loyalty is an important variable for both services marketing researchers and industry. Accordingly, the research was justified on both theoretical and managerial grounds. Four factors inspired the identification of the research gap: a lack of service loyalty research grounded in service characteristics, lack of studies that conceptualised loyalty as a psychological state, inadequacy of service evaluation measures to predict customer loyalty, and the perceived importance of social interaction to service outcomes. Data collection included pilot studies, re-analysis of published literature, and three major studies. In the first major study, 23 informants provided insights into the nature of three specific relational outcomes: friendship, social comfort, and social regard. The second study was a cross-sectional survey of 190 hair-dressing customers. The specific relationships between friendship, social regard, social comfort, value for money, service encounter satisfaction, perceived core service quality, and customer loyalty were established in this study. New scales were also developed for friendship, social regard, social comfort, and customer loyalty. A third study collected survey data from 406 customers of hairdressing salons, cafes, and naturopathic clinics. Hypothesised relationships were tested through three nested structural equation models. The results indicate that relational outcomes in general are important to customer loyalty. Their effects on loyalty as a psychological state are both direct and indirect. The strength of the effects of relational outcomes on loyalty compares favourably with the effects of service evaluation measures on loyalty. The construct of friendship between individual customer and service employee was found to be related significantly and positively with customer loyalty. The effect of personal friendship appears to have as strong an effect as perceptions of core quality and service encounter satisfaction. Another major finding was that the two relational outcomes of social comfort and social regard both had an indirect influence on customer loyalty. This effect was mediated through the service evaluation constructs of perceived core service quality and service encounter satisfaction. Social comfort affected both quality and satisfaction whereas social regard only influenced quality. However, the impact of social regard on core quality was substantial. Friendship was not found to have a significant relationship with either quality or satisfaction. These findings suggest that there is a temporal dimension to the influence of relational outcomes. Both social regard and social comfort appear to be more important in the early stages of customer-service provider interaction. It also appears that customers evaluate the core quality of everyday services such as hair salons, cafes, and naturopaths using social cues such as feeling well regarded. A further major finding was the lack of a significant relationship between value for money and psychological loyalty in both quantitative studies. Effects of quality, satisfaction, and friendship appear to be important to loyalty development whereas customer value is not. This finding suggests that value for money may be related directly to actual purchase behaviour or repurchase intentions rather than mediated through psychological feelings of loyalty. Hence, evaluations which reflect pricing considerations are less likely to be associated with psychological loyalty than more relationally oriented constructs. The findings indicate important implications for both marketers and researchers. Marketing strategists need to be clear about pursuing either a loyalty or a value for money strategy. The former may not result from the latter. Relational outcomes lead to psychological loyalty but their interactive effects operate differently. Friendship with a service employee provides a direct contribution to loyalty development. Whereas social regard and social comfort affect customers' evaluation of the service. Pursuing a relational strategy will have implications for the way frontline staff are selected and trained. Theoretical implications include: using the relational outcomes as a basis for middle range theory development, support for the linear-additive measurement approach, use of laddering techniques to determine relevant influencing variables, and additional explanatory power to the service recovery literature. In conclusion, a unidimensional construct of psychological loyalty, grounded in service characteristics, was developed, tested, and evaluated for wide application to service industries. Three specific relational antecedents: Friendship, social regard, and social comfort were found to be important to the development of customer loyalty. The research highlighted how these relational outcomes interacted with service evaluation measures to produce loyal customers. Accordingly, Kingstrom's (1983) work has been extended.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of Tourism and Hotel ManagementFull Tex
Where is my Happy Ending and Why am I Looking for it? The Romance Myth in Contemporary Popular Australian Women’s Fiction
No full textThis thesis examines the presence of the romance myth in contemporary popular Australian women’s fiction. Even after decades of feminism, the repetition of the love story discourse presents readers with a single relationship ideal: heterosexual monogamy. This thesis performs a discourse analysis on a variety of texts published before 2000 to establish a context of Australian women’s fiction, and on four texts published after 2000, in order to ask the question: how is the love story represented in the twenty-first century? Romance is always examined as a genre; its construction within texts of other genres has never before been analysed.
The Introduction outlines the discourse analysis methodology, based on the work of Michel Foucault and James Gee. Chapter One provides a literature review and discussion of how romance has been treated by critics. Chapter Two examines second-wave feminist perspectives of romantic love and the perspectives of later feminists – ‘woman’ as sexualised object appears to be the current trend – as well as the significance of feminist literary theory to popular texts. Chapter Two also discusses the work of cultural studies in relation to this thesis.
Chapters Three and Four outline a brief history of Australian women’s writing in order to highlight the recurrence of the love story discourse communicated in 150 years of fiction. Chapter Three provides an historical overview of the presence of the romance story in Australian women’s writing. Chapter Four examines the use of fiction for a specific political purpose: short stories published in The Australian Women’s Weekly during the 1940s which supported the Weekly’s overall aim to steer women towards strictly gendered roles for the good of the nation; literature that conflicted with the heterosexual monogamous ideal was banned from publication and circulation in Australia because it was considered deviant and unpatriotic; and short stories in contemporary issues of The Australian Women’s Weekly which still focus on women as wives and mothers and as concerned only with romantic love.
Each of the remaining chapters considers a contemporary genre’s use of the romance myth. In Chapter Five, an examination of a Harlequin Mills & Boon novel, Dr Blake’s Angel, reveals romantic love as being an integral part of community life and a woman’s desire to nurture. Examined in Chapter Six is Three Wishes, a chick-lit novel that follows the romantic difficulties of a set of triplets. Each triplet must learn humility and, therefore, acceptable femininity, before they can achieve a successful heterosexual monogamous relationship.
Chapter Seven analyses The Tower of Ravens, a fantasy novel also advocating conservative femininity and demonstrating a close relationship to the love story discourse. Rhiannon, although uncivilised and violent, becomes a heroine through her total devotion to Lewen. Chapter Eight investigates a crime novel, Malicious Intent, where the love story discourse is employed to distract the heroine from solving the crime. Anya is seen to believe wholeheartedly in the romance plot, as are all the victims. All women, then, are presented as perpetual victims, and all women lose because all men pose a threat. Romantic love is something to aspire to, but it cannot be achieved.
Why am I looking for a heterosexual and monogamous happy ending? As this thesis shows, the love story discourse has been presented consistently through women’s fiction that focuses on relationships. Despite the decades of feminist intervention, contemporary popular Australian fiction constantly and consistently presents heterosexual, monogamous relationships that preferably lead to marriage. The heterosexual, monogamous happy ending, or its deliberate critique, is present not only in romance fiction but also in most texts written by women, in genres that do not require a love story plot.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of ArtsArts, Education and LawFull Tex
Canyons and Ice: The Wilderness Travel of Dick Griffith
No full textDick Griffith journeyed across Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and the American West. According to Jon Krakauer, "Griffith is simply afflicted with an irresistible inclination to attempt what others say can't be done. When asked what possesses a man to repeatedly strike out alone across hundreds of miles of rugged, lonely country, he replies, 'Every so often, it's just time to walk.'" Kaylene Johnson is author of five books about Alaska including her memoir A Tender Distance: Adventures Raising My Son in Alaska
Physical Activity in Older Adults: Influences and Intervention Strategies using an Integrative Theory-based Approach
No full textPopulation ageing presents a challenge for individuals and health systems globally. While physical activity (PA) has been associated with a range of health benefits, including reducing the risk of age-related illness and disability, older adults are a group at risk for physical inactivity. The significance of this research program is in focusing on the multiple social-cognitive factors influencing PA in older adults specifically. Literature to date has tended to focus on conscious, reflective decision-making processes impacting PA. However, PA is also influenced by non-conscious, automatic processes. Furthermore, research applying multiple theoretical frameworks to understanding PA in older adults is limited. Currently, no comprehensive and theoretically integrative studies investigating PA in older adults have been conducted, which undermines efforts to facilitate PA in this population. Given that interventions aiming to promote PA in younger populations may not generalise to older individuals and that existing interventions targeting older adults produce only small effects, it is important to develop programs that are based on theory and that are also acceptable and feasible for older adults. Moreover, although the use of theory has been associated with intervention effectiveness, there is currently limited understanding of which behaviour change techniques (BCTs) are most appropriate to target specific theory-based constructs and for specific population groups. In addition, there is poor understanding of the best strategies to implement such techniques so that they are most useful for older adultsThesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of Applied PsychologyGriffith HealthFull Tex
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