bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Safeguarding Sarawak's intangible cultural heritage: A knowledge management approach
Authors:   , Bolhassan Rashidah 
Published: November 2021

<p>The importance of indigenous knowledge is receiving increasing recognition. Some cultural institutions (CI) are responsible for safeguarding indigenous knowledge and they acquire, document, and record works and images of indigenous knowledge which are contained or embedded in the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of their indigenous communities such as songs, rituals, arts, and medical wisdom. These items of ICH become ‘knowledge objects’ or ‘representations of knowledge’ when documented, which are unlikely to represent the indigenous people's knowledge holistically. Indigenous knowledge embedded in the ICH requires interpretations of the processes, rituals, experiences and practices from the indigenous communities. This interpretivist study, using a knowledge management (KM) lens, examined the knowledge sharing processes of the indigenous people of Sarawak, Malaysia, to understand the nature of indigenous knowledge and knowledge sharing from the perspectives of the indigenous people of Sarawak, in order to assist Sarawak’s cultural institutions in safeguarding their ICH. This research used narrative inquiry as a research methodology, acquiring stories from two clusters of participants, purposively selected from three ethnic groups and from cultural institutions in Sarawak’s Civil Service. This study used a knowledge management perspective in analysing the findings. The findings on the nature of indigenous people’s knowledge highlight a three-tiered knowledge system. The findings on the CIs’ safeguarding efforts elucidate the gap in the management of the CIs’ organizational knowledge on safeguarding. This study makes several important contributions. First, it contributes to the literature about the cultural protocol requirements of the indigenous people of Sarawak before they can share their knowledge. Secondly, this study elucidates the indigenous people’s knowledge as a three-tiered system which influences the people’s knowledge sharing ways. This system can be used to guide the CIs’ practices of safeguarding ICH. The third contribution of this study is that it expands our understanding of the complexity of indigenous knowledge, and creates a conceptual model to aid and guide this understanding. Fourth, this study also contributes towards a greater understanding of the importance of the CIs including the indigenous peoples in the safeguarding practices in order to avoid the decontextualization of the ICH. Thus, this study confirms the importance of the participation of the indigenous people in the CIs’ practice of safeguarding ICH. Another contribution of this study, based on its findings, is the adaptation of three elements of a KM spectrum (Binney, 2001) for the CIs’ KM approach in managing their organizational knowledge on safeguarding ICH.</p>
Designing an augmented reality video game to assist stroke patients with independent rehabilitation
Authors:   , Petrie Regan 
Published: November 2021

<p>Early, intense practice of functional, repetitive rehabilitation interventions has shown positive results towards lower-limb recovery for stroke patients. However, long-term engagement in daily physical activity is necessary to maximise the physical and cognitive benefits of rehabilitation. The mundane, repetitive nature of traditional physiotherapy interventions and other personal, environmental and physical elements create barriers to participation. It is well documented that stroke patients engage in as little as 30% of their rehabilitation therapies. Digital gamified systems have shown positive results towards addressing these barriers of engagement in rehabilitation, but there is a lack of low-cost commercially available systems that are designed and personalised for home use. At the same time, emerging mixed reality technologies offer the ability to seamlessly integrate digital objects into the real world, generating an immersive, unique virtual world that leverages the physicality of the real world for a personalised, engaging experience. This thesis explored how the design of an augmented reality exergame can facilitate engagement in independent lower-limb stroke rehabilitation. Our system converted prescribed exercises into active gameplay using commercially available augmented reality mobile technology. Such a system introduced an engaging, interactive alternative to existing mundane physiotherapy exercises. The development of the system was based on a user-centered iterative design process. The involvement of health care professionals and stroke patients throughout each stage of the design and development process helped understand users’ needs, requirements and environment to refine the system and ensure its validity as a substitute for traditional rehabilitation interventions. The final output was an augmented reality exergame that progressively facilitates sit-to-stand exercises by offering immersive interactions with digital exotic wildlife. We hypothesize that the immersive, active nature of a mobile, mixed reality exergame will increase engagement in independent task training for lower-limb rehabilitation.</p>
O2: An Investigation into the Architectural Agency of Air
Authors:   , Guilford Tasenka 
Published: November 2021

<p>Miyake Jima, an island off the East coast of Japan, was home to 3,600 residents until 2000 when an escalation in volcanic activity caused noxious gas to burst from the crater, sending twenty thousand tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the air each day. The noxious gasses forced a mass evacuation, leaving the island uninhabitable for five years. Since 2005, two thousand eight hundred residents have returned to the island but are at constant risk of gas eruptions. Residents’ solution is to don gas masks when the sulphur dioxide levels become too high; however this does not ameliorate an ever-present, and real, danger from the air. In this research, Miyake Jima Island is employed as a testing ground to explore how air can influence architecture. Miyake’s problematic atmosphere is used as a starting point for a series of experiments that interrogate air’s architectural agency. Design experiments explore the problem of noxious air across a range of scales, from the human body to the scale of landscape. These experiments have a twinned focus: combining scientific and aesthetic understandings of air, design explorations are informed by a rich mix of chemical and material dynamics, human dynamics, and intuition. The results of these experiments give insights into two research objectives: to understand air as an aesthetic and conceptual driver in architecture, and, to propose architectural solutions to Miyake’s ever-present threat of noxious air. The research draws on the work of Jane Bennett (2010) and N Katherine Hayles (2014), in the areas of New Materialism and OOI (Object-Oriented Inquiry), to develop a methodology of designing and physical modelling where material agency takes precedence. This is addressed through design research, by way of design experiments at three scales: an installation, at human scale, focusing on “making air visible”; an Air Safety Pod, at “mid” scale; and an Air Crisis Centre. The Crisis centre is at landscape scale and designed to accommodate the island’s population in the event of a sulphurous air event. Critical analysis of site, theoretical contexts, and case studies are undertaken to aid the explorations. The thesis connects with key thinkers on the aesthetics and science of air, such as Sean Lally, Malte Wagner, Jonathan Hill and architect Phillip Rahm. This context is supported by specifically chosen case studies that relate to and support each scale of experiment. The residents of Miyake Jima have shown resilience to continue living on the island, and this research contributes to helping them create a sustainable future. In doing so, the design research explores how air can be powerful in shaping architecture: how air, the primary component of architectural space, can influence architecture.</p>
Evaluation of low-intensity therapy and parent training for young children with autism based on the early start Denver model
Authors:   , Waddington Hannah 
Published: November 2021

<p>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder that is characterised by deficits in social communication and restricted and repetitive behaviours, interests and activities. Recent developments in identification techniques mean that many children can be reliably diagnosed with ASD before the age of 2. Early identification creates the opportunity for early intervention. In fact, some research suggests that the earlier a child with ASD receives intervention, the greater the progress he or she is likely to make. Naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions are a relatively recent method of early intervention for children with ASD, which combine elements of previous intervention approaches (behavioural, naturalistic behavioural, and developmental/relationship-focused intervention). One such naturalistic developmental behavioural intervention is the early start Denver model (ESDM), which is designed for children with or at risk for ASD between the ages of 12 and 60 months (5 years). Research suggests that ESDM intervention may improve a range of child outcomes when delivered for at least 15 hours per week over at least 10 months. However, many families may not be able to access or afford such intensive intervention. Therefore, the two studies in this thesis evaluated the effectiveness of two ESDM delivery approaches that required relatively few hours of professional input per week. Specifically, low-intensity therapist delivered ESDM intervention, and ESDM parent training. Study 1 used a multiple probe across participants design to evaluate the effectiveness of 3 hours per week of home-based ESDM therapy for 12 weeks for improving imitation, communication, and engagement for four young children with ASD. It also examined whether children showed increases in these outcomes with their mothers following the intervention. The results of this study suggest that, following the intervention, all four children increased their imitation skills and their engagement with the therapist. In addition three of the children had more functional utterances and one child increased his use of intentional vocalisations. These results were maintained four weeks after intervention and generalised to a lesser degree to each child’s mother. This suggests that low-intensity therapist delivered ESDM intervention may improve outcomes for children with ASD. The results of Studies 1 and 2 suggest that both low-intensity therapist delivered ESDM intervention and ESDM parent training may be promising intervention approaches for young children with ASD. This is particularly encouraging as both approaches involved relatively few hours of professional input per week. In theory, this could increase the number of families who are able to access such intervention. More research is needed to identify the most effective low-intensity ESDM intervention method, or combination of methods.</p>
Moving beyond consent in data privacy law. An effective privacy management system for Internet services
Authors:   , Betkier Marcin 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis looks for a way to overcome the failure of consent as a means of addressing privacy problems associated with online services. It argues that consent to collection and use of personal data is an imperfect mechanism for individual authorisation because data privacy in relation to online services is a dynamic, continuous process. If people are to have autonomous choice in respect of their privacy processes, then they need to be able to manage these processes themselves. After careful examination of online services which pinpoints both the privacy problems caused by online service providers and the particular features of the online environment, the thesis devises a set of measures to enable individuals to manage these processes. The tool for achieving this is a Privacy Management Model (PMM) which consists of three interlocking functions: controlling (which consent may be a part of), organising, and planning. The thesis then proposes a way of implementing these functions in the context of online services. This requires a mix of regulatory tools: a particular business model in which individuals are supported by third parties (Personal Information Administrators), a set of technical/architectural tools to manage data within the ICT systems of the online service providers, and laws capable of supporting all these elements. The proposed legal measures aim to overcome the shortcomings of procedural principles by implementing a comprehensive model in which substantive legal principle underpins a bundle of statutory-level laws which enable privacy management functions. Those are explained against the background of the General Data Protection Regulation. All of this is designed to change the way decision-makers think about Internet privacy and form the theoretical backbone of the next generation of privacy laws.</p>
Closing the Loop: Implementing Real-time Audio Feedback Systems in Musical Robots
Authors:   , Long Jason 
Published: November 2021

<p>A closed-loop control system is any configuration that feeds information about its output back into the control stream. These types of systems have been in use for hundreds of years in various engineering related disciplines to carry out operations such as keeping rooms at the correct temperature, implementing cruise control in cars, and precisely positioning industrial machinery. When a musician performs a piece, a type of biological closed loop is invoked in which the player continuously listens to the sound of their instrument, and adjusts their actions in order to ensure their performance is as desired. However, most musical robots do not possess this ability, instead relying on open-loop systems without feedback. This results in the need for much manual intervention from the operators of these robots, unintuitive control interfaces for composing and performing music with them, and tuning, timing, dynamics and other issues occurring during performances. This thesis investigates applying closed-loop audio feedback techniques to the creation of musical robots to equip them with new expressive capabilities, interactive applications, musical accuracy, and greater autonomy. In order to realise these objectives, following an investigation of the history of musical automata and musical robotic control systems, several new robotic musical instruments are developed based on the principals of utilising embedded musical information retrieval techniques to allow the instruments to continuously ‘listen’ to themselves while they play. The mechanical and electronic systems and firmware of a closed-loop glockenspiel, a modular unpitched percussion control system, and a robotic chordophone control system are described in detail, utilising new software and hardware created to be accessible to electronic artists. The novel capabilities of the instruments are demonstrated both through quantitative evaluations of the performance of their subsystems, and through composing original musical works specifically for the instruments. This paradigm shift in musical robotic construction paves the way for a new class of robots that are intuitive to use, highly accurate and reliable, and possess a unique level of musical expressiveness.</p>
Environment of Deposition and Paleogeography of the Late Cretaceous Glenburn Formation, Eastern North Island, New Zealand
Authors:   , McClintock James 
Published: November 2021

<p>The Glenburn Formation of the East Coast of New Zealand is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary formation consisting of alternating layers of sandstone, mudstone and conglomerate. The Glenburn Formation spans a depositional timeframe of over 10 Ma, is over 1000 m thick, is regionally extensive and is possibly present over large areas offshore. For these reasons, it is important to constrain the paleoenvironment of this unit. Late Cretaceous paleogeographic reconstructions of the East Coast Basin are, however, hampered by a number of factors, including the pervasive Neogene to modern tectonic deformation of the region, the poorly understood nature of the plate tectonic regime during the Cretaceous, and a lack of detailed sedimentological studies of most of the region’s Cretaceous units. Through detailed mapping of the Glenburn Formation, this study aims to improve inferences of regional Cretaceous depositional environments and paleogeography. Detailed facies based analysis was undertaken on several measured sections in eastern Wairarapa and southern Hawke’s Bay. Information such as bed thickness, grain size and sedimentary structures were recorded in order to identify distinct facies. Although outcrop is locally extensive, separate outcrop localities generally lie in different thrust blocks, which complicates comparisons of individual field areas and prevents construction of the large-scale, three-dimensional geometry of the Glenburn Formation. Glenburn Formation consists of facies deposited by sediment gravity flows that were primarily turbidity currents and debris flows. Facies observed are consistent with deposition on a prograding submarine fan system. There is significant variation in facies both within and between sections. Several distinct submarine fan architectural components are recognised, such as fan fringes, fan lobes, submarine channels and overbank deposits. Provenance and paleocurrent indicators are consistent with deposition having occurred on several separate submarine fans, and an integrated regional paleogeographic reconstruction suggests that deposition most likely occurred in a fossil trench following the mid-Cretaceous cessation of subduction along the Pacific-facing margin of Gondwana.</p>
Virtually Handcrafted: An Investigation of Immersive Architectural Design Processes
Authors:   , Innes Daniel 
Published: November 2021

<p>Architects use media such as drawings and models to test and better understand their designs. These media are frequently scaled for convenience and reduced to two dimensions for clarity; however, in relying on these methods, the direct and visceral experience of inhabiting space is neglected. Phenomenologists such as Juhani Pallasmaa point out that this problem is exacerbated by the picture plane. The flat page or screen acts as an impenetrable window, excluding the viewer from a truly embodied appreciation of the designed spatial qualities. This research investigates the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for conceiving architecture without alienating the designer from the user’s perspective. It is suggested that the holistic and subjective approach of immersive media is a necessary complement to the more abstracted and objective views of architectural tradition: plan, section, and elevation. The recent availability of consumer-grade VR allows the testing of this opportunity without many of the technological limitations of research done in the 1990’s. This research aims to describe tendencies of VR design and thus guide the incorporation of immersive technologies into contemporary practice. To study the impact of VR, a real-time engine is used to develop an interactive program which allows the modelling of conceptual designs while immersed within them. Its efficacy is studied with three groups (architecture students, architects, and members of the public) from which quantitative and qualitative data is collected. By identifying the unique benefits of such tools, it is proposed how each group could make good use of the technology and extend the abilities of their existing workflows.</p>
The Determinants of International Student Demand in New Zealand and the OECD
Authors:   , Page Logan 
Published: November 2021

<p>Tertiary education, once a purely domestic affair, has become an increasingly globalised industry over previous decades. Whilst the international sector has grown to being New Zealand's fourth largest export market (Ministry of Education, 2016), there is a lack of credible research on the demand of international students.	This thesis aims to provide a greater understanding of the determinants of international student demand, both in New Zealand and internationally. I firstly provide a descriptive analysis of the trends in the international student market for New Zealand and 27 OECD countries. Secondly, I use a fixed-effects approach to analyse the demand of international students within New Zealand, using fees data at the course-by-university level. Thirdly, I then generalise this approach to the international market to provide an analysis of the demand for international students travelling to the OECD.	The findings from these analyses imply that the demand for international university education is relatively inelastic. The impact of a marginal increase in fees decreases the number of EFTS/students at a proportion of less than one. Furthermore, this effect is generally not statistically distinguishable from zero.</p>
The Decentralisation of Australia's Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Strategy in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea
Authors:   , Angoro Camilla Ethel 
Published: November 2021

<p>Women’s empowerment is the most recent approach to women in development. The inclusion of women’s empowerment in development policies has recently gained traction in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, the effectiveness of such policies has been questioned in its efforts to support local women to improve their lives. This study was undertaken to understand Australia’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) to PNG in terms of the contribution of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to supporting women’s empowerment in Oro province through the implementation of its Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy 2016. With the huge gender inequality gap in PNG and the rise in Gender-Based Violence (GBV), women’s empowerment is an approach that can contribute to helping local women improve their lives. The purpose of this study was to understand the trickle-down effect of Australia’s ODA to subnational organisations in PNG, and its contributions to women’s empowerment in Oro province. The study used a qualitative approach involving policy document reviews and interviews with research participants. The key findings from this study show that there is no direct support to local women’s organisations in Oro province either from DFAT or the PNG government; there are some issues with implementation and ownership of DFAT’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy and the PNG government’s gender policies in Oro province; and that women’s coalitions can be a vehicle for change in local communities in Oro province. This study offers benefits to DFAT programmes in PNG, and to national government agencies tasked to review their gender policies; as well as the Oro Provincial Administration; the Oro Provincial Government; and the Oro Provincial Council of Women. The study suggests topics for further research. It also suggests that DFAT’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy, and its associated funding have the potential to improve women’s lives in Oro province and PNG more broadly.</p>