bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A qualitative study to investigate the barriers to adoption of a lifestyle associated with optimal peak bone mass acquisition
Authors:   , Zafar Sana 
Published: December 2021

<p>Background: Osteoporosis is a major public health problem through its association with fragility fracture. Peak bone mass is attained in the second or third decade and has been shown to be a major determinant of later osteoporosis risk. Important determinants of peak bone mass include weight bearing physical activity levels, diet, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. Aim: This study aimed to elucidate knowledge of factors affecting bone health among young people and identify lifestyle barriers to attainment of peak bone mass. Methods: Participants were recruited through mass mailing of University students and staff aged 18-35 at Victoria University of Wellington. Six semi structured focus group interviews were conducted, where knowledge of factors associated with bone health and attitudes to lifestyles associated with beneficial health behaviors were explored. The interviews were audio taped and transcribed. A thematic approach for data analysis using constant comparative method was performed with Nvivo software. Results: A total of 28 students (7 males, 21 females, mean age 28 years) were included. Seven themes emerged with regard to knowledge about factors affecting bone health which included physical activity, dairy, menopause, aging, smoking, alcohol and lack of knowledge about osteoporosis. For barriers, broadly eight themes of lifestyle factors emerged that included time, lack of resources, student life, cost, weather, cultural factors, lack of motivation and lastly smoking and alcohol. Students had limited knowledge about bone health in general, prevention of osteoporosis, and the importance of weight bearing physical activity and diet in determining later bone health. Some participants, especially vegans, expressed difficulties with making diet choices adequate in calcium, while others reported time management was a barrier to incorporating physical activity into everyday life. A few voiced a lack of motivation to exercise in bad weather. Some participants reported behaviors detrimental to bone health such as smoking and heavy alcohol consumption, with peer pressure being one factor leading to an increase in such activities, compounded by cultural and social pressures. Many students aspired to a healthier lifestyle but felt that they had limited knowledge about bone health, and specifically what they might need do to improve it. Conclusions: These data highlights a lack of awareness of factors that impact peak bone mass among University students, an expressed desire to know more, and a keenness to adopt healthier behaviors. School-based education could provide stronger foundations with regards to knowledge of bone health. These observational data might help design interventions that encourage optimal peak bone mass in later life.</p>
Finding the Key: Designing Timber Connections for CLT Panels
Authors:   , Joyce Gabriella 
Published: December 2021

<p>In a climate where standard methods of construction are being challenged, developments in engineered timbers are allowing mass timber construction to be explored as a sustainable alternative to traditional building methods. Cross- laminated timber (CLT) is at the forefront of this evolution and, with the advancement in computational design and digital fabrication tools, there lies an opportunity to redefine standard construction. This project explores how digital modelling and advance digital fabrication can be combined to generate a connection system for CLT panels. The advantages of CLT and mass timber construction are numerous and range from environmental and aesthetic benefits to site safety and cost reduction benefits. There are, however, issues that remain surrounding the connections between CLT panels. Steurer (2006, p.136) stated that, “Progress in engineered timber construction is directly related to developments in connector technology.” This thesis creates connections inspired by traditional Japanese joinery that have been adapted to be used for the panel construction of CLT structures. Using CLT offcuts as a primary connection material, the system not only reduces waste but also mitigates thermal bridging and lowers the number of connection points whilst increasing the ease of building and fabrication. The connections are first considered at a detail scale. They use the literature review and case studies as a base for design before being tested using digitally fabricated prototypes. These prototypes are evaluated against a framework created in line with the aforementioned criteria. Within this framework, the connections are analysed against existing connection systems as well as previous designs to establish a successful system. The connections are then evaluated within the context of a building scale and considers large-scale fabrication and on- site assembly whilst continuing to focus on the reduction of waste. This research found that the simplicity of the connections is key to a successful system as this allows for faster and cheaper fabrication and installation. However, there is still further research needed surrounding large-scale fabrication and the structural capacity of timber connection systems.</p>
Magnetic and transport properties of electronically spin polarised double perovskites and Heusler intermetallics
Authors:   , Stephen Jibu 
Published: December 2021

<p>Half-metallic ferromagnets with 100 % electronic spin polarisation are an interesting class of materials for new spin transport electronics applications. Some of the double perovskites and Heusler alloys are predicted to be half-metallic with Curie temperatures above room temperature. This thesis presents the results from an experimental study of polycrystalline double perovskites Sr₂₋ₓLaₓFeMoO₆ and Ba₂₋ₓLaₓFeMoO₆, and ordered and disordered epitaxial thin films of Co₂MnSi Heusler alloys. A magnetothermopower was observed in Sr₂₋ₓLaₓFeMoO₆ and Ba₂₋ₓLaₓFeMoO₆. This magnetothermopower can be explained in terms of a spin-tunnelling contribution to the thermopower between grains that changes in an applied magnetic field. The results from the high temperature (above 400 K) magnetisation studies on Ba₂₋ₓLaₓFeMoO₆ in the paramagnetic region reveal that a localised electron model with antiferromagnetic coupling to itinerant electrons can account for the carrier concentration dependent effective moments. The correlation between the bare itinerant electron susceptibility and the Curie-Weiss temperature supports the kinetic energy driven model that has been used to account for the electronic spin polarisation and high Curie temperatures. Antisite disorder is evident in the Co₂MnSi thin films that leads to a reduction in the saturation magnetisation. The resistivity of the ordered Co₂MnSi thin film is linear in temperature whereas the resistivity of the disordered film increases at low temperature due to weak localisation. A magnetoresistance is observed in ordered and disordered films. At low fields (below 0.1 T) the magnetoresistance is likely to be due to domain wall scattering. For magnetic fields greater than 0.1 T there is likely to be a contribution from a magnetic-field-induced suppression of the weak localisation resistivity. Similar magnetoresistance behaviour was observed for ordered and disordered films. There is a large anomalous Hall resistivity observed in the ordered and disordered Co₂MnSi thin films. In the case of the ordered film it is found that the anomalous Hall effect is dominated by skew scattering.</p>
Online Word-of-Mouth Communication in a Collectivist Society
Authors:   , Yang Lin 
Published: December 2021

<p>Word-of-mouth (WOM) is perceived by consumers as a highly credible source of information, and online channels for WOM have become increasingly popular among consumers. Although the impact of online word-of-mouth (OWOM) on consumers‘ purchase decisions has been researched, it remains unclear why information about products, brands or organisations is generated online and what influences its initiation from the sender‘s perspective. This research explores the antecedents of customer OWOM and examines the relationships between key antecedent variables and customer OWOM engagement in a Chinese context. A conceptual model was developed based on the literature and information obtained through one-to-one in-depth interviews. Customer perceived value, satisfaction, loyalty and affective commitment were incorporated as key antecedent constructs of customer OWOM. The research used a two-phase research design. The first phase was a qualitative exploration of the customer‘s OWOM experience. These findings were used to gain an understanding of customers‘ OWOM initiation, provide confirmation of the model, and refine the measurement thereof. The second phase used a quantitative online survey to validate the measurement instruments and test the model. The data for the study were collected from OWOM initiators in China over a period of one and a half months. A sample of 574 respondents was obtained. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and multiple regression analysis. Findings from the research suggest that an emphasis on creating an affective bond with the brand and organisation is the key to customers‘ engagement of WOM on the Internet. The study also indicates that customer perceived QEP (quality, emotional and price) value is a less immediate but critical antecedent. In addition, the customer perceived social value of a product or service is found to significantly impact OWOM. In China, where the collectivist view predominates, customers conform to social standards and withhold negative comments in their OWOM activities in order to maintain social acceptance and inclusion, and to make favourable impressions. They also engage in OWOM to gain and enhance face, which is a social need in China‘s status driven society. This research contributes to a growing body of research on customers‘ OWOM behaviour by developing and empirically testing the customer OWOM model. It provides a more holistic view of post-purchase OWOM by simultaneously investigating a set of key antecedents for OWOM in a single framework. The research also widens the geographic and culture scope of OWOM research by undertaking the study in China. By using a mixed method, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the research offers a balance among objectivity, detailed description and the predictability of the study. Furthermore, the research provides marketing practitioners with a better understanding of the behaviour of Chinese OWOM initiators, and offers directions to improve their marketing communication strategies.</p>
Consumer processing of interactive online advertisements
Authors:   , McLaren Lachlan 
Published: December 2021

<p>The internet is a computer mediated environment that facilitates the interaction between firms and consumers. This inherent interactivity gives marketers the opportunity to provide consumers with more engaging advertisements. Instead of a largely passive audience characteristic of broadcast and print media, advertising on the internet involves interaction between marketer and consumer, resulting in a consumer that is more active in the communication and persuasion process. In an interactive medium, the consumer can also interact with marketing messages in real time. This was not possible with print and broadcast advertising, therefore, understanding how this interaction influences advertising persuasiveness is important. The key research question for this study is what effect does interactivity within an online advertisement have on consumers’ attention to, processing of and attitude towards the ad? This research applies established information processing theory in an online context to develop a conceptual model of the effects of interactivity on consumer processing of advertisements. Using an online experiment to collect data this study manipulates interactivity within an online banner advertisement and tests the conceptual model using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that consumers pay more attention to online advertisements that are interactive and that the increased attention leads to an increase in processing of the advertisement and a more favourable attitude towards the ad. In addition those who interacted with the advertisement had more favourable thoughts about the advertisement. Previous effects of interactivity on processing and attitude towards the advertisements were not observed. A possible explanation is the assumption of attention to the advertisement made in previous studies. Instead this study suggests that interactivity cannot influence consumer processing of advertisements without the consumer first paying attention to the advertisement. The findings of this study contribute to the domains of interactivity and information processing theory through clarifying questions about the ability of interactive advertising to engage consumers and demonstrating the effectiveness of information processing theory to explain how consumers process interactive messages. Future research directions are outlined that include investigating what interactive features in advertisements are most engaging for consumers and combining self-report measures with more objective methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how consumers process interactive messages.</p>
Synthesis of Highly Functionalised Furo[3,4-b]pyrans: Towards the Fungal Metabolite (−)-TAN-2483B
Authors:   , Somarathne R.M. Kalpani K. 
Published: December 2021

<p>Carbohydrate-derived cyclopropanes combine both the stereochemical wealth of carbohydrates and the reactivity of cyclopropanes. A diverse variety of reaction modes for these cyclopropyl carbohydrates can be harnessed for the synthesis of natural products and other targets. The natural products (−)-TAN-2483A and (−)-TAN-2483B are fungal secondary metabolites displaying a variety of bioactivities such as inhibition of c-src kinase action and parathyroid hormone-induced bone resorption. This thesis described several synthetic approaches to the natural product (−)-TAN-2483B and analogues of (−)-TAN-2483B employing cyclopropane ring expansion. The synthetic route to (−)-TAN-2483B began with the readily available substrate D-mannose. The pyran ring unsaturation of the natural product was established by a cyclopropanation-ring expansion sequence. A synthetic strategy via dichlorocyclopropane-based intermediates is described in chapter 2. This being unsuccessful, an alternative approach via 2-fomyl-glycal was developed in chapter 3. The chapter 2 and 3 provided a solid background for the achievement of the analogues synthesis illustrated in chapter 4 via dibromocyclopropane. Lewis acid-mediated alkynylation followed by Pdcatalysed carbonylative lactonisation was successfully utilised in the revelation of the furo[3,4-b]pyran ring skeleton. This route afforded analogues of TAN-2483B; the Z-and E-unsaturated ethyl esters 140 and 141 and hydroxy(−)-TAN-2483B 145. The total synthesis of (−)-TAN-2483B was not achieved due to unforeseen obstacles encountered in the deoxygenation of the side arm of 335 (Chapter 4) into the E-propenyl side arm of (−)-TAN-2483B.</p>
Model-Theoretic Accounts of Logical Consequence - Themes from Etchemendy
Authors:   , Christensen Kasper Højbjerg 
Published: December 2021

<p>This thesis is a discussion and continuation of a project started by John Etchemendy with his criticism of Tarski's account of logical consequence. To this end the two central concepts of the thesis are those of an interpretational and representational model-theoretic account of logical consequence, respectively. The first chapter introduces Etchemendy's criticism of Tarski's account of logical consequence, a criticism which turns essentially on an interpretation of Tarski according to which his proposed account gives rise to a purely interpretational model-theoretic account of logical consequence. Consequently there must be a representational aspect to our model-theoretic definition of logical consequence. The second chapter introduces Etchemendy's notion of logical consequence: that of being truth preserving in virtue of the semantics of the involved terms. While this notion is representational, we argue that Etchemendy's notion of a categorematic treatment of terms reintroduces an interpretational aspect back into the model theory. The chapter investigates the resulting notion, compares it to other notions in the literature, and presents certain results that can be proved, under certain conditions, about this notion in relation to the notion of being truth preserving in virtue of the semantics of all terms. Chapter three of the thesis is concerned with the question of how a standard model, seen as a domain and an interpretation function, manages to capture the different notions of model-theoretic consequence. As we explain, this question is most pressing when we want our models to both represent and interpret, and we will present a theory which allows us to see the models as both representing non-actual possibilities as well as provide interpretations for the terms. The fourth chapter applies the lessons of the preceeding chapters to argue that Kripke Semantics can be seen as capturing the notion of being truth preserving in all possibilities under all interpretations of the non-logical terminology in the case where our language is augmented with an operator, ⃞, to represent logical necessity. We will argue this point by contrasting it with, though not necessarily disagreeing with, claims made by various authors to the effect that Kripke Semantics is not the appropriate semantics when our language contains an operator for logical necessity.</p>
Effects of Results-Based Financing on Patient Satisfaction in Afghanistan
Authors:   , Tawfiq M. Essa 
Published: December 2021

<p>A Results-Based Financing (RBF) program has been implemented in Afghanistan since September 2010 to improve the quality of health care and increase the utilization of maternal and child health services. This PhD study examines the impact of RBF on patient satisfaction and on determinants of patient satisfaction at health facility level in Afghanistan. Determinants of patient satisfaction in the study refer to health provider performance, availability of medicines, vaccines, equipment, and physical appearance of health facilities. I used data collected from a panel of health facilities over a three-year period. The data consist of nearly 3000 patient observations and exit interviews. I included 112 health facilities in my study. These health facilities were part of the 428 health facilities which had been randomly assigned to treatment and control groups prior to the start of RBF in 2010. Financial incentives were distributed among health providers in the treatment facilities through four administration mechanisms: salary-based, task-based, equal-amount, and mixed-method. Follow-up surveys were conducted in 2011 and 2012 in the same 112 facilities, but for new cross-sections of patients and health providers. I analysed a range of patient satisfaction and patient satisfaction determinants measures using a regression-adjusted difference-in-differences estimation model. The results from this study show that after a period of two years, there was an increase of only 8 percentage points in the proportion of patients who were very satisfied with services as a whole. However, the effect was not statistically significant. Similarly, specific aspects of patient satisfaction were not significantly affected by the intervention. Likewise, RBF did not have any significant effect on health provider performance, on availability of medicines, vaccines, and equipment, and on physical appearance of health facilities over a two-year period. I also found no difference in RBF treatment effects by the different incentive administration mechanisms. My study provides evidence which suggests that paying monetary incentives alone may not have the impetus to improve health provider performance to the satisfaction of patients in a post conflict country. In such settings, RBF initiatives need to include both financial and non-financial incentives for health providers in order to achieve the intended objectives of quality of care and patient satisfaction. My study provides pragmatic recommendations aimed at holistic approaches to improving quality and delivery of healthcare in a post conflict setting.</p>
Novel Methodologies for the Synthesis of Multivalent Glycoconjugates
Authors:   , Munneke Stefan 
Published: December 2021

<p>Glycoconjugates, such as glycolipids and glycoproteins, play an important role in health and disease. The synthesis and biological evaluation of these glycoconjugates allows for the development of novel carbohydrate-based therapeutics and analytical tools. Traditionally, the conjugation of glycans to other substrates required the installment of an anomeric linker during the total synthesis of the glycan, however, this strategy does not allow for the conjugation of naturally isolated glycans. To address this concern, glycan conjugation methodologies without the need for protecting groups have been developed, including the use of oxyamine conjugation methodologies. In particular, the synthesis of a variety of novel bi-functional oxyamine linkers enabled the rapid assembly of various types of glycoconjugates, including fluorescent- and biotinylated-glycans, glycoproteins and multivalent glycodendrons. The multivalent presentation of glycans to cell surface lectins is often required to induce a measurable biological response. This multivalent binding can be achieved by the presentation of glycans on dendrons as these ‘glycodendrons’ have increased affinity for their corresponding lectin compared to monovalent glycans. Moreover, these glycodendrons have several advantages, including high synthetic control, low cytotoxicity and in addition can be derivatised with molecular probes of choice, which can aid in the biological evaluation of these glycoconjugates. Accordingly, novel biotinylated and fluorescent dendrons were synthesised from a highly convergent second generation dendron core scaffold. These functionalised dendrons then allow for the nonavalent conjugation of carbohydrates, such as Lewis antigens, for their biological evaluation in the selective targeting of lectins. Lewis antigens play an important role in host cell recognition, but these glycans are also involved in disease, such as in cancer metastasis and HIV-infection. The synthesis of Lewis antigens allows for the biological evaluation of these glycans, and moreover, could be employed in the development of novel glycan-based therapeutics and analytical tools. Accordingly, a novel high-yielding and efficient synthesis of a crystalline trisaccharide building block is presented, which can then be utilised in the synthesis of most Type-2 Lewis antigens. In particular, the global deprotection of the crystalline material gave the LewisX glycan antigen, a natural ligand for the C-Type lectin DC-SIGN on dendritic cells and macrophages. Finally, the rapid assembling of complex multivalent glycodendrons is discussed by conjugating the glycan antigens to the functionalised multivalent dendrons through the use of the bi-functional oxyamine linker methodology. In particular, the synthesis of a fluorescent LewisX glycodendron is presented, and to demonstrate a potential biological application of this methodology, the fluorescent LewisX glycodendron is evaluated as a flow cytometry marker for the C-type lectin DC-SIGN on human macrophages.</p>