Testing the divergent validity of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism

Mode of access: World Wide WebTheoretical thesis.Bibliography pages 48-62Testing the Construct Validity of Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism -- Method -- Results -- Discussion -- References -- AppendicesIn psychological literature, various conceptualisations of narcissism have been at odds with each other, especially those deriving from clinical and social-personality perspectives. At the heart of this debate is the emphasis placed on either grandiosity (e.g., obvious arrogance and entitlement) or vulnerability (e.g., concealed negative emotion). Historically, models of narcissism have often attempted to separate grandiosity and vulnerability, whereas more recent models also include a common core. The aim of the present study was to examine whether grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism are separate constructs by investigating their relationships with several personality factors previously linked in separate studies. Measures of narcissism and other personality factors were administered to a sample of 509 adults. Using structural equation modelling, findings revealed that grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism presented contrasting relationships with extraversion, neuroticism, self-esteem and social anxiety, but were both associated with increased perfectionism. Implications of these results include the importance of the Big Five traits and self-esteem in discriminating grandiosity from vulnerability, the crucial role of perfectionism in narcissism, and social anxiety as a possible unique contributor to vulnerable narcissism. Overall, the results support the idea that grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism are separate but related constructs.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (vi, 86 pages) illustration

Supporting the development of pre-service teacher learning design capabilities

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 266-285.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Literature Review -- Chapter 3. Methodology -- Chapter 4. Findings -- Chapter 5. Discussion -- Chapter 6. Conclusion -- References -- Appendices.The learning design processes that groups of pre-service teachers utilise when designing technology-enhanced lessons and the development of pre-service teacher learning design capabilities during these processes are under-researched areas. This study explored how teacher educators could enhance the learning design capabilities of pre-service teachers by investigating the focuses of pre-service teacher design conversations, their design approaches, the factors supporting and/or hindering their collaborative design processes, the relationships between pre-service teachers' learning design practices and learning design artefacts, and the impact of pedagogical strategies of teacher educators upon pre-service teacher learning design practices. These issues were addressed by examining six groups of three pre-service teachers as they completed a collaborative design assignment and two bigger cohorts of pre-service teachers in two iterations in a design-based research mixed-method study. Data analysed included recordings of pre-service teachers' in-class group design conversations, online resources and discussions, Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK) self-assessments, and interview responses. Thematic analysis and Linear Mixed Model analysis were the two main approaches to analysing qualitative and quantitative data respectively. Findings, viewed through the lenses of the TPACK framework and Activity Theory, showed that pre-service teachers discussed design related issues, TPACK elements, context, and learners' characteristics in their design conversations with dominant references to design-related issues, substantial occurrences of single TPACK elements, and lower frequencies of integrated TPACK elements and context. Four design approaches were observed: content-based, top-down, learner-centred, and context-oriented. In addition, five factors were identified as enablers to pre-service teachers' learning design practices: technological capabilities, group dynamics, tutor support, pre-service teachers' past educational experience, and the teacher education program's resources and activities. The frequency of technology and context related discussions were positively and significantly correlated with the technological and contextual quality of their final learning design artefacts. As well, while changes to teacher educators' pedagogical strategies between iterations did not have a comprehensive impact on pre-service teachers' learning design processes and products, the approaches adopted by teacher educators did have a significant impact on pre-service teachers' improvement across all TPACK areas across the cohort and for each iteration. Quantitative data also revealed that practicum experience influenced pre-service teachers' development in particular areas of TPACK. Based on the findings of the study, a Design-TPACK framework together with many practical and research-related recommendations are proposed -- abstract.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (xvi, 388 pages) some tables; figure

Age at the time of first blood donation and donation pattern of blood donors in Australia

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 57-63.Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Factors associated with return behaviour in blood donors - do the association differ by income level of countries? - a systematic review -- Chapter 3: Age at first donation and future donation pattern of blood donors in Australia - a cohort study -- Chapter 4: Combined discussion -- Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations -- References -- Appendices.Regular blood donation is essential to ensure the availability of blood and its products. Blood and its components are vital for the treatment of medical emergencies and chronic diseases, such as massive bleeding, trauma, and cancers. In Australia, and globally, advances in medical treatment have continuously increased the demand for blood and blood products. Currently, Australia is relying on imported plasma to meet its plasma demands. Thus, improving our understanding of the relationship between demographic and other variables with blood donation patterns can help blood collection agencies to refine policies to meet the changing demand of blood and its products. This thesis aims to improve our understanding of blood donation patterns in Australia, particularly the relationship between the age at first blood donation and donation pattern. I started by identifying major demographic factors associated with return to donate in high-income countries (HICs), including Australia, and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The systematic review included LMICs to fill the knowledge gap as previous systematic reviews focused only on HICs. Results from studies conducted in HICs and LMICs were compared to identify if the same factor had different effects in each setting. I then explored the donation pattern of blood donors in Australia with a cohort study using data from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. The study factor of this thesis is the donor's age at first donation. Analyses were adjusted for several factors identified to be associated with prospective donation pattern among first-time donors in the systematic review. The systematic review identified the demographic factors and other factors that are associated with return behaviour in blood donors - first-time and repeat donors - across the globe. Shorter inter-donation interval, positive past donation history, a feeling of satisfaction, initial intention to return, and a convenient location to donate were associated with positive return behaviour in both settings. Adverse events, anxiety, and deferrals from donation reduced the likelihood of return in both settings. Sex and level of education showed varying effects on return behaviour in studies conducted in HICs and LMICs. Comparatively more studies reported older age as a predictor for return in HICs while younger donors were more likely to return in LMICs. Although the systematic review was not limited to studies specifically looking at age at first donation or studies conducted on first-time donors, I found the factors affecting return in both first-time and repeat donors were similar. The cohort study used donation data that was collected from 1 January 2007 to 31 March 2019. This study showed that donors who started donating at less than 30 years of age donated less frequently in the future than donors who started at 30 years or older. Donors who started to donate for the first time at middle age were shown to actively donating for a longer period of time. Additionally, women donated less frequently compared to men, but their return rate for at least one donation was higher compared to men. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that the recruitment of middle-aged donors is more effective in meeting the short- to mid-term demand for blood products in Australia. The cohort study could not detect whether young donors would continue to donate blood after reaching middle age due to the relatively short period of follow up. Further studies need to be conducted to better understand the factors contributing to the lower donation rate of younger donors in Australia. Future research could explore the motivational factors and barriers to blood donation in the Australian population, as well as measuring the incidence and impacts of adverse events and deferrals on future donations. A cohort study, with a much longer period of follow-up, will enable us to answer whether young donors will donate more often after reaching middle age. Efforts to identify barriers to donation in the Australian population especially in young donors will inform donor recruitment policies to target this population better.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (vii, 68 pages) illustration

Digital entrepreneurship: review, trajectory and practice

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 257-270.Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The research context: digital start-ups -- Chapter 3: Theoretical foundation -- Chapter 4: Research methodologies -- Chapter 5: Overview of research papers -- Chapter 6: Paper 1 - An integrative literature review on a decade of 'entrepreneuring research' -- Chapter 7: Paper 2 - Digital entrepreneurship: an interdisciplinary structured literature review and research agenda -- Chapter 8: Paper 3 - Digital entrepreneurship: long-term entrepreneurial journeys enabled by digital technologies -- Chapter 9: Paper 4 - New venture creation in digital entrepreneurship: a process model -- Chapter 10: Conclusion -- Appendices -- References.Digital start-ups have fundamentally transformed many industries and markets by digitising consumer routines and business services. Digital technologies, related business model innovations and mainstream use of digital applications have developed at a momentous and unrelenting speed. As a result, digital start-ups remain at the forefront of an ongoing global entrepreneurial movement. However, knowledge about digital start-ups is often fragmented across multiple academic disciplines and practice literature. Connections with existing entrepreneurship research perspectives remain tentative, research themes are yet to be fully developed, and the sub-contexts in which digital start-ups operate, remain to be identified more clearly. Claims that the characteristics of digital technologies impart uniqueness to the entrepreneurial process of digital start-ups remain to be comprehensively examined. Therefore, much remains to be understood about the digital entrepreneurial process, both at the firm level of new venture creation and the individual level of digital start-up founders. This thesis is based on four research papers that address the current needs in digital entrepreneurship research. The first two papers provide a review of the overall field of study - entrepreneurship, and the particular field of interest - digital entrepreneurship. Paper 1 anchors this project to some contemporary perspectives of entrepreneurship research by providing an integrative review of entrepreneurship research, with a focus on entrepreneurial process. 115 publications from the latest decade (2009-2019) are classified and synthesised to identify a spectrum of perspectives in five aggregate dimensions. Paper 2 consolidates digital entrepreneurship research by providing a multi- and interdisciplinary critical review of digital entrepreneurship literature comprising 133 publications. The paper distils key definitions, identifies sub-contexts and supplies a narrative of the field's stages of development. The paper further critiques and identifies the focus in research methodologies, contexts and entrepreneurship theory dimensions. A future research agenda of digital entrepreneurship is developed and used to map the field's trajectory. The remaining two papers present the findings of an exploratory multiple case study of the practice of 50 Australian digital start-up founders. Paper 3 proposes a stage-based 'Digital Entrepreneurial Journey' framework that explains why founders embark on entrepreneurial journeys involving digital technologies and the milestones of their long-term engagement with the field. This paper contributes a data-grounded understanding of digital start-up founders' motivation, behaviour and actions. Paper 4 studies the new venture creation process in digital start-ups. This study takes the narrower scope and level of a single new venture creation. A stage-based 'digital entrepreneurial process' framework is proposed, interwoven with an analysis of entrepreneurial decision-making logics underpinning the decisions and actions in each of the proposed process stages. This thesis makes an important contribution by consolidating digital entrepreneurship research and proposing links with the existing theoretical foundations, and particularly by discovering novel insights into why and how digital technologies implicate unique entrepreneurial processes and behaviours. In policy and practice, this study paves the path for improving mentoring and support programs targeting founders, and providing them with better entrepreneurial methods, training and education in new venture creations -- abstract.1 online resource (270 pages

Strengths, challenges, and learning strategies of students with dyslexia at Australian universities: An online mixed-methods survey

Mode of access: World Wide WebTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 66-77Chapter 1 : Introduction and context -- Chapter 2 : Research questions -- Chapter 3 : Literature review -- Chapter 4 : Methods -- Chapter 5 : Results -- Chapter 6 : Discussion -- Chapter 7 : ConclusionsDyslexia generally affects reading and spelling, but not intelligence (International Dyslexia Association, 2018). Students with dyslexia can succeed at university, but related challenges can affect wellbeing and attainment (Alexander-Passe, 2015; Mortimore & Crozier, 2006; Richardson, 2015). Research literature has described many potential strengths and learning strategies of students with dyslexia, which could help overcome challenges (MacCullagh et al., 2017; Pino & Mortari, 2014). However, few quantitative comparisons have been conducted between dyslexic and non-dyslexic groups, nor between different learning strategies. Thus, it is not known if university students with and without dyslexia differ significantly on academic strengths, challenges, or learning strategies. Nor is it known if students with dyslexia consider any specific strategies more helpful than other strategies. To begin resolving these uncertainties, an online mixed methods survey was conducted, recruiting 70 students with dyslexia formally assessed (D-A) and 58 non-dyslexic peers (ND) from Australian universities. Reported academic strengths were not found to differ significantly between groups. However, average difficulty ratings by the D-A group were significantly higher than for ND peers across all learning and assessment activities surveyed, except essay exams. The D-A and ND groups also differed significantly in usage proportions for some learning strategies, but not on average helpfulness ratings for any strategy. Ranking overall perceived helpfulness of learning strategies for D-A participants by combining usage proportions and average helpfulness ratings for this group indicated 'Reducing Contrast' as the highest ranked strategy, and 'Special Font' the lowest. These quantitative findings were supported by qualitative comments. University students with dyslexia can use evidence from this study when considering which learning strategies to implement. University staff, researchers, and policymakers can also use findings of this study to inform their decisions. Such applications of the study findings could ultimately improve wellbeing and success of university students with dyslexia.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (104 pages) illustration

Push and pull driven development in West Papua, Indonesia

Mode of access: World Wide WebTheoretical thesis.Bibliography pages 59-64INTRODUCTION -- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY -- RESULTS -- DISCUSSION -- CONCLUSSIONThe easternmost region of Indonesia, West Papua, has a long history of experimentations with governance and development, starting under the Netherlands and later under the Indonesian administration. Under the Dutch, development was used as a tool to decolonise West Papua and prepare Papuans for an independent state. Under Indonesian rule, development became an instrument of suppression and forced integration, eventually distancing many Papuans from the idea of Indonesian citizenship. More recently, Special Autonomy and administrative sub-division have been utilised by the government of Indonesia to deal with trauma, resentment and aspirations for independence. By constructing a development paradigm called push and pull-driven development, this thesis analyses the policy and development agenda carried out under the Dutch and the government of Indonesia. The key conclusions will then be used to formulate preliminary outlines of meaningful push and pull driven development, especially for the period after the end of the Special Autonomy Fund in 2021.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (64 pages

Explorations in Controlled Image Captioning

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 171-191Declaration -- Acknowledgements -- List of Publications -- Abstract -- List of Tables -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Background -- I Image Captioning using Emotional Content -- 3 Engagement Recognition using Facial Expression Analyses -- 4 Image Captioning using Facial Expression and Attention -- II Image Captioning with Stylistic Information -- 5 Towards Generating Stylized Image Captions via Adversarial Training -- 6 Senti-Attend: Image Captioning using Sentiment and Attention -- III Image Captioning of Adversarial Images -- 8 Conclusions and Future Work -- A Appendix -- ReferencesBenefiting from advances in machine vision and natural language processing, current image captioning systems are able to generate natural-sounding descriptions of source images. Most systems deal only with factual descriptions, although there are extensions where the captions are 'controlled', in the sense that they are directed to incorporate particular additional information, such as selected stylistic properties. This thesis seeks the understand and improve these controlled image captioning models, applying extra visually-grounded and non-grounded information. First, we target the emotional content of images as extra visually-grounded information, which is an important facet of human generated captions, to generate more descriptive image captions. Second, we target stylistic patterns as non-grounded information, which is an important property of written communication. Finally, as a more general instance of perturbing the input, we examine how image captions are affected by the injection of perturbations in the source image, introduced by adversarial attacks that we propose on an object detector. Specifically, the major contributions of the thesis are described as follows: We propose several novel image captioning models to incorporate emotional features that learned from an external dataset. Before applying the features for image captioning, we show the transferability and the effectiveness of the features for another task: automatic engagement recognition. For this, we propose a novel model for engagement recognition, initialized with the features, using our newly collected dataset. In the image captioning models, we specifically use one-hot encoding and attention-based representations of facial expressions present in images as our emotional features. We find that injecting facial features as a fixed one-hot encoding can lead to improved captions, with the best results if the injection is at the initial time step of an encoderdecoder architecture with a specific loss function to remember the encoding. An attention-based distributed representation at each time step provides the best results. We present several novel image captioning models using attention-based encoderdecoder architectures to generate image captions with style. Following previous work, our first kind of model is trained in a two-stage fashion: pretraining on a large factual dataset and then training on a stylistic dataset. For this, we design an adversarial training mechanism leading to generated captions that better match human references than previous work on the same dataset, and that are also stylistically diverse. Our second kind of model is trained in an end-to-end fashion, which incorporates both high-level and word-level embeddings representing stylistic information, and leads to the highest-scoring captions according to standard metrics; this end-to-end approach is an effective strategy for incorporating this kind of information. • We introduce a novel adversarial attack against Faster R-CNN, as a high performing and widely used object detector. Our version of Faster R-CNN is used in the state-of-the-art image captioning system to generate bounding boxes including detected objects present in the image. In contrast to existing attack that changes all bounding boxes, our attack aims to change the label of a particular detected object in both targeted and non-targeted scenarios, while preserving the labels of other detected objects; it achieves this aim with a high rate of success. In terms of understanding the effect of noise injection into the input, we find that although the injected perturbations that attack all bounding boxes or only a specific object type score similarly on standard visual perceptibility metrics, the impact on generated captions is dramatically different.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource ( 191 pages) illustration

Does seawall greening facilitate non-indigenous species?

Mode of access: InternetTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 53-691. Introduction -- 2. Material and Methods -- 3. Results -- 4. Discussion -- 5. Conclusion -- 6. References -- 7. Appendix.Artificial structures such as seawalls, typically support less biodiversity than the natural habitats they replace and can harbour non-indigenous species (NIS). Greening projects enhance biodiversity by adding complexity and surface area. It is, however, unclear to what extent they facilitate NIS. In one of the largest attempts to green seawalls through retrofitting, two 12m stretches were fitted with habitat enhancing concrete panels of six designs - five complex and one flat. Sampling of whole panels and the microhabitats within these were assessed as to - (1) whether colonisation of NIS was enhanced on the complex panels when compared to the flat panel, (2) whether there were particular designs and microhabitats that promoted NIS, and (3) whether colonisation patterns differed among tidal elevations. At high and mid intertidal elevations, the contribution of NIS to total abundance and richness was generally very small on both complex and flat panels. At the low intertidal elevation by contrast, NIS contributed approximately 75% sessile cover, 50% richness and were in some instances 50% more abundant and diverse in growth on the complex rather than flat panels. Within the panels, NIS were particularly abundant in moist, shaded microhabitats. Knowledge of these factors that promoted NIS colonisation will assist in designing future greening interventions that do not facilitate NIS.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (71 pages) ::b illustrations, ma

The international legal responsibility of UN peacekeepers to protect civilians against crimes in host states: challenges and prospects of prosecuting their failures and other criminal acts

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 273-301.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Roles and mandates of the UN Peacekeepers in host states -- Chapter 3. Obligations of the UN Peacekeepers to protect civilians under international humanitarian law -- Chapter 4. Failure of the UN Peacekeepers to protect civilians in host countries: case studies of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan -- Chapter 5. Failure to protect civilians as a crime under international criminal law -- Chapter 6. Prosecuting UN Peacekeepers who have immunity: current problems and future prospects -- Chapter 7. Conclusions and recommendations -- Bibliography.Throughout history, humanity has experienced, and is still suffering from, crimes committed during armed conflicts, which invariably make innocent and unarmed civilians the main victims. Of many other wartime sufferings endured by these civilians, their suffering caused by the failure of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations in the host states has become a daunting challenge for the UN. This problem has emerged after the failure of the UN peacekeeping forces to prevent genocides in Rwanda in 1994 and Srebrenica in 1995, which caused hundreds of thousands of civilian lives to be lost. Despite serious efforts by the UN and international community to resolve this problem, the commission of crimes against civilians, such as killings, rapes and sexual violence, and violations of their human rights, by some of the UN peacekeepers and local army and/or insurgents (third parties) remain serious problems. After decades of genocides, the UN peacekeepers are still failing to protect civilians under the UN peacekeeping mandates. Concrete measures are lacking to address the failure of the UN peacekeepers to prevent crimes against civilians in many UN peacekeeping operations. This thesis singles out and examines the failures of the UN-mandated peacekeeping missions to protect civilians from atrocity crimes committed by some of the UN peacekeeping personnel and third parties in the host states. In particular, it focuses on the UN peacekeeping operations in the Congo and South Sudan to analyse the reasons for their failures, which is the first step in determining whether the incidents of these crimes are deliberate neglect or the outcomes of inability to prevent their commission. These two case studies would help suggest a suitable strategy to prevent prospective offenders from targeting civilians and determine the jurisdictional gaps that must be bridged and the shortcomings of the UN peacekeeping operations to be addressed. These issues are critically analysed in a bid to answer the central research question of the thesis: How can UN peacekeeping operations be conducted more effectively to provide adequate civilian protection in the host states? The thesis explains the reasons that the protection of civilians during the UN peacekeeping operations is paramount and must be addressed urgently; the duties of UN peacekeeping forces and the reasons they go unpunished when they neglect their duty; and the legal steps required to establish an accountability regime within the UN. By way of improving the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, the thesis recommends some measures to be adopted, including (a) scrapping the impunity of the UN peacekeepers when they themselves commit crimes or deliberately neglect their duty to prevent the crimes being committed by third parties against civilians that they are mandated to protect; (b) examining whether their immunity can be waived to prosecute them if their failure is considered a crime; (c) criminalising their deliberate neglect as a crime of omission to ensure that the UN peacekeepers are aware that they will be held responsible for their own criminal conducts and for not preventing criminal activities against civilians by the third parties; (d) prescribing legal ways to criminalise the failure in duty as a crime of omission; and (e) establishing an independent judicial body with necessary jurisdiction to prosecute those responsible. The thesis purports to challenge the status quo of UN impunity for its peacekeeper perpetrators prevailing over justice to victims in an era when immunity is no defence against gross violation of human rights and dignity amounting to heinous crimes in international law -- abstract.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (xvi, 301 pages

Identifying effective evidence‐based strategies to promote sustainable and healthy diets

Mode of access: InternetTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 86-101.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Literature review -- Chapter 3. Identifying effective evidence‐based interventions to increase environmentally sustainable protein consumption: a systematic literature review -- Chapter 4. Exploring young Australians' understanding of sustainable and healthy diet: a qualitative study -- Chapter 5. Conclusion and future research -- References -- Appendices.Global food systems and our dietary behaviours have significant impact on health outcomes and environment. More specifically, they increase greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation of agricultural land, and the use of freshwater resources. Therefore, there is a need for whole food systems transformation to address these negative impacts. Although, there has been an increase in interventions developed to promote sustainable and healthy diets, there is no synthesised evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions and lack of research on people's understanding of sustainable and healthy diets. Therefore, this thesis aimed to address these gaps in the literature. This thesis consists of two research studies: 1) a systematic literature review which synthesised the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions aiming to promote sustainable protein intake; and 2) a qualitative study, which explored young Australian's understanding of sustainable diets and their efforts in achieving it. The first study was a systematic literature, which was conducted in accordance to PRISMA guidelines. The second study was a qualitative study, which used semi‐structured interviews to collect data. The systematic review included 50 studies which were categorised into individual and micro‐environmental level studies. The findings demonstrated reduction of unsustainable protein intake post intervention, mainly decrease in red and/or processed meat intake. However, there is a need for: i) longitudinal studies to see if the behaviour change sustains over time; ii) development of interventions targeting population without a risk factor or disease to investigate if these strategies are effective; and iii) further research is needed to test some micro‐environmental strategies in changing unsustainable protein intake. For the qualitative study, 22 young Australians (aged 18 to 25 year old) were recruited. Two thirds of participants were aware of some aspects of sustainable and healthy diets. Although, majority of participants showed an intention in practicing sustainable diets, less than half of them were practicing it due to barriers such as high costs, unavailability of sustainable and healthy food and low food literacy levels including cooking skills. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge on our understanding of implemented strategies to promote sustainable protein intake and young Australians' understanding of sustainable diets. It identified numerous barriers and enablers in promoting sustainable and healthy diets which could be used in development of effective health promotion interventions to improve health and environmental outcomes -- abstract.Mode of access: Internet.1 online resource (120 pages) illustration