One hat or many? A comparison of two models for the Copyright Officer position in university libraries

Statute law provides university libraries with a framework for copyright requirements, duties and privileges. In Australia, there are few guidelines or standards for university libraries about providing those copyright services that are not mandated by statute, such as copyright advice and compliance. There is little formally-shared knowledge about the non-statutory services provided by university library Copyright Officers. More information about this would benefit libraries reviewing or establishing these positions. This research uses survey and semi-structured face-to-face interviews with designated Copyright Officers in four Western Australian universities to document four aspects of their work. These four factors are interaction and support within the library and the institution; involvement in institutional copyright advice, involvement in institutional copyright compliance; and satisfaction with authority and resourcing. The survey and interviews revealed two different models for structuring the library Copyright Officer position; one model involving a part-time officer with responsibility only for copyright, and the other model involving a full-time officer who has only 5% of their duties involved in copyright with the remainder of the copyright duties being managed by a member of the university legal / governance office. Similarities were found between the activities of both models, such as the strategies involved in ensuring copyright compliance, and education and training sessions. There was agreement from all respondents that copyright compliance within their institution could be improved by an increase in the resources available to each position

Abjection and the Maternal Body: Rethinking Kristeva and Phenomenology

The thesis considers how the sacred, understood in the radical Durkheimian tradition, shapes the phenomenological experience of pregnancy. Julia Kristeva viewed maternity as the meeting of culture and nature, and between subject and other. Maternity is the point where biological reproduction and social reproduction meet. By examining the sociological and phenomenological aspects of Julia Kristeva’s work and supplementing them with radical Durkheimian and feminist discourse, I argue that the image of the Virgin, sustained through the sacred, creates an alienating experience of pregnancy and diminishes the ability to experience the semiotic in corporeal experiences and transgressive acts. While Kristeva begins an analytic of the sacred, referring to its duality, she misses the nuances of the social, the sacred, and irrationality articulated in Georges Bataille’s work on which she draws. By using Bataille’s underexplored concepts such as the sacred, sacrifice, experience and the irrational, we are able to develop his phenomenological sensibilities, using them to supplement Kristeva’s more psychoanalytic approach. Powerful irrationalities of social life are frequently structured by the dynamics of liminality, abjection and sacrosanct principles. Moreover, the sacred is not the sole experience and there is experience outside discourse. Pain, for example, has a foremost corporeal base, though it may at times be mediated by discourse. By combining Bataille’s radical Durkheimian phenomenology of the sacred, and Kristeva’s psychoanalytic cultural theory, a more adequate social analysis of the pregnant body is articulated

Efficient and Effective Classroom Phonological Awareness Practices to Improve Reading Achievement

International studies of reading achievement demonstrate that significant inequalities in reading outcomes continue to exist among some of the world’s wealthiest countries, despite strong investment in initiatives directed towards raising literacy achievement for all children (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation—UNESCO, 2009; United Nations Children’s Fund—UNICEF, 2010). One approach towards the elevation of reading achievement is to investigate how key predictors of reading success are incorporated into everyday classroom literacy practices. Phonological awareness (PA) is widely recognised as a powerful predictor and underlying precursor to early reading success for both typically developing and at-risk readers (Al Otaiba, Kosanovich, & Torgesen, 2012; Blachman, Ball, Black, & Tangel, 2000; Goswami, 2001; Pressley, 2006). A majority of research demonstrating the benefits of PA to literacy growth has been conducted under controlled research settings outside of the classroom environment (Ehri, Nunes, Willows, Schuster, Yaghoub-Zadeh, & Shanahan, 2001; Gillon, 2000a, 2005; Gillon & McNeill, 2009), and thus less is known about whether such benefits hold true when integrated into the heterogeneous classroom setting. For this reason, four experiments reported in this thesis investigated whether PA can be efficiently and effectively integrated into the classroom literacy programme with the overarching aim of raising reading achievement and equalising reading outcomes for the majority of children in the first year of formal education. In the first experiment (reported in Chapter 3), time-efficiency and congruency of scores between a computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool (described in Chapter 2) and a paper-based equivalent were examined. Thirty-three children aged between four years 10 months and five years zero months participated in the study, 12 of whom presented with moderate-severe speech delay (MSD). Participants were randomly allocated to either Group A or Group B experimental assessment conditions. A crossover research design was employed where Group A received the paper-based version of the PA assessment followed two weeks later by the equivalent computer-based assessment (CBA). Group B received the same assessments but in the reverse order of delivery. That is, the computer-based PA assessment first followed two weeks later by the paper-based counterpart. Results demonstrated that: 1) the CBA generated comparable scores to the paper-based equivalent for both children with typical development and children with MSD, and 2) CBA took 31 per cent less time than paper-based administration. These results demonstrate that CBA can provide educators with a time-efficient approach to the screening and monitoring of PA development in the classroom while maintaining equivalency of scores with paper-based testing. Having established the time-efficiency of CBA, the next step was to investigate the use of the computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool as part of the beginning classroom reading programme. In the second experiment (reported in Chapter 4), the influence of a short and intensive period of teacher-implemented classroom PA instruction on reading outcomes in the first year of education was investigated. One-hundred and twenty-nine children aged five-years participated in the study. Using a quasi-experimental design, thirty-four children in two classrooms received 10 weeks of PA instruction from their teachers, as an adjunct to the ‘usual’ reading programme. Ninety-five children from 10 classrooms continued with the ‘usual’ reading programme, which included phonics instruction but did not target PA. Results demonstrated that children exposed to classroom PA instruction performed significantly higher on reading and spelling measures compared to children who received the ‘usual’ reading programme only. Of importance, the number of children experiencing word decoding difficulties after one year of schooling reduced from 26 per cent among children who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme to 6 per cent among children who received classroom PA instruction. These results provide evidence that a short and intensive period of classroom-wide PA instruction in the first year of schooling can have a positive influence on raising reading achievement. In the third experiment (reported in Chapter 5), the effect of classroom PA instruction on raising reading achievement and reducing inequality in literacy outcomes for children with spoken language impairment (SLI) was examined. The data from 129 five-year-old children who participated in the second experiment were extracted and analysed. End-of-year reading outcomes between children with SLI who received classroom PA instruction (n = 7) was compared to: 1) children with typical language development (TD) who received classroom PA instruction (n = 27), 2) children with SLI who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme (n = 21), and 3) children with TD who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme (n = 74). Children with SLI who received classroom PA instruction showed significant improvements in PA, reading and spelling acquisition immediately and up to six months following PA instruction. However, this cohort, in comparison to children with TD, appeared less able to transfer their enhanced PA knowledge to reading and writing tasks. Of importance, children with SLI who received PA instruction performed significantly higher than children with SLI who followed the ‘usual’ reading curriculum; and on par with children with TD who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme. Children with TD who received classroom PA instruction significantly outperformed all other cohorts in this experiment on end-of year reading measures. These results indicate that both children with TD and children with risk for reading difficulties can benefit from classroom-wide teacher-directed PA instruction. These findings have positive implications for elevating reading achievement and reducing inequality between good and poor readers. In the fourth experiment (reported in Chapter 6), the validity and reliability of the computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool was investigated and established. Using a longitudinal research design, the responses of 95 children to test items in the CBA at the start, middle and end of the first year at school were collated and analysed to provide evidence of content, construct and criterion validity, in addition to test-retest and internal consistency reliability. A number of statistical analyses were employed including Rasch Model analysis, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results demonstrated that the majority of test items were appropriate for five-year-old children in the first year of school and sampled a spectrum of ability levels that would be present in a typical classroom environment. Rhyme oddity, initial phoneme identity and letter-knowledge tasks were most appropriate at school-entry while tasks of final phoneme identity, phoneme blending and phoneme segmentation became more suitable by the middle and end stages of the first year at school. Importantly, performance on the CBA predicted end-of-year reading status with 94 per cent accuracy, and in conjunction with language abilities accounted for 68.9 per cent of the variance in end-of-year reading performance. These findings indicate that the computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool developed and applied in this thesis has sufficient validity and reliability to be used confidently as a time-efficient assessment tool in the classroom. The results from the experiments reported in this thesis provide evidence that PA can be efficiently and effectively integrated into the beginning classroom reading programme from two complementary perspectives: 1) through use of computer-based screening and monitoring of PA skills, and 2) through implementation of a short and intensive period of teacher-directed classroom-wide PA instruction. The results reported in this thesis demonstrate that the evidenced-based integration of key predictors of literacy success, such as PA, into existing classroom programmes can support national and international initiatives that seek to raise reading achievement and reduce inequalities in literacy outcomes for all children

Fibre laser treatment of martensitic NiTi alloys for load-bearing implant applications: Effects of surface chemistry on inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation

Biofilm infection is one of the main reasons for implant failure. It is extremely difficult to cure due to its high resistance to antibiotic treatments, and can result in substantial healthcare costs. In this study, the important shape memory NiTi alloy, in its martensitic state, was laser-treated using our newly-developed surface modification technique, aiming to tackle the biofilm infection problem. Martensitic NiTi was chosen for investigation because of its potential advantages in terms of (i) lower elastic modulus and (ii) higher damping capacity over its austenitic counterpart, giving rise to a lower risk of stress shielding and maximum stress between bones and load-bearing implants. The surfaces after laser treatment were systemically analysed using a series of surface measurement (i.e. surface roughness and water contact angle) and material characterisation (i.e. SEM-EDX, XRD and XPS) techniques. The antibacterial performance of the laser-treated surfaces was evaluated using the Staphylococcus aureus (or S. aureus) cells in-vitro cultured at 37 oC for 24h. Fluorescence microscopy accompanied by Live/Dead staining was employed to analyse the cell culture results. The surfaces in their as-received states and after polishing were also tested and compared with the laser-treated surfaces in order to gain a deeper insight in how different surface conditions would influence biofilm formation. Our results indicate that the surfaces after laser treatment can mitigate bacterial attachment and biofilm formation effectively. The antibacterial performance was mainly attributable to the laser-formed oxides which brought desirable changes to the surface chemistry of NiTi. The laser-induced changes in surface roughness and topography, on a micrometre scale, only played a minor role in influencing bacterial attachment. The findings of this study demonstrated for the first time that martensitic NiTi with laser treatment could be a promising choice for the next-generation implants given its superior antimicrobial resistance and favourable mechanical properties for loading bearing applications

A review of new challenges and solutions to the timely and effective implementation of clinical research responses to high priority diseases of epidemic and pandemic potential: a scoping review protocol

Background: Conducting and implementing clinical research response during pandemic and epidemic diseases outbreaks are often fraught with challenges due to their unprecedented nature. In previous research, challenges to the implementation of clinical research responses during pandemic and epidemic outbreaks were identified and solutions suggested. While the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has, on one hand, highlighted new and unresolved challenges, several novel solutions such as the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial were also implemented and reported in the literature. This scoping review, therefore, aims to synthesise and update solutions to the barriers affecting the implementation of clinical research responses during new, emerging or re-emerging diseases of pandemic and epidemic potential, to further inform strategies that would enhance pandemic and epidemic preparedness and response. Methods: This scoping review will be conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis- Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Search will be conducted in six scientific databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Global Health, OVID PsycINFO, Ovid Embase, Scopus Epistemonikos, and complemented by a grey literature search in Google Scholar. Terms related to clinical trial, high consequence infectious diseases and the PEARLES domains will be used in the search. Two reviewers will independently screen retrieved articles in Rayyan software. Descriptive data of studies will be extracted into a pre-developed Microsoft Excel template while qualitative data related to the PEARLES solutions or barriers will be coded in NVivo. Results will be synthesised thematically and presented in a narrative style. Conclusions: This scoping review will synthesise new and updated solutions to the PEARLES challenges encountered during the implementation of clinical research responses to high consequence epidemics and pandemics. Furthermore, it will examine how challenges and proposed solutions identified prior to the emergence of Covid-19 have been addressed and tested in real time

Anti-Adherent Biomaterials for Prevention of Catheter Biofouling

Medical device-associated infections present a leading global healthcare challenge, and effective strategies to prevent infections are urgently required. Herein, we present an innovative anti-adherent hydrogel copolymer as a candidate catheter coating with complementary hydrophobic drug-carrying and eluting capacities. The amphiphilic block copolymer, Poloxamer 188, was chemically-derivatized with methacryloyl moieties and copolymerized with the hydrogel monomer, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate. Performance of the synthesized copolymers was evaluated in terms of equilibrium swelling, surface water wettability, mechanical integrity, resistance to encrustation and bacterial adherence, and ability to control release of the loaded fluoroquinolone antibiotic, ofloxacin. The developed matrices were able to provide significant protection from fouling, with observed reductions of over 90% in both adherence of the common urinary pathogen Escherichia coli and encrusting crystalline deposits of calcium and magnesium salts relative to the commonly employed hydrogel, poly (hydroxyethyl methacrylate). Additionally, the release kinetics of a loaded hydrophobic drug could be readily tuned through facile manipulation of polymer composition. This combinatorial approach shows significant promise in the development of suitable systems for prevention of catheter-associated infections

Probing sporadic and familial Alzheimer's disease using induced pluripotent stem cells.

Our understanding of Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis is currently limited by difficulties in obtaining live neurons from patients and the inability to model the sporadic form of the disease. It may be possible to overcome these challenges by reprogramming primary cells from patients into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here we reprogrammed primary fibroblasts from two patients with familial Alzheimer's disease, both caused by a duplication of the amyloid-β precursor protein gene (APP; termed APP(Dp)), two with sporadic Alzheimer's disease (termed sAD1, sAD2) and two non-demented control individuals into iPSC lines. Neurons from differentiated cultures were purified with fluorescence-activated cell sorting and characterized. Purified cultures contained more than 90% neurons, clustered with fetal brain messenger RNA samples by microarray criteria, and could form functional synaptic contacts. Virtually all cells exhibited normal electrophysiological activity. Relative to controls, iPSC-derived, purified neurons from the two APP(Dp) patients and patient sAD2 exhibited significantly higher levels of the pathological markers amyloid-β(1-40), phospho-tau(Thr 231) and active glycogen synthase kinase-3β (aGSK-3β). Neurons from APP(Dp) and sAD2 patients also accumulated large RAB5-positive early endosomes compared to controls. Treatment of purified neurons with β-secretase inhibitors, but not γ-secretase inhibitors, caused significant reductions in phospho-Tau(Thr 231) and aGSK-3β levels. These results suggest a direct relationship between APP proteolytic processing, but not amyloid-β, in GSK-3β activation and tau phosphorylation in human neurons. Additionally, we observed that neurons with the genome of one sAD patient exhibited the phenotypes seen in familial Alzheimer's disease samples. More generally, we demonstrate that iPSC technology can be used to observe phenotypes relevant to Alzheimer's disease, even though it can take decades for overt disease to manifest in patients