The suitability of non-target native mangroves for the survival and development of the lantana bug Aconophora compressa, an introduced weed biological control agent

Aconophora compressa (Hemiptera: Membracidae), a biological control agent introduced against the weed Lantana camara (Verbenaceae) in Australia, has since been observed on several non-target plant species, including native mangrove Avicennia marina (Acanthaceae). In this study we evaluated the suitability of two native mangroves, A. marina and Aegiceras corniculatum (Myrsinaceae), for the survival and development of A. compressa through no-choice field cage studies. The longevity of females was significantly higher on L. camara (57.7 ± 3.8 days) than on A. marina (43.3 ± 3.3 days) and A. corniculatum (45.7 ± 3.8 days). The proportion of females laying eggs was highest on L. camara (72%) followed by A. marina (36%) and A. corniculatum (17%). More egg batches per female were laid on L. camara than on A. marina and A. corniculatum. Though more nymphs per shoot emerged on L. camara (29.9 ± 2.8) than on A. marina (13 ± 4.8) and A. corniculatum (10 ± 5.3), the number of nymphs that developed through to adults was not significantly different. The duration of nymphal development was longer on A. marina (67 ± 5.8 days) than on L. camara (48 ± 4 days) and A. corniculatum (43 ± 4.6 days). The results, which are in contrast to those from previous glasshouse and quarantine trials, provide evidence that A. compressa adults can survive, lay eggs and complete nymphal development on the two non-target native mangroves in the field under no-choice condition.

Exploring the experiences and conceptions of good teaching in higher education : Development of a questionnaire for assessing students' approaches to learning and experiences of the teaching-learning environment

The aim of this dissertation was to adapt a questionnaire for assessing students’ approaches to learning and their experiences of the teaching-learning environment. The aim was to explore the validity of the modified Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ) by examining how the instruments measure the underlying dimensions of student experiences and their learning. The focus was on the relation between students’ experiences of their teaching-learning environment and their approaches to learning. Moreover, the relation between students’ experiences and students’ and teachers’ conceptions of good teaching was examined. In Study I the focus was on the use of the ETLQ in two different contexts: Finnish and British. The study aimed to explore the similarities and differences between the factor structures that emerged from both data sets. The results showed that the factor structures concerning students’ experiences of their teaching-learning environment and their approaches to learning were highly similar in the two contexts. Study I also examined how students’ experiences of the teaching-learning environment are related to their approaches to learning in the two contexts. The results showed that students’ positive experiences of their teaching-learning environment were positively related to their deep approach to learning and negatively to the surface approach to learning in both the Finnish and British data sets. This result was replicated in Study II, which examined the relation between approaches to learning and experiences of the teaching-learning environment on a group level. Furthermore, Study II aimed to explore students’ approaches to learning and their experiences of the teaching-learning environment in different disciplines. The results showed that the deep approach to learning was more common in the soft sciences than in the hard sciences. In Study III, students’ conceptions of good teaching were explored by using qualitative methods, more precisely, by open-ended questions. The aim was to examine students’ conceptions, disciplinary differences and their relation to students’ approaches to learning. The focus was on three disciplines, which differed in terms of students’ experiences of their teaching-learning environment. The results showed that students’ conceptions of good teaching were in line with the theory of good teaching and there were disciplinary differences in their conceptions. Study IV examined university teachers’ conceptions of good teaching, which corresponded to the learning-focused approach to teaching. Furthermore, another aim in this doctoral dissertation was to compare the students’ and teachers’ conceptions of good teaching, the results of which showed that these conceptions appear to have similarities. The four studies indicated that the ETLQ appears to be a sufficiently robust measurement instrument in different contexts. Moreover, its strength is its ability to be at the same time a valid research instrument and a practical tool for enhancing the quality of students’ learning. In addition, the four studies emphasise that in order to enhance teaching and learning in higher education, various perspectives have to be taken into account. This study sheds light on the interaction between students’ approaches to learning, their conceptions of good teaching, their experiences of the teaching-learning environment, and finally, the disciplinary culture.

Lionhearts of the Playworld : An ethnographic case study of the development of agency in play pedagogy

This is an ethnographic case study of the creation and emergence of a playworld – a pedagogical approach aimed at promoting children’s development and learning in early education settings through the use of play and drama. The data was collected in a Finnish experimental mixed-age elementary school classroom in the school year 2003-2004. In the playworld students and teachers explore different social and cultural phenomena through taking on the roles of characters from a story or a piece of literature and acting inside the frames of an improvised plot. The thesis takes under scrutiny the notion of agency in education. It produces theoretically grounded empirical knowledge of the ways in which children struggle to become recognized and agentive actors in early education settings and how their agency develops in their interaction with adults. The study builds on the activity theoretical and sociocultural tradition and develops a methodological framework called video-based narrative interaction analysis for studying student agency as developing over time but manifesting through the situational material and discursive local interactions. The research questions are: 1. What are the children’s ways of enacting their agency in the playworld? 2. How do the children’s agentive actions change and develop over the spring? 3. What are the potentials and challenges of the playworld for promoting student agency? 4. How do the teachers and the children deal with the contradiction between control and agency in the playworld? The study consists of a summary part and four empirical articles which each have a particular viewpoint. Articles I and II deal with individual students’ paths to agency. In Article I the focus is on the role of resistance and questioning in enabling important spaces for agency. Article II takes a critical gender perspective and analyzes how two girls struggled towards recognition in the playworld. It also illuminates the role of imagination in developing a sense of agency. Article III examines how the open-ended and improvisational nature of the playworld interaction provided experiences and a sense of ‘shared agency’ for the students and teachers in the class. Article IV turns the focus on the teachers and analyzes how their role actions in the playworld helped the children to enact agency. It also discusses the challenges that the teachers faced in this work and asks what makes the playworld activity sustainable in the class. The summary part provides a critical literature review on the concept of agency and argues that the inherently contradictory nature of the phenomenon of agency has not been sufficiently theorized. The summary part also locates the playworld intervention in a historical frame by discussing the changing conceptions of adulthood and childhood in the West. By focusing on the changing role of play and art in both adults’ and children’s contemporary lives, the thesis opens up an important but often neglected perspective on the problem of promoting student agency in education. The results illustrate how engaging in a collectively imagined and dramatized pretend play space together with the children enabled the teachers to momentarily put aside their “knower” positions in the classroom. The fictive roles and the narrative plot helped them to create a necessary incompleteness and open-endedness in the activity that stimulated the children’s initiatives. This meant that the children too could momentarily step out of their traditional classroom positions as pupils and initiate action to further the collective play. Engaging in this kind of unconventional activity and taking up and enacting agency was, however, very challenging for the participating children and teachers. It often contradicted the need to sustain control and order in the classroom. The study concludes that play- and drama-based pedagogies offer a unique but undeveloped potential for developing educational spaces that help teachers and children deal with the often contradictory requirements of schooling.

Language in Acquisition : Early Lexical Development and Associations between Lexicon and Grammar Findings from Full-Term and Very-Low-Birth-Weight Finnish Children

The aim was to analyse the growth and compositional development of the receptive and expressive lexicons between the ages 0,9 and 2;0 in the full-term (FT) and the very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) children who are acquiring Finnish. The associations between the expressive lexicon and grammar at 1;6 and 2;0 in the FT children were also studied. In addition, the language skills of the VLBW children at 2;0 were analysed, as well as the predictive value of early lexicon to the later language performance. Four groups took part in the studies: the longitudinal (N = 35) and cross-sectional (N = 146) samples of the FT children, and the longitudinal (N = 32) and cross-sectional (N = 66) samples of VLBW children. The data was gathered by applying of the structured parental rating method (the Finnish version of the Communicative Development Inventory), through analysis of the children´s spontaneous speech and by administering a a formal test (Reynell Developmental Language Scales). The FT children acquired their receptive lexicons earlier, at a faster rate and with larger individual variation than their expressive lexicons. The acquisition rate of the expressive lexicon increased from slow to faster in most children (91%). Highly parallel developmental paths for lexical semantic categories were detected in the receptive and expressive lexicons of the Finnish children when they were analysed in relation to the growth of the lexicon size, as described in the literature for children acquiring other languages. The emergence of grammar was closely associated with expressive lexical growth. The VLBW children acquired their receptive lexicons at a slower rate and had weaker language skills at 2;0 than the full-term children. The compositional development of both lexicons happened at a slower rate in the VLBW children when compared to the FT controls. However, when the compositional development was analysed in relation to the growth of lexicon size, this development occurred qualitatively in a nearly parallel manner in the VLBW children as in the FT children. Early receptive and expressive lexicon sizes were significantly associated with later language skills in both groups. The effect of the background variables (gender, length of the mother s basic education, birth weight) on the language development in the FT and the VLBW children differed. The results provide new information of early language acquisition by the Finnish FT and VLBW children. The results support the view that the early acquisition of the semantic lexical categories is related to lexicon growth. The current findings also propose that the early grammatical acquisition is closely related to the growth of expressive vocabulary size. The language development of the VLBW children should be followed in clinical work.

The effect of a self-development coaching program on the psychological health and the academic performance among medical and dental students in Saudi Arabia

Observational studies have shown that medical and dental students have poor psychological health worldwide; however, few interventional studies have been used to test approaches to help students. This thesis used a randomised control trial study design to evaluate the effect of a self-development coaching program on psychological health and the academic performance among medical and dental students in Saudi Arabia. The outcomes indicated that these medical and dental students in Saudi Arabia experienced high levels of depression, anxiety and stress, and that the self-development coaching program was a promising intervention to improve students' psychological health.

Design and Development of an In-Vehicle Human Machine Interface to Improve Fuel Efficiency & Safety

Road transport plays a significant role in various industries and mobility services around the globe and has a vital impact on our daily lives. However it also has serious impacts on both public health and the environment. In-vehicle feedback systems are a relatively new approach to encouraging driver behaviour change for improving fuel efficiency and safety in automotive environments. While many studies claim that the adoption of eco-driving practices, such as eco-driving training programs and in-vehicle feedback to drivers, has the potential to improve fuel efficiency, limited research has integrated safety and eco-driving. Therefore, this research seeks to use human factors related theories and practices to inform the design and evaluation of an in-vehicle Human Machine Interface (HMI) providing real-time driver feedback with the aim of improving both fuel efficiency and safety.

Development of an EMR implementation framework for public hospitals in Saudi Arabia

An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is a system that has been embraced by healthcare providers worldwide. However, the implementation success of EMRs has varied widely. Studies have identified both barriers to and facilitators for implementing EMRs within healthcare organisations. In Saudi Arabia (SA), the majority of healthcare providers manage patient records manually. As public hospitals are a major provider of health services in SA and have been shown to face more EMR implementation barriers than private hospitals, there is a need for an implementation framework to guide EMR implementation in Saudi public hospitals. This doctoral project therefore aimed to develop an evidence-based EMR implementation framework for public hospitals in SA informed by those who work at the micro-implementation level and the macro-implementation level and the extant literature sensitive to the cultural, resource-related, and technological, organisational, and environmental issues of SA.

Horsing around – Using equine facilitated learning to support the development of social-emotional competence of students at risk of school failure

The social-emotional issues some students experience can place them at risk of school failure. Traditional methods of support can be ineffective or not sustainable and new alternative approaches need to be attempted to support social-emotional competency, school engagement and success for students at risk. This paper discusses preliminary outcomes of an equine facilitated learning (EFL) programme specifically designed to focus on using horses to improve the resilience and social-emotional competency in students perceived as ‘at risk’ of school failure. This qualitative exploratory study used interviews and observations over a six month period to listen to the voices of the students themselves about their experiences of EFL. Initial findings from the pilot study suggest that EFL programmes can be a novel and motivating way to promote resilience training and social-emotional development of students at risk of failure and, in turn, improve their level of engagement and connection with school environments.

Emotional intelligence development in student radiation therapists: A longitudinal pilot study

Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as “the ability to recognise, understand and manage emotions in ourselves and others” [1]. Initially identified as a concept applied to leadership and management, EI is now recognised as an important skill in a number of areas, including healthcare [2]. Empathy (the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes) is known to play an important role in the therapeutic relationship with patients [3]. As EI has been shown to improve empathy [4], it is clear that developing the EI of student health professionals should benefit patients in the long term. It is not surprising, then, that a number of studies have investigated the role of EI in medical, dental and nursing students, however there is little reported evidence relating to EI development in pre-registration radiation therapy (RT) students.

The development of a component to improve the loading safety of bone-anchored prostheses

Use of socket prostheses Currently, for individuals with limb loss, the conventional method of attaching a prosthetic limb relies on a socket that fits over the residual limb. However, there are a number of issues concerning the use of a socket (e.g., blisters, irritation, and discomfort) that result in dissatisfaction with socket prostheses, and these lead ultimately a significant decrease in quality of life. Bone-anchored prosthesis Alternatively, the concept of attaching artificial limbs directly to the skeletal system has been developed (bone anchored prostheses), as it alleviates many of the issues surrounding the conventional socket interface.Bone anchored prostheses rely on two critical components: the implant, and the percutaneous abutment or adapter, which forms the connection for the external prosthetic system (Figure 1). To date, an implant that screws into the long bone of the residual limb has been the most common intervention. However, more recently, press-fit implants have been introduced and their use is increasing. Several other devices are currently at various stages of development, particularly in Europe and the United States. Benefits of bone-anchored prostheses Several key studies have demonstrated that bone-anchored prostheses have major clinical benefits when compared to socket prostheses (e.g., quality of life, prosthetic use, body image, hip range of motion, sitting comfort, ease of donning and doffing, osseoperception (proprioception), walking ability) and acceptable safety, in terms of implant stability and infection. Additionally, this method of attachment allows amputees to participate in a wide range of daily activities for a substantially longer duration. Overall, the system has demonstrated a significant enhancement to quality of life. Challenges of direct skeletal attachment However, due to the direct skeletal attachment, serious injury and damage can occur through excessive loading events such as during a fall (e.g., component damage, peri-prosthetic fracture, hip dislocation, and femoral head fracture). These incidents are costly (e.g., replacement of components) and could require further surgical interventions. Currently, these risks are limiting the acceptance of bone-anchored technology and the substantial improvement to quality of life that this treatment offers. An in-depth investigation into these risks highlighted a clear need to re-design and improve the componentry in the system (Figure 2), to improve the overall safety during excessive loading events. Aim and purposes The ultimate aim of this doctoral research is to improve the loading safety of bone-anchored prostheses, to reduce the incidence of injury and damage through the design of load restricting components, enabling individuals fitted with the system to partake in everyday activities, with increased security and self-assurance. The safety component will be designed to release or ‘fail’ external to the limb, in a way that protects the internal bone-implant interface, thus removing the need for restorative surgery and potential damage to the bone. This requires detailed knowledge of the loads typically experienced by the limb and an understanding of potential overload situations that might occur. Hence, a comprehensive review of the loading literature surrounding bone anchored prostheses will be conducted as part of this project, with the potential for additional experimental studies of the loads during normal activities to fill in gaps in the literature. This information will be pivotal in determining the specifications for the properties of the safety component, and the bone-implant system. The project will follow the Stanford Biodesign process for the development of the safety component.

1H and 19F NMR relaxation time studies in (NH4)2ZrF6 superionic conductor

1H and 19F spin-lattice relaxation times in polycrystalline diammonium hexafluorozirconate have been measured in the temperature range of 10–400 K to elucidate the molecular motion of both cation and anion. Interesting features such as translational diffusion at higher temperatures, molecular reorientational motion of both cation and anion groups at intermediate temperatures and quantum rotational tunneling of the ammonium group at lower temperatures have been observed. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation time results correlate well with the NMR second moment and conductivity studies reported earlier.

Development and feasibility testing of an education program to improve knowledge and self-care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients with heart failure

Background/Aim There is a 70% higher age-adjusted incidence of heart failure (HF) amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, three times more hospitalisations and twice as many deaths than non-Aboriginal people. There is a need to develop holistic yet individualised approaches in accord with the values of Aboriginal community healthcare to support patient education and self-care. The aim of this study was to re-design an existing HF educational resource (Fluid Watchers-Pacific Rim©) to be culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, working in collaboration with the local community, and to conduct feasibility testing. Methods This study was conducted in two phases and utilised a mixed methods approach (qualitative and quantitative). Phase 1 of this study used action research methods to develop a culturally safe electronic resource to be provided to Aboriginal HF patients via a tablet computer. A HF expert panel adapted the existing resource to ensure it was evidence-based and contained appropriate language and images that reflects Aboriginal culture. A stakeholder group (which included Aboriginal workers and HF patients, as well as researchers and clinicians) then reviewed the resources and changes were made accordingly. In Phase 2, the new resource was tested on a sample of Aboriginal HF patients to assess feasibility and acceptability. Patient knowledge, satisfaction and self-care behaviours were measured using a before and after design with validated questionnaires. As this was a pilot test to determine feasibility, no statistical comparisons were made. Results - Phase 1: Throughout the process of resource development, two main themes emerged from the stakeholder consultation. These were the importance of identity, meaning that it was important to ensure that the resource accurately reflected the local community, with the appropriate clothing, skin tone and voice. The resource was adapted to reflect this and of the local community voiced the recordings for the resource. The other theme was comprehension; images were important and all text was converted to the first person and used plain language. - Phase 2: Five Aboriginal participants, mean age 61.6 ± 10.0 years, with NYHA Class III and IV heart failure were enrolled. Participants reported a high level of satisfaction with the resource (83.0%). HF knowledge (percentage of correct responses) increased from 48.0 ± 6.7% to 58.0 ± 9.7%, a 20.8% increase and results of the self-care index indicated that the biggest change was in patient confidence for self-care with a 95% increase in confidence score (46.7 ± 16.0 to 91.1 ± 11.5). Changes in management and maintenance scores varied between9275 patients. Conclusion By working in collaboration with HF experts, Aboriginal researchers and patients, a culturally safe HF resource has been developed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. Engaging Aboriginal researchers, capacity-building, and being responsive to local systems and structures enabled this pilot study to be successfully completed with the Aboriginal community and positive participant feedback demonstrated that the methodology used in this study was appropriate and acceptable; participants were able to engage with willingness and confidence.

Development of microdevices for proteome research and diagnosis

The basic goal of a proteomic microchip is to achieve efficient and sensitive high throughput protein analyses, automatically carrying out several measurements in parallel. A protein microchip would either detect a single protein or a large set of proteins for diagnostic purposes, basic proteome or functional analysis. Such analyses would include e.g. interactomics, general protein expression studies, detecting structural alterations or secondary modifications. Visualization of the results may occur by simple immunoreactions, general or specific labelling, or mass spectrometry. For this purpose we have manufactured chip-based proteome analysis devices that utilize the classical polymer gel electrophoresis technology to run one and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis separations of proteins in just a smaller size. In total, we manufactured three functional prototypes of which one performed a miniaturized one-dimensional gel electrophoresis (1-DE) separation, the second and third preformed two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) separations. These microchips were successfully used to separate and characterize a set of predefined standard proteins, cell and tissue samples. Also, the miniaturized 2-DE (ComPress-2DE) chip presents a novel way of combining the 1st and 2nd dimensional separations, thus avoiding manual handling of the gels, eliminate cross-contamination, and make analyses faster and repeatability better. They all showed the advantages of miniaturization over the commercial devices; such as fast analysis, low sample- and reagent consumption, high sensitivity, high repeatability and inexpensive performance. All these instruments have the potential to be fully automated due to their easy-to-use set-up.

Blood pressure lowering effects of Lactobacillus helveticus fermented milk containing bioactive peptides Ile-Pro-Pro and Val-Pro-Pro; mechanistic, kinetic and clinical studies

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of Lactobacillus helveticus fermented milk (peptide milk) containing the casein-derived tripeptides Isoleucyl-prolyl-proline (Ile-Pro-Pro) and Valyl-prolyl-proline (Val-Pro-Pro) on blood pressure and vascular function in hypertensive subjects. The peptide milk lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure in long-term use in hypertensive subjects when blood pressure was measured by using 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM). The blood pressure lowering effect was seen with the dose of 50 mg of tripeptides, and a tendency for lowering blood pressure was also observed when the dose was 5 mg. No adverse effects compared to the placebo group were reported or detected in laboratory analysis. The effect of the peptide milk on arterial stiffness was shown using two different methods, the ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI) and pulse wave analysis (PWA). According to the AASI, arterial stiffness was significantly reduced in the peptide milk group compared to the baseline level, but the difference was not significant compared to the placebo group. PWA showed that the peptide milk reduced arterial stiffness significantly compared to the placebo group. Endothelium-independent relaxation (nitroglycerin) and endothelium-dependent relaxation (salbutamol) did not differ between the groups. The blood pressure lowering mechanisms of the tripeptides and the kinetics of Ile-Pro-Pro were investigated using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Sprague-Dawley rats. Previous studies have suggested that the blood pressure lowering effect of the tripeptides Ile-Pro-Pro and Val-Pro-Pro is based on angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition, but the present findings did not agree with these previous studies. It was shown in SHR that calcium, potassium and magnesium may also have an important role in attenuating the development of hypertension as part of the peptide milk effect. In addition, the present study suggests indirectly that improved endothelial nitric oxide release capacity is not the mechanism by which peptide milk mediates its favourable circulatory effects. The kinetics of Ile-Pro-Pro were studied using adult Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that orally administered Ile-Pro-Pro is absorbed at least partly intact from the gastrointestinal tract. Radiolabelled Ile-Pro-Pro was distributed in different tissues and considerable radioactivity levels were found in tissues related to the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), adrenals, aorta and kidneys. Ile-Pro-Pro does not bind to plasma proteins, and therefore it is possible that its blood pressure lowering effect is mediated by free Ile-Pro-Pro. In conclusion, consumption of the peptide milk lowers blood pressure and reduces arterial stiffness in hypertensive subjects. Ile-Pro-Pro can be absorbed partly intact from the gastrointestinal tract and might accumulate in tissues related to the RAS. The precise blood pressure lowering mechanism of peptide milk remains to be studied.

Wastewater remediation options for prawn farms - Aquaculture Industry Development Initiative 2002-04.

There are many potential bioremediation approaches that may be suitable for prawn farms in Queensland. Although most share generally accepted bioremediation principles, advocacy for different methods tends to vary widely. This diversity of approach is particularly driven by the availability and knowledge of functional species at different localities around the world. In Australia, little is known about the abilities of many native species in this regard, and translocation and biosecurity issues prevent the use of exotic species that have shown potential in other countries. Species selected must be tolerant of eutrophic conditions and ecological shifts, because prawn pond nutrient levels and pathways can vary with different assemblages of autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms. Generally, they would be included in a constructed ecosystem because of their functional contributions to nutrient cycling and uptake, and to create nutrient sinks in forms of harvestable biomass. Wide salinity, temperature and water quality tolerances are also valuable attributes for selected species due to the sometimes-pronounced effects of environmental extremes, and to provide over-wintering options and adequate safety margins in avoiding mass mortalities. To practically achieve these bioremediation polycultures on a large scale, and in concert with the operations of a prawn farm, methods involving seed production, stock management, and a range of other farm engineering and product handling systems need to be reliably achievable and economically viable. Research funding provided by the Queensland Government through the Aquaculture Industry Development Initiative (AIDI) 2002-04 has enabled a number of technical studies into biological systems to treat prawn farm effluent for recirculation and improved environmental sustainability. AIDI bioremediation research in southern Queensland was based at the Bribie Island Aquaculture Research Centre (BIARC), and was conducted in conjunction with AIDI genetics and selection research, and a Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funded program (Coast and Clean Seas Project No.717757). This report compilation provides a summary of some of the work conducted within these programs.