Restricted Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/9050

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Becoming Inka: An Interpretative Narrative of the Metamorphosis, Taki and Landscape of Tanta Karwa
Dunbar Solas, Lisa Anne
Human sacrifice was a central institution in the Inka world. However, research into this subject is still in its infancy. To date, most studies have focused principally on reconstructing the final moments of Qhapaq Hucha, the Inka state ceremony, during which selected individuals were sacrificed at principal shrines, utilising both the archaeological record and the ethnohistorical documents. It is suggested that these studies have operated from a more etic view of sacrifice, which tends to cast the sacrificed individuals in a passive role, while it remains unclear how these events impacted communities and assisted to build relationships between them and Cusco, the Inka capital. A text-aided approach for both a study of the ethnohistorical documents and the archaeological record as well as a phenomenological one to build a more emic view of Inka religion, ceremony, sacrifice and landscape. A phenomenological perspective of sacrifice views it as a broader cultural process during which the landscape is transformed. This is explored through the case study of Tanta Karwa, an ethnohistorically reported example of Inka sacrifice in Ocros, Ancash, Peru. The 17th century document provides a window into understanding the nature of Inka sacrifice, ceremony and the role of landscape. It also raises a number of issues regarding the selection and redistribution process of individuals for sacrifice and also how communities were impacted by Inka presence. In order to establish an archaeological narrative of her sacrifice, it is critical to examine the processes of Inka ceremony in Cusco and its archaeology, as well as to explore the nature of Inka place-making. By re-situating Tanta Karwa into her cultural context, new insights into the transformation of individuals and groups through Inka domestication and the Qhapaq Hucha ceremony come to light. While the archaeological evidence of Inka presence in the Ocros valley is minimal, the documents state that the changes were profound. One is that Tanta Karwa, through this liminal period, is trained to become an aqlla, a noble Inka lady in order to serve the Sapa Inka, the ancestors and the Sun. Her role became that of an Inka intermediary with her sacrifice in Ocros and as a result a major regional oracle. By establishing new shrines and intermedaries, the Inka altered the ways in which communities gained access to sources of well-being and abundance and their ancestors. Through her transformation, Tanta Karwa becomes a reminder of the perpetual link between Ocros and the Inka.
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Low Impedance Moisture Electric Generator for Wearable Devices
(2025) Zhao, Mingjie
As global warming intensifies and energy crises become more urgent, the significance of renewable energy technologies that transform sustainable and eco-friendly sources into electricity is becoming increasingly clear. Concurrently, the swift advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices poses an ongoing challenge in discovering efficient methods to power these portable electronics. Given the context, one of the energy conversion method has come under light, and that is: Moisture Electric Generation (MEG), of which is capable of generating power by moisture, and can be designed in various shapes or forms to be wearable, thereby fulfilling the power needs of IoT devices. In this thesis, we have analysed some of the state-of-the-art MEG devices, focusing on its key performance factors: distinct mechanism, choice of structure, and selection of material. In the meanwhile, we have also developed a planar MEG device by integrating MXene with anionic and cationic polyelectrolytes, and examined its structural, morphological, water absorption and conductivity properties via varies characterization method. With our selection of additives, MEG showed excellent water absorption, retention, and ionic conductivity, resulting in significant improvements in power density, reaching 3.47 mW/cm3 at 90% relative humidity. We successfully integrated MEGs arrays into fabrics, enabling wearable devices to be powered even at environments with low humidity. Our work provides an innovative strategy for fabricating high-performance MEGs. This approach has great potential for resilient and eco-friendly power generation in wearable devices, capable of meeting challenging operating conditions and battery-free scenarios.
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Mechanics Fleeing Communism: Russian Refugees in Iran and their Emigration to Australia, 1920-1960
(2025) James, Marcus
My thesis is a study of the Russian refugees who fled to Iran after the Bolshevik Revolution and lived there for decades including through the Second World War, before being displaced again and emigrating to Australia among other countries in the 1950s. While the first wave of these refugee after the Revolution fitted the accepted Russian emigre profile of former military officers, professionals and businessmen, most Russian refugees in Iran in this period were distinctly different. They had fled the Soviet Union in the early 1930s due to the Soviet dekulakisation and collectivisation campaigns. They comprised a hitherto unstudied wave of Russian emigration between the first wave after the Revolution and the second wave of Displaced Persons after the Second World War. They were overwhelmingly better-off peasants and tradesmen, especially carpenters and mechanics, so quite distinct from most of those who emigrated to the cities in Europe and China. They were mostly Russian Orthodox, but including a significant minority of religious dissenters, and ethnically about 70 per cent Russian with the remainder Ukrainian. The Russian refugee community in Iran was small, numbering some 2-3,000 people at its peak at the end of the Second World War, but nevertheless still comprised the largest group of Russian refugees in the Middle East. They contributed to the Allied victory through their work on the Lend-Lease Persian Corridor supply line operated by the Soviet, American and British forces in Iran during the War. After the war they faced an increasingly unstable situation, with the Soviet attempt to carve off the province of Azerbaijan in 1946 and the battle with the British and eventually America too over the nationalisation of Iran's oil resources. Due to heightened Iranian nationalism and nascent Cold War tensions, these European refugees were told that they had to leave Iran unless they could obtain citizenship, face repatriation to the Soviet Union or exile to islands in the Persian Gulf. However, they were fortunate that at this time, Australia and some other countries had initiated mass immigration programs. With the help of Russian emigre monarchist, church, and military networks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and refugee relief agencies such as the Tolstoy Foundation, a group of these refugees was able to settle in Australia. Their initial settlement experience in Australia is also considered.
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Making Repression Pay: The Political Economy of Organ Trafficking in China
(2025) Robertson, Matthew
States kill for many reasons: to punish criminals, suppress dissent, or as part of warfare. Sometimes, they kill for profit. This thesis explores how the People's Republic of China transformed repression into a lucrative industry by trafficking the organs of both death penalty and political prisoners, whom they killed in the process. Drawing on extensive empirical evidence and innovative computational methods, I show how China's organ transplantation system grew rapidly by exploiting vulnerable prison populations. This process -- which I term extractive repression -- not only generated substantial economic rents for state and medical actors but also advanced China's standing in global transplant medicine. The case of state-sponsored organ trafficking in the PRC challenges conventional wisdom about the relationship between repression and development. It demonstrates how, under certain conditions, violence can fuel economic growth and technological advancement rather than impede them. By framing human organs as 'lootable assets' akin to natural resources, this research contributes to literature on the political economy of authoritarianism, predatory states, and the commodification of human life. The thesis is a mixed-methods project. It leverages large language models, computational text analysis, and forensic statistics to uncover evidence of unethical medical practices in an authoritarian context. At the same time, it contains extensive qualitative analysis of Chinese-language primary source documents. It relies on both statistical and qualitative evidence to advance its claims. The format of the thesis is a compilation of published works. There are four papers, three of which have been published, one of which is presented here in manuscript form. The structure is as follows: 1. Introduction 2. [Draft manuscript] Extractive repression: Human organ markets in the People's Republic of China 3. [Published in the American Journal of Transplantation, 2022] Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China 4. [Published in the edited volume The Xinjiang Emergency, 2022] Predatory biopolitics: Organ harvesting and other means of monetising Uyghur 'surplus' 5. [Published in BMC Medical Ethics, 2020] Analysis of official deceased organ donation data casts doubt on the credibility of China's organ transplant reform
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Balls, Babies and Bullying: Barriers to the career progression of women in the profession Obstetrics and Gynaecology
(2025) Thomas, Melanie
The profession of obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) in Australia has long been dominated by men, but in recent decades, more women have entered the clinical field. Women now make up the majority of registered obstetricians in Australia, and with the focus on women patients, the stakes of gender inequity within the profession are high. This study explores career trajectories in the field, from training to leadership roles, with a focus on the experiences of women. Using a qualitative approach, the study design involved in-depth interviews with 35 current and previous O&G clinicians (including both men and women). Interviews focused on training and employment experiences and perspectives on gender in the workplace. Thematic analysis was used to explore experiences of working in the O&G field and to elucidate gendered social relations and inequity. Participants described workplace relations and training and employment structures that create barriers to full professional participation for women. Women participants described suffering oppression due to gendered norms, motherhood, and mistreatment. Despite the influx of women doctors, the field of O&G remains a man's world, where 'having balls', being the ideal worker, and masculine traits are highly valued. Women felt that motherhood made them vulnerable in the workplace, detracting from their ability to reach "ideal worker" status, and undercutting their feelings of competency. The impossible dichotomy between the ideal worker and mothering ideals creates a significant conflict for women, sometimes resulting in workforce attrition. Previous Australian research shows that women in the medical workforce are also more likely than men to be the victims of mistreatment, especially sexual harassment. This study into the culture of O&G suggests that workplace mistreatment is normalised, including the gendered harassment of women where their sex and/or motherhood status forms the basis of mistreatment. Women reported that their experiences of navigating a masculine workplace and the double jeopardy of home and work responsibilities, as well as their exposure to mistreatment, led to feelings of shame and guilt. Women's stories also suggest that they tend to endure these negative workplace experiences alone, as the culture of normalisation and dismissal restricts organisational change. Formal policies supporting gender equity are perceived to have had little impact on the informal 'standards' expected in the workplace, reinforcing the gender status quo. Women's disadvantage in the field persists due to powerful societal, institutional and personal factors that reinforce patriarchal structures. Women's experiences of inequity in the workplace links to poor mental health, reduced work performance, and workforce attrition, all of which have a negative effect on career progression. This study, then, elucidates a triple whammy of disadvantage -gender, workplace mistreatment, and mothering; or balls, babies, and bullying. The negative effects of these factors are mutually compounding. Addressing these systemic inequities requires more than an increase in women occupying leadership positions; in fact, increasing women's representation in leadership without addressing cultural issues can negatively affect gender equity, as the appetite for pursuing cultural change decreases with an increase in gender parity in leadership. Instead, achieving gender equity involves removing the barriers to women's full and equal participation in the field, with the goal of equitable accessibility of career opportunities, regardless of gender or caring responsibilities. Such culture change requires attention to the gap between formal policies and workplace practice and revision of the current organisational structures and power relationships that lead to disadvantage for women.
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Progressivism in a Conservative Milieu: The Rise of Progressives within Muhammadiyah, 1995-2020
(2025) Fanani, Ahmad Fuad
Indonesian Islam is often lauded for what is seen as its moderate and progressive character. Much of the literature on this subject focuses on civil society organisations which have long traditions of progressivism, particularly Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and its many NGO affiliates. But these are not the only sources of progressive Muslim thought. Other organisations that are perceived as conservative have also played a role in popularising more liberal attitudes. At the core of my research is a conundrum: why do predominantly conservative organisations sometimes produce progressive leaders? To answer this question, I am studying the case of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation and historically a bastion of conservativism. From the mid-1990s, progressives were ascendant in Muhammadiyah and exerted considerable influence on Indonesia's shift from autocracy to democracy. I argue that several factors explain this progressive dominance: the rise internationally of liberal Muslim thinking from the 1980s; the inclination of Indonesia's expanding and well-educated Muslim middle-class to embrace progressive ideas; a political context of declining authoritarianism and push for liberalising reforms; rivalry with other Islamic organisations, especially NU. These factors drove changes to Muhammadiyah's power structures and leadership but also set off a decades-long contestation between progressives and conservatives. This thesis examines how two key institutions came to represent these rival forces: the Majelis Tarjih (Fatwa Council) was a stronghold of progressivism and the Majelis Tabligh (Predication Council) a bastion of conservatism. The doctrinal and discursive divergence between these councils offers insights into Muhammadiyah's shifting identity. The first wave of progressivism was evident between 1995-2005, and again from 2015 to the present. While much of Muhammadiyah's grassroots membership remains conservative, the continuing influence of progressive leaders raises questions about whether Muhammadiyah's religious character is changing or whether there is a growing disjunction, politically and doctrinally, between its elites and its rank and file. Using epistemic community and institutional interests frameworks, this study argues that ideas and protection of institutional interests have driven the rise of progressivism in Muhammadiyah. The generation of liberal ideas, both globally and domestically, inspired younger Muhammadiyah intellectuals to pursue a new agenda for their organisation, while changing relations with the Indonesian state and the determination to maintain influence within government circles at a time of rapid political change also gave impetus to progressives. This thesis explores the ways in which Muhammadiyah leaders adjusted to reformist pressures to protect their organisational interests.
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The Cinematic Language of the Iranian Feminist Film
(2025) Malekpour, Miniature
Throughout history, the role of women in both public and private spheres has been a subject of scrutiny, particularly in relation to their involvement in political and social movements. Iranian cinema, which has undergone various phases including the Film-Farsi Era, the New-Wave Movement, and the Sacred defence cinema Era, has yet to officially acknowledge the existence of a 'Feminist Film'. This reluctance can be attributed to the industry's apprehension towards women's sexuality and presence. However, the Reformist Period and the subsequent Social Justice Period have witnessed a shift in the portrayal of women, paving the way for the emergence of a distinct genre that explores feminist themes and perspectives within Iranian cinema. This thesis aims to investigate the impact of feminist discourse, Western and Islamic, feminine consciousness, and gender identity on Iranian cinema, specifically focusing on the concept of creating a movement coined as the 'Iranian feminist film'. By analysing how filmmakers have navigated the constraints of an authoritarian state, this research seeks to understand how Iranian feminist films have played a role in empowering women and reshaping their identities. Through the development of a unique cinematic language and technique, these films have elevated the female voice and body from a position of invisibility to a state of visibility and agency. One of the key contributions of this study lies in its exploration of the intersection between gender dynamics in Iranian society and the technical aspects of filmmaking. By delving into the historical context of Iranian women's experiences with their bodies, sexuality, and individuality, this research sheds light on how Iranian feminist film has not only challenged traditional gender norms but also pushed the boundaries of cinematic expression. Through this analysis, a deeper understanding of the transformative power of film in shaping perceptions of gender equality and identity in Iranian society emerges.
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A Study in Syriac Corpus Linguistics: Syntax, Change and Definiteness in the Syriac Noun Phrase
(2025) El Khaissi, Charbel
Historical evidence for Aramaic's three-thousand-year development is incredibly complex and this is no better reflected by its definite article suffix, which first comes into view during Old Aramaic in 8th-9th century BC before its subsequent weakening in Imperial Aramaic by the 5th-6th century BC and eventual extinction in Late Aramaic by around the 5th-6th century AD. The `birth' of the article, so to speak, has received ample attention in the Semitic literature, but its widespread `death' remains a mystery. Recent developments in computational linguistics and the Digital Humanities make it easier to process large amounts of Aramaic manuscripts for research on language change. Using corpus-based methods, with a view to understanding the distribution between Emphatic (definite noun) and Absolute (bare noun) forms, this study builds a specialised and balanced corpus of the Late Aramaic dialect, Classical Syriac, comprising approximately 400,000 words and structured across ten authors spanning thirteen centuries. An average of 63.13% of total words across all manuscripts were tagged for State Morphology, including Emphatic and Absolute forms. Key quantitative and qualitative findings emerge from corpus searches on the distribution of Emphatic-Absolute noun forms in Cardinal (1-10), Nominal Negation ("dla") and Quantifier ("kl") phrases. The average proportion of Emphatic-Absolute noun dependents in Cardinal phrases represented a 62-38 distribution in favour of the Emphatic across the corpus period. I propose the weakening and generalisation of the definite article morpheme had already neutralised Cardinal phrases in a pre-Syriac context. Interestingly, nearly 70% of all attestations involving an Absolute noun dependent comprised plural noun fossils of time (e.g., "years", "days", "hours") with remaining productive nouns representing statistically marginal cases. Based on these facts, I suggest that Absolute noun relics play an outsized role in Syriac grammars, which overgeneralise their productive function. Nominal Negation phrases display a similar distribution between Emphatic and Absolute noun dependents with a 72-28 ratio, respectively. Approximately 70% of all attestations involving an Absolute noun dependent comprised a lexicalised collocate phrase (e.g., "without flaw" > "flawless"). Interestingly, a renewed Nominal Negator form "dlaw" is only attested in later manuscripts. I propose this renewed form was innovated via extension from relativised verbal negators sometime after the 4th century. Finally, I demonstrate evidence supporting the fact that the semantic distinction between Emphatic-Absolute nouns in singular Quantifier "kl" phrases collapsed around the 4th-5th century, evidenced by the prevalence of proleptic quantifiers, which took over the function of the definite article in Emphatic nouns. I propose a source of this change via contact-induced extension from other Aramaic dialects. This study underscores the value of corpus linguistics for studies in historical syntax in an Aramaic context. It fills a lacuna in the typological literature on the nature of definite article loss in human languages, while also contributing fresh evidence in support of syntactic change mechanisms (e.g., reanalysis, extension) in an under-represented Semitic language. The study also contributes new methods in corpus research in Syriac by offering a Manuscript Selection Framework as a starting point for standardising corpus design practices, which uses a range of philological, textual and linguistic criteria. The part-of-speech (POS) tagged corpus also holds significant reuse potential as a resource for training and testing future POS tagging models tailored to Syriac. Finally, the frequency analyses of grammatical patterns in this study supports Syriac teachers and students better understand which constructions are (un)common or (im)probable, thereby improving our understanding of native and standard Syriac grammar.
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Reawakening Wangaaypuwan and A Plain Language Grammar
(2025) Woods, Lesley
In this research I undertook to write a plain language grammar of Wangaaypuwan, and I also decided that this project would reflect what I had learned about community directed and controlled research and it would be a case study in how linguistic research could be conducted in a genuinely ethical manner, and meet the needs and desires of the community, and the linguist both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. The main thrust of this research project was to translate Tamsin Donaldson's 1980's Ngiyambaa (1980) grammar into plain language so that the Wangaaypuwan community would have some chance of perhaps understanding the structure of the language and to allow for the possibility of developing language learning and teaching materials into the future. I engaged a small focus group of Ngiyampaa co-researchers that have worked with me to translate technical linguistic terms into plain language throughout the course of this research. The research project is primarily for the benefit of the Wangaaypuwan community, to give them the best possible access to our language, hopefully without ever having to study linguistics. However, over the course of five years, this research project has become much bigger than the plain language Wangaaypuwan grammar alone. Throughout the course of my research, I have also been engaging in capacity building with the Wangaaypuwan community and developing an ecosystem in which language and culture can thrive. We have been successful in securing grants to reprint the Ngiyampaa dictionary (2020) and produce on online version of that dictionary , to record place names and stories of place on ngurrampaa, developing an online community archive in a program called Keeping Culture and building a physical Keeping Place on the Indigenous Protected Area of Mawonga Station, where I currently work and live. We are also developing research policies and guidelines and a research agenda for the community. In this way the research could be thought of as participatory action research. I outline the methods I used in this research project because I believe that the description of this process, will be useful for the benefit of other Indigenous communities who may be thinking of doing something similar with their own language as an example of the approach I took and what that looks like, in the hope it might give them some ideas about how to approach decolonising their own language. Importantly, this research is also for the benefit of other linguists, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who might be considering using plain language in their own research outputs or developing courses that teach about using plain language alternatives to the technical linguistic terminology. It is also hoped that in the future, the discipline of linguistics, particularly documentary linguistics might move to a plain language model. I had three research questions: 1. What can genuinely ethical linguistic research look like from an Indigenous perspective? 2. Is it possible to write a truly accessible plain language descriptive grammar without a reliance on the technical terminology of linguistics and how could this be achieved? 3. Is it possible that the field of linguistics could move towards a plain language model when their research involves the Indigenous languages of Australia? Critically, I demonstrate how I have engaged with the Wangaaypuwan community and discuss the issues of community control and ownership of the research project. I talk about how this can apply to other linguistic research contexts in the hope that this will enable better understanding of the issues and promote more genuinely ethical linguistic research practice in the future that addresses the human rights of Australia's Indigenous people.
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Growth, Optoelectronic Properties, and Defect Engineering of CVD 2D-TMD-based Heterostructures
(2025) Wibowo, Ary
This thesis presents a comprehensive exploration of the growth, optoelectronic properties, and defect engineering of CVD 2D-TMD-based heterostructure. In the first phase, the thesis focuses on improving implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc) of MoS2 materials through passivation techniques grown by using traditional CVD method. By reducing recombination losses and enhancing material stability, these passivation methods further optimize the performance MoS2 monolayer. Then, the optimalization study begins with the growth of high-luminescence monolayer MoS2 using a single-salt catalyst system via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). By utilizing sodium nitrate (NaNO3), the crystal quality and luminescence of the monolayers are significantly enhanced, providing a solid foundation for further material development. Building on this, the research progresses to more complex catalyst systems, where hybrid alkali salt catalysts (NaCl, NaNO3, PTAS) are employed to grow MoSe2-WSe2 lateral heterostructures. These multi-salt catalysts allow for precise control over heterostructure formation, resulting in tunable optoelectronic properties that surpass those of simple monolayers. The final phase of the thesis explores the synthesis of ordered-disordered alloys, specifically Mo(1-x)WxSe2, where nanoscale domains of MoSe2 and WSe2 coexist within a single material. This novel structure leads to unique light-matter interactions, such as interfacial excitons and enhanced valley polarization up to 50%, which are not observed in purely ordered systems. These alloys also demonstrate improved optoelectronic performance, particularly in terms of implied open circuit voltage, indicating their strong potential for use in high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. Overall, this work illustrates a coherent progression from fundamental material synthesis to advanced heterostructure development and optimization, culminating in the demonstration of high-performance optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices based on 2D TMDs.
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The Counter-Attitudinal Illusory Truth Effect
(2025) Jiang, Mary
In the digital age, rapid dissemination of information has increased the challenge of truth assessment, particularly given the proliferation of misinformation and its potential societal consequences. To aid understanding of truth assessment processes, two distinct research literatures have identified repetition and attitudinal alignment as critical factors influencing truth judgments. The Illusory Truth Effect (ITE), first documented by Hasher et al. (1977), demonstrates that mere repetition enhances a claim's perceived truthfulness. This phenomenon is commonly evidenced through experimental paradigms comparing truth ratings between repeated and new claims across diverse materials, from trivia to marketing claims. While the robustness of the ITE is well-established, existing research has not systematically examined the interaction of the ITE with attitudinal alignment - another influential factor in truth assessment. The alignment bias literature consistently demonstrates that individuals evaluate pro-attitudinal claims as more truthful than counter-attitudinal ones, reflecting influences from the alignment of material with prior attitudes (review: Ditto et al., 2025). However, this research stream has yet to critically examine the role of repetition, despite the likelihood of repeated exposure to claims in digital environments. This gap presents a critical opportunity for investigating the potential interaction between repetition and attitudinal alignment in truth perception. In this thesis, we explore this question by investigating the ITE for material that varies in attitudinal alignment. In the first study, we measured the ITE for claims related to climate change science or skeptic attitudes. For our samples of climate science endorsers, repetition consistently increased perceptions of truth for both pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal claims (Experiment 1 & 2), even for the strongest endorsers of climate science and when people could later identify claims as skeptic-aligning (Experiment 2). In the second study, we investigated whether the pro- and counter-attitudinal ITE was moderated by increased alignment salience of claims at the encoding phase, through either an active alignment sorting task (Experiment 3) or the passive consumption of alignment labels (Experiment 4). We found that increased alignment salience had no effect on the pro-attitudinal ITE, but eliminated the counter-attitudinal ITE. In the third study, we examined the pro- and counter-attitudinal ITE in the context of political attitudes, by presenting political sentiment claims to both Democrats and Republicans. We found that while Republicans showed a robust ITE in both experiments, Democrats showed a smaller ITE in Experiment 5 and no ITE in Experiment 6. These patterns occurred regardless of claim alignment with people's attitudes, and regardless of whether people were primed with affiliation identification before the ITE phase (Experiment 6). To further examine this pattern, I conducted a mini meta-analysis examining the role of political affiliation on the magnitude of the ITE, across different materials including trivia, climate change claims, and political sentiments. We found some evidence that the role of political affiliation in the ITE was dependent on material type. Together, these studies extend understanding of the role of attitudinal inputs in the ITE, with main takeaways from the current evidence being 1) an ITE can emerge for both pro- and counter-attitudinal content, 2) alignment salience eliminates the counter-attitudinal ITE, and 3) Democrats show a smaller ITE than Republicans depending on materials. Our findings provide some evidence for a form of attitude neglect in assessments of truth. This research also presents opportunities to further explore boundary conditions of the role of alignment salience in the ITE, and highlights the need to systematically examine potential group differences in susceptibility to the ITE.
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Entrepreneurship as Venture Design: Unravelling the Journey from Opportunity Artifact to Ecosystem Impact
(2025) Potocnjak Oxman, Camilo
Entrepreneurship and Design [E&D] are two inherently human processes that pursue future value through the introduction of innovative artifacts into a sociotechnical and economic ecosystem. Historical parallels between these two fields have led to their increasing convergence in the 21st century, giving rise to the Design Science of Entrepreneurship [DSE]. This nascent subfield proposes that entrepreneurship research is a science of the artificial, that entrepreneurship practice is a form of design, and that opportunities are abstract, epistemic artifacts that motivate and guide the instantiation of a concrete venture. These proposals both shape the DSE agenda and provide the context for the present thesis, which seeks to further the theorisation of 'entrepreneurship-as-design' [EaD] by uncovering causal relationships between the generative mechanisms of design and the sensemaking, practices, artifacts, and ecosystem impacts of venture creation. Until now, the literature has yet to circumscribe and model EaD as a design process. This gap informs the thesis' central research question, namely: How do Entrepreneurs Design Ventures? Integration of E&D theory allowed elaboration of conceptual frameworks for: a) the value cycle as the basic procedure of EaD; b) the typology of practices and spaces comprising the EaD process; and c) the anatomical components and structure of the opportunity artifact. These frameworks were supported by a typification of design mechanisms relevant to EaD, and specific forms of individual, organisational, and ecosystem-level value acting as indicators of venture impact. Theoretically derived frameworks were tested during two empirical studies conducted in the distinct sociocultural contexts of Chile and the United Kingdom. Data were captured at two time points from entrepreneurs with and without backgrounds in design. Adopting a design science epistemology, a critical realist ontology, and the lens of process theory, the two studies employed a mixed methodology combining qualitative methods, mathematical techniques, and methods exapted from design research. Each step of the data collection, preparation, and analysis procedure involved the instantiation of artifacts. This allowed moving from retrospective experiences and outcomes of an entrepreneurial journey; through the sequence of entrepreneurial actions and artifacts that enabled a venture's instantiation; towards the retroductive inference of design mechanisms whose enactment in structured combinations effected change in the opportunity artifact being pursued and long-term venture impact. In answering its central research question, the thesis advances the DSE agenda by theorising entrepreneurship as a specialised design process involving specific mechanisms, sensemaking, practices, spaces, artifacts, and impacts. The thesis defines and articulates causal relationships between these components, which collectively comprise a conceptually robust, empirically supported theory of 'Venture Design'. By identifying parallels between the mechanisms, processes, and artifacts of E&D, the thesis establishes a solid foundation to also theorise 'design-as-entrepreneurship'. Finally, by exploring the interrelated sociocultural roles that E&D have played throughout human history, the thesis determines that not only is entrepreneurship a form of design, but that without the inherently human design process, there would be no entrepreneurship.
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I'll eat meat because that's what we do: A social identity approach to understanding meat-eating attitudes and intentions
(2025) Tait, Angela
There is global concern over the rising and over-consumption of meat (Schupp & Renner, 2011; Weis, 2013) from both environmental (The Livestock, Environment and Development, 2006) and health institutions (American Institute for Cancer Research, 2018b; Superior Health Council, 2013). These institutions have advocated for the reduction of meat consumption to help curb the environmental damage contributing to climate change (The Livestock, Environment and Development, 2006; Lashof & Ahuja, 1990), as well as changing the dietary habits that have impacted population health (Salter, 2018; Vergnaud et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2016). This thesis proposes that a social psychological approach to investigating meat-eating may help understand the contributing social factors that may need to be considered in strategic interventions for reducing large-scale meat consumption. By reviewing and analysing the complex history of meat consumption, the psychological and physiological experiences of eating meat, the practicalities and implication of a fiscal policy-approach to reducing meat consumption, and the vastly different meat-eating norms across the world, I demonstrate that there is a relationship between the groups that we belong to, what we perceive as appropriate meat consumption, and how much meat we therefore eat. Through the lens of the social identity approach (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Turner et al., 1979), this thesis experiments with different social identities, identity processes, and perceived meat-eating norms to ascertain whether meat-eating attitudes and intentions can be influenced by group processes (i.e., social identities and social norms). Across five different studies, each study progressively builds upon the findings of the prior to explore the relationship between meat-eating and group processes, including the influences of perceived norms and social identity salience over meat-eating attitudes and intentions. By using norms such as national (i.e., Australians, Britons, and Americas), students (i.e., Australian National University Students) and gender (i.e., women), these studies have found significant effects and interactions - establishing these relationships and confirming the influence of perceived meat-eating norms, social identification, and social identity salience. Perhaps more interestingly, this thesis sheds light on how some social identities have stronger relationships with meat eating than others, and how eating meat (or not eating meat) can be a meaningful ideology, intertwined amongst the normative constructs of those groups. This, at times, results in differing and even competing beliefs, values and behaviours between in-group and out-group members, and between other in-group members, but also within the group members themselves.
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Red versus Blue in the Stock Market: Stock Return Comovement and Earnings Information Transfers
(2025) Qiu, Jiayue
Political polarisation has intensified significantly in recent decades in the United States (Gentzkow, 2016; Iyengar & Krupenkin, 2018). Individuals' political orientations increasingly influence their preferences and decisions. These influences spill over to the corporate sectors, affecting managers' policy choices and investors' investment choices (e.g. Hong & Kostovetsky, 2012; Hutton et al., 2014, 2015; Wintoki & Xi, 2020). This thesis comprises two studies examining the divisive effects of political polarisation on the US stock market. Specifically, it examines whether similarity in firm managers' political orientation is associated with the comovement of their firms' stock returns and earnings information transfers between them. Study 1 shows that the excess stock return comovement of firm pairs is positively associated with the political orientation similarity of their managers. This partisan-based return comovement is more pronounced in pairs with higher common institutional ownership, when both firms are politically aligned with the US president, and in pairs with higher common analyst coverage. In addition, investor attention also comoves more among politically similar firms. These results suggest that partisan return comovement can be attributed to style-based and habitat-based investing, as well as exposure to common information sources. Notably, partisan return comovement has increased rapidly in recent years, coinciding with heightened ideological division and affective hostility between Republicans and Democrats. Overall, the results indicate that the polarisation in US politics spills over into the stock market, which is becoming increasingly divided along party lines. Study 2 examines whether the extent of intra-industry information transfers during earnings announcements is influenced by the similarity in political orientations among corporate managers of announcing and non-announcing firms. I find that firm pairs with more similar political orientations experience stronger information transfers. Importantly, the partisan-driven information transfers during the earnings announcement period partially reverse subsequently, indicating biased market reactions based on political orientations. This effect concentrates on good news announcements and is more pronounced during periods of heightened policy uncertainty and in politically sensitive industries. Further analysis indicates that this effect is likely driven by differential investor trust in and differential investor interpretation of earnings information from politically aligned versus misaligned firms. Collectively, my findings provide evidence that partisan division hinders efficient information flows in the stock market, because political alignment affects how partisan investors incorporate information disclosed by managers of industry peer firms with strong political orientations.
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Cultivating Innovation with Heart and Mind: Linking Team Compassion with Team Innovation through Team Integrative Complexity in the Developmental Phases of Team Innovation
(2025) Bui, Linh
Teams engage in emotional experiences and regulate their cognitive processes at different developmental phases to foster team innovation. This research theorises and examines the role of team compassion, a unitary discrete emotion that arises from team members' shared experiences of witnessing others' needs or suffering, accompanied by a desire to help, in facilitating team innovation. Drawing on the teams-as-information-processors perspective, I argue that team compassion enhances team innovation by promoting team integrative complexity, wherein teams differentiate and integrate multiple dimensions and issues related to their tasks. Incorporating temporal views on teamwork, I posit that, compared to team integrative complexity in the early phase (when teams develop ideas) and midpoint transition (when teams redirect task strategies), team integrative complexity in the later phase (when teams implement ideas) is more likely to predict team innovation. In Study 1, using a sample of 87 organisational teams and a cross-lagged panel model in a longitudinal design, I found that team integrative complexity at Time 3 (i.e., later phase) mediated the effect of team compassion at Time 2 (i.e., midpoint transition) on team innovation at the end of innovative tasks (Time 4). Whereas team integrative complexity at Time 1 (i.e., early phase) and Time 2 were not significantly related to team innovation, the effect of team integrative complexity at Time 3 on team innovation was significant and positive. In Study 2, using a sample of 65 ad hoc teams and an experimental design, I manipulated team compassion and observed team integrative complexity at three phases of a team's life. I found that teams in the team compassion condition produced higher levels of team integrative complexity than those in the control condition. In turn, team integrative complexity enhanced team innovation. Team integrative complexity in the later phase was more likely to correspond to achieving team innovation than it was during the early phase and midpoint transition. Implications for theories, practice, and future research are discussed.
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The Emergence of Environmental Migration and Displacement Management 'Best Practices' in the Pacific
(2025) Mudaliar, Lakshmin
Despite the growing challenge of environmental migration and displacement, the international community has yet to establish a global governance framework. But solutions are emerging in the Pacific. This thesis adopts the follow policy methodology to trace the emergence of 'best practices' in the issue area. By interviewing and observing policy elites operating across nine policy domains and three policy scales, it identified three regulatory approaches to environmental mobility: humanitarian protection, labour migration, and planned relocation. This research project seeks to explain variations in the extent to which these 'models' have become institutionally embedded in the Pacific. This thesis argues that regional policy variations can be explained by activating events, institutional landscape, mobilising strategies, and local conditions. It makes four key contributions to geographical scholarship on policy mobilities and environmental migration and displacement governance. First, the notion of policy assemblage lifecycle demonstrates that pre-existing development-friendly approaches spread quickly and successfully across the region while new humanitarian solutions have moved slowly. This suggests that policy adoption decisions have little to do with policy 'effectiveness.' Second, the concept of activating events shows that different types of events galvanised actors in different ways to shape multilevel environmental mobility policies. Third, the regional dimension explicates that while external actors initiated the policymaking processes, Pacific organisations and governments created conducive conditions for embracing certain approaches. Finally, interagency cooperation on the issue area across multiple sites and scales is beginning to establish environmental mobility governance.
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Measurement of interior green space and its impact on indoor environmental quality
(2025) Jiang, Junzhiwei
Indoor environmental quality directly affects the comfort, performance, and well-being of occupants. It is an important issue given people spend a large amount of time indoors. Plants absorb sunlight, capture carbon dioxide and transpire water. Thus, adding greenery such as potted plants and green walls to indoor environments has attracted interest as a way to positively influence these three aspects of indoor environmental quality and, by extension, the well-being of people using these spaces. However, experimental studies have focused on laboratory or controlled settings rather than the indoor environments that people use such as offices. This thesis aimed to develop a rapid and simple method to quantify interior greenery; measure the impact of interior plants on CO2 concentration, air temperature and relative humidity in office settings; and to evaluate the effects of indoor plants on hygrothermal comfort in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned office environments. In the first part of this thesis I developed an Interior Green View Index to rapidly measure interior greenery. This method is based on capturing and classifying 360 panoramic images taken with a conventional 360 red-green-blue camera. There was a high correlation between the iGVI and manual measurements of indoor greenery, though the accuracy of the iGVI declined in larger and highly illuminated interior spaces. These results suggested that the iGVI method is a useful tool for quickly estimating interior greenery. For the second part of this thesis I investigated the impact of indoor plants on three aspects of IEQ: relative humidity, indoor air temperature, and CO2 concentration in naturally ventilated offices. Using a Latin square design, three treatments control, low volume, and high volume of Nephrolepis exaltata: were rotated across three offices over six periods. Relative humidity increased significantly with the number of indoor plants, from a median of 29.1% to 38.9% and 49.2%. My results support using indoor plants to increase relative humidity, which enhances some aspects of well-being and productivity, particularly in drier climates. In the third part of this thesis, I tested the effect of interior greenery on hygrothermal comfort in offices with differing ventilation systems: naturally ventilated and air-conditioned. Using a Latin square design, varying volumes of Nephrolepis exaltata were introduced into three offices over six days. Indoor plants did not significantly alter hygrothermal comfort in air-conditioned nor naturally ventilated settings. Hygrothermal comfort in both air-conditioned and naturally ventilated offices was consistently rated as 'marginally comfortable', regardless of the volumes of plants introduced. This thesis contributes to the understanding of interior green spaces in office environments through three main aspects: developing a rapid method to quantify interior greenery, investigating the impact of indoor plants on environmental quality, and analyzing hygrothermal comfort in different ventilation settings. The key findings demonstrate that while indoor plants significantly increase relative humidity, they have minimal measurable effects on CO2 levels and air temperature in modern office environments. This limited impact is likely due to advanced ventilation systems and controlled climates in contemporary offices. However, the aesthetic and potential psychological benefits of indoor plants remain notable. The thesis suggests that interior green spaces, while not a standalone solution for all aspects of indoor environmental quality, can be an effective component in a holistic approach to improving office environments.
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Functional characterisation of the evolutionary intermediates of the prokaryotic adaptive immune system CRISPR-Cas12
(2025) D Silva, Jovita
Prokaryotes have developed an array of defence mechanisms against invading mobile genetic elements (MGE's) such as bacteriophages and plasmids. Among them, CRISPR-Cas (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats- CRISPR associated proteins) is the only known adaptive defence system. CRISPR-Cas systems generate an RNA from a memory cassette of past infections, which guides the Cas protein to bind to and interfere with complementary invading DNA during a subsequent infection. This RNA guided nuclease activity is programmable and thus over the last decade has been explored for gene editing and molecular diagnostics. CRISPR-Cas systems are numerous and diverse, thus classified into 2 classes and 6 types. The type V systems, also called CRISPR-Cas12 embodies an effector protein with a conserved RuvC catalytic site that causes double-stranded breaks in the target DNA (some Cas12 harbour inactive RuvC). The Cas12 family by itself is very diverse and over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in understanding the evolution of the type V CRISPR Cas systems to unravel how these systems have evolved? Several CRISPR-Cas systems have been evolutionarily linked to transposable elements. Cas12 systems have evolved from a transposon associated element IS200/IS605 or IS607, called 'TnpB'. TnpB is also an RNA guided nuclease, but instead of defence, it functions to identify its targeted site for transposition. This raises the question: how did a transposon such as TnpB evolve to acquire the ability to protect its host against foreign genetic elements? In order to understand the evolution of TnpB into a fully functional Cas12 system (such as Cas12a), this thesis focusses on the identification and characterisation of their evolutionary intermediates. I undertook a computational analysis identifying Cas12 and TnpB effectors from a large dataset of assembled metagenomes which was then subjected to phylogenetic analysis. Evolutionary intermediates sub-types of Cas12 were identified as those that were closely linked to typical TnpB's and did not occur with adaptation proteins such as Cas1 and Cas2. Three such sub-types, type V-U1, type V-U2 and type V-U4 were then investigated by selectively characterising representative of each sub-type. All systems were structurally aligned with pre-existing structures to identify similarities and unique features that tied them to TnpB. Their loci were heterologously expressed to study their expression profiles and identify the small RNA require for interference. The candidate effectors were then subjected to in vitro assays, bacteriophage infection assays and plasmid interference assays to assess their programmability, interference, to understand their mechanism of action and validate their ability to function as ancestral defence systems. Through functional characterisation of three different evolutionary intermediate sub-types, the key findings emphasised on the independent evolution of each subtype from a different TnpB on multiple independent occurrences. I characterised the sub-type V-U1 to have evolved from be a nuclease inactive variant, that interfered with dsDNA bacteriophages and plasmidic elements through binding to its target sequence thereby causing CRISPR interference. Conversely, type V-U2, did not exhibit any bacteriophage defence against bacteriophages, but harboured a RuvC active catalytic centre that facilitated plasmidic interference. Type V-U4 was most similar to the only characterised TnpB, ISDra2. It harboured a RuvC intact catalytic domain that together with small functional RNAs targeted double-stranded DNA bacteriophage. Overall, identifying and understanding the elemental characteristics of three independent evolutionary inter-mediatory Cas12 subtypes, revealed properties that are ancestral and most essential in the functioning of Cas12 systems. This works more predominantly unravels the blueprint of Cas12's evolution from TnpB transposable elements.
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Function and regulatory mechanism of cis-regulatory RNA structure family in key methylation gene MAT2A
Wang, Di
MAT2A influences S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthesis, impacting DNA, RNA and protein methylation. In our previous work, using our novel computational method, EvoFam which enables us to search for conserved RNA structures genome-wide, our group has discovered a novel post-transcriptional regulatory RNA structure consisting of a family of six long stem-loops (hairpin structures, which we denote by hp1-6 or hp A-F), in the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of MAT2A mRNA. Remarkably, this structure is conserved across the majority of vertebrates species from humans to fish and beyond. This highlights its essential role in regulating MAT2A. Strikingly, there is a short fully conserved sequence motif within the loops of each of these structures. Since our group's publication of these RNA structures, there have been reports indicating that the m6A methylation writer METTL16 can act as an RNA-binding protein (RBP) binding to the conserved loop motif of hp1 and can methylate an m6A site of hp1-6 to regulate MAT2A mRNA degradation. We hypothesize that there may be other RBPs that can target these hairpin structures, especially those that may have specific binding with hp2-6. In this PhD research program, we study this research question, with an aim to discover other possible interacting RBP's, and their role in this MAT2A structured RNA regulatory mechanism. We screen RBPs binding to MAT2A mRNA using RNA pull-down experiments followed by mass spectrometry (MS) identification and western blotting identification, discovering that a key enzyme controlling the folate cycle and the rate limiting step of the SAM cycle, MTHFD1, also acts as an RBP specifically binding to hp2-6 in the 3'UTR of MAT2A mRNA: a role that has not been previously described. We next constructed hp2-6-/-, MTHFD1+/- and hp2-6-/-MTHFD1+/- double knockout HepG2 cells using the CRISP-cas9 method. Based on experiments conducted on both wild-type (WT) HepG2 cells and genetically modified cells, we have verified that the MAT2A mRNA-MTHFD1 binding occurs in HepG2 cells, occurring in both the nucleus and cytoplasm, and requires hp2-6. Exposure to excess extra-cellular methionine enhances this binding, leading to increased m6A methylation of hp2-6, enhanced splicing of a MAT2A mRNA intron retention isoform (MAT2A-IR), and consequent inhibition of MAT2A expression. A switch from MAT1A to MAT2A has been reported to promote tumor progression. However, we found that knocking down MTHFD1 promotes the expression of MAT2A while inhibiting tumor progression, as evidenced by cell proliferation, migration, invasion assays, and tumor growth data from tumor-bearing mice. This indicates that, besides its role in suppressing MAT2A, MTHFD1 promotes tumorigenesis via other pathway effects.
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The Enigma of Institutionalised Aid Securitisation in Somalia
(2025) Hassen, Yasmin
In a post 9/11 security climate, aid securitisation became an instrumental tool in shaping security paradigms in fragile states of geostrategic importance. This dissertation critically engages with the theoretical and practical implications of aid securitisation. This thesis examines the paradox inherent in institutionalised aid securitisation to establish the extent to which institutionalised aid securitisation facilitates or contributes to insecurity and instability in Somalia and the factors that exacerbate this dynamic. It positions aid securitisation as an enduring feature of the security, aid and development landscape in fragile states. The thesis uses securitisation theory as a lens to understand the complex interplay of the aid-security nexus. It challenges the perception of aid securitisation as a normative response to fragile states experiencing protracted conflict. The study does this to illustrate the impact of the promise, practice and effects of institutionalised aid securitisation across three sites of encounter: the centre and periphery dynamics, the political and security marketplaces, and the influence and role of the diaspora. Using twenty-six in-depth qualitative interviews conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, it interrogates the ways that institutionalised aid securitisation is encountered across the three sites. The research examines the dynamics between the normative, political and security realms and institutionalised aid securitisation by exploring the dialectic relationship between the securitising actors and securitised subjects across the three sites. The findings challenge the implications of a normative response on securitised subjects and how the negotiate and exercise their agency in this dynamic.

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