Restricted Theses

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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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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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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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From silent to salient: Re-engaging local stories of Chuukese women
(2025) Kim, Myjolynne
Chuukese history is an area that continues to be underdeveloped, and the limited written history is dominated by a history of colonial presence in the islands. This colonial history, however, is patriarchal and privileges masculine voices, perceptions, and presence with little regard to women's presence. It further depicts Chuukese women as silent, submissive and hapless. Such depictions have become widely accepted not only in historical literature but also by Chuukese themselves. This research study, then seeks to deliver an indigenous history of Chuuk with a central focus on women. To provide a well-rounded history, I prioritize oral history while acknowledging the importance of a broader literature women's history. In this research, I argue that contrary to the prevailing mis/re/presentations of Chuukese women as silent and submissive, Chuukese local history presents women as historically important, salient and powerful. Instead of doing a linear history, I opt for a thematic approach using three local perspectives of Chuukese women as Nien Aroor (women as managers), which recognizes women as leaders, Nien Sufon (women of respect) emphasizes cultural values, traditional knowledge and epistemologies, and Pwochen Fanimwar (the wife and lover) focuses on family kinship. Nien Aroor perspective uses the historiography approach, incorporating oral history. Nien Sufon uses ethnographic research and participatory observations. Pwochen Fanimwar privileges the creative approach and uses Chuukese music, chants, dance, and arts. As an outcome, I hope to re-engage Chuukese women and their voices in rewriting a responsible history of Chuukese women at the same time contributing to the discipline of Micronesian History and a ground enhancing the case for local history as valid historiography.
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Building resilient optical ground station networks with atmospheric characterisation and modelling
(2024) Birch, Marcus
Optical communication over free-space is heralded to be a revolution for satellite telecommunication that will amplify the data capability of satellites, support future space exploration, and bring the world closer through high-speed relays. Laser links capable of modulation up to Tbit/s are promising but despite such promise this technology has long struggled with adoption for space-to-ground links due to the challenges of Earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric attenuation from cloud and turbulence are the core impediments of the atmospheric channel. Cloud cover presents an impenetrable barrier in nearly all cases for space-to-ground links, and so well-placed sites along with proliferation have long been accepted as the only solution. Atmospheric turbulence can create phase and intensity noise that limits the data rate of optical links, and is far more complex than cloud to characterise and model. Overcoming both of these problems requires new solutions on where to place optical ground stations (OGS), and new ways to measure atmospheric turbulence at those sites. I therefore addresses two core questions which arise from overcoming the atmosphere, i.e. how should ground networks be designed for resilience against cloud-induced outages, and how atmospheric turbulence can be characterised. I present novel methodology for analysing the capability of OGS networks with a focus on Australia, leveraging remote-sensing data and orbital simulations to show not only how the region is well-suited to optical communication, but utility of these analysis tools. Among these methods is a semi-analytical solution to reliability for spatially-correlated nodes, and a spatially-resolved means of node placement optimisation. These methods are extended to the poles, where further simulations and meteorological instruments installed at Davis Station, Antarctica, are used to provide a compelling case for the poles to host an OGS. This includes leveraging a machine-learning approach to cloud phase classification in-situ to refine outage predictions in polar climates. The network frameworks presented here synergise with the development of a novel turbulence monitor that can be easily deployed at prospective sites. An automated Ring Image Next Generation Scintillation Sensor (RINGSS) is constructed and tested at a number of locations, including a proof-of-concept campaign at urban sites in Europe and the Arctic. An infrared RINGSS variant is also built and deployed at the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory OGS, where I demonstrate the first profiling of atmospheric turbulence using a spacecraft laser terminal, and the first use of RINGSS in daytime. Presented results in OGS network analysis and atmospheric site-testing are grounded in the ongoing development of an Australasian network, and a ANU OGS node that has been constructed over the past three years at Mount Stromlo Observatory. My research therefore establishes a comprehensive toolkit to help design and deploy free-space optical communication networks, and significantly improve their resilience and efficiency. Reliable optical ground station networks will form the backbone of a future satellite communication landscape which will amplify all of humanities future endeavours in space and on Earth in much the same way that radio antenna revolutionised telecommunication.
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Caravan of the Gone: Disorder, Ruination, and Place-Making in Afghanistan
(2025) Homayun, Shamim
This thesis is about cultural senses of place and place-making in Afghanistan. For over forty years, since the communist revolution of 1978, Afghanistan has experienced continuous war. This has destroyed towns and villages and devastated the natural environment. It has left every family with lost or missing relatives. A group of anthropologists, seeking to understand the complex ways that war has impacted Afghan society, have researched the narratives and practices that emerged amid this chaos and precarity. My own research, based on fieldwork in Balkh and Bamiyan, contributes to this literature by investigating the cultural meanings of place and landscape in the aftermath of violence. During fieldwork, I drew on semi-structured interviews and a method of ethnographic walking, in which my informants walked with me through places of local significance: former dwellings, markets, shrines, caves, and gardens. As I walked with my informants through these landscapes, I observed the way they encountered places afflicted by war, and I documented the stories and memories that these places evoked. Ruination, in both a social and spatial sense, became a central theme of this project. Another important concept is socio-spatial order (nazm): an often-unspoken principle in which the social, moral, and cosmological order are interwoven through the medium of place. When war destroys and reshapes the landscape, it disrupts this delicate sense of spatial harmony, resulting in a perceived inversion of the socio-spatial order. This can lead to feelings of bewilderment and estrangement from once-familiar places. For my informants, practices such as spontaneous sociality, nostalgic reflection, pleasure outings, and visiting shrines became ways of refashioning place-worlds.
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Re-Evaluating Historical Earthquakes in Australia and Indonesia with Archival and Seismological Data
(2025) Martin, Stacey
Seismic hazard assessments require a detailed record of earthquake activity. This record needs to be as complete and continuous as possible in space and time to constrain the distribution and rates of seismicity. Relying on instrumentally recorded earthquakes alone fails to account for earthquakes with recurrence times longer than the 100+ year history of instrumental seismology. Therefore, seismic hazard studies must often incorporate information on earthquakes that occurred before the instrumental era, i.e., historical earthquakes. I re-evaluate historical earthquakes in Australia and Indonesia on an event-based and regional scale by relying on primary archival and seismological materials. For Indonesia, I created the Gempa Nusantara database. It is the largest macroseismic intensity dataset ever compiled for the region, with 7380 intensity data points for 1200 historical earthquakes between 1546 and 1950. This dataset was used to examine the completeness of the historical record by examining colonial influences, comparing with the paleoseismic record and previous studies, and using these intensities to test seismic hazard curves for selected cities in Indonesia. The latter in particular demonstrated that the annual frequency of damaging shaking corresponds well with these curves for many, but not all, of Indonesia's largest cities. I also investigated the pre-digital (pre-1964) instrumental record in Indonesia by correlating instrumental readings from early seismographs with felt earthquakes. This allowed the identification of 25 instrumented earthquakes between 1889 and 1902. I also used amplitudes from Milne seismographs to calculate surface-wave magnitudes for 173 earthquakes between 1898 and 1919. Comparing felt effects with instrumental locations helped to identify earthquakes that were erroneously located by sparse instrumental data in the pre-digital period (1904 to 1964). For Australia, I reviewed two of its largest historical earthquakes. The first was a M~6 earthquake on 7 June 1918 that was presumed to have had an epicentre off the coast of Bundaberg in Queensland. I was able to prove that this location is incorrect and that the correct location (~24.93 S and ~150.88 E) was inland. My results were guided by a review of macroseismic effects including previously untapped first-hand accounts, seismograms, and felt aftershocks. By examining the original seismograms, I show that previously reported S-P times were incorrect. S-P times I re-picked, now offer independent support for an inland source. Using instrumental amplitudes from seismological stations in Australia, I computed Ms ~5.9 and a revised Mw ~6.0 for this event. Lastly, I re-visited macroseismic observations and seismological data from the 1954 Adelaide earthquake which is the most damaging earthquake in South Australia to date. Using a similar approach with macroseismic data, I concluded that the 1954 epicentre was further to the east (~35.05S and ~138.86E) than previously assumed. This location is supported by previously unconsidered macroseismic effects at sites within the Adelaide Hills including numerous accounts of areal and subsurface hydrological effects. I computed an instrumental Mw of ~5.4. Inverting macroseismic data gave an intensity magnitude of Mw ~6.0 for this event. The discrepancy between the two magnitudes is hypothesised to result from the event having a higher-than-normal static stress drop and a greater focal depth. In summary, my research shows how important it is to tap often underutilised data to correct errors, fill gaps in modern earthquake catalogues and quantify uncertainties that are geological, numeric or societal. My findings also underscore the equal importance of integrating historical and scientific datasets with a balanced weighting. These steps are necessary to correctly guide future seismic hazard assessments in Australia and Indonesia, and globally.
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Advancing 3D volumetric imaging with computational optics for in vitro tissue model
(2024) Xu, Tienan
In vitro 3D tissue model is superseding 2D cell culture model because it has shown to replicate in vivo tissue level functions processes down to single-cell level. Accurate quantification of the 3D spatial distribution of physical or molecular markers within in vitro 3D tissue model identifies cell and tissue characteristics that are subsequently used to screen for drug targets. Fluorescence techniques equipped to acquire 3D volumetric images such as light sheet and lightfield computational imaging have emerged as promising candidates to fulfil low phototoxic volumetric image-based screening of in vitro 3D tissue model at single-cell resolution. However, these 3D volumetric imaging techniques are laden with optical and practical challenges that lead to limited axial sectioning along with sample and mechanical interventions. These obstacles in turn fail to accelerate further innovative progress in applying 3D volumetric imaging in drug discovery. The aim of this thesis is to achieve isotropic 3D volumetric imaging with computational optics so that it is applicable for high-throughput screening of in vitro 3D tissue model. In Chapter 1, I first provide an overview of different classes of in vitro 3D tissue model and the hurdles in implementing light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LFSM) for volumetric image-based screening. Next in Chapter 2, I discuss the foundations of 3D volumetric imaging by providing the theoretical background of axial sectioning, reviewing the optical techniques for voxel generation in 3D, and outlining how to achieve isotropic spatial resolution. In Chapter 3, I provide detailed biochemical protocols for the fabrication of in vitro thrombosis model and the fabrication of in vitro 3D stromal tissue model using fluid viscosity modifiers. In Chapter 4, I attempt to address the challenge of refractive index (RI) difference faced by LFSM for 3D volumetric imaging. I formulate an RI matching protocol with sucrose solution and tunable illumination to enable LFSM to image single platelets in in vitro thrombosis model. Whilst the technique developed for LFSM in Chapter 4 is suited for one class of in vitro 3D tissue model: tissue-on-chips, it is still not broadly applicable to all in vitro 3D tissue model such as spherical tissue model in multi-well plates. Hence, in Chapter 5, I move to propose a novel technique that combines single objective light sheet (SOLS) and lightfield computational imaging to achieve multi-directional SOLS. Multi-directional SOLS achieves flexible 3D volumetric imaging because it can accommodate planar illumination of many different oblique and azimuthal angles. At the core of the multi-directional SOLS technique is the Fast Optical Ray lightfield reconstruction algorithm because the FOR algorithm facilitates 3D volumetric imaging with axial sectioning that reaches near-isotropic spatial resolution. Chapter 5 describes the numerical modelling and simulation of the FOR algorithm and multi-directional SOLS. Based on the technique proposed in Chapter 5, I then detail the optical design and construction to create the multi-directional SOLS system, termed the mcSOLS in Chapter 6. Chapter 6 ends with a preliminary demonstration of the mcSOLS for 3D volumetric imaging of in vitro 3D stromal tissue model that was fabricated in Chapter 3, where I show the single-cell resolution of 3.59x3.63x4.56um in a volume of 270x270x40um. In Chapter 7, I push the capabilities of the mcSOLS beyond imaging and into photolithography. I investigate, numerically and experimentally, the feasibility of implementing the multi-directional planar illumination of the mcSOLS for tomographic photolithography. Lastly, I conclude in Chapter 8 on how the development of 3D volumetric imaging techniques and in vitro 3D tissue model in this thesis exemplifies the synergy between optics, biology, and fabrication for advancing volumetric image-based screening. This paves the way for the next generation of drug discovery platforms.

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