Restricted Theses
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/9050
While this collection is searchable, the digital copies of the theses are restricted because the author has requested an embargo period or permission has not been given to make the work publicly available.
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Embargo Balls, Babies and Bullying: Barriers to the career progression of women in the profession Obstetrics and Gynaecology(2025) Thomas, MelanieThe 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.Item Embargo A Study in Syriac Corpus Linguistics: Syntax, Change and Definiteness in the Syriac Noun Phrase(2025) El Khaissi, CharbelHistorical 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.Item Embargo Reawakening Wangaaypuwan and A Plain Language Grammar(2025) Woods, LesleyIn 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.Item Embargo Entrepreneurship as Venture Design: Unravelling the Journey from Opportunity Artifact to Ecosystem Impact(2025) Potocnjak Oxman, CamiloEntrepreneurship 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.Item Embargo I'll eat meat because that's what we do: A social identity approach to understanding meat-eating attitudes and intentions(2025) Tait, AngelaThere 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.Item Embargo 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, LinhTeams 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.Item Embargo The Emergence of Environmental Migration and Displacement Management 'Best Practices' in the Pacific(2025) Mudaliar, LakshminDespite 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.Item Embargo Measurement of interior green space and its impact on indoor environmental quality(2025) Jiang, JunzhiweiIndoor 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.Item Embargo Functional characterisation of the evolutionary intermediates of the prokaryotic adaptive immune system CRISPR-Cas12(2025) D Silva, JovitaProkaryotes 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.Item Embargo Function and regulatory mechanism of cis-regulatory RNA structure family in key methylation gene MAT2AWang, DiMAT2A 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.Item Embargo The Enigma of Institutionalised Aid Securitisation in Somalia(2025) Hassen, YasminIn 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.Item Embargo From silent to salient: Re-engaging local stories of Chuukese women(2025) Kim, MyjolynneChuukese 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.Item Embargo Building resilient optical ground station networks with atmospheric characterisation and modelling(2024) Birch, MarcusOptical 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.Item Embargo Re-Evaluating Historical Earthquakes in Australia and Indonesia with Archival and Seismological Data(2025) Martin, StaceySeismic 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.Item Restricted Advancing 3D volumetric imaging with computational optics for in vitro tissue model(2024) Xu, TienanIn 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.Item Embargo In Plain Sight: Representing Girls in Art History and Public Art Museums(2024) Remer, AshleyOver the past twenty years, the emergence of girls as research subjects in various disciplines has established the relatively new field of girls' studies. Yet, art history, even from a feminist perspective, has largely overlooked girls as subjects. For centuries, girls have been active in cultural production as models, performers, and artists. But firsthand accounts from their own perspectives are scarce. Because of this absence from the traditional historical records, and despite their numerous depictions in art, girls are consistently excluded from art history and curatorial discussions. This dissertation addresses girls' marginalisation and their absence in art historical discourse and museum practices by exploring the question, "What is the place of girls in art history and museum practices?" This research highlights the neglect of girls in art history and argues that the perceptions and assumptions of adults have overshadowed their identities and narratives. In doing so, it addresses a significant gap, one that is a product of systemic sexism, misogyny, and adultism within the discipline. To investigate these issues, this study develops and utilises a girl-centred theoretical framework that draws from feminist art history and girls' studies. Through this framework, the research uncovers and critiques layers of patriarchal privilege and learned misogyny that have contributed to the denial of girls' agency in art. It examines how girls are represented and discussed in art history and museum contexts, proposing ways to recover their voices and narratives. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to answer the research question, combining traditional and innovative art historical and museological methodologies. Through document and visual content analysis, it evaluates selected artworks from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries in Anglo-Euro-American art history. It uses case studies of girl models from late nineteenth-century French artworks to show ways of recovering their stories. Semi-structured interviews with art historians and curators are conducted to understand their attitudes and perceptions towards girls' representations in art. The study employs an empathy walk tracing the path of girl model Marie van Goethem and gallery walks to quantify girls' presence in several European art museums. This dissertation argues for the expansion of feminist art historical discourse to acknowledge girls as valuable participants in cultural production and to include them in broader discussions and analyses of artworks. The evidence collected in this study reveals how art historians and curators view girls in art history and how they interpret them in public art museums. Despite the lack of scholarship on girls, they are ubiquitous: present in artworks, archives, art collections, and on gallery walls. This study offers new methods and analytical tools for application in art history and museum practice. Its findings contribute to emerging research on girls' representations in art, girls' studies, and child history.Item Embargo An Exploration of Complex Unbounded Problems(2024) Weiske, PeterCUPs Putative Abstract: Peter Weiske 2024. This thesis presents a post-modern exploration of complex unbounded problems (CUPs), seeking to provide generally applicable insights into their overall character, an effort that may inform a number of strategies to address them. Here, CUPs are serious systemic poly-domain disruptions, as complex threat risk situations far beyond the normally encountered routine problems, and although at times related to but also distinctly beyond the more common and tractable non-routine problems as described in disaster literature (e.g. Handmer and Dovers, 2013) and confronted by strategic, planning and response agencies. My first proposition is that a broader-than-usual grouping of CUPs is valuable and needed, across disasters, technological threats, humanitarian crises, security and conflict, planetary environmental degradation, widespread economic crises, and dangerous geopolitical situations. CUPs thus span those stemming from human (anthropogenic) causes and from natural (naturogenic) processes, and those that are more common in having their roots in both causal complexes. Most literature and indeed policy and responses treat these admittedly already large and complex domains separately. This wider grouping allows consideration of commonalities and variations across situations and disruptions. I propose CUPs thus categorized, have commonalities at least at a broad strategic and conceptual level, while endlessly displaying the latter in their specific manifestations and particular features. This is consistent with, but widens the scope of, Ducote's et.al (2010) PMESII+ model (political, military, economic, social-ecological, informational or infrastructural) which we have modified to incorporate the social-ecological domain; works with information-action (Polkinghorne, J. 2006); is supported by Max-Neef's Human Scale Development (HSD) (1989, 2010); fits with Complex Systems theories (Bar-Yam, Y. 1997, 2002, 2003), (Ackhoff, R.L.1994); (Holland, J.H. 1992, 2014); and those models, means and methods found in related scientific and warnings analysis fields (Grabo, C. 2003, 2010) and (Kent, S. 1949). The second and third propositions involve a number of attributes characterize CUPs in their many and deeply worrying forms. The key attributes of CUPs identified and explored here are coalescence; exceedance; porosity and unsoundness. A critical concept throughout is that of information-action, following Polkinghorne (2006), and the related phenomena of actioner and trajectorates, whereby the vectors of dynamins cause change. As an admitted eucatastrophist (sensu JRR Tolkien 1942), seeking perhaps optimistically hopeful endings amidst dismal prospects, and to counterbalance the apparent entropic direction of global problems, I respond with the idea of anti-entropy. Along the way, sub-attributes emerge and are noted. CUPs chapters: Introduction and general concepts; 2). Earth System; 3).Complex Civil Nuclear Disasters ; 4). Biologics; 5). Near earth Space Ecology; 6). Summary and Conclusions. The three propositions relate not only sequentially. If key attributes such as those above are indeed observable across varied CUP situations (proposition 2 and 3), then the validity of (proposition 1) is supported.Item Restricted A Case Study of Women Branches of Islamist Parties; Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and AK Party Turkey(2024) Malik, TayyabaThis thesis examines Islamist women's political activism in the late 2010s and early 2020s in Pakistan's Jamaat Islami in comparison with women from the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Jamaat Islami serves as the main case study, while the AK Party serves as a comparison group to help identify what is distinctive in the experiences of Jamaat Islami women and what is shared across various Islamist movements. This thesis uses a range of qualitative methods from gender studies to examine the voices of Islamist women within these groups. It mainly draws upon interviews conducted between 2018 and 2020 with women members, male party officials, and academics providing valuable firsthand insights into Islamist political groups. By analysing interviews and data gathered from observing group meetings in the broader context of historical discourses and party documents, the study examines the conception of ideal femininity within these two Islamist parties, investigates why women choose to join conservative parties that might restrict their freedom, and considers the role of conservative political engagement within a diverse feminist landscape. Through these three themes, the thesis delves into the possibilities and limitations Muslim women in these parties face in the contemporary time. The central argument of the thesis is that Islamist women in Pakistan and Turkey, during the 2010s and 2020s, continue to find meaning and agency by actively supporting conservative political groups within the framework of gender hierarchy. By capturing the voices and perspectives of individuals involved with these groups, the study demonstrates that trends identified in the earlier studies on Islamist women in the 2000s have grown stronger. The thesis highlights that Islamist political groups in Pakistan and Turkey negotiate rather than resolve tensions between quests for women's greater empowerment and social pressures to maintain gender hierarchies. In this study, despite the socio-cultural differences between Pakistan and Turkey and their varying state-religion relationships, commonalities in the notions of ideal femininity and the motivations for women's participation in Islamist political parties have emerged. The study establishes that the examination of the ideal woman in different cultural and political contexts reveals striking similarities between JI and AKP, suggesting a convergence in Islamist ideologies that transcends national boundaries, and raises intriguing questions about the persistence of shared features despite Turkey's history of secularization and Pakistan's history of Islamization and resistance to colonial modernity. The motivation behind women's involvement in Islamist political groups is driven by a variety of factors, including the opportunity to strengthen social and familial bonds, access new educational and social avenues, pursue moral ideals, engage in a socially acceptable form of modernity, and advocate for women's well-being. However, this engagement comes with an implicit expectation to uphold patriarchal structures in exchange for these opportunities. The study also highlights the potential for considering this work within the framework of Islamist feminism, despite the rejection of feminist identity by women activists in both parties. Notably, women in the Jamaat Islami party in Pakistan experience a higher degree of freedom and autonomy compared to their counterparts in Turkey, shedding light on the nuanced dynamics within these political movements.Item Embargo Shapeshifters: Searching for Fakatangata(?) and Tonga's queer past(2024) Tupou, TrishThis thesis explores the establishment of Tongan sovereignty through a Tongan feminist lens. By examining the 19th century politics of Tonga, I consider how changes to religion, the introduction of written legal codes, and the eventual promulgation of the Tongan Constitution had violent consequences for women. This period in Tonga's past foreclosed the erotic freedom and agency of women which continues to ripple through the diaspora and Tonga's on-the-ground politics today. My thesis works to recenter and unearth the Tongan divine feminine in unsettling mainstream projections of Tonga as the 'true South Pacific' and the 'last remaining kingdom.' I examine our Tongan historical canon and recast the stories of women who were misrepresented as mere appendages to independence: as a murdered priestess, or as a strategic pawn used through marriage, or as only being in relationship with the fonua (land) through the formalization of land tenure via one's husband. I consider the queer possibilities of our past as captured through the stories of deities and women. Utilizing Tongan concepts and practices of fonua (land, nation, placenta, people), fananga (storytelling), and manatu (memory) I rethink gendered connections to land, as well as renegotiate the ta va (time and space) of our Tongan diaspora communities that influence our sovereignty. My research is guided by the central question: what is Tongan queer joy? From this, I question how we might build different forms of Indigenous sovereignty whilst establishing the power of an embodied archive that challenges the erasures of colonial legacies and the mapping of this violence onto our ontologies of land, gender, and sexualities..Item Restricted The Development of Amino Acid Sulfinate Salts as Tools for Peptide Modification(2024) Hammond, JoshuaModified peptides, including compounds inspired by nature, have increasingly become a valuable area of research due to their growing prevalence in medicinal chemistry. To fully exploit the potential of peptide natural products and their derivatives, novel techniques must be developed to access these compounds in a laboratory setting. Techniques which can mimic the site selectivity of enzymatic post-translational modifications are particularly valuable. One conceivable approach is the development of novel amino acids bearing unique functional groups that impart new reactivity onto a peptide. In this thesis , the synthesis of novel amino acid sulfinate salts as valuable precursors to amino acid radicals is explored. The established radical reactivity of the sulfinate moiety is ideal as the conditions for radical formation are generally mild and selective and radical transformations can often proceed orthogonally to polar functional groups , including the diverse functionality present in peptides. This work discloses the synthesis of amino acid sulfinate salts and the optimization of a photochemically-promoted radical reaction between these novel amino acids and various radical traps, particularly disulfides. In addition, this reactivity is extended to small molecule sulfinates and disulfide-containing peptides, for the development of an umpolung approach to the modification of cysteine residues. The thesis is divided into the following chapters: Chapter one summarises the existing literature on site-specific side-chain peptide modification, the development of the sulfinate moiety as a precursor for carbon centred radicals and the subsequent use of existing sulfinate reagents in the modification of small molecules and peptides. Furthermore, a brief history of photochemistry, focussing on the use of photochemistry as a tool for peptide modification, is discussed. The specific aims of this thesis are also outlined. Chapter two details the synthesis of the first amino acid sulfinate salts derived from the native hydroxy-functionalized amino acids hydroxyproline (HPro), homoserine (HSer) and serine (Ser), and summarises efforts towards the preparation of an amino acid sulfinate salt derived from threonine (Thr). Detailed optimization of the synthetic pathways are discussed. Chapter three focusses on the optimization and subsequent diversification of the amino acid sulfinate salts. Various mild oxidative conditions were probed for their effectiveness, including chemical oxidation, electrochemistry, and photochemistry. Optimization of key photochemical conditions enabled broad application to a functionally diverse array of disulfide radical traps. Chapter four aims to extend the reactivity of disulfides to a peptide context to investigate the feasibility of the reaction as a tool for the modification of cystine residues. Suitable peptide model systems were synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis and small molecule sulfinates ('diversinates') are probed for reactivity with peptidic disulfides. Extensive optimization was conducted to improve reaction outcomes using high-throughput experimentation. This chapter also details the incorporation of amino acid sulfinates into a peptide as an alternative strategy for peptide modification. Chapter five summarises the advances made herein towards the development of sulfinate salts as tools for the modification of peptide substrates. Future directions are also discussed, including the incorporation of the amino acid sulfinates into peptides to enable to synthesis of biologically relevant peptides, such as the lanthipeptide family of natural products . In addition, the prospect of creating tuneable protected amino acid sulfinates for one pot modification techniques is discussed. Chapter six provides the detailed experimental protocols and characterization data for all compounds described in Chapters 2-4 of this thesis.