SACM - Australia
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9648
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Item Restricted The Influence of TikTok Food-Related Content on the Eating Behaviour of Young Adults in Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alsharari, Khalid Hail S; Feng, JuanThis research set out to explore how food-related content on TikTok influences the eating behaviours of young adults in Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory and informed by a structured review of global and regional literature, the study employed a quantitative design to examine behavioural trends, digital media engagement, and dietary motivations among a sample of 215 participants. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA. The findings revealed that frequent TikTok users were significantly more likely to try new foods, discover unfamiliar cuisines, and follow diet-related content creators. For example, participants who used TikTok for more than three hours daily reported higher motivation to explore new diets (p = .0003) and greater confidence in changing their eating habits (p = .0011) but also showed stronger appeal toward unhealthy food content (p < .001). These results highlight TikTok’s dual role in shaping both health-promoting and indulgent dietary behaviours. By focusing on an underrepresented region, the study offers contextual insights into how algorithm-driven content influences food choices among Saudi youth and provides a basis for more targeted health communication strategies. By situating this investigation within the underrepresented context of Al-Jouf, the study offers region-specific insights into how global platforms like TikTok are reshaping dietary perceptions even in semi-urban environments. Through its thematic analysis and theoretical framing, the research affirms key constructs of Social Cognitive Theory—namely observational learning, reinforcement, and self-efficacy—as relevant mechanisms in digital food culture. Furthermore, it identifies areas where health communication strategies could engage more effectively with youth through culturally relevant and visually persuasive content. While the study acknowledges its limitations, including the use of a non-random sample and reliance on self-reported data, its contributions are clear. It provides a foundation for future research on algorithm-driven health messaging in the Gulf region and highlights the growing need to understand how young people interact with food content in digital spaces. Ultimately, this research underscores the importance of aligning public health efforts with the evolving media environments that shape the everyday lives of young adults in Saudi Arabia and beyond.14 0Item Restricted The Impact of Job Burnout on the Performance of Non-Academic Staff(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alzahrani, Ahmed; O’Loughlin, TimJob burnout has emerged as a critical issue affecting employee well-being and organisational performance, particularly within the higher education sector. Despite substantial international research, limited studies have explored the relationship between burnout and performance among non-academic staff in Saudi Arabian universities. This study addresses this gap by investigating how job burnout influences the performance of non-academic employees at the public universities in Riyadh. The research aims to examine the extent and nature of burnout experienced by staff, identify its main causes, and assess its impact on individual performance outcomes. A quantitative research design was employed, using a structured survey distributed to a sample of non-academic staff across various administrative departments at the public universities. The survey collected information on demographic characteristics, burnout experiences (across emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, reduced personal accomplishment, job stress, work-life balance, and social support at work), and self-perceptions of job performance. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression modelling to examine the relationships between burnout dimensions and performance outcomes. The findings revealed a moderate level of overall job burnout among participants, with a weighted mean of 57.6%, alongside a moderate level of job performance effectiveness, with a weighted mean of 56.8%. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant negative impact of overall job burnout on job performance (R² = 0.756, p < 0.05). Among the burnout dimensions, job stress demonstrated the strongest negative association with job performance (correlation coefficient = 0.797, p < 0.05). These results highlight the critical need for organisational strategies to address job burnout, particularly by managing work-related stress and enhancing support systems for non-academic staff. Implementing initiatives such as workload management, employee engagement programs, and professional development opportunities may contribute to improved staff well-being and greater institutional effectiveness. Future research could benefit from longitudinal studies and broader cross-institutional comparisons within the Saudi higher education sector.16 0Item Restricted Quality of Accounting Information, Corporate Governance, and Economic Crises: Evidence from the Asia-Pacific Countries(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Basahi, Ahmed; Chand, ParmodEconomic crises pose significant challenges to financial systems, affecting corporate performance, accounting practices, and governance structures globally. During crises, accounting information’s relevance and earnings quality often come under scrutiny as firms face financial stress and managers grapple with meeting performance expectations. This amplifies the importance of reliable and transparent financial reporting. This thesis explores the multifaceted impact of such crises on the quality of accounting information, corporate governance mechanisms, and firm value, focusing on the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, it delves into how economic disruptions, like the COVID-19 pandemic, influence the value relevance of accounting information and earnings quality, as well as how corporate governance can serve as a stabilising factor, influencing firm value and mitigating the adverse effects of economic shocks. By examining the Asia-Pacific, the thesis provides a unique perspective on a region marked by institutional diversity and significant economic influence. The overarching aim of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of how economic crises impact accounting, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. This region, with its diverse institutional frameworks, regulatory environments, and financial systems, provides a fertile ground for examining this issue. The first paper investigates the effects of economic crises on the value relevance of accounting information in 14 major Asia-Pacific economies. Using a comparative analysis of pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, the study reveals a significant decline in the explanatory power of accounting information during the pandemic. Institutional factors, such as investor protection, legal systems, and financial systems, are shown to moderate this relationship. The findings underscore the importance of regional diversity in shaping how accounting information is utilised by investors during periods of economic instability, offering actionable insights for policymakers and regulators. The second paper provides a comparative analysis of earnings quality during two major economic crises: the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. The results reveal that earnings quality deteriorated during both crises. Interestingly, the results also reveal that the GFC had a more significant impact on accrual-based earnings management when compared with COVID-19, although COVID-19 had a more severe effect on economies. This highlights the role of improved regulatory reforms and accounting standards in recent years in the Asia-Pacific region in limiting accounting manipulation. By comparing these distinct crises, the paper advances the understanding of how financial and operational challenges impact earnings quality in diverse economic contexts. The final paper examines the influence of corporate governance on firm value in the Asia- Pacific region, emphasising the moderating effect of economic conditions. The findings demonstrate that robust country-level governance and firm-level corporate governance, including board size, board independence, and audit committee independence, positively affect firm stock performance. Furthermore, their positive effects become more evident during times of economic uncertainty, such as during COVID-19. By illustrating the protective role of governance mechanisms during economic downturns, this paper offers critical insights for fostering resilience in firms facing volatile environments. Taken together, the findings of the three papers collectively emphasise the critical interplay between economic crises and accounting information quality and the important role of governance systems in enhancing firm resilience during periods of economic uncertainty. By conducting a comprehensive cross-country analysis, the thesis enhances our understanding of the implications of economic conditions on the accounting profession and provides valuable insights into the broader implications of economic uncertainty on corporate decision-making, investor behaviour, and financial transparency.7 0Item Restricted The Impact of Physical Activity and Dietary Quality on Academic Performance Among Undergraduate Paramedic Students(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alali, Abdullah; Bronwyn BeovichThis thesis investigated the relationship between physical activity, dietary quality, and academic performance among undergraduate paramedic students. It comprises a scoping review of existing literature on healthcare students and a cross-sectional study involving 116 Monash University paramedic students. While the review identified generally positive associations between healthy lifestyle behaviours and academic achievement, the cross-sectional study found no significant correlation between physical activity or overall diet quality and GPA, except for a significant association in the third quartile of diet quality. These findings highlight the complexity of academic performance determinants and the need for further research considering additional factors such as mental health, sleep, and stress.6 0Item Restricted GREP: A Blockchain-based System for Managing Real Estate Provenance and Ownership Certification(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Abualhamayl, Abdullah Jameel; Hussain, Farookh KhadeerReal estate management is hindered by numerous challenges, as existing systems are inefficient and complex, leading to issues such as fraud, tampering, and unclear ownership histories. Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize real estate management by ensuring traceable, secure, transparent, and immutable records of property ownership and provenance. Despite its potential, there is no global platform for managing and tracing real estate provenance, nor reliable methods for proving ownership and shared ownership. This thesis proposes the Global Real Estate Platform (GREP), a hybrid blockchain-based system designed to manage real estate provenance and ownership certification. Using blockchain technology, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and fractional non-fungible tokens (fractional NFTs), GREP addresses these critical gaps. A nine-step systematic literature review was conducted to explore the integration of blockchain technologies in managing real estate transactions and ownership certification. This process provided valuable observations, implications, and recommendations based on the analysis. Additionally, it identified gaps in the literature, which led to the formulation of research questions and objectives. Building on this foundation, we present the development of GREP. This hybrid blockchain solution is designed to achieve the research objectives as follows: • Developing a reliable and global real estate platform for managing real estate provenance, which manages provenance data and access rights, enhances data authenticity, and maintains a balance between transparency, privacy, and accountability. • Developing a reliable method to prove ownership of real estate property, which incorporates NFTs to address inefficiencies, security vulnerabilities, and the variability of real estate transaction costs and time. • Developing a reliable method to prove shared ownership of real estate property, which involves utilizing fractional NFTs to effectively manage the creation, division, and transfer of a property’s ownership record to multiple parties. • Validating and evaluating the system to ensure its robustness and reliability, and developing a prototype to demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness. Each research objective is addressed in both conceptual and practical terms, with thorough implementation, validation, and use case demonstrations, followed by system evaluation using relevant metrics. In addition to these scientific advancements, this research contributes to addressing challenges such as preventing fraud, including forged documentation and double selling, as well as undocumented land, particularly in rural and underdeveloped regions. Furthermore, it reduces costs, shortens transaction times, improves efficiency, and boosts consumer confidence and public trust. The research also opens new possibilities for future directions, such as serving as a secondary identifier and aiding international investors without prior data.15 0Item Restricted Individuals’ Acoustic Features and Heart Rate Patterns Reveal Team Differences in High-Stakes Collaborative Learning(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alshehri, Abeer Abdullah; Martinez-Maldonado, Roberto; Echeverria, Vanessa; Martinez-Maldonado, Roberto; Echeverria, VanessaEffective collaboration in high-stakes learning environments, such as nursing simulations, relies not only on verbal communication but also on internal states (e.g., stress and engagement), often reflected in both speech and physiological data. However, the relationship between acoustic speech features and physiological arousal remains underexplored in authentic, team-based scenarios. This study investigates how speech acoustics correlate with heart rate relative to baseline (HRrelative) during simulation-based learning in healthcare education. We analysed speech and physiological data from 50 team sessions (173 students), extracting GeMAPS features and aligning them with utterance-level HR data. Correlation and predictive models were applied across simulation phases and team performance levels. Results reveal that high-performing teams modulated speech features—such as pitch, articulation, and loudness—more consistently across phases, suggesting adaptive regulation under pressure. On the contrary, low-performing teams showed similar shifts, but with less structure and at later phases. These findings demonstrate the potential of multimodal data to reveal hidden patterns in teamwork. Speech–physiology dynamics could inform targeted feedback during debriefing, supporting communication and leadership training in healthcare education.8 0Item Restricted The Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP) Web App(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) ALshammari, Yosef Mohammed H; Scott, MannThe Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP) Web App is a full-stack, accessible platform designed to assess and improve individuals’ death literacy through a personalized quiz experience. Built using the modern MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js), it features: • A responsive, public-facing quiz with conditional logic and Likert-style responses • A secure admin portal to manage quiz content, view submissions, analyze SEAK domain scores (Skills, Experience, Action, Knowledge), and export data • User role management supporting Public Users, Authenticated Users, and Admins/Researchers with protected route access • Accessibility considerations for older adults, including large fonts, intuitive navigation, and mobile responsiveness • Optional AI-powered feedback integration (using OpenAI) for enhanced personalization and insights The system is designed for future extensibility and supports research, policy planning, and end-of-life literacy campaigns.44 0Item Restricted An Evaluation of Machine Learning and Deep Learning for Time Series Forecasting(Saudi Digital Library, 2025-08) Gadhi, Adel; Shelton, PeirisThis thesis investigates the use of machine learning and hybrid models to forecast time series data such as climate patterns, oil prices, Australian beer production, and sunspot activity. It examines traditional models like ARIMA and GARCH, as well as machine learning methods such as SVR, LSTM, RF, and DT, which better capture non-linear and complex relationships. The study also evaluates hybrid models like ARIMA-ANN and GARMA-LSTM, which consistently demonstrate superior forecasting accuracy across various datasets. The GARMA-LSTM model, in particular, proves effective for long-term forecasting, especially with sunspot and beer production data. Finally, the thesis applies an advanced deep learning system, WGAN-GP, to financial and climate data, showing that modern methods can move beyond classical assumptions and better capture complex, high-order dynamics.12 0Item Restricted Investigation of Thin Al2O3 Films Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) on TiO2 substrate(Flinders University, 2025) Alrashdi, Fahad Fraih Alzabni; Andersson, Gunther GAbstract Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a feasible method for thin film deposition which allows the formation of a thin film of metal oxides on the various substrates. The film deposition is carried out in a vacuum reactor using chemical precursors (typically gases) which can react with the surface in a self-limiting manner. Each cycle in the ALD process can, in theory, form a monolayer of the desired metal oxide. Because the monolayer is deposited in each cycle, the thickness of the resulting film is related to the number of ALD cycles. In this thesis, the deposition of thin film Al2O¬3 on TiO2 nanoparticles by ALD was investigated. The main goal was to investigate whether Al2O¬3 can coat the inside of the pores of a porous TiO2 substrates or not. To obtain the answer, the chemical composition of the sample surface was studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The initial X-ray photoelectron survey scan spectrum for each individual sample was recorded, followed by the high-resolution scans for the elements of interest. Moreover, the morphology of substrate after Al2O3 deposition by ALD was also examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In one experiment, four samples of Al2O3 on TiO2 substrate were prepared. Three of these samples were mixed, redissolved in ethanol, and redeposited on to a new silicon wafer. This was labelled as the redeposited sample. While the other one sample was labelled as the reference sample. The relative intensity of Al/Ti from all samples were calculated. It was found that Al2O3 intensity decreases. This result suggests that the diffusion of Al2O3 to porous structure of the substrate did occur.11 0Item Restricted Accounting and Accountability in Resource Risk Management Control Systems: What Can Public Health Care Environments Learn From the COVID-19 Pandemic?(RMIT University, 2024) Gundah, Yasser Saeed Ali; Khan, TehminaThe COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented global challenges, significantly affecting healthcare sectors worldwide and raising profound concerns about preparedness for future crises. The outbreak placed substantial strain on health systems, often revealing critical inadequacies in resources, governance and existing management control and accountability mechanisms, leading to service disruptions and exacerbating societal inequalities. This highlighted the complexity of managing resources and risks during systemic health emergencies and underscored the urgent need for more resilient, equitable and accountable approaches within global health governance. This thesis critically examines the interplay of resource allocation mechanisms, risk management control systems (RMCS) and accountability mechanisms within major international health organisations (IHOs) and associated public health systems during the 2019–2024 pandemic period. Employing a critical realist philosophical stance, the research utilises qualitative content analysis of 620 publicly available documents from ten key IHOs. The research identifies critical resource risks, evaluates management strategies and examines the role and limitations of specific non-financial and financial accounting and control tools employed within RMCS during the pandemic response. Contingency theory and resource dependence theory serve as primary analytical lenses for the interpretation of the context-dependency of system effectiveness and the management of crucial external resource dependencies. The research finds that traditional RMCS and accounting frameworks—often siloed, reactive and focused primarily on financial controls—proved insufficient for the systemic, interconnected and dynamic nature of the pandemic crisis. The central argument derived from the synthesised findings is that achieving effective pandemic resilience demands a fundamental paradigm shift towards RMCS and associated management accounting systems and control practices that are simultaneously anticipatory—embedding equity considerations and systemic risk analysis into pre-crisis planning—and dynamically adaptive—enabling transparent, accountable and stakeholder-responsive decision-making during crises to mitigate fragmentation and injustice. This study contributes an empirically grounded, theoretically informed analysis of the complex interplay between risks, strategies and control tools in global health emergencies. It offers critical insights for the development of more integrated, adaptive and equitable RMCS for future pandemic preparedness and response.84 0