bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Financial reporting by Small and Medium sized Entities in Mongolia and the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium sized Entities
Authors:   , Jadamba Uyanga
Published: December 2021

This study examines three important aspects of financial reporting practice of Small and Medium sized Entities (SMEs) in developing economy. First, the study investigates the existing reporting practices of SMEs in Mongolia. Second, the study considers the expected impact for Mongolian SMEs of adopting the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). Third, the study examines the relationships between the economic characteristics of SMEs and both their reporting practice and the expected impact of adoption of the IFRS for SMEs. The study adopts a mixed method approach with a quantitative survey questionnaire and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The study developed a survey questionnaire and obtained 102 responses: 67 responses from employee account preparers of SMEs and 35 responses from accounting practitioners of Public Accounting Firms (PAFs) engaged with SMEs. The results of the survey were analysed using a range of non-parametric tests and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). The qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight standard-setters, educators and information users and analysed using Nvivo. Overall, the research findings suggest that in Mongolia there is a low level of compliance with international financial reporting standards. It appears that preparers and users perceive a low level of net benefits from compliance. Surprisingly, the results indicate that the economic characteristics of SMEs do not appear to influence their reporting practice. Adoption of the IFRS for SMEs is expected to increase the level of compliance by SMEs.
Model-Theoretic Accounts of Logical Consequence - Themes from Etchemendy
Authors:   , Christensen Kasper Højbjerg
Published: December 2021

This thesis is a discussion and continuation of a project started by John Etchemendy with his criticism of Tarski's account of logical consequence. To this end the two central concepts of the thesis are those of an interpretational and representational model-theoretic account of logical consequence, respectively.  The first chapter introduces Etchemendy's criticism of Tarski's account of logical consequence, a criticism which turns essentially on an interpretation of Tarski according to which his proposed account gives rise to a purely interpretational model-theoretic account of logical consequence. Consequently there must be a representational aspect to our model-theoretic definition of logical consequence.  The second chapter introduces Etchemendy's notion of logical consequence: that of being truth preserving in virtue of the semantics of the involved terms. While this notion is representational, we argue that Etchemendy's notion of a categorematic treatment of terms reintroduces an interpretational aspect back into the model theory. The chapter investigates the resulting notion, compares it to other notions in the literature, and presents certain results that can be proved, under certain conditions, about this notion in relation to the notion of being truth preserving in virtue of the semantics of all terms.  Chapter three of the thesis is concerned with the question of how a standard model, seen as a domain and an interpretation function, manages to capture the different notions of model-theoretic consequence. As we explain, this question is most pressing when we want our models to both represent and interpret, and we will present a theory which allows us to see the models as both representing non-actual possibilities as well as provide interpretations for the terms.  The fourth chapter applies the lessons of the preceeding chapters to argue that Kripke Semantics can be seen as capturing the notion of being truth preserving in all possibilities under all interpretations of the non-logical terminology in the case where our language is augmented with an operator, ⃞, to represent logical necessity. We will argue this point by contrasting it with, though not necessarily disagreeing with, claims made by various authors to the effect that Kripke Semantics is not the appropriate semantics when our language contains an operator for logical necessity.
Effects of Results-Based Financing on Patient Satisfaction in Afghanistan
Authors:   , Tawfiq M. Essa
Published: December 2021

A Results-Based Financing (RBF) program has been implemented in Afghanistan since September 2010 to improve the quality of health care and increase the utilization of maternal and child health services. This PhD study examines the impact of RBF on patient satisfaction and on determinants of patient satisfaction at health facility level in Afghanistan. Determinants of patient satisfaction in the study refer to health provider performance, availability of medicines, vaccines, equipment, and physical appearance of health facilities.  I used data collected from a panel of health facilities over a three-year period. The data consist of nearly 3000 patient observations and exit interviews. I included 112 health facilities in my study. These health facilities were part of the 428 health facilities which had been randomly assigned to treatment and control groups prior to the start of RBF in 2010. Financial incentives were distributed among health providers in the treatment facilities through four administration mechanisms: salary-based, task-based, equal-amount, and mixed-method. Follow-up surveys were conducted in 2011 and 2012 in the same 112 facilities, but for new cross-sections of patients and health providers. I analysed a range of patient satisfaction and patient satisfaction determinants measures using a regression-adjusted difference-in-differences estimation model.  The results from this study show that after a period of two years, there was an increase of only 8 percentage points in the proportion of patients who were very satisfied with services as a whole. However, the effect was not statistically significant. Similarly, specific aspects of patient satisfaction were not significantly affected by the intervention. Likewise, RBF did not have any significant effect on health provider performance, on availability of medicines, vaccines, and equipment, and on physical appearance of health facilities over a two-year period. I also found no difference in RBF treatment effects by the different incentive administration mechanisms.  My study provides evidence which suggests that paying monetary incentives alone may not have the impetus to improve health provider performance to the satisfaction of patients in a post conflict country. In such settings, RBF initiatives need to include both financial and non-financial incentives for health providers in order to achieve the intended objectives of quality of care and patient satisfaction. My study provides pragmatic recommendations aimed at holistic approaches to improving quality and delivery of healthcare in a post conflict setting.
Novel Methodologies for the Synthesis of Multivalent Glycoconjugates
Authors:   , Munneke Stefan
Published: December 2021

Glycoconjugates, such as glycolipids and glycoproteins, play an important role in health and disease. The synthesis and biological evaluation of these glycoconjugates allows for the development of novel carbohydrate-based therapeutics and analytical tools. Traditionally, the conjugation of glycans to other substrates required the installment of an anomeric linker during the total synthesis of the glycan, however, this strategy does not allow for the conjugation of naturally isolated glycans. To address this concern, glycan conjugation methodologies without the need for protecting groups have been developed, including the use of oxyamine conjugation methodologies. In particular, the synthesis of a variety of novel bi-functional oxyamine linkers enabled the rapid assembly of various types of glycoconjugates, including fluorescent- and biotinylated-glycans, glycoproteins and multivalent glycodendrons.  The multivalent presentation of glycans to cell surface lectins is often required to induce a measurable biological response. This multivalent binding can be achieved by the presentation of glycans on dendrons as these ‘glycodendrons’ have increased affinity for their corresponding lectin compared to monovalent glycans. Moreover, these glycodendrons have several advantages, including high synthetic control, low cytotoxicity and in addition can be derivatised with molecular probes of choice, which can aid in the biological evaluation of these glycoconjugates. Accordingly, novel biotinylated and fluorescent dendrons were synthesised from a highly convergent second generation dendron core scaffold. These functionalised dendrons then allow for the nonavalent conjugation of carbohydrates, such as Lewis antigens, for their biological evaluation in the selective targeting of lectins.  Lewis antigens play an important role in host cell recognition, but these glycans are also involved in disease, such as in cancer metastasis and HIV-infection. The synthesis of Lewis antigens allows for the biological evaluation of these glycans, and moreover, could be employed in the development of novel glycan-based therapeutics and analytical tools. Accordingly, a novel high-yielding and efficient synthesis of a crystalline trisaccharide building block is presented, which can then be utilised in the synthesis of most Type-2 Lewis antigens. In particular, the global deprotection of the crystalline material gave the LewisX glycan antigen, a natural ligand for the C-Type lectin DC-SIGN on dendritic cells and macrophages.  Finally, the rapid assembling of complex multivalent glycodendrons is discussed by conjugating the glycan antigens to the functionalised multivalent dendrons through the use of the bi-functional oxyamine linker methodology. In particular, the synthesis of a fluorescent LewisX glycodendron is presented, and to demonstrate a potential biological application of this methodology, the fluorescent LewisX glycodendron is evaluated as a flow cytometry marker for the C-type lectin DC-SIGN on human macrophages.
Impact of TOEIC as a University Exit Test: A Vietnamese Perspective
Authors:   , Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha
Published: December 2021

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) has recently become a language exit test in many Vietnamese universities. Despite the high stakes of the test for a large number of Vietnamese students, no robust research has been done to explore its impact on teaching and learning yet. Also, although the powerful influence of tests on teaching and learning has been well documented, the way test impact occurs is very complicated and varied because of a myriad of context-specific factors. Language testers, therefore, have called for more research in different contexts.  In response to the needs mentioned above, this study examined the impact of TOEIC on teaching and learning in Vietnamese universities with an emphasis on discovering the variations of the test impact due to school settings. To meet the research objectives, a mixed-methods study was conducted at two different locations in Vietnam. The perspectives from three groups of stakeholders, namely educational policymakers, teachers, and students were sought by means of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and case study. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 aimed at understanding policymakers’ perspectives on the TOEIC-as-exit-test policy and identifying the general patterns of the actual test impact from the teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Phase 2 had the purpose of explaining the patterns found in Phase 1 through a case study. Both the questionnaire and case study participants came from the same three large universities.  The study gave interesting insight into the nature of the impact of the TOEIC test in the Vietnamese context. It showed a clear tendency of teaching and learning to the test since its introduction. However, the test impact varied greatly in form and intensity across different groups of participants although, contrary to expectations, school settings did not seem to be a major factor that caused this variability. On the one hand, the findings confirmed the indirect nature of the relationship between a test and its impact found in many other studies. On the other hand, they shed light on specific features of the mechanism of the impact of the TOEIC-as-exit-test, which might be attributed to the socio-cultural and educational context in Vietnam. The study suggested that the test impact on teaching and learning operated differently. While the influence of the TOEIC test on teaching was likely to be first filtered through the course factors, the latter was through students’ abilities. In both cases, beliefs about communicative language teaching and learning and some other person factors only played subservient roles in shaping the test impact. The study also had important implications for stakeholders, especially policymakers. It proved certain values of the TOEIC-as-exit-test policy as well as revealed negative issues associated with it. It suggested measures that need to be taken to modify the policy.
“Even though I am Māori sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud”: Mixed-Race Māori Identity and The Influence of Legislation and Legal Administration c. 1850-1950
Authors:   , Haze Kiriana
Published: December 2021

In 1910, Āpirana Ngata stated that both he and the Young Maori Party were proponents for children born from a Māori – Pākehā mix. Ngata believed the children would then have the prime characteristics of each parent. This thesis explores how such rhetoric about mixed-race children was a consequence of the symbiotic influence Pākehā legislation and legal administration had on Māori identity. This influence was relevant to both mixed-race Māori historically, and today.  Too often, mixed-race people are questioned for their lack of authenticity. This questioning began the moment Pākehā people first came to New Zealand and courted interracial relations with Māori. Therefore, the period of 1850 to 1950 is where this thesis’ substantive research and analysis lies as here the construction of legislation and legal administration to do with mixed-race Māori was most visible.  The themes this timeframe is considered through are ‘marriage and land’, ‘native schools’ and ‘enumeration.’ These themes are the best mechanism to display the ways in which the law has worked and continues to work to maintain a mixed-race dichotomy of privilege and disadvantage. This thesis draws on a wide range of legislative and administrative sources, to demonstrate the mentioned dichotomy crafted into the law. It contextualises these sources through consideration of existing literature, and oral interviews with self-identifying mixed- race Māori today. This work tracks Māori reclamation of the control to self-identify and the recurring indicators of colourism and dehumanisation which contributed to the speed bumps along this journey.
A Radio View of the Bullet Cluster from 100 MHz to 9 GHz
Authors:   , Srinivasan Raghav
Published: December 2021

We investigate a sample of 10 massive galaxy clusters for diffuse synchrotron emission. The shortlisted clusters are drawn from a sample of clusters observed with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) shown to have high Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signals.They are analysed for diffuse emission from the results of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) archival data reduction. The focus then is on the cluster with the most prominent diffuse emission - the Bullet cluster. We used the Murchison Widefield Array Commissioning Survey (MWACS) data in conjunction with the ATCA images to derive the spectral behaviour of the Bullet cluster from 0.118 GHz to 8.896 GHz. In particular, we study the spectral properties of the known radio halo and radio relic. We search for spectral bending of this diffuse emission as seen in other clusters like the Coma cluster, A2256, A521 and A3256.  We detect the radio relic at all frequencies in the cluster periphery. Polarised flux is detected for the relic at all frequencies except at 1.344 GHz and as expected the percentage polarisation increases with frequency. Our spectral index values of -1.08 ± 0.02 and -1.74 ± 0.22 for 2 regions of the radio relic agreed with the literature. We detect spectral flattening for a region in the radio relic at 4.532 GHz. This is a common spectral characteristic for a radio galaxy. This suggests that the source could be a recently dead radio galaxy. We discuss a scenario in which a dead radio galaxy supplying seed electrons for reacceleration and a merger process providing the required energy for the diffuse radio relic. We detect the radio halo at all frequencies and we derive a spectral index of -2.11±0.03 using our ATCA flux measurements. Our individual flux measurements at 1.344 and 2.1 GHz agree with the literature. However, we get a steeper ATCA spectral index value for the radio halo as compared to the existing value in the literature. We observe spectral flattening of the radio halo in the Bullet cluster at low frequencies between 0.180 GHz and 1.3 GHz. This is similar to the spectral property of the halo in clusters like the Coma cluster, A521 and A3256.
The Unsettled Landscape: The Core to Coastal Fabrics
Authors:   , Chan Oliver
Published: December 2021

‘The Unsettled Landscape’ considers an alternative sustainable manner in which communities can settle New Zealand’s coastland. Living at the ocean edge is ingrained in the way many of our urban settlements have formed, and is intricately linked with how we define ourselves. Unfortunately the way these places have manifested in reality has produced ecological barriers to natural cycles paramount to ecosystem health. Sea walls, housing, roads and many other infrastructural typologies resist the natural ‘flux’ of these areas, which results in dysfunctional ecosystems as well as putting residents of these places at risk of numerous threats which occur along these interface sites. Earthquakes, river movement, erosion, sea level rise, flooding and the continual movement of the dunes are just some of the issues coastal settlements face. The conflict forms where the sought after coastal environments are applied to in a permanent manner that is irresponsive of a landscape which functions in a most dynamic way.  This thesis looks towards the geomorphological patterns in the coast as an indicator for how a complete shift in infrastructural application might occur responsively. This new fabric distinguishes stable components in this shifting landscape, utilising them as a stable network from which settlement can develop. This network could become the basis of more responsive settlements, stronger communities, and will act as a way to future proof inhabitation of these fragile yet hazardous places. Design research explores the physical as well as intangible aspects of settlement application, and focuses on communities forming the ‘real’ foundation of these temporal environments. Responsive communities arise ‘reactively’ avoiding hazards, and allowing inhabitants to take advantage of what these precious sites offer.
Composing the Chimera Suite: Grafting the Conventions of Extreme Metal onto a Jazz Orchestra Setting
Authors:   , Beernink Chris
Published: December 2021

The Chimera Suite is a five-movement composition for a modern jazz orchestra augmented with timbres derived from extreme metal. Each movement explores how conventions located in extreme metal can be combined with modern jazz orchestra conventions to create a unique multi-movement suite. While each movement is composed discretely and can stand on its own, the Chimera Suite is intended to be experienced in one continuous sitting, as local and global through-composed forms are used to create thematic unity across the entire suite.  Chapter 1 examines the global scenes of jazz and extreme metal, as well as the local Wellington jazz scene through Fabian Holt’s popular genre framework of ‘networks’ and ‘conventions’, and identifies the musical aesthetics that I drew from during the Chimera Suite’s compositional process. In Chapter 2, I analyse extreme metal band Between the Buried and Me’s ‘Silent Flight Parliament’ off their album The Parallax II: Future Sequence, jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan’s ‘The Grid’ and ‘Out of The Grid’, and jazz drummer Dan Weiss’ ‘Annica’. Each of the artists’ works exhibits various musical conventions located in both jazz and extreme metal genres that I observe via the lenses of through-composed form, heaviness, and the dialectic of freedom and control. I analyse my own composition, the Chimera Suite, through the same lenses of through-composed form, heaviness, and the dialectic of freedom and control in Chapter 3, while discussing the ways in which the musical scenes identified in Chapter 1, and the musical inspirations found in Chapter 2, have impact the suite’s conception. Throughout this thesis, I discuss the unique perspectives afforded through this combination of genres that in turn, call into question the defining elements that contribute towards a genre’s identity.
Sindh in Transition: From Mughal Rule to British Annexation, Early Eighteenth Century to 1843
Authors:   , Verma Esha
Published: December 2021

The eighteenth century in India saw the decline of the Mughal empire and the rise of several regional states. From the mid-1700s, however, the consolidation of regional states was checked by British expansion in the subcontinent. This thesis is a case study of one regional state, the state of Sindh in present day Pakistan. It engages in the historiographical debates about the relative importance of political and economic factors in explanations of Mughal decline during the eighteenth century. It also addresses questions about the motives that impelled British annexation, and the processes through which annexation was achieved. The study analyses Sindh’s transition from being a peripheral region in the twilight days of the Mughal empire to its annexation by the British in 1843. It is based on some Persian sources, along with British archival records and a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century travelogues.  The thesis begins with a study of the process of state formation in Sindh by the Sufi Kalhora tribe. Although increasingly independent from 1701, the Sindh state continued to pay tribute to the Mughals until 1739, then to Persia until 1747, and then to the Afghan king until 1783, when the Talpur Meers replaced the Kalhoras as Sindh’s ruler. Under both the Kalhoras and the Talpurs, a significant expansion of trade helped sustain the Sindh state and resulted in the emergence of a strong mercantile class. The thesis critically examines the role of the new commercial class and its relationship with Sindh’s rulers.  But the political edifice constructed by the Talpurs was weak. The thesis argues that when the rise of French and Russian imperialism in the Middle East made Sindh strategically and commercially important to the British, the political weakness of the Talpur regime facilitated British encroachment in Sindh. The final annexation of Sindh in 1843, following two battles with the Meers, was the result of a number of developments: it was the culmination of a long-drawn-out weakening of the Sindhi polity; it was connected to European rivalries in Central Asia and also to the East India Company’s new appreciation of the commercial importance of Sindhi trade along the Indus river. More broadly, the annexation in 1843 needs to be understood in the context of the interplay of British, French, Russian, Afghan, Sikh and Persian ambitions since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Exploring the role of education in a MIRAB economy: Brain drain or brain gain? The case of Wallis and Futuna
Authors:   , Jacobs Alice
Published: December 2021

Pursuit of higher education overseas is becoming a common pathway for young Wallisians and Futunans. A constructivist grounded theory study demonstrates that education has provided (i) a new exit route for young people, (ii) an opportunity to access employment overseas and (iii) an opportunity to access employment at home.  Through Talanoa interviews, it was found that the decisions to settle permanently or to return are influenced by cultural, political, economic and structural factors amplified by the slow amalgamation of two conflicting systems. Many students are steered by the French education system and unable to return due to unsuited qualifications. Others choose not to return as a response to underdeveloped structures that constrain the use of qualifications in Wallis and Futuna.  Access to education has seemingly intensified clashes between a ‘modern’ system based on equality of opportunity and a customary hierarchy where everyone has a place in society. Despite the need for qualifications, access to employment in Wallis and Futuna in practice is dependent on class structures and networks as a result of low employment opportunities and high labour availability.  Yet, evidence of localisation and changing attitudes towards qualifications has suggested a new dimension of the brain gain. Young determined graduates have demonstrated strategic use of resources overseas and adapted new knowledge to the customary and political context.  Access to education has proved to be a key component of the MIRAB society in Wallis and Futuna and a potential catalyst for a new stability, a possible post-MIRAB economy.
"Give 'Em a Few Bars of the Hymn of Hate": The German and English-Language Reception of Ernst Lissauer's "Haßgesang gegen England"
Authors:   , Smith Roger
Published: December 2021

Ernst Lissauer’s “Haßgesang gegen England” is an Anglophobic German poem, written in the early weeks of the First World War. This thesis examines the poem’s reception in the German and English-speaking worlds, the imitations it inspired, the opposition it provoked, and the enduring discourse it instigated. The study begins by outlining Lissauer’s biography, and places his “Haßgesang” within the context of contemporary German poetry of hate. It discusses the changing reception of the poem in the German-speaking world over time, and the many and varied German works it inspired. The “Haßgesang” is shown to have captured the Zeitgeist of Germany at the beginning of the First World War, but to have been later rejected by the German public and renounced by its author, while the war still raged. The poem also established a discourse on hatred and hatefulness as motivating factors in war, sparking debate on both sides. In the English-speaking world, the “Haßgesang” was viewed by some as a useful insight into the national psyche of the Germans, while for others it merely confirmed existing stereotypes of Germans as a hateful people. As an example of propaganda in reverse the poem can hardly be bettered, inspiring parodies, cartoons, soldiers’ slang and music hall numbers, almost all engineered to subvert the poem’s hateful message. The New Zealand reception provides a useful case study of the reception of the poem in the English-speaking world, linking reportage of overseas responses with new, locally produced ones. New Zealand emerges as a geographically distant but remarkably well-informed corner of the British Empire. Regardless of the poem’s literary quality, its role as a vehicle for propaganda, satire and irony singles it out as a powerful document of its time: one which cut across all strata of society from the ruling elite to the men in the trenches, and which became an easily recognised symbol around the globe.
Facilitators and inhibitors to visualising information in organisational practice
Authors:   , Ong Cassandra
Published: December 2021

The benefits of visual artefacts and methodologies have been well documented in the strategy literature. However, this work has concentrated on the ‘how to do’ and ‘why to do’ of visualisation. It remains unclear why, given this widespread promotion, visualisation is not utilised more for communicating and developing strategy. This thesis explores the ‘doing’ of strategy visualisation through a practice lens by examining the processes through which visualisation services are adopted by organisations. Using a qualitative approach, I studied ten organisations in five countries that create visualisations for clients and identified common facilitators and inhibitors of visualisation adoption, discussing its implications for strategy.  The study’s findings expand upon the literature on facilitators and inhibitors to visualisation, discovering that these factors are personal and contextual in nature. Personal factors include:   - prospective clients’ experience of prior visualisation outcomes;   - predispositions for or against visualisation;   - prior knowledge about visualisation and associated services;   - partiality towards particular visualisation consultants; and   - the capability to distinguish specific organisational needs for visualisation.  Contextual factors such as organisational culture, and ability to approve the service within an allocated budget, also influence the adoption of visualisation. Based on a greater understanding of these factors, a heuristic framework was developed to relate these facilitators or inhibitors to four process phases:  Pre-contact → Contact → Commitment → and Post-purchase Evaluation.  My research findings benefit practitioners, by clarifying facilitating and inhibiting factors to visualisation adoption and suggesting interventions based on these. The findings also have implications for methodology and theory development: they indicate the value of studying strategy visualisation through a practice lens; add to our understanding of how visualisation can clarify and support strategy making; and enable insight into the dynamics of visualisation adoption to provide reasons why visualisation is not as widespread a practice as its proponents suggest it should be.
Moisture in New Zealand Bathrooms - Analysing Moisture Events
Authors:   , Stubbe Alister
Published: December 2021

A literature review was carried out on the impact of moisture in New Zealand homes as well as the role ventilation and occupant behaviour play in controlling this. Bathrooms in residential homes were identified as being especially vulnerable. NZS4303:1990, clause G4 Ventilation of the New Zealand Building Code, and clause E3 of the New Zealand Building Code were summarised to provide context for how New Zealand buildings are designed.  Measurements taken in houses throughout New Zealand by BRANZ as part of the House Condition Survey were made available for analysis. This included measurements of relative humidity and temperature.  Data from one Dunedin house was thoroughly explored. This involved three objectives. The first step focused on identifying periods of rapid change in the amount of moisture introduced to the indoor environment, measured in absolute humidity. These periods were named 'moisture events'. The second objective was to visually communicate the changes in temperature and absolute humidity taking place on individual days, highlighting moisture events. The third objective was to analyse the identified moisture events, finding the key areas to focus on for the full analysis as well as areas that could be explored in further research. This process was then applied to all remaining houses.  Moisture events were grouped into four categories: increases, decreases, episodes, and combinations. Episodes were the focus of the analysis, representing moisture being actively introduced to the indoor environment and then removed. These categories were further filtered, identifying the moisture events were most likely to have had a large impact on the indoor environment. Days were broken into four hour periods, with the filtered moisture events taking place in each period recorded. These were used to identify patterns in moisture events for each house. If a certain pattern of moisture events frequently took place, then days containing that pattern were described as a 'typical day' for that house.  The mean and median absolute humidity at the start, peak, and end of the unfiltered episodes from each house were then calculated. The mean and median episode length was also calculated. The results were compared to the Household Energy End-use Project (HEEP) and to the typical days for each house. The results were grouped according to factors such as the number of bathrooms in the house, the floor area, the house location, and the event length.  The number of bathrooms present in the house was found to have a large impact on the size and frequency of moisture events. As expected, larger bathrooms recorded lower increases in absolute humidity from the start to the peak of episodes. Rooms with a greater volume would require more moisture to reach the same number of grams of water per cubic metre. However, the smallest bathrooms also recorded low increases in absolute humidity.
N.S.I.E.: Naturally Stimulating Instinctive Exploration
Authors:   , Franklin Izack
Published: December 2021

My research begins with an investigation into existing public space to reveal its appropriation and determinants to determine if the site is successful or not. These findings will inform the design research through introducing small interventions which create new site qualities.  This research aims to find what influences use and appropriation within public space. Observations of the determinants and qualities of different sites, will lead to the identification of key aspects, the discoverings will be analysed to determine what makes a public space successful or unsuccessful.  The objective is to use these discoveries to introduce a change in the design process through developing ideas that amplify the surrounding existing environment/ structures.  I aim to use designed and non-designed elements that reconfigure the way users manipulate space. I was offered an opportunity to work with a kindergarten (Awatea Kindergarten) as a case study to test my findings.  Findings from the design research highlight how the introduction of new elements into a space, can reconfigure the existing area and amplify those existing natural elements into the design.
Development of a Novel Underground Mine Reconnaissance Robot
Authors:   , Thompson Nick
Published: December 2021

Despite advancements in safety technology, underground mining disasters kill hundreds of people each year. Typically after a disaster, a manned response team will enter the hazardous mine to ascertain its condition and rescue any survivors. A robotic entry platform could significantly reduce the risk to the response teams and the time taken to recover any survivors. However, existing mine search and rescue robots have had limited success in past disasters. Two primary aspects caused the failure of the existing platforms; poor rough terrain ability and lack of ingress protection for the harsh mine environment.  HADES, a novel underground mine reconnaissance robot is developed to address these issues. A lightweight yet robust chassis is manufactured from fibreglass. To allow HADES to operate in the potentially explosive atmosphere, the chassis is protected with a positive pressure gas system, designed to meet the ANZ60079.29 standard. This chassis is sealed against the mine environment with a series of O-rings and lip seals. Whegs are used as the primary locomotion method and are driven with a planetary gearbox and a brushless DC motor. To further improve a rough terrain capability of the locomotion system the rear arm of the chassis is mounted on an actuated pivot, increasing the rough terrain capability of HADES.  To ensure the operator can successfully assess and navigate the mine, HADES carries a comprehensive set of environmental and navigation sensors. The internal electronics and locomotion systems are powered with six Li-Po batteries that achieve an operating time of six hours and an expected range of 25 km.  HADES is 780x800x400 mm and is mostly sealed to the IP68 standard. The locomotion system is robust and can traverse the majority of the terrain expected in an underground mine. Loss of traction is the only problem encountered with the Wheg design. However, this can be easily fixed by changing the tip shape of the Wheg.
Perfectly Boring? The Public Afterlife of Private Films
Authors:   , Hickman Rosina
Published: December 2021

Home movies are now viewed in a variety of public contexts, a shift that entails a loss of their original meanings. In order to consider the impact of exhibiting these private documents, this thesis analyses the use of home movies within recycled footage productions, archival curation and online video-sharing. Investigating a variety of formal and informal screening contexts through close readings and archival research, it asks: what meanings do home movies acquire in new contexts? How might the reuse of home movies affect our understandings of their production and the past they portray? Does a perception that home movies could appear boring influence how they are framed or altered for public audiences?  Due to their form and content, home movies may seem ill-suited to public exhibition. Popular discourses about home movies during their heyday of production reveal a widespread belief that they were boring (for outsiders) to watch. While recent literature has assessed home movies more favourably, it has tended to overlook their potential to bore viewers who have no personal relationship to them. Drawing upon theories of boredom, this study argues meaningfulness is the principal factor determining whether a viewer finds a particular film interesting or boring. In their original form, home movies may appear relatively meaningless and therefore boring to public audiences. Recycled footage films re-edit images, however, to create engaging viewing experiences through narrative and affect. While more experimental productions frequently question the evidential value of home movie images, television documentaries tend to encourage audiences to perceive footage as authentic or nostalgic. Narrative and affect also feature in the exhibition strategies of moving image archives. Curated public programmes provide informative and enjoyable viewing for general audiences, but almost inevitably promote certain understandings of the past by offering specific interpretations of selected films. Moreover, the affective appeal of home movie images may outweigh other forms of meaning for viewers, particularly in community or participatory screening contexts. Online video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, which are curated by algorithms rather than human expertise, feature numerous home movies without any kind of framing or description. While this might seem profoundly boring, viewer comments suggest meaninglessness can foster imaginative and empathetic responses to home movies, often expressed as nostalgic longing. This propensity of home movie footage within different screening contexts to encourage nostalgic sentiments, or a belief that life was better in the past, has implications for collective memory and understandings of history. Moreover, the ability of at least some viewers to enjoy home movies in relatively contextless spaces suggests that in certain instances qualities associated with boredom may not be a significant impediment to meaningful experience after all.
Athlete of Emotion - Examining the Perdekamp Emotional Method
Authors:   , Slinn Vaughan
Published: December 2021

The Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) is an emerging psychophysiological acting system that claims to allow actors ‘safe, reliable and repeatable access’ to emotion, with no recourse to their own psychology, imagination or personal experience. Developed in Germany over the last thirty years, the process regards the emotions as innate, biological movement patterns, hard-coded in human beings, that can be invoked consciously through a specific combination of physiological triggers. In light of recent international studies that point to significant psychological unwellness throughout the acting profession, there is an ethical imperative for drama schools to investigate such techniques, and evaluate their legitimacy against more commonly utilised approaches to achieving believable emotion, such as the Emotion Memory techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, which have courted criticism for being both inefficient and, at worst, harmful. While Austrian research has been carried out to establish the scientific legitimacy of PEM, nothing has been written about it in English, and it is only just beginning to be introduced to performance training institutions around the world. This thesis investigates PEM's claims in order to contribute critically to the depth and understanding of this system, and to evaluate the potential value of introducing PEM into the conservatoire model of a tertiary Drama School, using practical experiments and teaching observations at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School as a case study. Its research results are evaluated through a combination of a historical review of acting approaches to producing emotion, interviews with PEM creator Stephen Perdekamp and Master Instructor Sarah Victoria about the pedagogy of PEM and its theoretical underpinnings (and evaluating this against current neuroscience theories concerning emotion), observations of and interviews with students learning PEM through workshop instruction, and practical experiments of applying PEM to screen work with student performers through a period from March 2017 to November 2018.
How did the Key Competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum Feature in Student Music Therapy Practice for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Authors:   , Sutherland Emmett
Published: December 2021

This study aimed to discover how the key competencies featured in student music therapy with three children who have autism spectrum disorder. Individual music therapy was carried out in the natural environment of a primary school and clinical notes were developed to record events and reflections on the sessions. This data was then retrospectively analysed in a process known as secondary analysis which used inductive and deductive techniques. A process of thematically analysing data revealed that the three children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated the key competencies in diverse ways in music therapy, such as through letting their personalities shine (managing self) and relating from shared histories and relationships (relating to others), and that I assisted the development of the key competencies for children in equally diverse ways, such as, by being well-being focused, giving openly and making music therapy child-led. A clinical vignette is used to illustrate the findings. Additionally, it is suggested that the unique ways in which the key competencies are used in arts education and music therapy could be considered to a greater extent in the New Zealand Curriculum definitions of the competencies.
Radical Everyday Practice. Gillian Rose, Ernst Bloch, and seven activist- philosophers of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa
Authors:   , Francis Sasha
Published: December 2021

How are we to live? How do we sustain our emotional commitment to utopia? Answering these questions necessarily calls for a reconceptualisation of subjectivity and sociality, in order to overcome the depoliticisation, resignation and despair captured by the neoliberal subject. Drawing together qualitative and theoretical research under Ruth Levitas’ framework for the ‘imaginary reconstitution of society’ – Utopia as Method – I argue utopia is the otherwise that we navigate, create and learn of, together, through every moment. Where the neoliberal subject signals a collapse of subjectivity that contributes to the depoliticisation and resignation of our contemporary times, I offer an alternative account of subjectivity through Gillian Rose and Ernst Bloch. In an original theoretical encounter, I connect Rose’s concepts of reason and ‘inaugurated mourning’ with Bloch’s concepts ‘the darkness of the lived moment’ and the ‘not-yet,’ towards imagining subjectivity differently. Further, through six conversations with seven activist-philosophers from Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) – Jen Margaret, Jo Randerson, Thomas LaHood, Richard D. Bartlett, Benjamin Johnson, Cally O’Neill and Kassie Hartendorp – I make visible already-existing emancipatory practices and subjectivities from within radical Aotearoa (New Zealand,) from which we can learn and locally ground our imaginings. Combining the conversations held with the activist-philosophers with the alternative account of subjectivity developed, I move outwards – from the individual and the particular to the collective – to specifically name five key modes of radical everyday practice: embodiment, not knowing, trust, care, and imagining. Understood as an articulation of docta spes, or a praxis of educated hope, these five modes capture a sense of everyday sociality imagined otherwise, as well as articulate a collaborative, sustainable and localised account of the emotionally demanding pedagogical pursuit towards the realisation and experience of utopia. An answer to the first question – how are we to live? – is thus processually found within the second question – how do we sustain our emotional commitment to utopia?
Investigations Of Supported Bi- And Tri-Metallic Nzvi: Nitrate Reduction And Heavy Metal Removal
Authors:   , Tran Loc
Published: December 2021

nZVI has been well documented as an effective reagent to remove contaminants, including organic and inorganic substances. However, the drawbacks of nZVI are agglomeration and bioaccumulation due to its magnetic property and nanosize. One of the solutions for these problems is putting nZVI on non-toxic support. Microsilicate600 (Misi), a silicate from a geothermal deposit in Rotorua, New Zealand, has been established to be useful in adsorbing nZVI. Doping nZVI with other metals to generate bimetallic and trimetallic materials is a method to increase its reactivity. These dopant metals function as catalysts in enhancing the electron transfer from Fe(0) core to contaminants. In this research project, the effect of doping metals on nZVI to generate bimetallic or trimetallic nZVI particles and effect of adsorbing these resulting particles on Misi were investigated. The reactivity of these materials towards the removal of different contaminants such as nitrate and toxic heavy metals was examined. Supported bimetallic nZVI@Misi were synthesised using different dopant metals, including Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pd. Supported trimetallic nZVI@Misi was synthesised by doping Pd and Cu on the surface of nZVI@Misi. Both supported bimetallic and trimetallic materials were prepared using different Misi preparations, contents of dopants, and synthetic methods. All these doped materials had higher reactivity than non-doped nZVI@Misi in removing nitrate. Misi that was calcined and FeOOH-coated is the most optimised-prepared support. Moreover, materials prepared via deposition method had higher reactivity in reducing nitrate than those prepared via co-reduction method. This is due to the distribution of dopant metals on nZVI, which was observed in TEM analysis. Of these materials, Ni-doped, Cu-doped, and Pd-Cu- doped nZVI@Misi were the most promising materials. They not only reduced nitrate effectively but also were not significantly affected by naturally occurring factors such as oxygen, chloride, sulfate, carbonate, and phosphate. During nitrate reduction, the generation of metal by-products was minimal. Interestingly, their reactivity in natural water was relatively similar to that in lab-prepared samples. The representative materials including supported Ni-doped, Cu-doped, and non-doped nZVI@Misi, were used for heavy metal removal. These materials effectively removed cadmium, lead, and chromium in both lab-prepared samples and natural water.