bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Floodplain Inhabitation: A Socio-Spatial Resilience Network
Authors:   , Boyle Rebecca
Published: November 2021

The inadequacy of current approaches to managing floodplain inhabitation was highlighted in the 2010-11 Queensland, northern New South Wales and Victorian floods; the most costly floods in Australia’s history. Despite technological advancements and the prevalence of flood mitigation infrastructure, floods continue to have widespread adverse physical, social, economic, and emotional impacts. This situation is mirrored internationally and is anticipated to worsen as scientists predict an increase in the severity and prevalence of natural disasters such as flooding. In response to this, management of floodplain inhabitation must shift from flood prevention to adaptation. Adaptation is a key term in ecological resilience, defined as the capacity of a system to adapt and persist in the face of disturbance (Holling 1976). Hendstra et al (2004) suggests that in the context of disaster-resilient cities, resilience can be defined as the “capacity to adapt to stress from hazards and the ability to recover quickly from their impacts” (Henstra, Kovacs, McBean, & Sweeting, 2004, p. 5). Analysis of ecosystems reveals that interdependence across scales, variety, redundancy, adaptability and feedback are the key resilience principles enabling the system to adapt and maintain stability during flooding. At present there is a sparsity of literature exploring spatial resilience approaches to improving floodplain inhabitation. Whilst amphibious approaches improve individual resilience, there is a lack of innovative solutions to improve community and city resilience to flooding. Resilience approaches have the potential to reduce safety concerns, financial losses and the emotional stress associated with residing on Australian floodplains. Such approaches acknowledge the interconnected nature of riverine floodplains and their inhabitants. However resilience principles need to be given a physical spatial function within specific social contexts. Architecture provides a platform to test new and retrofit adaptable approaches to promote a more suitable spatial relationship with the river. This thesis will take the theory and literature of resilience and apply it to a site-specific spatial context: Maitland. Maitland city is built on one of the most flood prone regions in New South Wales (Keys, 1999). Despite the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation Scheme, which consists of 170 kilometers of levees and flood control structures, flooding continues to occur in and around Maitland. Regardless of these flood risks, Maitland City Council is proposing large scale residential development on the floodplain to encourage population increase. Maitland will be used as the primary case study for investigating the opportunities socio-spatial resilience interventions have for improving the longterm inhabitation of the floodplain. This thesis proposes a multi-scaled approach to examine flood hazard and exposure at the individual, community, city and regional scale. As spatial designers it is imperative that architects play a part in this explorative process
Elucidating the Cellular Effects of MDMA on the Serotonin Transporter (SERT)
Authors:   , Holley Ana
Published: November 2021

Serotonin (5-HT) is a neurotransmitter with an integral role in regulating mood. Dysregulation of this system is implicated in disorders such as depression and withdrawal from drugs of abuse. 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or ‘Ecstasy’ is a commonly abused drug which primarily targets the serotonin transporter (SERT) and competes with 5-HT for uptake into the pre-synaptic neuron. This study focused on the cellular effects MDMA has on SERT, and how it is able to regulate SERT function. Previous studies have shown that MDMA is able to down-regulate SERT expression from the cell surface to intracellular vesicles, thereby decreasing 5-HT transport. How MDMA targets this regulatory pathway is unclear. Protein Kinase C (PKC) is a well-known regulator of SERT, and activation of PKC causes phosphorylation of SERT, targeting the transporter for internalization. Using rotating disc electrode voltammetry (RDEV) we show that MDMA causes a significant functional decrease of SERT in HEK-293 and N2A cells expressing GFP-hSERT. This MDMA-induced down-regulation was not observed when cells were pretreated with PKC inhibitor, Bis I. This data suggests that the MDMA-induced down-regulation of SERT occurs via PKC signaling pathways. Further investigations into the kinetics of the serotonin transporter did not show a change in the Vmax or Km values between the control and the MDMA-treated samples. This suggests that the functional down-regulation observed after MDMA treatment was not due to a decrease in SERT expression at the cell surface.
The Ecological and Immunological Relationships Between Salmonella and Tuatara
Authors:   , Middleton Danielle Mary Rose Lea
Published: November 2021

The transmission and expression of disease in wild animal populations is a complex interaction of host, pathogen and environmental factors. The individual fitness of a host may be negatively impacted by pathogenic bacteria in a number of ways including increased predation risk and reduced survival and reproductive output. Salmonellosis is an important zoonotic disease resulting in significant morbidity and mortality in populations of wild reptiles, birds and mammals throughout the world, and herpetofaunal species have often been implicated as shedders and transmitters of Salmonella globally. To better understand the unique threats to New Zealand native wildlife, I investigated spatio-temporal dynamics of Salmonella in an island ecosystem, and selected one species, tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) (an endemic New Zealand reptile), for in-depth immunological analyses. I collected cloacal swabs and faecal samples from native wildlife on Stephens Island repeatedly between October 2009 and October 2011. While Salmonella was isolated from 6.5% of native skinks and 8% of the soil samples, intestinal carriage of Salmonella was not detected in the more than 600 cloacal swabs collected from wild tuatara, despite these tuatara living in close proximity to Salmonella-positive skinks or soil. In context, the lack of Salmonella detected in tuatara in this and other studies raises the question of whether tuatara are innately resistant to Salmonella. To test this hypothesis I examined aspects of innate and adaptive immune responses in tuatara serum. Immune measurements included in vitro anti-microbial activity of serum and antibody recognition of bacterial antigens. Serum was tested against three closely related enteric pathogens, including Salmonella, in order to establish the importance of cross-reactivity in the strength of immune responses observed. I found that tuatara possess antibodies which recognise Salmonella antigens by Western blot and flow cytometry. I also determined that the anti-microbial activity of tuatara serum was approximately 6-fold higher than donkey or mouse sera, but showed similar activity to other reptilian species tested. These findings are the first report of both environmentally-induced anti-Salmonella antibodies and anti-microbial activity in tuatara serum. Taken together, these studies investigating the distribution and seasonality of Salmonella within the environment and evaluating anti-Salmonella immune responses in tuatara will help to inform decisions about disease screening and animal movements to maintain the health of native fauna.
Last Glacial Maximum-Holocene Glacial and Depositional History From Sediment Cores at Coulman High Beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Authors:   , Maas Sanne M
Published: November 2021

Sediment Cores collected from the shallow sub-sea floor beneath the Ross Ice Shelf at Coulman High have been analysed using sedimentological techniques to constrain the retreat history of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice sheet in the Ross Embayment, and to determine when the modern-day calving line location of the Ross Ice Shelf was established. A characteristic vertical succession of facies was identified in these cores, that can be linked to ice sheet and ice shelf extent in the Ross Embayment. The base of this succession consists of unconsolidated, clast rich muddy diamicts, and is interpreted to be deposited subglacially or in a grounding line proximal environment on account of a distinct provenance in the clast content which can only be attributed to subglacial transport from the Byrd Glacier 400 km to the south of the drill site. This is overlain by a mud with abundant clasts, similar in character to a granulated facies that has been documented previously in the Ross Sea, and is interpreted as being a characteristic grounding line lift-o facies in a sub-ice shelf setting. These glacial proximal facies pass upward into a mud, which comprises three distinctive units. i) Muds with sub-mm scale laminae resulting from traction currents occurring near the grounding line in a sub-ice shelf environment overlain by, ii) muds with sub-mm scale laminae and elevated biogenic content (diatoms and foraminifera) and sand/gravel clasts, interpreted as being deposited in open water conditions, passing up into a iii) bioturbated mud, interpreted as being deposited in sub-ice shelf environment, proximal to the calving line. The uppermost facies consists of a 20 cm thick diatom ooze with abundant clasts and pervasive bioturbation, indicative of a condensed section deposited during periodically open marine conditions. During post-LGM retreat of the ice sheet margin in western Ross Sea, and prior to the first open marine conditions at Coulman High, it is hypothesized that the grounding and calving line were in relative close proximity to each other. As the calving line became "pinned" in the Ross Island region, the grounding line likely continued its retreat toward its present day location. New corrected radiocarbon ages on the foraminifera shells in the interval of laminated muds with clasts, provide some of the first inorganic ages from the Ross Sea, and strengthen inferences from previous studies, that the first open marine conditions in the vicinity of Ross Island were 7,600 14C yr BP. While retreat of the calving line south of its present day position is implied during this period of mid-Holocene warmth prior to its re-advance, at present it is not possible to constrain the magnitude of retreat or attribute this to climate change rather than normal calving dynamics.
Psychometric Validation and Demographic Differences in Two Recently Developed Trait Mindfulness Measures
Authors:   , Sturgess Margaret A
Published: November 2021

Although in recent years an increasingly large body of mindfulness research has accrued, there continues to be a lack of information about how to measure trait mindfulness, as well as whether it varies across demographic variables such as age and gender. Four hundred and six participants from across New Zealand completed a battery of self-report measures in order to examine demographic differences in mindfulness, as well as to look at how mindfulness predicts outcome variables such as happiness and depression. Additionally, psychometric validation was undertaken on two new trait measures of mindfulness: the Toronto Mindfulness Scale, which did not demonstrate good psychometric validity, and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, which did demonstrate good psychometric validity. This study found that females reported higher levels of mindfulness than males, though males demonstrated a stronger mediating relationship between mindfulness and happiness. In addition, higher levels of mindfulness were reported by older individuals; however, young adults manifested the strongest negative relationship between mindfulness and depression across the lifespan. These findings are then discussed in the context of clinical utility and future research.
Faces of the Captives: Aesthetic Distance and Emotional Absorption in Young Children's Engagement with Theatre
Authors:   , Swallow Catherine
Published: November 2021

When Captain Hook has the lost boys tied up on his ship he cannot recognise that the sparkle on the ‘faces of the captives’ is the thrill of mimesis. It has been suggested that if young children cannot distinguish between reality and illusion then instead of suspending disbelief in the stage world, they will actually believe and therefore experience a dangerous level of emotional absorption.  Using Peter Pan as a frame of reference, this thesis examines responses to three contemporary theatre works, Capital E National Theatre for Children’s Songs of the Sea and Boxes and Scottish company Catherine Wheels’ White to challenge the idea that aesthetic distance provides a necessary protective function. Instead, it will be argued that the imagination, empathy and emotion contagion provide the conditions in which children can capably enter the aesthetic space of fictional worlds on stage.
An Investigation into Organisational Learning by Public Officials Creating and Maintaining Multi-Channel Service Delivery Information Systems in the New Zealand Public Sector
Authors:   , Sylvester Allan John
Published: November 2021

Public sector organisations in New Zealand increasingly use multi-channel service delivery strategies to achieve better, faster and cheaper services to citizens. Within these organisations, public sector officials envision, define and implement complex service delivery information systems. This study examines the organisational learning mechanisms that those officials use. This provides a deeper insight into the role that organisational learning plays in multi-channel service delivery systems definition in the context of the New Zealand Public Sector. A constructionist multiple-case study was undertaken with twenty nine officials from six public sector agencies that explores and characterises the learning mechanisms and knowledge transfer mechanisms that they use to understand and deliver services via physical and virtual channels. In addition, the research led to the development of a candidate conceptual model that integrates organisational learning, information systems and the unique organisational aspects of public sector service delivery.
Pliocene-Pleistocene Orbital Cyclostratigraphy and Glacial Evolution of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet from Continental Rise IODP Site U1361, Wilkes Land Margin, East Antarctica
Authors:   , Grant Georgia Rose
Published: November 2021

Stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), in response to the orbitally-paced cooling climate of the Late Neogene, is largely unknown. The Wilkes Land margin of East Antarctica, largely grounded below sea level, has previously been proposed to respond dynamically during the warmer climate of the Pliocene, similarly to other marine based sectors of Antarctica (i.e. West Antarctica). Sediment deposition on the Wilkes Land continental rise, recovered in Integrated Ocean Drilling Program U1361A drillcore provides a distal but continuous record of EAIS fluctuations. Changes in sedimentary depositional environments at U1361A core site, were determined through analysis of lithofacies and physical property logs: natural gamma-ray (NGR), gamma-ray attenuation bulk density (GRA), magnetic susceptibility (MS) and L* colour reflectance. NGR primarily reflected biogenic content and a synchronous relationship between NGR, GRA and MS was used to identify interglacial and glacial phases, whereby decreased NGR, GRA and MS values indicated an increase in biogenic material. L* colour reflectance was more variable through time, displayed higher frequency fluctuations and a changing relationship with the other physical property logs down core. Two depositional models, based on facies interpretations and the defined physical property relationships, were produced for the Middle Late Pleistocene (last ~550 kyr; model A) and mid-Pliocene (~4.2-3.6 Ma; model B), which represent end members. Depositional processes common to both models occurred in the intervening core, spanning the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene (3-1 Ma). Model A, applied to the Middle Late Pleistocene, shows that alternating diatom-rich clays to silty clays in the upper 9 m of core U1361A, reflect the large amplitude ~100 kyr paced glacial-interglacial cycles, which is confirmed by spectral analysis of the physical properties for this interval. Model B, applied to the Early Pliocene, suggest that the depositional processes recorded by facies may have been less sensitive to EAIS fluctuations, probably due to the fact that the ice margin was generally more distal to the core site during glacial-interglacial cycles of advance and retreat. Nevertheless, these more subtle changes in lithology were characterised by variations in the physical property logs, and spectral analysis of these time series implied orbital pacing was still influential on depositional processes at this time (displaying power in precession and obliquity frequencies). Spectral analysis of the physical property logs and visual correlations to the benthic δ18O stack, confirmed the 4.2-1 Ma interval was paced by ~40 kyr and implies obliquity-paced oscillations of the margin of the EAIS. Precession periodicities, significant in spectra throughout the 4.2 Myr record, are proposed to be the response of phytoplankton productivity in response to seasonal insolation controlling sea-ice extent.
Enhancing Quality of Life through Singing: A Music Therapy Study into Huntington’s Disease
Authors:   , Van Beek Sacha
Published: November 2021

This mixed methods study investigated whether the process of singing in music therapy can enhance the quality of life of patients with Huntington’s Disease. It took place in New Zealand, over a two-month period, in a residential home dedicated to the rare condition. The research involved five participants: two residents diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease who participated in individual music therapy sessions, two caregivers at the facility, and the music therapy student (MTS). The study endeavoured to answer the research question by triangulating three data sources. Data sources included; the MTS’s clinical notes of the sessions, semi-structured interviews with the staff members and a short questionnaire developed by the researcher which involved gathering the personal self-rated scores from the resident participants. A thematic analysis was undertaken with the two text-based data sources (clinical notes and interview transcripts) and the questionnaire scores were collated for each case. However the questionnaire results were deemed predominantly invalid. The triangulation of findings found that participants observed the process of singing had contributed to areas of quality of life for both of the residents, by providing them with: 1) a stimulus for socialisation; 2) emotional and psychological support; and 3) support for their remaining cognitive and physical ability. The outcome of the study found that the process of singing stimulated the resident participants in two contrasting ways and their motivation to participate was not only the singing itself but also the music in the session, instrumental play and the relationship between the residents and the MTS. From the perspectives of the participants consulted in this study it was concluded that the results from this research added some rich detail to the current literature available. Findings also concluded that residents, caregivers and the MTS herself valued the process of singing in music therapy and regarded it as an important intervention when seeking to preserve the quality of life of Huntington’s patients.
Kaupapa Māori in New Zealand Public Libraries
Authors:   , Hayes Luqman
Published: November 2021

It is nearly two decades since Tui MacDonald first studied the experience of Māori in New Zealand libraries. Since then libraries have seen many changes and embraced challenging initiatives in creating public spaces which reflect much of the biculturalism of New Zealand society. Bilingual signage has been erected, awareness and obligations to the Treaty are generally better accepted and understood, and Te Rōpū Whakahau has helped to ensure there is a growing professional Māori presence in our libraries. But is that enough? Should biculturalism not be aiming to integrate Māori values and concepts in the ideals of the organisation? Should biculturalism not reflect an equal representation of both the Pākehā (non-Māori) and the Māori worldview in the way information is organised, customers are greeted and activities are carried out in the library? This research project explores the deeper commitments to biculturalism by examining the extent to which kaupapa Māori, or Māori knowledge frameworks, value systems, and a Māori worldview form part of a wider bicultural strategy within public libraries in Aotearoa. The study highlights the bicultural achievements being made in public libraries as well as exploring the evolutionary and transformative challenges which lie ahead for the sector in striving towards an epistemological and cultural balance. Data for this research was collected using a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews with a selection of library leaders chosen from a purposive sample of public library services in New Zealand. The findings suggest a degree of inconsistency around the integration and understanding of kaupapa Māori concepts and practice, depending on location and demographic. They indicate that while there are personal, organisational and resource barriers to fully incorporating a kaupapa Māori, including a lack of Māori seniority within the industry, these limitations stem from political and historical roots which relate to colonialism in Aotearoa and the commitment to, and interpretation of, the Treaty of Waitangi. The results also reveal an aspiration for advancing the bicultural agenda and for exploring new paradigms for reshaping European designed public libraries in ways which integrate indigenous worldviews. As a contribution to the library and information sector body of knowledge, the subject has significance not only within New Zealand but globally, particularly in relation to the incorporation of indigenous worldviews in library design, development and delivery. Opportunities for further research include exploring Māori representation in public library management, options for altering library classification systems and collection arrangements to integrate indigenous worldviews and staff experiences of kaupapa Māori.
Taming the Wild West: Capturing Public Records Created on Social Media Websites
Authors:   , Stoks Rebecca Kim
Published: November 2021

Social media has become entrenched in public as well as private life. This new media defies recordkeeping conventions, creating a new set of challenges for records managers. This research project aimed to discover what methods government agencies in Australia are using to capture public records created on social media sites. It explored the effect of internal and external factors on social media recordkeeping and used the Records Management Continuum Model to examine the extent to which records are being captured. Using a quantitative design comprising a voluntary online questionnaire targeted at government records managers in Australia, it was found that so far only a minority of agencies are capturing social media records and even less believe that their methods are sustainable or compliant. Despite being limited by the sample size and design, this study contributes new knowledge to an emerging research area and, using the Continuum Model, traces how the dynamics of public sector information are changing. It suggests that the best way for records managers to respond to new media is by focusing on building internal relationships and adopting a big-bucket approach to appraisal. The findings provide an indication on how government agencies are currently performing; positing that more research is needed in how Public Records Offices can best support records managers.
Everything But the Building, Project Organisation, First Light House, Solar Decathlon, 2011
Authors:   , Officer Nicholas David
Published: November 2021

This thesis is a reflection on Victoria University and New Zealand’s entry into the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2011, First Light. Beginning with a proposal in November 2009, the project team would spend the next 24 months developing the response. Through the use of organisational charts and discussion this thesis details and documents the complex development that occurred in the project structure across 24 months that encompassed the project entry through to the final competition in Washington D.C., identifying and highlighting the challenges faced by the project team and how the team responded. Also highlighting the success the team had outside of the built form, documenting achievements in the Communications, Public Relations and Sponsorship. In doing so this thesis provides a record of achievement and provides a road map and precedent for future endeavors of this nature.
Determining the Modelling Input Parameters for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems in New Zealand Commercial Buildings
Authors:   , Gates Anthony
Published: November 2021

Template energy calculation models that have been produced by the Building Energy End-use Study (BEES) team are used to quickly and reliably model commercial buildings and calculate their energy performance. The template models contain standardised equipment, lighting, and occupancy loads; cooling and heating requirements are calculated using an ideal loads air system. Using seven buildings, Cory et al. 2011a have demonstrated that the template models have the potential to closely match the monthly energy performance of detailed (individually purpose built) models and the real buildings. Three of these models were within the ±5% acceptable tolerance to be considered calibrated. The four template models that were not within the acceptable tolerance have been identified to have complex Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems that the ideal loads air systems could not replicate. Because HVAC systems consume one of the largest proportions of energy in commercial buildings, this has a significant impact on the reliability of the template models. To address this issue, a set of detailed HVAC systems were needed to replace the ideal loads air systems. Due to HVAC system parameters not being collected by the BEES team and the lack of published modelling input parameters available, it is unknown what values are reasonable to use in the models. This study used a Delphi survey to collect real building information of the commonly installed HVAC systems in New Zealand commercial buildings. The survey formed a consensus between HVAC engineers that determined what the most commonly installed systems are and their associated performance values. The outcome of the survey was a documented set of system types and modelling input parameters that are representative of New Zealand HVAC systems. The responses of the survey were used to produce a set of HVAC system templates that replace the ideal loads air systems. The HVAC template models updated the software default parameter values with values that are representative of commonly installed systems in New Zealand. The importance of the updated input values was illustrated through a comparison of the calculated monthly energy consumption. The resulting difference in energy consumption using the updated parameter values is typically <5% monthly; at worst it is 75% for Variable Air Volume (VAV) system in the Wellington climate during June.
'Mid-Life Greenness': Environmental Consciousness among European Consumers
Authors:   , Beer Benjamin
Published: November 2021

Identifying characteristics of green consumers has proven to be a complex undertaking for many researchers and no clear consensus yet exists. This is particularly true of the effect of age on awareness of environmental effects. My aim in this study is to model the relationship between age and environmental consciousness using a large sample of over twenty six thousand respondents in 28 countries to a specially designed survey requested by the European Commission. I use the 2009 Flash Eurobarometer survey (no. 256) designed to address European attitudes towards sustainable consumption. I choose six questions from the survey in order to capture measures of environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. Using multiple regression analysis, I test for the influence of age on environmental consciousness after controlling for gender, education level, occupation and urban vs. rural residence. The results reveal an interesting ‘inverse U’ shape of environmental consciousness by age for both men and women implying that environmental consciousness peaks at middle age. Extending the regression into multilevel modelling, allows me to test for variations in the inverse U shape across countries of Europe. The results indicate country level variations in both the level and shape of the curve from one country to another. Although similar in many countries, caution is required in making gross generalisations about age related sustainable consumption patterns in Europe as a whole.
Playing Safe in Online Games: Determinants of Player Acceptance of Account Security Technology
Authors:   , Yang Xiaomei
Published: November 2021

Online security is a major problem for networked games worldwide. Specifically, account hijacking is on the rise. To fight against the security issue, game vendors are offering specific security services, such as account protection technology. The purpose of this paper is to validate an augmented Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for the online gaming context. This research aims to investigate how players are influenced by perceived enjoyment and perceived security jointly with the traditional TAM instrument. It is hoped to explain online gamers’ behaviour toward newly emerging account security technology. The paper proposes a research model that describes the causal relationships between perceive usefulness, perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, perceived security, and the usage intentions for account protection technology in the most popular online game World of Warcraft. After the measurement assessment, the hypothesised model is statistically tested. The findings suggest that perceived enjoyment and perceived security jointly with two traditional TAM constructs have a positive influence on intention to use. While perceived ease of use positively affects perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, perceived security does not seem to affect both of them. This study contributes to the ongoing literature by formulating and validating a proposed research model to explore determinants of player adoption of security technology in the virtual gaming environment. It also provides useful information for both academia and industry.
How Young Adult Readers Select Fiction in Public Libraries: A Study of the Factors Which Influence Information-Seeking in Context
Authors:   , Randall Rachel
Published: November 2021

Research Problem: The purpose of this research paper is to observe the information-seeking behaviour and book selection methods of the youth today, mainly in the public library context. There are so many questions, and prescribed answers as to how young adults seek reading material for themselves, who and what influences them, what is the best way to communicate with them, as well as how technology effects these processes. There are few recent research articles on this topic, and no qualitative-research examples, which prevent us from uncovering rich, genuine data about how young adults respond to aspects such was Web 2.0, peer influence, family influence, teacher/librarian influence, the introduction of new collections, book displays, youthful-looking book covers and so forth. Methodology: Qualitative research methods used. Focus groups were conducted with 3 groups, each consisting of 8-11 teenagers, who are members of Auckland Libraries. Results: We can observe that for optimal effect on young adults, public libraries (or even publishing houses, bookstores and schools) is to be wiser and more focused with some services, and to understand what young adults are actually seeking. It is about giving a facelift to some current services, re-organizing the collection, re-thinking how the web and Web 2.0 is used, and being more strategic in establishing personal relationships with young adults. Implications: This research offers theoretical grounding within a comprehensive literature review of as much current information examples as possible. It also offers practical lessons, offered by the examples given from the young adults themselves, which public libraries may or may not choose to employ, in order to draw young adults to their services, to use their collections, and to stay as members for life.
Optimisation of Likelihood for Bernoulli Mixture Models
Authors:   , Frouzesh Faezeh
Published: November 2021

The use of mixture models in statistical analysis is increasing for datasets with heterogeneity and/or redundancy in the data. They are likelihood based models, and maximum likelihood estimates of parameters are obtained by the use of the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. Multi-modality of the likelihood surface means that the EM algorithm is highly dependent on starting points and poorly chosen initial points for the optimization may lead to only a local maximum, not the global maximum. In this thesis, different methods of choosing initialising points in the EM algorithm will be evaluated and two procedures which make intelligent choices of possible starting points and fast evaluations of their usefulness will be presented. Furthermore, several approaches to measure the best model to fit from a set of models for a given dataset, will be investigated and some lemmas and theorems are presented to illustrate the information criterion. This work introduces two novel and heuristic methods to choose the best starting points for the EM algorithm that are named Combined method and Hybrid PSO (Particle Swarm Optimisation). Combined method is based on a combination of two clustering methods that leads to finding the best starting points in the EM algorithm in comparison with the different initialisation point methods. Hybrid PSO is a hybrid method of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as a global optimization approach and the EM algorithm as a local search to overcome the EM algorithm’s problem that makes it independent to starting points. Finally it will be compared with different methods of choosing starting points in the EM algorithm.
"The Beauty of Human Life Against Which Injustice is a Blasphemy": An Exploration of Representations of Religious Expression and Their Critical Engagement With Modernity in Elizabeth Knox's The Dreamhunter Duet
Authors:   , Tuesday Ruby
Published: November 2021

Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter and Dreamquake show a variety of ways in which expressions of religion both critique modernity and suggest alternatives to it. I approach these texts through a religious rather than a literary lens, using the work of theorists such as Kierkegaard, Levinas, and Ricoeur in order to demonstrate how, in spite of its subjectivity and unobservable source, religious expression may be necessary in and to a deeply rational modernity. My argument looks at the relationship between church, culture, and state, examining how the criticism levelled by both institutional and secular expressions of religion can be seen to challenge the dehumanising objectivity of the will to power, profit, and progress. This notion of a religious challenge is then developed through the figure of the prophet, using a variety of tropes from the Jewish and Christian traditions to tease out the texts' enactment of redemptive social critique.
Fellow Traveller Versus Moral Stranger: How Overall Views of Offenders Impact on Punishment and Rehabilitation Decisions
Authors:   , Fisher Stephanie
Published: November 2021

Theoretical discussions have proposed that opinions relating to offenders can be viewed along a continuum, with the moral stranger at one end and the fellow traveller at the other (Connolly & Ward, 2008). At the very basic level the moral stranger is the offender who is a bad person, while the fellow traveller is the offender who has done a bad thing. It is proposed that where an individual’s view of offenders sits on the continuum will help determine punishment and rehabilitation decisions that they make about offenders. It is further proposed that these views are influenced by outside factors such as the way that the media portrays offenders. The media is an important source of information on crime and offenders (Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000; Klite, Bardwell, & Salzman, 1997), and so the way that the media write about offenders can influence the public’s opinions about offenders. The moral stranger and the fellow traveller are theoretical concepts at present, so the aim of the current research was to investigate these concepts in an empirical context. Firstly, Studies 1 and 2 presented crime vignettes written from either the moral stranger perspective or the fellow traveller perspective and then investigated what punishment and rehabilitation differences there were. Study 3 then developed a measure to evaluate individuals’ opinions about offenders, to create an empirical basis for the existing theory. The Opinions about Criminal Offenders (OCO) Scale was developed in Study 3. Study 4 then tested the psychometric properties of this Scale, and through further factor analysis the scale was pared down to 12-items made up of four subscales. Study 5 then brought together the empirical work from Studies 1 and 2 and the developed measure from Studies 3 and 4. Participants were presented with two vignettes, one written from a subjective view and the other from an objective view. They were also given the 12-item OCO Scale. Structural Equation Modelling was then used to extend the work of Studies 1 and 2, and to further develop the decision making process individuals go through. Results indicated that each subscale of the OCO predicted different judgements made about the offender, in terms of his characteristics and likelihood of reoffending, and that these judgements then predicted different judgements about the outcome of the offence, including punishment motive. These studies, together, show that the moral stranger and fellow traveller concepts do exist, as a continuum, and the development of the OCO Scale showed that there is utility in the scale in terms of the type of judgements made about an offender and an offence. The current study was conducted with a sex offence in the vignettes and so further research needs to extend this by using different offence types and different offender characteristics, to investigate how generalisable these findings are.
The Implementation of a Hierarchical Hybrid Navigation System for a Mobile Robotic Vehicle
Authors:   , Talwatta Buddika Kasun
Published: November 2021

One of the challenges of robotics is to develop a robot control system capable of obtaining intelligent, suitable responses to dynamic environments. The basic requirements for accomplishing this is a robot control architecture and a hardware platform that can adapt the software and hardware to the current state of the environment. This has led researchers to design control architectures composed of distributed, independent and asynchronous behaviours. In line with this research, this thesis details the development of a control system which adopts a hierarchical hybrid navigation architecture designed at Victoria University of Wellington. The implementation of the control system is aimed towards one of Victoria University of Wellington’s fleet of mobile robotic platforms called MARVIN. MARVIN is a differential drive robot and the sensory equipment on the device includes infrared sensors and odometry. The control system has been implemented in C# .NET programming language adopting a Service- Oriented Architecture. This software framework provides several services along with a graphical user interface to configure the control system. Several experiments have been carried out to test the control system and the results indicate that the features of the navigation architecture have been accomplished
The Architectural Manipulation of Sound: Architecturally Articulating Urban Space to Protect and Enhance the Outdoor Acoustic Environment
Authors:   , Rieper Andrew
Published: November 2021

To date, ‘Urban Design’ has seldom accounted for the quality of the acoustic environment. The significance of sound in the urban environment is understated. This is evident in design attitudes towards Urban Acoustics, which are essentially objective; based on ‘Noise Control Methodologies’, limited by quantitative values and void of sonic variety. The aim of this thesis is firstly, to determine whether an acoustic agenda could be successfully introduced into the urban design process, and secondly, to assess the aesthetic impact of imposing such an agenda on the built environment. To explore these ideas, the thesis combined research from three fields; Urban Design (‘Public Places, Urban Spaces’ by Carmona et al.), Urban Acoustics (‘Urban Sound Environment’ by Jian Kang), and Soundscape Philosophy (founded by R. Murray Schafer). A series of experiments were then conducted using noise propagation software ‘CadnaA’, which studied the acoustic performances of different Street and Open Space Layouts. Conclusions drawn from these experiments and the analysed literature provided the framework for an Urban Design Proposal located in central Wellington, which was used as a means to assess the viability of this design approach. The results of the design-research process suggest that an acoustic agenda can be integrated into the urban design process with relative ease and little conflict, and that many of the Soundscape philosophies inherent in Urban Acoustic Design actually complement well-established Urban Design Principles. Additionally, while this approach is most effective in acoustically challenging areas, the intrinsic design principles can be adopted to enhance both the acoustic and visual aesthetic of any urban design.
Being and Becoming: A Metaphysics of Aesthetic Experience
Authors:   , Field Christopher J.
Published: November 2021

In the tragedies of Greek antiquity occurred a rare phenomenological event that shaped its people, producing what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued as the highest culture and art of Occidental civilization. Distilling the tragic dramas to a metaphysic of time, the origins of a bed rock of aesthetic experience is exposed in the dual presence of what has commonly been referred to since antiquity as ‘being’ and ‘becoming’. These two temporal phenomena are approached as qualitative experiences, which present two extreme polls of a basic spectrum of aesthetic experience. In understanding their underlying temporal origins, a direct and clear line of translation is found between these elements and their aesthetic import through the mechanisms of physical, tangible architectural properties. In addressing how architecture mediates each, two precedents are attended to which present pronounced ends of the œuvre of architectural conditions; Greek or ‘classic’ architecture, and that of the Brazilian slums or ‘Favelas’. Through an in-depth study of the temporality of Greek architecture we are offered a raw reflection into both the nature of ‘being’ and the fundamental ways it finds a presence through architecture - it is a look into the built languages of our own aesthetic and architectural sensibility. The study of ‘becoming’ in the Favelas is of particular significance, in that it affords access to a more rare, and yet markedly important, spectrum of the built environment; in understanding its deeper aesthetic import, we inevitably approach persuasive grounds of a value that questions conventional practices of architecture. A design based project in the final section of the thesis attempts an amalgamation of architectures of both being and becoming, as a means to understand deeper relations and tensions between them through the more subtle language of visual representation. Approaching architecture through the theoretical and phenomenological lens of being and becoming, we gain a valuable insight into the less concrete aspects of the art; into what we feel within it, and consequently a deeper and more conscious understanding of why we make things as they are; and potentially, through such understanding, how they can be made better.
À PROFESSORA ELNORA GONDIM: UMA CARTA DE AGRADECIMENTO
Authors: Silva Viturino Ribeiro da
Published: November 2021

Dossiê - Filosofia UFPI
UMA VIDA DEDICADA À FILOSOFIA: AS CONTRIBUIÇÕES DO PROFESSOR LUIZIR DE OLIVEIRA AO CURSO DE FILOSOFIA DA UFPI
Authors: Guimarães José Luis De Barros
Published: November 2021

Dossiê - Filosofia UFPI
AINDA SOU ESTUDANTE: GRATIDÃO, PROFESSORA ROSILENE
Authors: Mendes Viana de Oliveira André Henrique
Published: November 2021

Texto que compõe o Dossiê em homenagem aos professores do curso de Filosofia da UFPI.
NIETZSCHE E O DISCURSO FILOSÓFICO DA MODERNIDADE
Authors: Costa Amanda Sobrinho
Published: November 2021

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a crítica nietzschiana a moral moderna, tal como descrita na Genealogia da moral. Procuramos ainda destacar a crítica de Habermas a Nietzsche presente na obra: Discurso Filosófico da Modernidade, mais precisamente no capítulo IV “Entrada na Pós-Modernidade: Nietzsche como ponto de inflexão”, onde Habermas discute os aspectos que estruturam o pensamento moderno, colocando a filosofia de Nietzsche como uma ruptura entre o moderno e o pós-moderno. Habermas apresenta a Modernidade como um paradigma, um momento ímpar na história do Ocidente. É no interior da filosofia hegeliana, segundo Habermas, que pela primeira vez se toma consciência no plano conceitual do que seja a Modernidade. Habermas acrescenta ainda que, nem Hegel, nem seus discípulos jamais questionaram as conquistas da Modernidade. Contudo, Nietzsche vislumbra nesta Modernidade a continuação de um mesmo mal: a vida reativa continuaria a triunfar, os valores que vem de baixo continuam a vigorar e os antigos valores metafísicos e negadores da vida que vão determinar as ações. Portanto, aquilo que Nietzsche propõe em sua crítica a modernidade é uma transvaloração dos valores, o que implicaria necessariamente a superação dos valores reativos, pois, só assim seria possível a grandeza na terra.Palavras-chaves: Nietzsche. Habermas. Hegel.  Modernidade. Transvaloração.
¿Debemos incrementar el intervalo entre neoadyuvancia y cirugía en el cáncer de recto para lograr una respuesta patológica completa?: Revisión sistemática de la literatura
Authors: Castiñeira Piñeiro Andrea
Published: November 2021

Objetivo: Demostrar que el intervalo entre la finalización del tratamiento neoadyuvante y la cirugía en el cáncer de recto, está asociado con la tasa de respuesta patológica completa (RPC).

Introducción: La quimiorradioterapia (QRT) previa a una cirugía con escisión mesorrectal completa, se considera actualmente un tratamiento estándar para los tumores de recto medio e inferior localmente avanzados, esto induce una regresión tumoral y ocasionalmente una RPC; sin embargo, el intervalo óptimo desde la neoadyuvancia hasta la cirugía es todavía controvertido.

Método: Se ha realizado una búsqueda sistemática en PubMed y Embase, de ensayos clínicos aleatorizados que aportasen resultados oncológicos tras analizar intervalos cortos y largos de tiempo entre la neoadyuvancia y la cirugía en el cáncer de recto. El objetivo principal del estudio es la RPC, otros objetivos secundarios fueron las complicaciones postoperatorias.

Resultados: Se identificaron tres ensayos, y, en general, intervalos superiores a 8 semanas parecen mejorar significativamente la obtención de RPC, excepto en un estudio, en el que la tasa de RPC fue alta en ambos grupos de intervalos. Las complicaciones quirúrgicas, la resección R0 y la mortalidad postoperatoria fue similar.

Conclusiones: En espera de futuros ensayos aleatorizados, un intervalo mayor de 8 semanas después de la QRT preoperatoria, aumenta significativamente la RPC con complicaciones postoperatorias similares.
Filosofía ciudadana
Authors: Brugnami Enrico
Published: November 2021

Reseña de: Miguel Ángel Quintanilla (2020): Filosofía ciudadana. Ed. Trotta, Madrid.