bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diversity of tropical macroalgae in the New Zealand marine aquarium trade
Authors:   , Woodhouse Kirill
Published: December 2021

Exotic species often slip through international borders undetected. Many perish but for some species introduction to a foreign land or sea brings release from natural enemies and a chance to establish a population. Increased global trade has increased the frequency of species introductions through stowaways and lapses in biosecurity. Once an invader is established there is the opportunity for explosive population growth at the detriment of native species and humans. The marine aquarium trade is a significant vector of species introductions, including algal introductions. The most publicized introduction from aquaria was the release of the green alga Caulerpa taxifolia from the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. C. taxifolia introduction had large negative impacts on the invaded ecosystem.  Molecular barcoding of tropical macroalgae entering the New Zealand aquarium trade was implemented using various molecular markers (cox1, cox3, rbcL tufA, LSU). Both NCBI Blast searches and maximum-likelihood phylogenies were used to identify the isolates. A total of 62 species of tropical macroalgae were identified from coral rocks imported into New Zealand, plus samples from reef hobbyists. Some species found are known as invasive elsewhere, for example, Caulerpa cylindracea, C. racemosa, C. sertularioides, Ulva ohnoi and Chaetomorpha vieillardii. All three major groups of algae were well represented in my findings with 26 species of red algae, 24 species of green algae and 12 species of brown algae. Temperature tolerance limits are the largest determinant in survival in algae, while salinity and pH are less significant. Temperature tolerance of tropical algae to the minimum Sea Surface Temperature in Auckland (14°C) and Wellington (11°C) was tested. My results show that one species Chaetomorpha vieillardii can survive at Auckland minimum winter sea surface temperatures. Our findings have important implications for New Zealand biosecurity, as not only are a large diversity of exotic macroalgae entering the New Zealand marine aquarium trade unregulated, but there is also the potential for them to survive in New Zealand waters.   
Incredible but Very Real: 3D Cinema and Trauma in the Wake of WWII and 9/11
Authors:   , Fadlon Thor
Published: December 2021

This thesis investigates Hollywood and global Hollywood 3D cinema at the height of its box office success, the early fifties, and from 2009-2014. Discourse surrounding 3D cinema in both periods is governed largely by technological and economic arguments. While this discourse holds some merit, it overlooks the cultural and historical background against which 3D cinema rose to prominence.  Shifting research focus from the technological and economic to the cultural, this project uncovers the presence of trauma in 3D cinema of the fifties and D3D of the new millennium, and argues 3D cinema to be a privileged form to engage with traumatic themes. As trauma is uncovered in 3D cinema, connections are drawn between the narratives and poetics of the films discussed and post-traumatic themes prevalent in the US post WWII, and post September 11 respectively.  Focusing on questions of representation, embodiment and temporality, which hold a central role both in 3D cinema and trauma theory, this project finds that 3D cinema narratives and poetics of each period resonated with the cultural trauma that preceded it.
The influence of culture on ethnic women's use of microfinance for empowerment in Luang Namtha Province, Laos
Authors:   , Tongnamavong Souasong
Published: December 2021

The empowerment of women is essential but remains challenging globally. It has been supported by microfinance projects, particularly in recent decades across poor countries. Yet the contribution of microfinance to women’s empowerment remains controversial given the complexity of empowerment itself. It is commonly acknowledged that empowerment starts from within individuals themselves. It is also acknowledged that culture plays a significant role in women’s empowerment. Despite these acknowledgements, the complexities remain unclear in the Lao context which is the target of this study. This study examines the contribution of microfinance to the empowerment of women in Laos with a focus on the elements of culture. It is based on a feminist perspective, with a focus on a personal empowerment conceptual framework which enables the core values of empowerment to be examined. The examination is undertaken by employing semistructured interviews and focus groups for data collection with three ethnic groups in northern Laos, namely Hmong, Khmu and Tai-Yuan, participating in the Access to Finance for the Poor (AFP) project. The results show that the approach of the AFP project tends to meet women’s practical needs rather than their strategic needs. This is because the project’s approach appears to be influenced by the national approach of Laos in which the provision of opportunities for women is emphasised. It is also because ethnic women’s participation in the project is driven by so many practical needs that it makes their strategic needs invisible. The results also revealed that the women’s strategic needs are diverse, due to their particular culture and traditions. The results showed several gaps in the empowerment of women in the country. If these gaps are to be closed, there is a need for efforts from many stakeholders, particularly in the education sector, as the gender agenda needs to be integrated into its national curriculum.  Keywords: women’s empowerment, microfinance, village banks, culture, Laos
The Consequences of not Acting on Personally and Socially Important Value-Expressive Behaviours on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Wellbeing
Authors:   , Chrystal Megan
Published: December 2021

Wellbeing is thought to decrease when one’s actions do not align with one’s values. This study refined a previous experimental method to investigate how perceived failure to live up to expectations of value-expressive behaviours may affect eudaimonic and hedonic wellbeing. One hundred and ninety-nine students considered their own past value-expressive behaviours in a survey designed to induce a discrepancy or “gap” between reported and ideal behaviour. We tested whether the importance of value-expressive behaviours—and whether this importance was based on personal or social ideals—would affect the perception of behavioural discrepancies and wellbeing. Results showed that being asked about more important behaviours predicted a greater perceived behavioural gap and less hedonic wellbeing. Whether this importance was based on personal values or social desirability did not differentially predict perceived behavioural gap or wellbeing, challenging the focus that some therapy models place on personal value expression to improve wellbeing. The perceived behavioural gap did not mediate a relationship between experimental condition and wellbeing, suggesting that other variables may play a role in the relationship between values, behaviour, and wellbeing. Further exploratory tests, limitations, and theoretical implications are discussed.
Essays in the Regulation of Drones and Counter-Drone Systems
Authors:   , Shelley Andrew
Published: December 2021

Rapid growth in the use of drones potentially delivers significant economic benefits, but it has also given rise to considerable public concern about safety risks, infringement of privacy, and other unwelcome surveillance and observation. Drones are able to be operated remotely from the pilot, making it difficult to identify the operator and attribute liability for harm caused. This in turn means that existing regulatory frameworks might not induce an efficient level of drone-related harm.  The first substantive chapter of this thesis considers measures to address concerns about privacy and surveillance. I propose the adoption of a package of measures including: tort law reform, the promulgation of a "Code of Practice for Drone Operations" under New Zealand's Privacy Act 1993, a remotely-readable identifier to identify approved operators, provision for aerial trespass by unmanned aircraft, provision for the destruction of unmanned aircraft committing trespass, and the clarification of what constitutes a privacy violation by broadcast or closed-circuit television and video systems.  Fundamental to those proposals are the concepts of drone registration and the legalisation of the right to self-defence against drones. Registration requires that a drone is registered with the regulatory authorities, with a registered drone being traceable back to the owner of the drone. Registered drones may also be required to carry a remotely-readable identifier. Legalisation of self-defence allows bystanders to take defensive actions against drones, with the potential for a drone to be destroyed. Both of these mechanisms provide a means by which the operator of a drone faces some cost if they are causing harm, and thus may induce more efficient actions by the drone operator.  This thesis establishes a theoretical framework for self-defence, registration, and registration in conjunction with self-defence. Conditions are established under which each will be the preferred form of regulation. It is also established that the status quo, with neither registration nor self-defence, is likely to be optimal when harm from drone activity is relatively low.  The conditions established around when self-defence is efficient also provide the conditions for the regulation of counter-drone systems. I identify the legal impediments to the implementation of drone-detection systems and counter-drone systems in New Zealand, and propose a regulatory framework to allow the adoption of those systems.
The significance and impacts of a youth-led empowerment program and youth-led community development interventions in Myanmar
Authors:   , Soe Thu Maung
Published: December 2021

In Myanmar, youth are traditionally perceived as a less significant segment of the society. Hence, youth development issues and problems around youth have attracted little attention from community members. Youth empowerment is a human resource development tool and a process designed to help the development of young individuals, by enabling them to solve their own problems and contribute to the development of their community.  This qualitative study examines youth empowerment initiatives of one youth-led organization and its alumni by employing Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and conducting semi-structured interviews. This study focuses on how a youth-led organization has empowered youth to become socially engaged for social transformation and get involved in the country’s development sector.  Results show that empowerment is an ongoing process and reveal a new dimension of youth empowerment in the Myanmar context. This study found that the nature of youth-led development organizations for youth and social change movements differed. Youth-led empowerment actions offer learning opportunities and create spaces for young people to participate in community movements. Moreover, Socially Engaged Buddhism (SEB) is an alternative to the conventional empowerment approaches, which offers Buddhist principles for individual development of young people and stimulates youth to get involved in collective social change movements to tackle structural injustices.      
"Every Bloody Right To Be Here": Trans Resistance in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1967 - 1989
Authors:   , Hansen Will
Published: December 2021

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, trans people in Aotearoa New Zealand resisted cisgender hegemony in numerous ways. This thesis aims to explore three key methods of trans resistance practiced during the period between 1967 and 1989 – community building, trans pride, and normalising trans. This study reveals that trans community building was the essential first step for the budding trans movement, yet maintains that there was never one single trans 'community’ and that each trans community practiced different and sometimes contradictory politics. Just as it was necessary to feel pride in one’s trans self in order to have no shame in connecting to trans others, so too was it necessary to challenge cisgender hegemony and advocate for trans people. This study examines the various ways trans people embodied ‘pride’, refusing to bow to shame on stages as large as the nation’s highest courts to as common as the everyday encounter on the street. The role of trans people in sex worker, gay liberation and homosexual law reform movements is also considered, as is the way trans politics reflected changes on the broader political landscape. Finally, this thesis takes a critical view of attempts made to normalise transness. In the fight for trans rights, some communities practiced a politics of transnormativity and respectability; they attempted to make themselves more respectable by further marginalising those trans communities which were already marginal. This thesis aims to spotlight the disciplining power of race, class, sexuality and gender, determining which bodies mattered and which did not.
Quantum Entanglement in Time
Authors:   , Rajan Del
Published: December 2021

This thesis is in the field of quantum information science, which is an area that reconceptualizes quantum physics in terms of information.  Central to this area is the quantum effect of entanglement in space.  It is an interdependence among two or more spatially separated quantum systems that would be impossible to replicate by classical systems.  Alternatively, an entanglement in space can also be viewed as a resource in quantum information in that it allows the ability to perform information tasks that would be impossible or very difficult to do with only classical information.  Two such astonishing applications are quantum communications which can be harnessed for teleportation, and quantum computers which can drastically outperform the best classical supercomputers.   In this thesis our focus is on the theoretical aspect of the field, and we provide one of the first expositions on an analogous quantum effect known as entanglement in time.  It can be viewed as an interdependence of quantum systems across time, which is stronger than could ever exist between classical systems.  We explore this temporal effect within the study of quantum information and its foundations as well as through relativistic quantum information.  An original contribution of this thesis is the design of one of the first quantum information applications of entanglement in time, namely a quantum blockchain.  We describe how the entanglement in time provides the quantum advantage over a classical blockchain.  Furthermore, the information encoding procedure of this quantum blockchain can be interpreted as non-classically influencing the past, and hence the system can be viewed as a `quantum time machine.'
Adoration of the Joint
Authors:   , Honore Marc
Published: December 2021

At many sites across New Zealand, industrial demands and the built environment have taken precedence over considerations for neighbouring natural settings, with a lack of threshold or transitional space between the two often leading to heavy contextual clashes. This is a prominent issue where the Korokoro Recreation Reserve meets the numerous industrial sites at Cornish Street in Lower Hutt, Wellington.  The aim of this research is to address these fragile contextual issues with an architectural intervention that acts like a joint on multiple theoretical levels, furthering our understanding of how architecture can contribute to the landscape, establishing a narrative between two conflicting conditions while establishing a transitional threshold between them.  Marco Frascari and Kenneth Frampton write on the theory of synecdoche in architecture and the capacity of details as generators, evidencing the skilful joining and consideration of parts, defined as ‘a process of signification’ resulting in synecdochal architecture, in which a part is made to represent the whole and vice versa. When architecture evidences synecdoche, a sensitive viewer can understand an architectural intervention’s underlying meaning and understand architecture as a set of dialogues. Through these means of enabling a greater understanding of architecture, the humble joint provides a didactic role, and through this didactic capability people may come to see and understand the important role that architecture can play in the context of its natural environment.
Towards the development of a chemical lure to improve the management of invading rat populations
Authors:   , Paske Grace Laura
Published: December 2021

Introduced species, such as Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus,have contributed to the extinction of many native animals and plants in New Zealand(NZ). Current strategies exist to monitor, manage and eradicate pest species. However, these haven’t always been completely successful and tools to detect small or invading densities remain to be developed. One possible new method to address this problem is the application of chemical attractants (lures). Recently, a major urinary protein (MUP) has been shown in male miceto act as a sexual attractant. MUPs modulate the release of volatile attractants and have potential to act as attractants themselves. Our aim was to determine if a similar MUP(s) and associated volatiles are present in the urine of rats, with the prospect of creating a chemical lure to use in rat detection and eradication. Using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, potential volatiles in rat urine have been identified. Analysis of rat urine by gel electrophoresis has shown MUPs present in both sexes. A 22.4 kDa MUP in Rattus norvegicushas been synthesised and expressed in E.coliusing recombinant DNA technology. Preliminary steps have been made towards the production of a MUP based on ship rat DNA sequence. Future behavioral trials are needed to investigate whether the synthesised protein, in the presence or absence of the urinary-derived volatiles, is a sexual attractant.
Development of a Hypoxia-Activated Trehalose Diester for the Treatment of Solid Tumours
Authors:   , Foster Amy Jane
Published: December 2021

The potential of bacterial cell wall components in the treatment of various cancers was initially realised in the late 1800s during pioneering work with Coley’s toxins. Since this preliminary work, efforts have been concentrated on the isolation and identification of bacterial components that lead to tumour regression. Trehalose dimycolates (TDMs) are compounds isolated from the M. tuberculosis cell wall and are known to activate macrophages to give a polarised Th1 immune response resulting in reduced tumour burden. Consequently, TDMs have shown great promise in the treatment of solid tumours.

In this thesis, work is presented towards the synthesis of trehalose glycolipid prodrugs that will be specifically activated inside the hypoxic tumour microenvironment, and thereby lead to a more selective form of cancer therapy. These hypoxia-activated trehalose glycolipids incorporate a nitroimidazole trigger that fragments upon enzymatic reduction (in the absence of oxygen) to give the active glycolipid. Throughout the course of this work, it was determined that the nitroimidazole trigger group could not be directly attached to the glycolipid and thus, an alternative carbonate-linker strategy was explored through the use of a reporter fluoroprobe. The validity of this approach was determined in various enzyme and cell-based assays.
Investigating Extended Linker Analogues of Risperidone for Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Authors:   , Bird Thomas
Published: December 2021

Risperidone is a second-generation antipsychotic used to treat psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism. It targets dopamine D2 and serotonin 5-HT2A receptors and has immunomodulatory properties. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects over 2 million people worldwide and currently has no cure. Recent research at Victoria University of Wellington has shown that risperidone is able to reduce disease severity in mouse models of multiple sclerosis. Further research has demonstrated that truncated and unsaturated analogues of risperidone have varying immunomodulatory effects in immune cells.  The current research describes the synthesis and preliminary in vitro testing of four extended-linker analogues of risperidone. Structure-activity relationship studies with neurotropic drugs have shown that altering the length of the alkyl chain found in many of these compounds can have significant effects on receptor binding profiles. Synthesis and cytokine production assays of these analogues begin to provide further insight into how risperidone exerts its immunomodulatory effects and may contribute to the development of new treatments for multiple sclerosis.
Adapting CRISPR/Cas9 Lentivirus Technology for Functional Studies of GATA6 & GATA4 during Bovine Preimplantation Embryogenesis
Authors:   , Ni Shicheng
Published: December 2021

In recent times, cattle embryology has been under the spotlight of investigation due to its apparent economic values. This is especially relevant in the case of New Zealand, owing to its high percentage of livestock export. Specifically, the period of peri-implantation development has been of particular relevance. During this stage, the developing zygote will establish 3 key lineages – epiblast, hypoblast and trophoblast. Previous studies have elucidated that a significant number of embryos die prior to implantation, therefore highlighting the importance of correctly establishing these 3 lineages to overall embryonic survival. However, while embryological stages of the preimplantation embryo have been extensively studied in their eutherian cousin, mice, the molecular regulation of that of cattle remains much less addressed. Whereas the regulation of bovine embryo development is orchestrated by many transcriptional regulators, or genetic regulatory networks (GNP), we aimed to focus our studies on 2 key transcriptional regulators, GATA4 and GATA6. During early embryogenesis, both these transcriptional factors are known molecular regulators that drive the establishment of the hypoblast lineage in mice. By and large, while their respective expression has been documented in cattle embryos, functional studies towards these markers have not yet been performed. Latest advances in molecular biology have given us novel methods to study the mechanism of bovine embryogenesis. To this end, the continuing perfection of CRISPR technologies in the last decade - in particular its delivery through lentiviral vectors, has established an ability to generate stable, targeted knock-out mutants. Therefore, it is aimed in this thesis to design and test lentiviral particles that induce knock-out mutants of GATA4 and GATAT6, to test their efficacy in primary cell cultures (bovine cumulus cells) and to functionally analyse the effect of GATA4 and GATA6 knockdowns in early bovine embryos.
Absraction for Efficient Reinforcement Learning
Authors:   , Telfar Alexander
Published: December 2021

Successful reinforcement learning requires large amounts of data, compute, and some luck. We explore the ability of abstraction(s) to reduce these dependencies. Abstractions for reinforcement learning share the goals of this abstract: to capture essential details, while leaving out the unimportant. By throwing away inessential details, there will be less to compute, less to explore, and less variance in observations. But, does this always aid reinforcement learning? More specifically, we start by looking for abstractions that are easily solvable. This leads us to a type of linear abstraction. We show that, while it does allow efficient solutions, it also gives erroneous solutions, in the general case. We then attempt to improve the sample efficiency of a reinforcment learner. We do so by constructing a measure of symmetry and using it as an inductive bias. We design and run experiments to test the advantage provided by this inductive bias, but must leave conclusions to future work.
Constituting the 'Woman Artist': A Feminist Genealogy of Aotearoa New Zealand's Art History 1928 - 1989
Authors:   , Baker Kirsty
Published: December 2021

This thesis considers the ways in which the figure of the ‘woman artist’ has been constituted in published sources in Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history, between 1928 and 1989. Most of the texts dedicated specifically to women artists in this country were written in the latter half of the twentieth century, and were produced with the intention of writing women artists back in to the histories from which they had been excluded. This thesis operates from a different perspective. Rather than assuming a starting point of women’s absence from a national art history, it traces instead those written representations of the ‘woman artist’ as they exist in the published literature. Through the construction of a genealogy of such representation, this thesis examines the ideologies which are both embedded in, and perpetuated by them. In doing so it makes evident and interrogates the gendered power dynamics which have shaped the writing of Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history.   This thesis is structured chronologically, charting the formation and expansion of a coherent national arts discourse against shifting notions of national and cultural identity. The trajectory of this discourse was shaped by a canonical impulse, constructing an unfolding narrative which centres upon a succession of key artistic figures. This thesis argues that the structuring of this – largely male, Pākehā – narrative, acted to subsume gendered difference, rendering women increasingly peripheral within its pages. The model of subsumed difference is also apparent in feminist critiques of this dominant art history, which are critically interrogated in the latter half of this thesis. As women sought to challenge the relative exclusion of women artists from this dominant narrative, they also perpetuated their own exclusions, often in terms of culture or sexuality.   Through discursive analysis of both ‘mainstream’ art history, and the feminist writings which addressed it, this thesis presents two significant arguments. First, that stereotypical representations of women artists play a structural role – to marginalise women – within Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. Secondly, that feminist interrogations of such histories failed to account for the multiplicity of women’s subjectivity. I conclude by instantiating and calling for an alternative approach that challenges the subsuming of such difference within a single, homogenous narrative. Such an approach will produce histories that interrogate, rather than perpetuate, the gendered and cultural power dynamics embedded within society.
Cultural Models of the Self and Environmentalism: A Cross-cultural and Experimental Investigation
Authors:   , Duff Hamish
Published: December 2021

Previous research suggests human–nature relations are influenced by human–human relations, particularly those related to the inclusion of others in self. Individuals who construe the self as more interdependent from others are more likely to protect nature than those who construe the self as more independent from others. We conducted cross-cultural and experimental studies to examine this proposition systematically using a recently developed seven-dimension model of self-construal. Study 1 (N = 7,279, k = 55) confirmed that those who saw themselves as more connected and committed to others were more likely to endorse environmental protectionism. Multilevel moderation analysis indicated that the association between commitment to others and environmental protection was stronger in societies that express greater difference to others and have greater self-expression, commitment to others, environmental performance, and societal development. However, experimentally priming interdependent versus independent self-construals in Study 2 (N = 419) did not increase participants’ connectedness with nature, but nature connectedness mediated the relationships between connection to others and pro-environmental attitudes. Results indicate that inclusion of others in self translates into inclusion of nature in self and environmental protection but inducing this effect may be challenging.
Evolution and Evaluation of Engineered DNA Ligases for Improved Blunt-End Ligation
Authors:   , Sharma Janine
Published: December 2021

DNA ligases are fundamental enzymes in molecular biology and biotechnology where they perform essential reactions, e.g. to create recombinant DNA and for adaptor attachment in next-generation sequencing. T4 DNA ligase is the most widely used commercial ligase owing to its ability to catalyse ligation of blunt-ended DNA termini. However, even for T4 DNA ligase, blunt-end ligation is an inefficient activity compared to cohesive-end ligation, or its evolved activity of sealing single-strand nicks in double-stranded DNA. Previous research from Dr Wayne Patrick showed that fusion of T4 DNA ligase to a DNA-binding domain increases the enzyme’s affinity for DNA substrates, resulting in improved ligation efficiency. It was further shown that changes to the linker region between the ligase and DNA-binding domain resulted in altered ligation activity. To assist in optimising this relationship, we designed a competitive ligase selection protocol to enrich for engineered ligase variants with greater blunt-end ligation activity. This selection involves expressing a DNA ligase from its plasmid construct, and ligating a linear form of its plasmid, sealing a double-strand DNA break in the chloramphenicol resistance gene, permitting bacterial growth. Previous researcher Dr Katherine Robins created two linker libraries of 33 and 37 variants, from lead candidate ligase-cTF and (the less active form of p50-ligase variant) ligase-p50, respectively. Five rounds of selection were applied to each library. One linker variant, denoted ligase-CA3 showed the greatest improvement, comprising 42% of the final selected ligase-cTF population. In contrast, a lead linker variant from the ligase-p50 library was not obtained. In this study one additional round of selection was applied to the ligase-p50 library to test whether a lead variant would emerge. However, the linker variants selected at the end of Round 6 did not suggest a clear lead candidate, so one of the top variants (ligase-PPA17) was selected to represent this population in a fluorescence-based ligation assay that I optimised. Following identification of optimal reaction buffers to improve protein stability and DNA ligation, six engineered variants were compared for blunt-, cohesive-end, and nick sealing ligation activities. All five engineered variants exhibited improved blunt-end ligation activity over T4 DNA ligase. Ligase-PPA17 (1.9-fold improvement over T4 DNA ligase) was best performing for blunt-end ligation. This study found no evidence that ligase-CA3 was significantly improved over its predecessor, ligase-cTF in blunt-end ligation, however it was the best performing variant at cohesive-end ligation. Overall, we have evolved DNA ligase variants with improved blunt-end ligation activity over T4 DNA ligase which may be more advantageous in molecular biology and biotechnology for a variety of applications.
To Sit is a Verb: Incoherence and Contemporary Conceptual Writing
Authors:   , Fenton Emma
Published: December 2021

This thesis reconceives the productive possibilities of incoherence in four works of contemporary conceptual writing. Despite a pervasive ‘recognition’ of incoherence in literary criticism, we find little formal theorisation of its structure. Against existing evaluative and mystifying impressions of incoherence in literary analysis, I propose a revised concept of incoherence. This is equivalent to the existence of a contradiction (A and not-A) in a work that problematises the work’s identity. I test this concept in four recent works of conceptual writing: Expeditions of a Chimæra by Oana Avasilichioaei and Erín Moure (with interruptions by Elisa Sampedrín); An Arranged Affair by Sally Alatalo; The Happy End / All Welcome by Mónica de la Torre; and Hu Fang’s Garden of Mirrored Flowers, translated by Melissa Lim. Each of these works extends the illogical permissibility of early conceptual thought, re-shaped by contemporary concerns. As a result, these works explore alternative representational possibilities inaccessible to the coherent arrangement. The work of these texts is self-reflexive—in respect to their own identity within a context. Consequently, we observe the ways in which incoherent texts map misalignments and contradictions in the literary system itself; drawing attention to associative constellations misconceived as causal and the uncertain divide of representation and real.
Investigation of the Association between Video Game Usage, Personality, Psychological Needs, and Wellbeing
Authors:   , Flueggen Florian
Published: December 2021

Playing computer games has often been theorised to be linked to the wellbeing of users. However, the variables involved and the relationships and interactions between them have not been established. The purpose of the present study was to investigate, whether there are core aspects of game usage that are related to increased or decreased wellbeing, and the extent to which these depend on players’ real-life situations. The project comprised three studies and used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. In the first study, the ways in which players use games were investigated. To identify the key aspects of game usage for distinguishing and describing how players use games, in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 players of different games. This data and two subsequent quantitative tests, the first with 314 participants and the second with 770 participants, were used to develop a game-usage questionnaire and a framework with eight factors. The relationship between game usage and wellbeing was investigated in a longitudinal study conducted over nine months with 531 participants. Personality – as proxy for internal characteristics – and basic psychological needs – as proxy for participants’ situations in life – were taken into account as potential moderators of that relationship. Results showed that the overall correlations between game usage and wellbeing are weak and subsumed by players’ needs and personality. However, there were interactions between game usage and needs: Some game usage factors seem to directly reflect real-life situations and wellbeing; others seem to be common responses to real-life situations with no impact on wellbeing; and others again appear to impact wellbeing depending on the real-life situation. Social game usage seems to be a key factor with relevance for wellbeing. The contribution of this thesis is twofold. It provides a general framework of game usage that can be used in the field of game studies to interpret and compare findings more meaningfully, and it was shown that it is important to consider a person’s game usage in context of their real-life situations. In addition, main game usage factors for future research on wellbeing and digital games are suggested.
DoorWOmen & Gendering the Door: An Explorative Study of Women's Experiences of the Bouncer Occupation within New Zealand's Night-Time Economy.
Authors:   , Sargison Ashliegh
Published: December 2021

Patriarchal norms and misogynistic attitudes often result in women’s exclusion from positions of power in institutional structures through the use of sexual harassment, discriminatory recruitment methods and exclusion from social circles. Traditionally, previous research on bouncers has focused on the occupation’s close affinities with violence and the domination of men, ignoring the benefits and experiences of women in door-work. This research addresses an important literature gap within the context of New Zealand, by exploring how women working as bouncers in New Zealand’s Night Time Economy (NTE) experience and navigate their occupations, based on stereotypical assumptions that women are unsuitable to bouncing. Applying a feminist lens, this qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with twelve women who had experience working as bouncers in New Zealand’s NTE. This study found that gendered violence, discrimination and misogyny were a routine and ‘expected’ part of being a female bouncer, and uncovered how the women in this study constructed malleable performances of gender to do their work. These experiences profoundly impacted their feelings of safety in the workplace, which may point to reasons why women still remain the minority within the bouncer occupation. Based on these findings, this research concludes that women in door-work are faced with a paradox where femininity is simultaneously resisted in a masculine occupation, but where they are expected to adhere to men’s expectations of appropriate gender norms within the workplace. This study therefore exposes the difficult and highly gendered terrain women in door-work are expected to navigate, and emphasises the need to address misogynistic attitudes and gendered violence within the workplace, the wider NTE and beyond.
Crowdsourcing Neighbourhood Delineations in Wellington, New Zealand
Authors:   , Rickard Hayden
Published: December 2021

Neighbourhoods are important in our everyday lives, but physical deﬁnitions of neighbourhoods are often ambiguous. Oﬃcial representations of neighbourhood boundaries used to present geographic outcomes poorly reﬂect individuals’ perceptions of their neighbourhoods. Existing methods of collecting neighbourhood delineations commonly consist of small sample sizes or stratiﬁed surveys on residents of individual neighbourhoods. By reducing eﬀort and potentially increasing response rates, a crowdsourcing approach may be eﬀective in collecting neighbourhood delineations across an entire city.  This thesis presents results from a web-based application used to crowdsource neighbourhood delineations from residents of Wellington City, Aotearoa-New Zealand. Over eight hundred responses were analysed to investigate how personal characteristics impact neighbourhood boundaries, determine areas of shared neighbourhood geographies based on overlapping demarcations, and examine how participants neighbourhood delineations compare to oﬃcial representations of neighbourhoods. Case studies of a range of geographic features are provided to explore how they impact neighbourhood delineations.  This thesis found transport choices signiﬁcantly impact perceived neighbourhood area; neighbourhood areas diﬀer markedly in terms of consensus about their boundaries; and there are both similarities and discrepancies between oﬃcial and perceived neighbourhood boundaries. A variety of geographic features were found to function as diﬀerent perceptual elements in informing neighbourhood delineations. Crowdsourcing was a practical method to collect neighbourhood perceptions with possible implications for oﬃcial neighbourhood boundaries. Finally, recommendations for future research aiming to crowdsource neighbourhood delineations were made with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods being of high value.
The Synthesis of Modified Trehalose Glycolipids: Towards Understanding Mincle and MCL Binding
Authors:   , Bird Jessica Helen
Published: December 2021

Trehalose glycolipids are a diverse family of long-chain fatty acid diesters isolated from the cell walls of bacteria, in particular Mycobacterium species including M. tuberculosis. These molecules possess an array of biological activities which contribute to the survival and virulence of the organism,however, it is their activity as potent stimulators of innate and early adaptive immunity for which they are of interest. In particular, trehalose glycolipids have an application as adjuvants in vaccines and immunotherapies, for diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and cancer. Recently, the macrophage-inducible C-type lectin, Mincle, and the macrophage C-type lectin, MCL, were identified as receptors for trehalose glycolipids, however, the exact mechanisms by which these receptors recognise and bind glycolipids is, as yet, unknown.This thesis presents the synthesis of a variety of structurally diverse trehalose glycolipid analogues. As such, three mycolic acids bearing a C22 α-chain and diversified meromycolate branches were prepared from an epoxide intermediate, itself prepared in eight steps from commercially available starting materials. The mycolic acids were then coupled to TMS-trehalose and subsequently deprotected to give the mono-and diester derivatives, 1a-cand 2c, which will be assessed for their immunostimulatory activity through the activation of wild type and Mincle-/-murine macrophages. This work provides a first step towards determining how the structures of trehalose glycolipids influence Mincle and MCL binding and activity, and allow for the development of improved trehalose glycolipids for use in adjuvant therapies.
Giant magneto resistance (GMR) sensors for non destructive testing
Authors:   , Bailey Joseph
Published: December 2021

The thesis investigates the use of giant magneto resistance sensors for eddy current testing in order to identify defects in steel pipes. An automated test rig which included the device under test, sensor array, excitation unit, electronic measurement equipment, mechanical setup and LabVIEW automation was designed and built. This was used to investigate the effect of excitation parameters such as current, frequency and distance to the pipe. Some preliminary algorithms to improve the signal were developed and tested. The effect of the shape and size of the defect and aluminum shield on the magnetic field was investigated. A qualitative model to describe the magnetic field, including measured defect signals, was developed. Minimum defect parameters and maximum distance values were evaluated in the context of signal to noise.
Designing distribution of adjuvants: Synthesis of lipidated nucleic acid adjuvant compounds
Authors:   , Bilbrough Timothy
Published: December 2021

Peptide vaccines can generate antigen-specific immune responses against tumours. However, peptides on their own are not usually immunogenic and require an adjuvant to ensure antigen-presenting cells are appropriately activated. Adjuvant localisation is essential for its activity; targeting an immunomodulatory compound to the lymph nodes appropriately positions it among a high density of immune cells, where immune responses are coordinated. Furthermore, systemic distribution of a potent immune modulator can lead to severe systemic toxicities. Lymph node targeting reduces systemic exposure with simultaneous reduction of side effects. Where a compound distributes in viva is determined by its pharmacokinetic properties and its route of administration. Once the route has been defined, a drug's pharmacokinetic properties can be modified by structural changes. To this end, we modified existing adjuvants to distribute into the lymphatics preferentially. One method was to increase the hydrophilicity and size of agalactosylceramide to favour lymphatic uptake. The second was to exploit albumin hitchhiking to access the lymph nodes. Here, a-galactosylceramide was chemically linked via an enzyme-labile linker to CpG ODN 1826, a TLR-9 agonist. The properties of each adjuvant mutually alter those of the other: to the CpG, a-galactosylceramide acts as an albumin binding domain; to the a-galactosylceramide, the CpG serves as a large hydrophilic group creating an amphiphile. In vivo, this should activate a strong, multilineage T cell response through the synergy of the two adjuvants. Furthermore, this should reduce the toxicity and side effects of the adjuvant by limiting its systemic distribution. This adjuvant may find further use in vaccines for diseases requiring a Thl response for effective clearance.
The efficient synthesis of 1-deoxymannojirimycin and its derivatives
Authors:   , Deeble Benjamin Mark Mandinka
Published: December 2021

Azasugars are structural analogues of carbohydrates whereby the oxygen in the heterocyclic ring is substituted for a nitrogen. These carbohydrates are an important class of compounds with medicinal bioactivities and have shown potential for the treatment of diabetes, viral-infection, cancers, and lysosomal storage diseases. 1-deoxymannojirimycin (DMJ), is a mannosidase inhibiting azasugar which has shown anti-cancer and anti-viral activity. There has been significant effort put towards developing methodology to produce this compound and libraries of its derivatives. This thesis presents the synthesis of DMJ and a selection of its derivatives via an efficient 4 step methodology from a carbohydrate starting material, exploiting chemo and regioselective reactions to allow for a total synthesis with minimal use of protecting groups. The synthesis of DMJ, using the methodology developed herein, surpasses published syntheses in efficiency. This synthetic strategy was then used for the preparation of N-functionalised DMJ derivatives without the requirement of additional synthetic steps. To illustrate the versatility of this methodology, a selection of derivatives incorporating different functionalities have been synthesised.
Compliance Behaviour of New Zealand Exporters with Best Practices of Supply Chain Security
Authors:   , Cisternas Torres Vinka
Published: December 2021

Uninterrupted growth of international trade and the constant threats to global supply chains have led to the emergence of numerous voluntary compliance guidelines based on standards and compliance. Initiatives, such as, the Authorised Economic Operators is the result of the global efforts to facilitate, prevent and secure international trade against cross-border crime. The Authorised Economic Operator is an initiative of the World Customs Organisation and its member countries. Its core philosophy is developing public to private partnerships for the safety of international trade and trade facilitation. These initiatives are growing in scope with a variety of programmes developed by governments. The objective of these programmes is encouraging an ethos of voluntary compliance based on standards, best practices and self-governance. Certified firms can obtain a trusted trader status and cross-border benefits when they demonstrate that their supply chain is secure. New Zealand has its own programme called the Secure Export Scheme. While this programme is voluntary in nature, firms entering the programme are required to adopt, maintain, and comply with the standards of security for their supply chain. This thesis investigates the compliance behaviour of New Zealand exporters with the standards of security of the Secure Export Scheme.  The Authorised Economic Programme is a new concept, and while there is scholarly research of other types of voluntary standards, research in this particular area is minimal. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine the compliance behaviour of firms that have been part of the programme since inception. Accordingly, this study is guided by the various views of the compliance theory and proffers a conceptual framework to delineate the different actors and factors that influence firms’ compliance behaviour. The study measured compliance and non-compliance of firms to understand the underlying patterns with specific best practices. This study contributes towards our current understanding of compliance behaviour. While, overall, the compliance of the New Zealand exporters with the best practices is high, there are some areas of concern. The study further identified that a number of firms were not compliant with certain best practices. This finding indicates that other factors, such as, the way the governing body presents its written requirements might influence the compliance behaviour with those specific best practices. The conceptual model proposed in this study lays the foundation for further research seeking to probe compliance behaviour of Authorised Economic Operators.