bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diversifying Density - Renovating Rural Living within Kapiti/Horowhenua Coast
Authors:   , Wheaton Nicholas
Published: November 2021

‘Diversifying Density’ explores current issues surrounding New Zealand’s struggling rural regions with particular focus on the test region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. These rural regions are subject to pressure from cities with regard to economic production and a cultural shift toward urban lifestyle. This has contributed to deconstructing much of what originally made these regions so attractive to live in. Through the process of revitalisation this research looks at the specific test site of Lake Horowhenua. While there is no shortage to these rural challenges, Lake Horowhenua has managed to retain particular significance within the overall region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast.  The focus area of this research is to explore a diverse hybrid settlement for a specific area based around a potential economy. On developing this, the design explores how this can provide new habitation while working towards a better environmental system and occupancy potential.  This research looks to encouraging discussion about conservation by adding further economic opportunity, the displacement of some current practices with the benefit of economic, environmental, and spatial diversities. Pulling these elements together the thesis proposes that this generates further opportunity, to increase human occupancy, formulating a perception and involvement within this rural landscape. Reconfiguring rural economies, lifestyles, recreation and conservation encourages authenticity of rural landscapes, creating new experiences and opportunities building the notion of abundance.  The research being tested in detail is the harakeke (flax) economy. It is structured around the processing stages involving the extraction of the harakeke fibre. Developing this concept through one economy generates new opportunities for habitation, while facilitating alternative growth specific to the site and economy. This informs design moves that are directed specifically toward the economic and environmental diversity drivers connected to the site for growth encouragement.  Then begins the exploration of concepts of authenticity; new rural living patterns; interdependencies of economies; environment and spatial patterns; and developing a synergy between work and living to construct community.
Augmenting Access & Mobility: Designing for the Prosthetic Human
Authors:   , Struijck Darni
Published: November 2021

With the needs of the disabled person at the forefront of research and design, this thesis questions how the ‘Prosthetic Human’ can be an architectural catalyst to augment access and mobility. Access and Mobility is identified as an underdeveloped field of architectural enquiry. To improve how disabled individuals experience space, this thesis investigates and tests access and mobility through the lens of design. This thesis extends to the notion of access and networks as defined by Jeremy Rifkin through an architectural exploration into innovation centres. Workplace design strategies directs the design process to formulate stimulating environments that facilitate creative and reflective thought. The theoretical frameworks of Marquard Smith and Joanne Mora, Elizabeth Wright and Mark Wigley, concerning post-human conditions are critically discussed and theoretical notions are transposed into design investigations that explore the building as a prosthetic entity. Specifically, this thesis introduces the disabled body – The Prosthetic Human – as a new figurative referent and proportional system in the design of architecture. Corbusian principles and methods are examined and appropriated for the Prosthetic Human. The proportions of the Prosthetic Human informs the architecture at macro, messo, and micro scales. This research finds that by designing for the Prosthetic Human, the architecture is, holistically representative of a body that requires enhanced access and mobility within space. The research is purposeful; the process celebrates difference and in turn, a calm and embracing architecture is presented in hope for those impaired to be free from spatial discrimination in our environment.
Twisted magnetization phases in orbital-dominant rare-earth nitrides
Authors:   , McNulty James
Published: November 2021

In this thesis we investigate the magnetic properties of NdN and SmN, members of the rare-earth nitrides, a series of intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductors. In rare-earth systems, the strong spin-orbit coupling of the partially filled 4ƒ shell ensures that there is a substantial orbital contribution to the ferromagnetic moment, in contrast to many transition metal systems where the orbital moment is usually quenched. In SmN and NdN the orbital moment actually exceeds the spin moment, and the resulting orbital dominant magnetization allows for the fabrication of a magnetic heterostructures showing novel behavior.  We report a new theoretical study of the magnetic properties on both SmN and NdN by considering the atomic-like 4ƒ electrons. These calculations incorporate spin-orbit coupling, the exchange interaction in a self-consistent mean-field approach, and crystal field interactions in an arbitrary-multiplet point-charge model. Our findings show excellent agreement with the experimentally measured ferromagnetic moments of SmN and NdN, representing an advance from previous theoretical studies.  We also report an experimental study on SmN/GdN heterostructures using the element-resolved method of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) to probe the magnetism. The competition between the orbital-dominant Zeeman coupling in SmN and the ferromagnetic spin-based interface exchange with GdN, which has purely a spin moment, results in a twisted magnetization profile. The depth profile of the magnetization derived from XMCD measurements showed good agreement with an analytical model developed to describe the competing interactions.  In a second study, a superlattice of NdN/GdN was investigated via XMCD and standard magnetometry techniques. A twisted magnetization was shown to be present due to the same mechanism as in the SmN/GdN system. By varying the maximum applied field and temperature, twisted phases were shown to develop in both GdN and NdN layers. These twisted phases in orbital-dominant ferromagnetic semiconductors represent a departure from previously explored spin-dominant metallic systems displaying similar twisted phases.
Does Seston Quality Limit the Presence of Mussels on Wellington’s South Coast? FlowCAM investigation of seston particle type
Authors:   , Rodgers Rata Pryor
Published: November 2021

Temperate rocky shores around the world are characterised by so-called ‘universal’ zonation. An interesting exception to this rule can be seen along the shores of Wellington’s South Coast where there is a virtual absence of mussels and poorly developed rocky shore intertidal community. Yet just kilometres away in Wellington Harbour there is a fully developed intertidal community, including extensive multi-species mussel beds. This thesis aims to determine if the quality of seston is limiting the presence of mussels on Wellington’s South Coast. We now have the technology to see what types of particles the mussels are selecting in low and high quality seston conditions using a FlowCAM that allows identification of particle types and their physical properties.  This study compared environmental data for Wellington Harbour (seston-rich) and the South Coast (seston-poor). These data included chlorophyll a, turbidity and suspended sediment concentrations and were collected by CTD and satellite remote sensing. Mussel feeding experiments took place under a high and low quality diet during summer, autumn and winter using Perna canaliculus and Mytilus galloprovincialis. The physiological responses recorded were clearance rate, absorption efficiency and net energy balance for individual mussels. Environmental variables recorded were total particulate matter, particulate organic matter and percent organic matter. Water samples were collected during the feeding experiments and processed using the FlowCAM. By comparing the control chambers to chambers that had mussels feeding in them it was possible to see what particles the mussels were selecting.  The environmental variables revealed that Wellington Harbour had a much higher quality seston whereas in Cook Strait the seston quality was too low for mussels to be able to inhabit, as the chlorophyll a concentrations did not reach the required levels for mussel growth. Perna canaliculus and Mytilus galloprovincialis both showed physiological responses that would allow them to grow in Cook Strait waters, both species had positive absorption efficiencies and net energy balances. These responses were greater in the high quality diet in the enriched pond water in Nelson during summer and winter. The FlowCAM analysis revealed an inter-specific difference in preferential particle selection, which varied as a function of site and season. With more particles being preferentially selected in the high quality diet compared to when the mussels were feeding on Cook Strait seawater. This new information of particle selection helps to determine why mussels are absent from Wellington’s South Coast and contributes to the extensive information on mussel feeding.
Characterising the Anthropocene: Ecological Degradation in Italian Twenty-First Century Literary Writing
Authors:   , Macilenti Alessandro
Published: November 2021

The twenty-first century has witnessed the exacerbation of ecological issues that began to manifest themselves in the mid-twentieth century. It has become increasingly clear that the current environmental crisis poses an unprecedented existential threat to civilization as well as to Homo sapiens itself. Whereas the physical and social sciences have been defining the now inevitable transition to a different (and more inhospitable) Earth, the humanities have yet to assert their role as a transformative force within the context of global environmental change. Turning abstract issues into narrative form, literary writing can increase awareness of environmental issues as well as have a deep emotive influence on its readership. To showcase this type of writing as well as the methodological frameworks that best highlights the social and ethical relevance of such texts alongside their literary value, I have selected the following twenty-first century Italian literary works: Roberto Saviano’s Gomorra, Kai Zen’s Delta blues,Wu Ming’s Previsioni del tempo, Simona Vinci’s Rovina, Giancarlo di Cataldo’s Fuoco!, Laura Pugno’s Sirene, and Alessandra Montrucchio’s E poi la sete, all published between 2006 and 2011. The main goal of this study is to demonstrate how these works offer an invaluable opportunity to communicate meaningfully and accessibly the discomforting truths of global environmental change, including ecomafia, waste trafficking, illegal building, arson, ozone depletion, global warming and the dysfunctional relationship between humanity and the biosphere.
Electronic portfolios in early childhood education: Parent-teacher communication
Authors:   , Higgins Amanda
Published: November 2021

Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are a new phenomenon in early childhood education (ECE) and there is minimal existing research available on their use and effectiveness as a learning and communication tool in ECE.  This thesis presents an exploratory case study of an ECE centre, positioned within a constructive-interpretivist paradigm, which investigated communication between teachers and families via ePortfolios. Data used in the study were drawn from online surveys, document analysis of ePortfolios, individual interviews, and focus group interviews with parents and teachers. Thematic analysis identified three main themes; the benefits and drawbacks of communicating via the ePortfolio, the online tools that supported or constrained communication, and the types of communication that were evident.  Several implications for teachers’ practice arise from this study. First, the ePortfolio enabled communication to easily flow between settings, and provided another avenue for teachers and parents to communicate. Second, the different levels of communication parents and teachers engaged in via the ePortfolio had potential to influence their on-going communication, relationships, and children’s learning. To extend on-going learning and positive learning outcomes for children, online communication could be scaffolded so that a focus on relationships moves toward to a greater focus on children’s learning. Finally, levels of trust between teachers and parents were apparent, though more complex elements of trust such as competence and openness were less evident. Teachers could consider ways to develop these with parents to further enhance trust and communication.
Rotorua Lakes water quality research : a bibliography
Authors:   , Miller Claire Elizabeth
Published: November 2021

The Rotorua Lakes have been described as the Jewels in the Crown of the Rotorua District. They play a large role in the economy, environment, culture, recreation and tourism potential of the area. However, since human settlement in the region, the water quality and ecology of the lakes has deteriorated. Introductions of exotic flora and fauna, combined with the impact of a large population in the lake catchments, have increased the problem. Over the last half century, concern over the water quality of the lakes has grown, and many studies on the subject have been undertaken. This selective annotated bibliography seeks to identify and locate the reports and publications produced from this research, providing a solution to the lack of bibliographic information on the topic. The primary aim of this bibliography is to provide information for researchers on what studies have already been carried out, and to present a chronological view of the perceived problems in the lakes. The bibliography contains four hundred entries, arranged chronologically by author, and indexed by subject, author and organisation. The primary format of the bibliography is digital, as this provides advanced retrieval features and the ability to easily update the study, but it is also supported by a paper-based format for easy reference for those who prefer it.
"Towards a Positive Treaty Partnership in the Post-Settlement Era”: Treaty of Waitangi Settlements and Decolonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand
Authors:   , Summerfield Scott
Published: November 2021

Settlements of historical Treaty of Waitangi claims present a unique opportunity to provide redress to Māori for the past and ongoing grievances committed by the Crown, and through that redress and the accompanying focus on improved relations, to decolonise the relationship between the two. Despite this opportunity, there is a wide body of literature that suggests the outcomes of these settlements instead will perpetuate colonisation and uphold the political structures which allow for the on-going dispossession of Māori.  This thesis argues that existing Treaty settlement policy can be viewed as a continuation of the legacy of colonisation by stealth, entrenching the power of the colonial state while simultaneously offering redress and apologies for past grievances of the colonisation process which do not adequately challenge the underlying structures which give rise to those grievances. It is further argued, through the example of political rhetoric from the 2014 general election, that current political discourses support the implementation of colonising settlement policies and that those discourses reinforce notions of Western settler superiority.  This thesis explores a number of perspectives on settlements and decolonisation which support the claim that historical Treaty settlements perpetuate rather than challenge colonisation. I argue that the pressing concern emerging from the thesis is that the Crown can be to seen to be directing the Treaty relationship to a post-settlement world where the negotiated outcomes of Treaty settlements and the parties to them are the end point of colonisation and represent the future dynamic of the Crown-Māori relationship.
Location, Location, Location? Comparing Release Plan Quality, Community Experience, and Recidivism Rate of High-Risk Offenders Released to a Fresh Start or Returning to the Devil They Know
Authors:   , Robson Sarah
Published: November 2021

When offenders are released from prison, does it matter where they go? To answer this question, this study investigated the effects of residential relocation on 282 high-risk male offenders released from New Zealand prisons. Offenders were initially divided into those returning to their old neighbourhoods and those released to a new location. A second division created three groups: offenders released to a new location were further divided into those making a voluntary residential relocation, and those making a residential relocation non-voluntarily. Offender groups were compared on demographic and criminal history variables, release plan quality, experiences at two months in the community, and recidivism. Recidivism indices were breach of release condition, reconviction, violent reconviction, and reimprisonment over the first year post-release. Release destination and release plan quality coding protocols were developed. Results indicated that parolees returning to their old neighbourhoods and those released to a new location reoffended at approximately the same rate. However, parolees relocating under duress breached conditions and reoffended at a higher rate than both parolees making a voluntary residential relocation and those returning to their old neighbourhoods. Significant group differences in release plan quality and experience in the community were few, but suggested that making a voluntary residential relocation may lead to better parole experiences, and that making a residential relocation under duress may lead to worse parole experiences, than returning to a familiar location. Implications, applications, and limitations of the study are discussed, along with possible directions for future research.
Modelling Surtseyan Ejecta
Authors:   , Greenbank Emma
Published: November 2021

Surtseyan ejecta are formed in shallow sub-aqueous volcanic eruptions. They occur when water, containing a slurry of previously erupted material, is washed into the volcanic vent. This slurry is incorporated into the magma and ejected from the volcano inside a ball of magma. These magma bombs containing entrained material are called, Surtseyan ejecta or Surtseyan bombs.  At the time of entrainment there is a large temperature difference between the magma (at approximately 1000°C) and the slurry (at approximately 20°C). As the inclusion temperature increases, the water contained in the slurry evaporates, causing an increase in the pressure at the boundary of the entrainment. This pressure increase is offset by the vapour diffusing through the pores of the magma. If the pressure exceeds the tensile strength of the surrounding magma the Surtseyan ejecta will rupture.  The volcanological question of interest is whether the magma ruptures. There is evidence of intact ejecta so it can be concluded that rupture does not always occur. We have developed a set of equations that transiently model the changes in temperature and pressure in Surtseyan ejecta. Numerical solutions show that the pressure rapidly increases to a stable value. Because the pressure reaches equilibrium a steady-state solution can be used to determine the maximum pressure and a criterion for rupture.
Using Paleoecological Proxies to Determine Holocene Environmental Change: A Case Study at Onaero Beach, North Taranaki
Authors:   , Skudder Rachel
Published: November 2021

A multi-proxy paleoecological and sedimentological record for the last ~8.3kyr is extracted from a 2.1m coastal seacliff at Onaero Beach, North Taranaki. This record is used to infer both local environmental changes including shoreline, coastal conditions, as well as regional changes in atmospheric circulation and climate wetness. Analysis of diatom and pollen populations, particle size, and loss on ignition provide the raw data from which inferences regarding salinity and vegetation are made. Changes are tied to a chronology determined through radiocarbon ages and tephrochronology.  Key objectives of this study are: (1) To characterize changes in salinity and relative shoreline position at Onaero Beach (2) To characterise changes in vegetation and relate these changes to overall state of the climate through the Holocene (3) Compare the results of this study with others from New Zealand and the wider south pacific to investigate how the Onaero Beach section fits in both a regional and global context.  Diatom analysis of the Onaero section revealed the dominance of brackish to marine species which suddenly at 7.3ka after which time diatom assemblages were dominated by fresh and salt intolerant species. The marine to freshwater transition represents a transition from a brackish to freshwater coastal lagoon.  Pollen analysis of the Onaero Beach section indicates the region was dominated by podocarp forest. The increasing dominance of Dacrydium and decline in other podocarps suggests an increase in overall climate wetness.  The disappearance of pollen in conjunction with the deposition of tephra at ~4.15ka is not conclusive proof of, but certainly fits with, the idea of a significant climatic event occurring at ~4.2ka resulting in a reversal of the current prevailing wind direction and supports the case for a formal Middle/Late Holocene boundary at this time.
New Zealand's 'overstaying Islander' : a construct of the ideology of 'race' and immigration
Authors:   , Ross Tamara Brigid
Published: November 2021

This thesis examines the development of a 'race'/immigration ideology within New Zealand and attempts to explore the processes through which this ideology has expressed and reproduced itself in New Zealand's past. In order to determine this process, this thesis analyses, as a case study, the causes, patterns and consequences of the politicisation of Pacific Island immigrants in New Zealand during the 1970s. Pacific Island immigrants were negatively categorised according to traditional New Zealand beliefs about 'race' and the immigration of 'alien' peoples, and the stereotypes that arose out of this process justified racist immigration campaigns in the 1970s. The targeting of Pacific Island migrants through these immigration campaigns, and the deliberate scapegoating of Pacific Islanders in the 1975 general election, compounded and entrenched existing negative stereotypes thereby justifying the further politicisation of Islanders in the 1980s. It is argued that this historical process needs to be understood as the outcome, among other things, of the 'race'/immigration ideology. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the politicisation of Pacific Islanders during this period was but part of a cycle in a larger process of the generation and reproduction of racism. While the 'race'/immigration ideology is analysed here with Pacific Islanders The historical campaigns against Pacific Islanders are examined in detail so as to illuminate the broader process of racialisation in New Zealand's past, and to explore the possible form that the 'race'/immigration ideology may assume both in the present and in the future.
"Deaf is best": Exploring the sexuality experiences and knowledge of Deaf women in New Zealand
Authors:   , Prior April Sunshine
Published: November 2021

This study has two primary purposes. Initially, it explores the accounts of sexuality-related experiences and knowledge of a group of Deaf women in New Zealand. The limited international literature available has primarily focused on Deaf sexuality in terms of deficits and vulnerabilities and no work has been carried out on the topic in New Zealand, so relatively little is known about an influential aspect of Deaf women’s lives. The second purpose for this study is to generate recommendations for improving the sexuality information and services available to the women.  This study accomplished the two aims by using an action research framework in which Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand, the national organisation for the Deaf, was a collaborative research partner. The seven women who participated in the study were split into two focus groups, one for NZ European/ Pākeha women and one for Asian and Pacific women. The focus groups were conducted in August 2012 at a Deaf club. Also present during the focus groups were a professional New Zealand Sign Language interpreter, a Deaf woman who served as co-facilitator, and myself.  In the focus groups, the women discussed their experiences and understanding of concepts with regard to intimate relationships, sexual experiences, and sexuality more generally. Their accounts revealed the potential impact their family’s cultural background, the ability of those around them to communicate through New Zealand Sign Language, and their personal English literacy levels had on their sexuality knowledge and development. Those who had greater access to information and support reported more positive experiences.  As a result, recommendations are made for improving information accessibility across the lifespan, with a special emphasis on programming and services provided by Deaf Aotearoa. The recommendations conclude with a description of a programme developed alongside Deaf Aotearoa that addresses some of these areas and which will be implemented with regional groups of Deaf women. As a result, the contributions made by the Deaf women who participated in this project are already demonstrating an impact in programme development.
How Do Music Therapy Methods & Techniques Contribute To Adolescent and Young Adult Student Confidence At A Special School In New Zealand?
Authors:   , Martin Callum Bingham
Published: November 2021

This exploratory study investigates how methods and techniques employed in ‘client centered’ music therapy contributed to student confidence, during individual and group sessions, with young adolescents and young adults who have delays in various areas of development. Secondary analysis of twenty weeks of clinical documentation of music therapy session notes, including a student reflective journal were used to identify methods and techniques at play. A thematic analysis was applied to analyse and interpret the details of musical interactions. The analysis of the musical interactions has helped the researcher to understand and articulate the methods and techniques that contributed to confidence. Four themes that emerged from the student music therapist’s application of music therapy that appeared to contribute to student confidence were: 1. making meaningful relationships; 2. participating in practical work; 3. creativity; and 4. providing affirming input. Within these themes there was an array of interactions where methods and techniques were visible and these are described in a findings and discussion section. Although findings from this qualitative study cannot be generalized they do suggest that the student music therapist could contribute to the confidence of the young people through a reflexive, humanistic approach to practice, and by keeping an appreciation to student abilities.
The Absurd Representations of Pinter’s Women: A study into the representation of female characters in the plays of Harold Pinter
Authors:   , Clarke Andrew
Published: November 2021

This thesis is concerned with analysing the representation of the female characters found in a sample of Harold Pinter’s plays. The plays examined are The Homecoming (1964), Betrayal (1978) and Celebration (1999). Through a close reading of the texts and reference to past interpreters this work attempts to locate Harold Pinter within the theatrical topography, concentrating on his convergence with the Absurdist genre. This research then assesses the extent to which Pinter’s characters exhibit the conventions pertinent to the genre and Pinter’s unique playwriting style, with particular reference to the dissonance in representation present between male and female characters. To conclude, the project reacts to the inequality present in Pinter’s depiction of female characters, which informs the construction of a theatrical play script, titled Cleanskin.
Applying and Developing the Intrusion into Seclusion Tort in New Zealand
Authors:   , Fussey William
Published: November 2021

As new and intrusive ways of invading a person’s privacy become increasingly common, it is important that tort law has a satisfactory way of protecting a person from intrusion. The case of C v Holland in 2012 created such a protection mechanism, by importing the tort of intrusion into seclusion from the USA. Whereas the first tort of privacy introduced in New Zealand protects the publication of private facts, intrusion into seclusion prevents access to a person even if it does not result in dissemination of any personal information. This thesis explains why protecting the intrusion interest per se is important and uses Kirsty Hughes’ barriers theory, which suggests that privacy should only be protected when a desire for it is communicated or normatively appropriate, to help define the intrusion interest such that it is legally useful. It analyses the elements of an intrusion into seclusion action as suggested by Whata J in C v Holland, and recommends how they could be better constituted. The crux of the thesis though focuses on when a reasonable expectation of privacy is satisfied, a question that received limited attention in C v Holland. This section suggests that determining a reasonable expectation of privacy involves a detailed analysis of three suggested factors, modified from Richard Wilkins’ approach in the US search and seizure context. The thesis considers how the factors could be applied, both separately and holistically, to an intrusion into seclusion claim in New Zealand.
An age-old issue: Evaluating the applicability of adult criminal risk assessment tools for use with youth offenders
Authors:   , Ferguson Anna
Published: November 2021

Research has consistently recognized that youth and adults share risk factors for crime, although whether certain factors are of increased importance during adolescence is debated. The present research evaluated the extent to which two risk assessment tools could predict criminal and breach reconviction in a matched sample of youth (aged 17-19) and adult (aged 20-60) community- supervised offenders: The Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR) and the static Risk of re-Conviction X Risk of re-Imprisonment (RoC*RoI). Cox regression and AUC analyses revealed initial DRAOR scores had mixed predictive validity for both groups, while proximal risk scores showed comparably moderate to high accuracy for youth and adults. Protective scores were consistently poor predictors for adults. The proximal assessment predicted reconviction better than the initial assessment, and decreases in risk scores between assessments were associated with a reduction in the likelihood of reconviction, showing the value in monitoring risk and updating assessment. The RoC*RoI predicted criminal reconviction for adults but did not predict either reconviction outcome for youth. These findings support the use of the DRAOR for identifying which youth and adults are likely to reoffend, and suggest that dynamic factors might be more useful predictors than static for assessing and monitoring youth offenders.
Do not fear your robot overlords: What a robot looks like does not affect how much they mislead you
Authors:   , Braniff Gabriel
Published: November 2021

Would you believe what a robot tells you? A robot is essentially a high functioning computer and so, on the one hand, you should have no problem believing the information it provides. But on the other hand, what robots look like have been to shown to affect how you would feel about them. Robots that look almost—but not quite—human have been shown to elicit feelings of unease and mistrust. How much do these feelings of mistrust in turn make these humanlike robots believed less? Across two experiments, we answered that question by showing people a video of a crime and then having them read a witness statement containing misleading information. This statement was ostensibly prepared by a robot that appeared human, robotic, or a morph of the two. Contrary to our predictions, what a robot looks like did not affect how misled people were, even when we drew attention to how much people trusted their robot source. These results suggest that even though people may not like, or trust, certain robots, they will still believe what they say.
Archaeologies of Gossip: AIDS in Contemporary Gay Fiction
Authors:   , Sutton Emily
Published: November 2021

Queer criticism is now in its third decade and, as critical orthodoxy, running up against its own limitations. What, for example, is a discipline preoccupied with the unspoken, the marginal and the blurring of gender boundaries to do with Edmund White’s unambiguously gay, masculine “red unsheathed fury of the third penis of the afternoon”? The Western AIDS novel is, overwhelmingly, a product of a historically precise, explicitly gay, male experience. This thesis seeks unapologetically to engage with this writing on its own terms, eschewing the queer critical lens as insufficient, and, rather, reading for a specifically gay aesthetic. Grounded in a broader overview of both AIDS novels and existing criticism, this thesis consists of extended close readings of two exemplary AIDS novels: Edmund White’s The Farewell Symphony and Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty. Firstly, I articulate the centrality of the gay sexual body to the representation of AIDS in The Farewell Symphony, tracing its representation of the disease through the epidemiological mapping of the virus itself, within the highly specific culture of gay New York in the 1970s. Secondly, I examine the way in which the re-imagination of a selective tradition of gay literary predecessors in The Line of Beauty, specifically Henry James and Oscar Wilde, provides an aesthetic solution to articulating AIDS.
Science Museum in a Pizza Box - Performance, museum tour guiding, and science communication
Authors:   , Fontana Michele
Published: November 2021

This study focuses on the relationship between performance and museum tour guiding. Building on the analysis of this relationship, the author of this study has created a performance that is inspired by museum guided tours. The aim of the performance is to encourage a critical reflection on the role and the function of science in contemporary society, while giving insight into how science is socially constructed. The performance is based on participation. The participants define their own experiences, actively reflecting on the value that science has in their lives through a dialogue with the other participants and the performer. This dialogue starts with exhibits based on science that are presented to the participants. To develop this performance, this research has utilised action research, and qualitative methods to explore the participants’ experiences of the performance.  This study is interdisciplinary, and connects performance studies, museum studies and science communication, while using applied research to explore its topics.  The outcomes of this study are an innovative conceptualisation of the museum guided tour, and an original approach to science communication based on dialogic, live performance.
Prospects for community-based marine conservation in Nauru: Attitudes, policies & institutions
Authors:   , Deiye Margo
Published: November 2021

This paper is about Nauru and its people, institutions, policies and in particular the communitybased fisheries management programme (CBFM). This study aims to identify those elements in the CBFM that makes it successful, where the institution endures overtime with a well-managed and thriving fisheries resource. This study explores the success criteria of community-based resource management.  The literature review covered broad and interdisciplinary literatures including the commons, comanagement, adaptive co-management and complex social-ecological systems in an attempt to identify some elements of success in community-based and co-management systems.  The study explores some of the current co-management practices and approaches in the Pacific region. A small number of Pacific fisheries experts and community-based practitioners were interviewed to share their views and experiences on lessons learnt and the implications of climate change for fisheries management in the region.  The study undertook a dwelling survey of 270 individuals and a gender-based focus group interviews in Nauru. This is to further investigate the willingness and capacity of the Nauruan people to participate in the CBFM while facing the poor economic conditions, the loss of traditional ecological knowledge and customary marine tenure, poor information about the state of marine resources, and limited opportunities for livelihood diversification.  An enabling environment is critical for development of such a framework, a functioning of institutions and having appropriate policies and legislation in place. Adaptive learning is important in successful a management framework. It can foster the development of an individual through social learning institutions within and between governments and communities and further promotes information sharing and awareness-raising.
Assessing the poverty impact of internal resettlement programs on the ethnic minorities in Lao PDR
Authors:   , Bounpadith Souphalack
Published: November 2021

This research assesses how poverty-based resettlement programs make a contribution to poverty reduction and controlling migration of ethnic people in rural Laos. In 2009, the government of Laos launched new resettlement programs in six northern provinces. The programs aimed to improve the accessibility to land of people who were remaining poor in some rural areas. Primarily, poor people were required to resettle in a village where land could be available for them.  I investigated two resettlement sites in Thathome district, Xiangkhoang province. I applied a qualitative approach to examine the poverty experiences of settlers. In particular, I focused on identifying the causes and impacts of poverty-based resettlement programs on ethnic migrants. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather responses from migrants, government officers and host villagers. Two focus group interviews were organized with migrant participants who came from different locations.  The findings revealed that poverty-based resettlement programs did not directly address the core causes of poverty and migration of poor people in rural Laos. Conversely, the improper planning and implementation of programs were responsible for poverty that happened in the resettlement sites. The programs were carried out while the local government was hampered by insufficient funds. There was little support and assistance provided to settlers during the transitional periods. As a result, settlers faced worse hardship than they had in their original villages. Poverty-based resettlement programs instead of reducing poverty had created a situation whereby there was a greater potential for poor people to become trapped in continued poverty.
Recognition Problems for Connectivity Functions
Authors:   , Jowett Susan
Published: November 2021

A connectivity function is a symmetric, submodular set function. Connectivity functions arise naturally from graphs, matroids and other structures. This thesis focuses mainly on recognition problems for connectivity functions, that is when a connectivity function comes from a particular type of structure. In particular we give a method for identifying when a connectivity function comes from a graph, which uses no more than a polynomial number of evaluations of the connectivity function. We also give a proof that no such method can exist for matroids.
Training the Interpretation of Ambiguity
Authors:   , Clifton Jessica
Published: November 2021

The interpretation of emotionally ambiguous words, sentences, or scenarios can be biased through training procedures that are collectively called Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation (CBM-I). Little CBM-I research has examined the underlying mechanisms responsible for the induction of emotional interpretive biases, or the potential for this line of enquiry to inform psycholinguistic models of meaning activation and selection. In this thesis a novel CBM-I paradigm was developed and then systematically manipulated in order to discriminate between two mechanistic accounts of changes in interpretive bias – the Emotional Priming Account and the Ambiguity Resolution Account. In Experiment 1 participants completed word fragments that were consistently related to either a negative or benign interpretation of an ambiguous sentence. In a subsequent semantic priming task they demonstrated an interpretation bias, in that they were faster to judge the relatedness of targets that were associated with the training-congruent than the training-incongruent meaning of an emotionally ambiguous homograph. In Experiment 2 the time between the presentation of the prime and the target (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony; SOA) at test was shortened. Interpretive biases were not observed at a short SOA suggesting that training did not induce biases at an early lexical activation stage. Interpretive bias was then eliminated when participants simply completed valenced word fragments (Experiment 3) or completed fragments related to emotional but unambiguous sentences (Experiment 4) during training. Only when participants were required to actively resolve emotionally ambiguous sentences during training did changes in interpretation emerge at test. These findings suggest that CBM-I achieves its effects by altering a production rule that aids the selection of a single meaning from alternatives, in line with an Ambiguity Resolution account. Finally, no interpretive biases were observed when the task in the test phase was substituted with a lexical decision task (Experiment 5). Participants only showed biases in the selection of meanings when the test phase encouraged them to interpret the prime. This pattern of results suggests that the alteration of selection patterns in word recognition depend on the strategies employed by participants in the test phase. Overall the findings are discussed with regards to the Ambiguity Resolution and Emotional Priming accounts of modified interpretive biases. Implications for current psycholinguistic models of meaning activation and selection are considered.
Chemical genetic interactions of New Zealand bee products in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors:   , Fadzilah Nazmi bin Harith
Published: November 2021

Propolis, bee venom and bee pollen all have been used by humans traditionally for various medicinal purposes. Studies of these products have been limited primarily to antimicrobial, antifungal, anticancer and free radical scavenging properties. The mechanisms of action of these products remain largely unknown. This study investigates the biological effects of propolis, bee venom and bee pollen using chemical genomics and the yeast model organism. These products are screened against genome-wide yeast mutant libraries to determine the genes, proteins, and pathways that are targets of these products. I identified that propolis chelates iron and consequently creates an iron-deficient condition, which results in the upregulation of plasma membrane and vacuolar high-affinity iron transporters to maximise iron acquisition. Bee venom inhibited the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine via Opi3p that catalyses the final two steps of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis within the CDP-ethanolamine pathway. Bee pollen showed a potential effect on GDP-mannose transport in which the GDP-mannose transport mutants confer hypersensitivity against bee pollen treatment.
Ethical Responsibility to Distant Others through the Coffee Industry
Authors:   , Durbin William
Published: November 2021

How we live our lives here in New Zealand affects others who are distant from us. We live in a world with many networks across space, which connect people with radically different lifestyles. These connections create an avenue to respond to the poverty of these ‘distant others’. One such network of connections is the coffee industry. Ethical consumption and social entrepreneurship within the coffee industry are a means to address development issues, and ultimately poverty. This research will look into coffee social enterprises, and how they can be included in a post-development theoretical framework. In particular, it will discuss the motivations of social entrepreneurs involved in the coffee companies interviewed.  Post-development provides a theoretical framework for this research of coffee social enterprises. It provides a critique to mainstream development, and has questioned how development is done, as well as its very validity. In doing so, it has encouraged new ways of ‘doing development’. One example of this is Sally Matthews’ three responses the wealthy can have to poverty: first, re-thinking of the development discourse in light of post-development; secondly, supporting popular initiatives; and thirdly, solidarity with distant others here at home.  This is an appreciative inquiry into different coffee companies, using qualitative ethnographic methods. Seven in-depth interviews have been conducted with managers, past owners or head roasters, as well as one with an expert on social enterprise.
Synthesis and Applications of Inorganic Materials Derived from Aluminium Smelting Waste
Authors:   , Md Hairi Siti Noor Syazana
Published: November 2021

Red mud is the highly alkaline, toxic residue of the aluminium ore bauxite after extraction of the aluminium by the Bayer process. The storage and utilization of red mud present significant environmental problems. The possibility of producing viable inorganic polymers (geopolymers) from red mud and its precursor mineral bauxite was investigated, using sodium hydroxide and/or sodium silicate as the activator, and adjusting the composition of the mixture by the addition of fine silica or ρ-alumina. The compressive strengths of the samples were measured after curing for 21 days. Although all the samples showed drying cracking, the strengths were very encouraging, the highest strength being 58 Mpa from a red mud sample containing additional silica, and the highest strength from bauxite samples being 28 MPa; the compositions of these samples also being adjusted by the addition of fine silica. These strongest samples were prepared from red mud and bauxite that had been calcined at 500°C given by RMGP4, and 28 MPa from BS2. They were made from calcined red mud and bauxite, which therefore seem to be more reactive to alkali than the as-received materials. XRD, SEM/EDS and solid-state NMR spectroscopy were used to study the microstructure and compositions of the end products. XRD revealed that iron occurs as hematite (Fe₂O₃) in the red mud, bauxite and most of the red mud geopolymers, and is present as other crystalline minerals in the other geopolymer samples. SEM spectroscopy shows that the red mud and bauxite were relatively highly porous and non-crystalline. EDS confirms that iron is present as one of the major elements in the material as well as in the geopolymers. ²⁷Al NMR spectroscopy revealed that Al is present in more tetrahedrally coordinated sites than in octahedral. ²⁹Si NMR is greatly affected by the presence of iron, resulting in very noisy spectra and in some cases no signals were obtained. These results suggest that iron does not necessarily interfere with geopolymer formation, and thus the utilisation of red mud to produce usefully strong geopolymers on a larger scale is feasible, provided the problem of cracking can be solved.