bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Implications of Government Departmental Organisational Structures on Fulfilment of OIA Obligations
Authors:   , Wise Paula Louise 
Published: November 2021

<p>A study was conducted into the implications of government departmental organisational structures on the fulfilment of Official Information Act (OIA) obligations. The aim of the study was to investigate the systems and processes used by New Zealand government organisations in relation to OIA requests; in particular, to identify any changes since 2001 and the rationale for such changes. The study used authority and responsibility mechanisms, as represented by the chain of command and autonomy, to examine the relationship between organisational structures and effective responses to OIA requests. The research was qualitative and used semi-structured interviews with nine people from three New Zealand government organisations to gather data. The study was not linked to individual OIA requests. Data was analysed using coding of concepts to identify seven main themes, which were: systems and processes; information accessibility; attitude to OIA requests; management of government information; levels of decision-making; timeliness of response, and; managing organisational and political risk. The study found that a range of systems and process are used for responding to OIA requests and that the rationale for these fall into two categories; those designed to support staff and managers to process requests, and those designed to manage organisational and political risks. Whilst most systems had been in place for some time, tracking systems were adopted more recently. The study also found there was an increasing use of pro-disclosure of information to reduce the administrative burden of responding to Official Information Act requests.</p>
Archives Use of Social Media to Develop Connections with Family Historians
Authors:   , Paterson Julie 
Published: November 2021

<p>The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a research project designed to investigate how social media is being used by archives to develop connections with family historians. This research used qualitative methodology and utilised Skype and Instant Messaging to conduct semi-structured interviews with participants from six archives. The research uses Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory as a framework. The research found the interviewees were using social media in various combinations to serve different purposes. In the majority of cases these tools were being used to achieve maximum access to the wider online community. The study highlights issues and concerns discussed by participants when using social media. There were limited examples of social media use to make connections with family historians during the study. Nonetheless this paper provides three detailed instances of its use to illustrate how archives can make these connections.</p>
Effective Consumer Consultation in the Planning and Delivery of Health and Social Services: A New Zealand Case Study: A Comparative Study of the Theory and Practice of Government Organisations in Engaging Consumers in Consultation
Authors:   , Britnell Julz 
Published: November 2021

<p>About 600 million people in the world live with disabilities (World Health Organisation, 2007). Over the past ten years there has been increasing calls for government organisations in the health and disability sector to involve consumers in their decision-making, service design and general governance. This has led government health and disability organisations in different countries to try and find ways to ensure consumers are consulted with and involved in decision-making processes (Coney, 2004). The potential benefits of effective consumer consultation are better quality services, policy and planning decisions that a more consumer focused, improved communications and greater ownership of the local health services. For consumers effective consultation can mean they get better outcomes of treatment and support, a more accessible and responsive service and improved health. For the community consultation can help bring about a reduction in health inequalities and provide a health service better able to meet the needs of its constituents (Anderson et al., 2002). There are a number of real and perceived barriers to consumer consultation. Consumers may be anxious that their views will not be taken seriously, that they will look foolish or that they won’t understand what’s being talked about. Staff and organisations might be anxious that their work will be criticised, that there will be unrealistic demands to change services or that their role and authority might be undermined (Fletcher & Bradburn, 2001). For consultation to work there needs to be commitment from the organisation to plan and provide adequate resources. Developing a strategy is critical before organisations start down this path. The UK Audit Commission (2003) believe developing a strategy will help organisations to define exactly what the purpose of the consultation is, what they want to achieve, help them identify the relevant stakeholders and assess what level of engagement to undertake. Consultation is an important part of designing, delivering and managing effective health and social services. There are many different ways of engaging consumers and finding the right way for each organisation takes planning, commitment, time and energy.</p>
A Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in Information Technology Creation
Authors:   , Thistoll Anthony Mark 
Published: November 2021

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine how entrepreneurs act to bring an Information Technology-based innovation into being. Successful realisation of such innovations requires collective effort, involving resources and actors both internal and external to the entrepreneur‘s own venture (Van de Ven, 1993a, 2005; Lavie, 2006). The study is qualitative in nature and uses the Glaserian variant of the grounded theory method to collect and analyse data obtained from interviewing entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and collective agents involved in creating IT innovation. Through undertaking open, selective, and theoretical coding and the process of constant comparative analysis, the research produces a substantive theory for explaining: A Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in IT Creation. The Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in IT Creation accounts for the actions of both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who are jointly called ―preneurs‖ within this study, and their interaction with collective agents to create IT innovation. The process of preneurial agency, the actions the preneur undertakes to create the innovative idea and make it a tangible reality, is shown as a triality involving the combined agency of the preneur and collective agents interacting within social structures established by the preneur. To support this abstracted view of entrepreneurship, the study develops and defines a family of terms to describe the process of preneurship, the preneur, preneurial agency, and the preneurial ba within which the actors interact to create IT-based innovation. The value of the research lies in its view of the preneur‘s process of transition from entrepreneur to intrapreneur and to institutional actor; and how the actions of both the entrepreneur and intrapreneur to create IT innovation can be shown in an abstracted process of preneurial agency. It is expected that through the application of a specific set of actions, presented in The Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in IT Creation as six theoretical propositions, practitioners will be better able to inform their practice, and enhance the self management of their preneurial agency and interaction with collective agents.</p>
Empirical Analysis of Schemata in Genetic Programming
Authors:   , Smart Will 
Published: November 2021

<p>Schemata and buiding blocks have been used in Genetic Programming (GP) in several contexts including subroutines, theoretical analysis and for empirical analysis. Of these three the least explored is empirical analysis. This thesis presents a powerful GP empirical analysis technique for analysis of all schemata of a given form occurring in any program of a given population at scales not previously possible for the kinds of global analysis performed. There are many competing GP forms of schema and, rather than choosing one for analysis, the thesis defines the match-tree meta-form of schema as a general language expressing forms of schema for use by the analysis system. This language can express most forms of schema previously used in tree-based GP. The new method can perform wide-ranging analyses on the prohibitively large set of all schemata in the programs by introducing the concepts of maximal schema, maximal program subset, representative set of schemata, and representative program subset. These structures are used to optimize the analysis, shrinking its complexity to a manageable size without sacrificing the result. Characterization experiments analyze GP populations of up to 501 60- node programs, using 11 forms of schema including rooted-hyperschemata and non-rooted fragments. The new method has close to quadratic complexity on population size, and quartic complexity on program size. Efficacy experiments present example analyses using the new method. The experiments offer interesting insights into the dynamics of GP runs including fine-grained analysis of convergence and the visualization of schemata during a GP evolution. Future work will apply the many possible extensions of this new method to understanding how GP operates, including studies of convergence, building blocks and schema fitness. This method provides a much finer-resolution microscope into the inner workings of GP and will be used to provide accessable visualizations of the evolutionary process.</p>
Perceptions of Motivational Teaching Strategies in an EFL Classroom: The Case of a Class in a Private University in Indonesia
Authors:   , Kassing Rachmania Bachtiar 
Published: November 2021

<p>Students’ motivation in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom is affected by their perceptions of the teaching strategies used. These perceptions are influenced by the context in which they learn. This study aims to explore both tertiary students’ and their lecturers’ perceptions of teaching strategies that both groups consider impact on students’ motivation in learning EFL in an eastern region of Indonesia. This study used a qualitative research methodology. The case was composed of one cohort of student-teachers and their EFL lecturers in one Teacher Training and Education Faculty of one private university in the area of Sulawesi Island of Indonesia. The data were collected from semi-structured individual interviews with EFL (English as a Foreign Language) lecturers and focus groups with student- teachers. Both the lecturers and the student-teachers agreed that creating and maintaining relationships was a highly effective strategy to motivate students in an EFL classroom. However, the findings also showed that the two groups of participants put different values on the teaching strategies employed by EFL lecturers in this context. The study also found that some EFL lecturers were not aware of how some of the strategies that they used in teaching English impacted on their learners’ motivation. Lecturers’ time commitments outside this university proved to be a significant challenge in maximizing the use of some motivational teaching strategies in teaching English. These findings raise implications for lecturers’ practice. By being more aware of how students view specific teaching strategies in the EFL classroom, teachers can enhance students’ motivation, by generating, maintaining and building on initial motivation.</p>
Atmospheric Perceptions in the Making: An Exploration of the Implications of the Immateriality of Climate on Our Perception of Space and in Its Making
Authors:   , Benton Delle 
Published: November 2021

<p>“[...] climate can replace typology, function, and form of what we use and define as architecture” (Rahm, 2008: accessed 11th March 2010, ). To what extent should we consider the invisible atmospheric conditions in the design process of architecture? This project will explore the implications of the immateriality of climate on both perception of space and in its making. The immaterial and material in architecture have long been regarded as a dichotomy; an opposing of ideas between governing architectural theory and practice. The immaterial is a popular discussion within contemporary architectural literature, yet has evidently not fully impacted within practice. Built examples of the immaterial remain few. Those that have been implemented have tended towards the temporal in nature, existing in the mode of installations or exhibitions, such as Diller + Scofidio’s Blur Pavillion, with its harnessing of misty atmospheric conditions (Diller & Scofidio, 1994). This research will firstly necessitate an exploration of the effect of atmospheric conditions (such as heat, light, humidity, sound, smell, taste, air movement) on spatial perception. This study refers to the immaterial in terms of such conditions and looks at the impact they can have on experience of space. It is noteworthy that many artworks, such as that of Olafur Eliasson, explore ideas of affective atmospheres “as an agent of human experience and social action, prompting a subjective transformation” (Frichot, 2008: p. 31), suggesting that these environments can transform perception. This research will secondly experiment with scenarios of dis-location where specific atmospheric conditions will be relocated to a site in which they might otherwise be foreign. This will be done in view of testing the qualities of the atmospheric that impact on perception and to challenge the notion of enhancement, detraction and of provocation of mood. It is anticipated that the research will provoke the design of a series of experimental works which will lead to a process of translation from discourse to installation to architecture through the development of design tools and strategies. Together with supporting theory, this will form an inquiry as to what extent we should consider the invisible atmospheric conditions in the design process of architecture.</p>
Performance and Permeability: An investigation of the Mashrabiya for Use within the Gibson Desert
Authors:   , Samuels William 
Published: November 2021

<p>This study investigates a traditional Middle Eastern building element, the mashrabiya, and looks at the potential application of this device within the contemporary context of the Giles Weather Station in the Gibson Desert of Australia. The mashrabiya is a carved wooden screen used to control the fierce desert conditions of the Middle East. It created conditions of comfort within an extreme climate but is no longer prescribed due to the restrictive economic constraints involved with its construction. The research firstly considered the history of the mashrabiya and its various roles within the traditional Middle Eastern dwelling and then applied contemporary fabrication and design processes to its construction. The use of a CNC mill to construct the screen revealed new variables and opportunities for their manipulation, thereby providing for new design possibilities which transform the way in which it controls the desert conditions. The result was substantial improvements in cost, performance and versatility of the screen. Due to this program of research the mashrabiya was able to be applied to the Giles Weather Station in a much more ambitious manner than would otherwise have been possible. As a result of this the weather station aims to be architecturally unique, both in appearance and in functional performance.</p>
Biodiversity Conservation Governance on the Tibetan Plateau: Cross-scale Linkages and Bridging Organizations
Authors:   , Schlick Katharina 
Published: November 2021

<p>The ‘roof of the world’ is one of the most ecologically diverse and vulnerable regions on earth. Tibetan pastoralists have developed an institutionalized system of checks and balances to regulate access to and conservation of natural resources. However, traditional resource management institutions are greatly transformed by government driven development and conservation projects. Recent studies on adaptive co-management have emphasized the importance of linking institutional and organizational structures at different scales for sustaining socio-ecological resilience and managing cross-scale problems of conservation. Extraordinary conservation accomplishments have been made in cases where government and local communities engage in partnerships for collaborative conservation management. The methodology for this study incorporated a social network approach that presents a unique analysis of the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in enabling more collaborative conservation governance arrangements in the Tibetan Plateau region. The study is based on a field research in China where I used semi-structured interviews to investigate NGOs perspectives about the main triggers and barriers to more collaborative conservation approaches on the Tibetan Plateau and their role in facilitating the communication among different stakeholder groups. My main findings are that NGOs have significant influence on enabling more collaborative conservation management initiatives. The creation of crossinstitutional partnerships, flexibility in conservation approaches, mutual learning, and trust building processes are seen as the most effective means to more collaborative conservation approaches. Conversely, unequal power relationships, different understandings of how to approach conservation issues and a diversity of partially conflicting interests and priorities are identified as the main barriers.</p>
'Youth': Victim, Troublemaker or Peacebuilder? Constructions of Youth-in-Conflict in United Nations and World Bank Youth Policies
Authors:   , Pratley Elaine Mei Lien 
Published: November 2021

<p>Examination of how the United Nations ('UN') and World Bank construct youth affected by armed conflict and political instability (referred to as 'youth-in-conflict') in their respective youth policies reveals that the UN constructs youth-in-conflict as 'victims' requiring protection. This results in humanitarian/rights-based approaches to youth development. In contrast, the World Bank constructs youth-in-conflict as 'capital' that has potential to bring about economic growth, resulting in economics-driven policies. Such divergent identity constructions are because 'youth' and 'youth identity' are fluid concepts used in various ways by different people in different contexts. In peace and conflict studies, the dominant discourses in relation to youth-in-conflict are that youth are either 'victims' of war or 'troublemakers'. Both discourses are contested by an emerging third discourse of youth as peacebuilders, which challenges the representation of youth-in-conflict as passive victims or as negative threats. While the UN and World Bank’s respective humanitarian/development and neo-liberal economic approaches shape these divergent youth-in-conflict constructions, both institutions are also influenced by the global trends in youth-in-conflict discourses. This 'discursive' relationship means that as the UN and World Bank engage in the global youth debate and are shaped by more complete understandings of youth-in-conflict, they will also have an influential role in perpetuating or challenging dominant discourses.</p>
Bacterial Community Structure, Function and Diversity in Antarctic Sea Ice
Authors:   , Cowie Rebecca Olivia MacLennan 
Published: November 2021

<p>Antarctic sea ice is an important feature of the southern ocean where at its maximum it can cover 8 % of the Southern Hemisphere. It provides a stable environment for the colonisation of diverse and highly specialised microbes which play a central role in the assimilation and regulation of energy through the Antarctic food web. Polar environments are sensitive to changes in the environment. Small changes in temperature can have large effects on sea ice thickness and extent and Antarctic sea ice cover is expected to shrink by 25 % over the next century. It is unknown how the sea ice microbiota will respond. In order to understand the effects of climate change on the sea ice ecosystem it is necessary to obtain information about the community structure, function and diversity and their reactions with the environment. Studies have focused on algal diversity and physiology in Antarctic sea ice and in comparison studies on the prokaryotic community are few. Although prokaryotic diversity has been investigated using clone libraries and culture based methods, it is likely that certain species have still not been described. Almost nothing is known about the Antarctic sea ice bacterial community spatial and temporal dynamics under changing abiotic and biotic conditions or their role in biogeochemical cycles. This is the first study linking Antarctic bacterial communities to function by using statistics to investigate the relationships between environmental variables and community structure. Bacterial community structure was investigated by extracting both the DNA and RNA from the environment to understand both the metabolically active (RNA) and total (DNA) bacterial community. The thickness of the sea ice and nutrient concentrations were key factors regulating bacterial community composition in Antarctic sea ice. Sea ice thickness is likely to have an effect on the physiological responses of algae leading to changes in photosynthate concentrations and composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Further investigations into the relationships between enzymatic activity and community structure revealed that the composition of the DOM drove variation between bacterial communities. There was no relationship between bacterial abundance and chlorophyll-a (as a measure of algal biomass), suggesting a un-coupling of the microbial loop. However bacteria were actively involved in the hydrolysis of polymers throughout the sea ice core. Investigations using quantitative PCR (qPCR) found that the functional genes involved in denitrification and light energy utilisation were in low abundance therefore these processes are minor in Antarctic sea ice. These results confirm that sea ice bacteria are predominantly heterotrophs and have a major role in the cycling of carbon and nitrogen through the microbial loop ...</p>