bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
GAF: A General Auction Framework for Secure Combinatorial Auctions
Authors:   , Thomson Wayne 
Published: November 2021

<p>Auctions are an economic mechanism for allocating goods to interested parties. There are many methods, each of which is an Auction Protocol. Some protocols are relatively simple such as English and Dutch auctions, but there are also more complicated auctions, for example combinatorial auctions which sell multiple goods at a time, and secure auctions which incorporate security solutions. Corresponding to the large number of protocols, there is a variety of purposes for which protocols are used. Each protocol has different properties and they differ between how applicable they are to a particular domain. In this thesis, the protocols explored are privacy preserving secure combinatorial auctions which are particularly well suited to our target domain of computational grid system resource allocation. In grid resource allocation systems, goods are best sold in sets as bidders value different sets of goods differently. For example, when purchasing CPU cycles, memory is also required but a bidder may additionally require network bandwidth. In untrusted distributed systems such as a publicly accessible grid, security properties are paramount. The type of secure combinatorial auction protocols explored in this thesis are privacy preserving protocols which hide the bid values of losing bidder’s bids. These protocols allow bidders to place bids without fear of private information being leaked. With the large number of permutations of different protocols and configurations, it is difficult to manage the idiosyncrasies of many different protocol implementations within an individual application. This thesis proposes a specification, design, and implementation for a General Auction Framework (GAF). GAF provides a consistent method of implementing different types of auction protocols from the standard English auction through to the more complicated combinatorial and secure auctions. The benefit of using GAF is the ability to easily leverage multiple protocols within a single application due to the consistent specification of protocol construction. The framework has be tested with three different protocols: the Secure Polynomial auction protocol, the Secure Homomorphic auction protocol and the Secure Garbled Circuits auction protocol. These three protocols and a statistics collecting application is a proof of concept for the framework and provides the beginning of an analysis designed at determining suitable protocol candidates for grid systems.</p>
A multi-method study of the IS impact of SAP in a large organization
Authors:   , Ali Azim 
Published: November 2021

<p>The latest Gartner report states that in 2012, the figure for global Information Technology (IT) spending amounted to US $3.6 trillion and a predicted $3.8 trillion in 2013. Achieving an effective measure of IS success and impact of information systems has been a goal for information systems researchers for decades. Numerous methods exist for measuring the quality, value and impact of information systems in organizations, including benchmarking, ISO standards, and user surveys. However, typically, often due to restricted access to data, researchers only use one type of measure. This study uses a single-organization case study investigating measures of the quality, value and impact of the SAP system in the largest telecommunications organization in New Zealand, using and comparing a range of methods and perspectives. The researcher also evaluates the best possible measures for organizations to adopt by comparing multiple methods.</p>
Stepped-ness in medium density housing: The stepped dwellings
Authors:   , Batchelor Emily 
Published: November 2021

<p>Stepped-ness in Medium Density Housing investigates a new form of design, where the site is organised according to different conditions of public, common, shared and private spaces. Stepped-ness is used as a technique for controlling relations at a range of scales and intimacies —from urban to interior— and as a tool for creating continuity of public to private, inside to outside and building to landscape. As a result, circulation and dwelling become integrated as part of a stepped morphology in which higher density living is able to accommodate both a desire for privacy, and a connection with neighbours. The typical detached New Zealand house reinforces the nuclear family as unit and precludes the extended family. Local models of medium density housing replicate these conventions and continue to deliver autonomous and identifiably singular buildings defined by lot and footprint size. Challenging these conventions, the architectural hardware of this proposal allows boundaries to be redefined according to the preferred size and configuration of a variety of household types. The identity of ‘home’ is less determined by size, and more by relations – within the household and between dwelling and public realm. Insistently organisational, mat-building explores relational distances. The stepped-mat is examined in terms of the design of mediatory devices and ancillary spaces as the primary element of space planning. This was inspired by Atelier Bow Wow, who is known for creating, “not an architecture of spaces, but an architecture of relationships,” (Fujimori, 2010, p. 128). Initially concerned with the step as a tool for design, this thesis developed to consider the stepped-mat as a way of both controlling and designing space at a range of scales. How then, could the kinds of interstitial and circulation spaces between dwellings be exploited for incidental meetings between neighbours, to sit outside and read a book, or bring some daylight into a corridor (Barker & Simons, 2012, p.155). Designed to both transport and accommodate us, the stairs’ behaviour in the breakdown of vertical and horizontal space drives this design, and forms new relations between households.</p>
Building a New Zealand Surf Life Saving Club Vernacular
Authors:   , Keown Lief Inia 
Published: November 2021

<p>New Zealand’s coastal landscape is a desirable position that holds great significance to our country’s culture. Surf Life Saving Clubs are prominent architectural entities that sit proudly upon New Zealand beaches. Surf Life Saving Clubs have a rich history and are representative of the Kiwi lifestyle. Yet, Surf Life Saving Club buildings, as architecture, have received little serious attention. This thesis investigates characteristic features of Surf Life Saving Clubs in their coastal setting and shows how those qualities can be recognised in future club development. A review of existing research indicates a gap in scholarship around the understand of Surf Life Saving Club buildings as a facet of coastal development. In this research an extensive range of Surf Life Saving Clubs are surveyed in order to gain a greater understanding of the building type; siting, form, and orientation. This is then followed by detailed case studies of active Surf Life Saving Clubs. The research deduces patterns in site, placement, orientation, form, function layout, structure and materiality that influence the buildings’ character. Design Guidelines are formulated whilst utilising Critical Regionalism as a lens to reconcile the opposing imperatives that are inherent in creating a building that is both of the vernacular and architecture. Finally, a Design Case Study allows the Design Guidelines to be developed and tested. Based on these investigations a Design Case Study is produced that models the application of a contemporary Surf Life Saving Club vernacular to a considered work of architecture.</p>
Possible scenarios for China-U.S. Relations by 2030
Authors:   , Vu Thanh Duy 
Published: November 2021

<p>The rise of China and relative decline of the United States have caused a heated debate on a possible power shift in the Asia-Pacific. Whether China and the U.S. will become friends or enemies remains an unanswered question. This necessitates a thorough study on the future of China-U.S. relations and how they will affect the strategic chessboard in the region. This Thesis examines the possible scenarios of China-U.S. relations by 2030. It argues that while the nature of China-U.S. relations is characterized by strategic competition, increasing interdependence between the two countries requires them to cooperate and co-exist with each other. If current trends continue, by 2030, the most likely scenarios for China-U.S. relations will, in descending order, be a continued China-U.S. strategic competition in peaceful co-existence, a new Cold War, a G-2 style condominium, and a predominance by China over the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific. The Thesis also finds that unlike the past, China-U.S. relations will be increasingly influenced by external factors and unpredictable events or crises. Each of the scenarios in China-U.S. relations will have a different but equally profound impact on the security architecture in the region, especially the ASEAN-led mechanisms for regional security cooperation. These results suggest that at times of power shifts between the U.S. and China, scenario-based planning can be a viable policy option for countries in the Asia-Pacific.</p>
Economic interdependence: A deterrent to Sino-American armed conflict
Authors:   , Nguyen Thi Bich Thuan 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis is devoted to examine the impact of economic interdependence on the interstate relations between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. Specifically, all three propositions emerging from the ongoing controversy over the economics-security nexus inclusive of “economic interdependence increases conflict”, “economic interdependence decreases conflict” and “economic interdependence is irrelevant to conflict” shall be tested in an empirical analysis of Sino-American relationship. Three significant findings have emerged. Firstly, strong economic ties have actually caused tensions between Washington and Beijing. However, these issues of great disputes are not strong enough to turn into a Sino-American war because both countries have gained tremendous benefits from their strong economic ties and are not willing to destroy the economic ties that lock them together. Secondly, it is undeniable that economic interdependence has greatly promoted peace and stability between Washington and Beijing. However, there are three grounds for skepticism. To begin with, leaders always put security concerns over the prospects for economic loss, especially in times of insecurity and vulnerability. Furthermore, it is not yet certain that the linkages between the two sides in different areas can guarantee peace between the two countries. Also, there is a little historical evidence to believe that economic interdependence alone can bring lasting stability in the international order. Thirdly, the third proposition "economic interdependence is irrelevant to conflict” perfectly fits the Sino-American relationship. To start with, Washington and Beijing have used trade to maximize their national power not to suppress conflict. In addition, we should not limit the future of Sino-American relationship to the discussion of economic factors. Both sides have kept their relationship relatively stable not only because of strong economic ties but also other factors such as: the emergence of non-traditional threats and the mutual possession of nuclear weapons.</p>
Seeing Double: The Process of Script Adaptation between Theatre and Film
Authors:   , McGibbon Gavin Rodney 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis examines the adaptation of stage plays to cinema, and of films to theatre. The creative component of the thesis consists of my full-length play script Hamlet Dies At The End, and the script of its feature film adaptation (Song’s End), plus material from my film script Roy Jiminton and the script of its adaptation to theatre. The critical component of this thesis examines seven stage-to-film adaptations and four film-to-stage adaptations, in order to illustrate the distinctions between writing for the two different mediums and to suggest principles to aid scriptwriters in adapting material between theatre and film. The thesis concludes with discussion of the decisions I made when adapting my own scripts. This thesis argues that to successfully adapt play or film scripts from one medium to the other, the adaptor must be willing to incorporate significant change in order to effectively ‘adapt’. Adaptations that merely transpose from the stage onto the screen, or vice versa, fail to engage with their new medium. This thesis also proposes a set of adaptation principles for script adaptors.</p>
George French Angas and the Creation of Colonial Knowledge in New Zealand
Authors:   , Falconer-Gray Catherine 
Published: November 2021

<p>In 1844, George French Angas, the English traveller, artist, natural historian and ethnographer spent four months travelling in New Zealand. He sought out and met many of the most influential Maori leaders of the time, sketching and recording his observations as he went. His stated intention was to provide a ‘more correct idea’ of New Zealand and the New Zealanders. In Australia and then Britain he held exhibitions of his work and in 1847 he published two works based on this time in New Zealand: a large volume of full-colour lithographs, The New Zealanders Illustrated and a travel narrative based on his journal, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand. These exhibitions and publications comprised the nineteenth century’s largest collection of works about Maori and Maori culture. This thesis is a study of the ‘more correct idea’ that Angas sought to provide: his creation of colonial knowledge about Maori. Angas is most commonly described in New Zealand as being an unremarkable artist but as providing a window onto New Zealand in the 1840s. This thesis opens the window wider by looking at Angas’s works as a record of a cultural encounter and the formation of a colonial identity. The works were shaped by numerous ideological and intellectual currents from Britain and the empire, including humanitarianism and the aesthetic of the picturesque. Ideas about gender and the body form a central part of the colonial knowledge created in Angas’s work. Particularly notable is what this thesis terms ‘sartorial colonisation’ – a process of colonisation through discourse and expectations around clothes. Angas also travelled and worked in a dynamic middle ground in New Zealand and Maori played a vital role in the creation of his works. Angas represented Maori in a sympathetic light in many ways. Ultimately however, he believed in the superiority of the British culture, to the detriment of creating colonial knowledge that placed Maori as equal partners in the recently signed Treaty of Waitangi. This thesis also examines the ways in which Angas’s body of work has been engaged with by the New Zealand public through to the present. As a study of the products of a British traveller who spent time in other parts of the empire as well as in New Zealand, this thesis contributes to histories of New Zealand, and British imperial and transcolonial history.</p>
Staging the Past: The Period Room in New Zealand
Authors:   , Stephenson Kimberley Jane 
Published: November 2021

<p>Before 1940, few of the nation’s museums actively collected or displayed artefacts associated with the history of European settlement in New Zealand. Over the following three decades, an interest in ‘colonial history’ blossomed and collections grew rapidly. Faced with the challenge of displaying material associated with the homes of early settlers, museums adopted the period room as a strategy of display. The period room subsequently remained popular with museum professionals until the 1980s, when the type of history that it had traditionally been used to represent was increasingly brought into question. Filling a gap in the literature that surrounds museums and their practices in New Zealand, this thesis attempts to chart the meteoric rise and fall of the period room in New Zealand. Taking the two period rooms that were created for the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in 1939 as its starting point, the thesis begins by considering the role that the centennials, jubilees and other milestones celebrated around New Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s played in the development of period rooms in this country, unpacking the factors that fuelled the popularity of this display mode among exhibition organisers and museum professionals. The thesis then charts the history of the period room in the context of three metropolitan museums – the Otago Early Settlers Museum, the Canterbury Museum, and the Dominion Museum – looking at the physical changes that were made to these displays over time, the attitudes that informed these changes, and the role that period rooms play in these institutions today.</p>
Advanced Materials for Radiation Dosimetry
Authors:   , Gädtke Christin 
Published: November 2021

<p>The motivation for this work was to find materials that have the following characteristics: good optical transparency, rapid read-out, automation of read-out, good fading characteristic, promise high sensitivity to ionising radiation, and tissue equivalence for use in medical applications. For example, there are medical applications in brachytherapy and high-energy photon therapy for the treatment of cancer. These applications benefit small dosimeters for monitoring radiation during radiotherapy or for dose verification and validation. This thesis studies fluoroperovskite materials that were manufactured as bulk materials or nanoparticles. The techniques of photoluminescence (PL), radioluminescence (RL), thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) were employed in order to get a deeper understanding of the defect distribution in these materials. A detailed model of the trap distribution was developed from the results of these measurements. It was observed that compared to the bulk materials, the nanoparticles show a lower PL lifetime and less dependence on the dose of the RL intensity, which is due to the different defect distribution. The nanoparticles also demonstrate more low temperature peaks in the TL glow curves. PL and RL measurements of Eu3+ doped samples show that the crystal environment of the Eu3+ in the bulk material is more distorted than for the nanoparticles. For the bulk materials, the thermal coefficient of the RL is <0.4 %/K, which is a desirable property of real -time dosimeters. The thermal coefficient of the RL in the nanoparticles has a high uncertainty ( 7 %/K) compared to the bulk materials ( 0.4 %/K). For the fluoride nanoparticles, it was observed that the PL lifetimes for the LaF3 decreases with increasing rare earth concentrations. This can be attributed to energy transfer from luminescence ions in the core to luminescence ions near the surface followed by non-radiative decay. In comparison, the decrease of the PL lifetimes of RbMgF3 and NaMgF3 is predominantly due to non-radiative recombination centres inside the crystal.</p>
The prevalence and treatment of metformin associated Vitamin B12 deficiency in patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in New Zealand
Authors:   , Haeusler Sylvan 
Published: November 2021

<p>With an ever increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes in the New Zealand population, continual assessment must be made to ensure the ongoing evaluation of treatment options to ensure patient care is not compromised. Previous research has shown higher prevalence of Vitamin B12 deficiency in patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus who have had long term metformin treatment. An investigation into patients attending secondary care clinics at the Diabetes Clinic at Wellington Regional Hospital as well as primary health care patients has explored the prevalence of this interaction in the New Zealand population as well as assessed the factors that may contributed to such an effect. It was found that there is a high prevalence of decreased serum Vitamin B12 level in patients with type 2 Diabetes exposed to metformin treatment. Factors such as age and ethnicity were seen to be key predictors of this interaction and have shown a unique view of how the population of New Zealand may be affected. Treatment of decreased serum Vitamin B12 levels was seen to be effective through both sublingual and intramuscular methods with variations in both short and long term effects. The use of sublingual treatment administration of Vitamin B12 supplementation is unique in the scope of metformin induced Vitamin B12 deficiency and has shown potential to be a therapeutic route for patients affected by such an interactions. Current views on the interaction between metformin and serum Vitamin B12 levels are currently under debate in regards to physiological relevance and clinical outcomes. This paper provides a first look at the effect of this interaction in a New Zealand population and evaluates treatment options for such. Furthermore a proposal is made for an alternate mechanism of metformin action on Vitamin B12 levels which may aid understanding of observations made in both in this paper and previous studies.</p>
Urban Trauma: The contemporary square and the New Urbanist city - Reintegrating Christchurch Cathedral Square
Authors:   , Chalmers Benjamin J. 
Published: November 2021

<p>This topic was chosen in response to the devastation caused to Cathedral Square, Christchurch, New Zealand following earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Working amongst the demolition bought to attention questions about how to re-conceive the square within the rebuilt city. In particular, it raised questions as to how a central square could be better integrated and experienced as a contemporary addition to Christchurch city. This thesis seeks to investigate the ways in which central squares can be better integrated with the contemporary city and how New Urbanist design principles can contribute toward this union. The research principally focuses on the physical and spatial integration of the square with the contemporary city. A drawing-based analysis of select precedent case studies helped to determine early on that overall integration of the contemporary square could be attributed to several interdependent criteria. The detailed studies are supplemented further with literature-based research that narrowed the criteria to five integrative properties. These are: identity, scale and proportion, use, connectivity and natural landscape. These were synthesised, in part, from the integrative New Urbanist movement and the emerging integrative side of the more contemporary Post Urbanist movement. The literature-based research revealed that a more inclusive approach toward New Urbanist and Post Urbanist design methodologies may also produce a more integrated and contemporary square. Three design case studies, using the redesign of Cathedral Square, were undertaken to test this hypothesis. The case studies found that overall, integration was reliant on a harmonious balance between the five integrative properties, concluding that squares can be better integrated with the contemporary city. Further testing of the third concept, which embraced an allied New Urbanist / Post Urbanist approach to design, found that New Urbanism was limited in its contribution toward the integration of the square.</p>