bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
"Deaf is best": Exploring the sexuality experiences and knowledge of Deaf women in New Zealand
Authors:   , Prior April Sunshine 
Published: November 2021

<p>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.</p>
Science Museum in a Pizza Box - Performance, museum tour guiding, and science communication
Authors:   , Fontana Michele 
Published: November 2021

<p>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.</p>
Prospects for community-based marine conservation in Nauru: Attitudes, policies & institutions
Authors:   , Deiye Margo 
Published: November 2021

<p>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.</p>
Assessing the poverty impact of internal resettlement programs on the ethnic minorities in Lao PDR
Authors:   , Bounpadith Souphalack 
Published: November 2021

<p>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.</p>
Ethical Responsibility to Distant Others through the Coffee Industry
Authors:   , Durbin William 
Published: November 2021

<p>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.</p>
Globalization should be what states make of it
Authors:   , Le Moguédec Régis 
Published: November 2021

<p>A significant factor that prevented the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) from becoming as calamitous as the Great Depression of 1929, is the fact that states reacted swiftly to inject massive sums of public money to save the banks and the global financial system. This massive state intervention highlighted the limits of the progressive deregulation of the international system which characterized the process of globalization. It showed that states had huge responsibilities in keeping the global economy afloat, albeit without a clear compass or direction. The apparent ‘anarchy’ of the global market system makes conceivable that, to paraphrase A. Wendt, “globalization should be what states make of it”. Limiting the scope of study to the postmodern state, and looking at the discourse surrounding the globalization process that promotes de-regulation and limited government within a ‘neo-liberal paradigm’ it looks at the ‘democratic deficit’ which weakens the political decision-making process. If not yet a ‘paradigm shift’, the GFC has many ingredients of a crisis of capitalism which needs to re-invent itself, and political action is crucial to curb the excesses of finance. Looking at France, and the election of Francois Hollande on a strong ‘anti-finance’ platform in 2012 and its European Union dimension, it remains to be seen if that kind of shift will actually be able to operate and be successful to set the tone for global reforms. In conclusion, the core argument is that the global ‘trial’ of the neoliberal paradigm and the concept of financial deregulation should now enter a new phase. It is historically and symbolically the defeat of the self-regulating markets as a blueprint for global prosperity. The present structures are inadequate, and states have to find new ways for cooperation in order to steer this integrated world towards greater cohesion.</p>
#PrettyLittleLiars: ABC Family in TV’s Post-Network Era
Authors:   , Galope Ariane 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis explores the branding of ABC Family as a home for ‘Millennial’ viewers through its original TV drama programme, Pretty Little Liars. ABC Family emerged during what Amanda Lotz (2007) terms the ‘post-network’ era of American television, a period that has been characterised by fierce inter-network competition and the availability of TV programming on a larger array of platforms, including online platforms. These revolutionary changes have been coupled with the emergence of a commercially desirable demographic known as the ‘Millennials’, a group of young people who are considered to be ‘native’ to this ‘post-network’ environment and whose media use and preferences are challenging networks to revise their strategies and develop programmes that aim to solicit their attention and engagement. Pretty Little Liars has been specifically constructed to assert the brand identity of ABC Family as a channel “for and about Millennials” (Liesse A2). This programme has sought to distinguish itself within teen-oriented TV drama by incorporating cinematic aesthetics, serial storytelling, narrative complexity, and intertextuality – all of which have been characteristic of adult-oriented ‘high-end’ TV drama in the ‘post-network’ era. Pretty Little Liars has supplemented these efforts to distinguish itself by cultivating a thriving online presence. Important to this online presence are the use of ‘transmedia storytelling’ and social media. As this thesis demonstrates, transmedia storytelling and social media have the capacity to significantly extend the experience of a TV programme beyond what is aired on television. Importantly, their deployment in support of Pretty Little Liars has been successful in encouraging consistent viewing of new episodes as they are broadcast, a pattern that persists despite the post-network era’s capacity for delayed viewing on alternative platforms. This thesis undertakes an in-depth examination of ABC Family’s ‘post-network’ strategy in three chapters, each of which takes a different critical perspective. Chapter One examines the internal and external challenges that contributed to the emergence of ABC Family’s rebranding. Chapter Two analyses Pretty Little Liars as a ‘high end’ teen-oriented TV drama that functions to elevate the profile of ABC Family while simultaneously engaging ‘Millennial’ viewers. Finally, Chapter Three explores the transmedia extensions of Pretty Little Liars that function to supplement the television narrative in ways that encourage and reward consistent viewing patterns and long-term loyalty.</p>
Nanoparticle Charge and Shape Measurements using Tuneable Resistive Pulse Sensing
Authors:   , Eldridge James 
Published: November 2021

<p>Accurate characterisation of micro- and nanoparticles is of key importance in a variety of scientific fields from colloidal chemistry to medicine. Tuneable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) has been shown to be effective in determining the size and concentration of nanoparticles in solution. Detection is achieved using the Coulter principle, in which each particle passing through a pore in an insulating membrane generates a resistive pulse in the ionic current passing through the pore. The distinctive feature of TRPS relative to other RPS systems is that the membrane material is thermoplastic polyurethane, which can be actuated on macroscopic scales in order to tune the pore geometry. In this thesis we attempt to extend existing TRPS techniques to enable the characterisation of nanoparticle charge and shape. For the prediction of resistive pulses produced in a conical pore we characterise the electrolyte solutions, pore geometry and pore zeta-potential and use known volume calibration particles. The first major investigation used TRPS to quantitatively measure the zeta-potential of carboxylate polystyrene particles in solution. We find that zeta-potential measurements made using pulse full width half maximum data are more reproducible than those from pulse rate data. We show that particle zeta-potentials produced using TRPS are consistent with literature and those measured using dynamic light scattering techniques. The next major task was investigating the relationship between pulse shape and particle shape. TRPS was used to compare PEGylated gold nanorods with spherical carboxylate polystyrene particles. We determine common levels of variation across the metrics of pulse magnitude, duration and pulse asymmetry. The rise and fall gradients of resistive pulses may enable differentiation of spherical and non-spherical particles. Finally, using the metrics and techniques developed during charge and shape investigations, TRPS was applied to Rattus rattus red blood cells, Shewanella marintestina bacteria and bacterially-produced polyhydroxyalkanoate particles. We find that TRPS is capable of producing accurate size distributions of all these particle sets, even though they represent nonspherical or highly disperse particle sets. TRPS produces particle volume measurements that are consistent with either literature values or electron microscopy measurements of the dominant species of these particle sets. We also find some evidence that TRPS is able to differentiate between spherical and non-spherical particles using pulse rise and fall gradients in Shewanella and Rattus rattus red blood cells. We expect TRPS to continue to find application in quantitative measurements across a variety of particles and applications in the future.</p>
"Everybody knows by hearing but not by seeing": Exploring the use of photovoice to document challenges of some inter-provincial students at the University of Danang, Vietnam
Authors:   , Tran Duc 
Published: November 2021

<p>This research employed a Participatory Action Research methodology to work with minority inter-provincial students and unearth their lived experiences at the University of Danang in Vietnam. It focused on examining the undervaluation of inter-provincial students’ voices in the university’s policies – and to a wider extent, in most Vietnamese universities – by facilitating a process in which their challenges and ideas for change at university could be heard. This research also sought to observe and analyse the influences of power dynamics within a Confucian-heritaged context on the participatory research process itself. Vietnam is believed to be a society in which hierarchical power takes its deepest roots due to the effects of Confucianism. By using Participatory Action Research with a variety of methods – photovoice, diagraming, group discussion, interviewing and exhibition – I sought to facilitate student voices and document some of the potential and constraints of the methodology within this cultural context. The research involved eleven student participants and ten teacher participants over a period of six weeks. Data was collectively analysed and shared by student participants with invited teachers through an exhibition at the University of Danang. Throughout the process, I took extensive field notes of my observations and interactions with participants. Data analysis was then written and presented in this thesis based on what participants had provided. Key themes that this thesis explores are: (1) challenges that faced inter-provincial students, (2) the impact of Confucius hierarchical power on participants’ involvement and ownership in the research and (3) the role of language and emotion when undertaking Participatory Action Research in such a context. The process generated clear evidence of the common challenges facing interprovincial students associated with limited finances, mentality/spirituality, and poor living conditions. From analysis of these challenges, the research provides recommendations for teachers, university administrators and policy-makers. These recommendations promote a more holistic pedagogy that better encourages students to develop themselves throughout their time at university. The thesis also concludes that the use of Participatory Action Research within higher education settings in Vietnam can serve as a research model for the betterment of disadvantaged minority students. It could help minimise the effects of neoliberalism on the country’s higher education sector and foster better development outcomes for students and their home provinces.</p>
Spatial Multizone Soundfield Reproduction Design
Authors:   , Jin Wenyu 
Published: November 2021

<p>It is desirable for people sharing a physical space to access different multimedia information streams simultaneously. For a good user experience, the interference of the different streams should be held to a minimum. This is straightforward for the video component but currently difficult for the audio sound component. Spatial multizone soundfield reproduction, which aims to provide an individual sound environment to each of a set of listeners without the use of physical isolation or headphones, has drawn significant attention of researchers in recent years. The realization of multizone soundfield reproduction is a conceptually challenging problem as currently most of the soundfield reproduction techniques concentrate on a single zone. This thesis considers the theory and design of a multizone soundfield reproduction system using arrays of loudspeakers in given complex environments. We first introduce a novel method for spatial multizone soundfield reproduction based on describing the desired multizone soundfield as an orthogonal expansion of formulated basis functions over the desired reproduction region. This provides the theoretical basis of both 2-D (height invariant) and 3-D soundfield reproduction for this work. We then extend the reproduction of the multizone soundfield over the desired region to reverberant environments, which is based on the identification of the acoustic transfer function (ATF) from the loudspeaker over the desired reproduction region using sparse methods. The simulation results confirm that the method leads to a significantly reduced number of required microphones for an accurate multizone sound reproduction compared with the state of the art, while it also facilitates the reproduction over a wide frequency range. In addition, we focus on the improvements of the proposed multizone reproduction system with regard to practical implementation. The so-called 2.5D multizone oundfield reproduction is considered to accurately reproduce the desired multizone soundfield over a selected 2-D plane at the height approximately level with the listener’s ears using a single array of loudspeakers with 3-D reverberant settings. Then, we propose an adaptive reverberation cancelation method for the multizone soundfield reproduction within the desired region and simplify the prior soundfield measurement process. Simulation results suggest that the proposed method provides a faster convergence rate than the comparative approaches under the same hardware provision. Finally, we conduct the real-world implementation based on the proposed theoretical work. The experimental results show that we can achieve a very noticeable acoustic energy contrast between the signals recorded in the bright zone and the quiet zone, especially for the system implementation with reverberation equalization.</p>