title: Assessing the internal structure of the COPINE scale

authors: Merdian, Hannah Lena

subjects: child pornography

abstract: The COPINE scale allows standardised classification of a person's child pornography collection while taking into account contextual considerations. However, despite its frequent usage in research studies, the scale has never been empirically validated with regards to its psychometric properties. This study describes a validation design to assess reliability and construct validity of the scale while considering ethical concerns. An online survey was conducted amongst psychological staff members of Correctional Services NZ as well as postgraduate students from a New Zealand University. Participants were asked to rate verbal descriptions of each item level of the original scale according to its perceived seriousness of the offence, suggesting a higher penalty for more serious image offending. Results revealed that students and correctional staff showed high inter-rater agreement in their rankings, and that rankings increased with higher-level images as defined in the original scale. Two areas of difference to the original scale ranks were identified, concerning levels ‘Posing’ and ‘Sexual Explicit Activities’. The implications of these findings are discussed.

text: Assessing the internal structure of the COPINE scale The COPINE scale allows standardised classification of a person's child pornography collection while taking into account contextual considerations. However, despite its frequent usage in research studies, the scale has never been empirically validated with regards to its psychometric properties. This study describes a validation design to assess reliability and construct validity of the scale while considering ethical concerns. An online survey was conducted amongst psychological staff members of Correctional Services NZ as well as postgraduate students from a New Zealand University. Participants were asked to rate verbal descriptions of each item level of the original scale according to its perceived seriousness of the offence, suggesting a higher penalty for more serious image offending. Results revealed that students and correctional staff showed high inter-rater agreement in their rankings, and that rankings increased with higher-level images as defined in the original scale. Two areas of difference to the original scale ranks were identified, concerning levels ‘Posing’ and ‘Sexual Explicit Activities’. The implications of these findings are discussed.

year: 2013

title: Bagging ensemble selection

authors: Sun, Quan

subjects: Machine learning

abstract: Ensemble selection has recently appeared as a popular ensemble learning method, not only because its implementation is fairly straightforward, but also due to its excellent predictive performance on practical problems. The method has been highlighted in winning solutions of many data mining competitions, such as the Netix competition, the KDD Cup 2009 and 2010, the UCSD FICO contest 2010, and a number of data mining competitions on the Kaggle platform. In this paper we present a novel variant: bagging ensemble selection. Three variations of the proposed algorithm are compared to the original ensemble selection algorithm and other ensemble algorithms. Experiments with ten real world problems from diverse domains demonstrate the benefit of the bagging ensemble selection algorithm.

text: Bagging ensemble selection Ensemble selection has recently appeared as a popular ensemble learning method, not only because its implementation is fairly straightforward, but also due to its excellent predictive performance on practical problems. The method has been highlighted in winning solutions of many data mining competitions, such as the Netix competition, the KDD Cup 2009 and 2010, the UCSD FICO contest 2010, and a number of data mining competitions on the Kaggle platform. In this paper we present a novel variant: bagging ensemble selection. Three variations of the proposed algorithm are compared to the original ensemble selection algorithm and other ensemble algorithms. Experiments with ten real world problems from diverse domains demonstrate the benefit of the bagging ensemble selection algorithm.

year: 2011

title: Waiwhakareke Restoration Plantings: Establishment of Monitoring Plots 2005-06

authors: Grove, E.

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park is being developed to reconstruct native lowland and wetland ecosystems as were once widespread in the Waikato Region. The 60ha Natural Heritage Park is located on the north-west outskirts of Hamilton City and includes a peat lake (Horseshoe Lake) which is surrounded by introduced willow trees. There is some native marginal vegetation around the lake, including rushes and sedges, and an extensive area of gently sloping pasture completes the catchment. The restoration and recreation of the native plant and animal communities is being lead by the Hamilton City Council in partnership with The University of Waikato, Wintec, Nga Mana Toopu o Kirikiriroa Limited Resource Management and Cultural Consultants and Tui 2000 (McQueen 2005; McQueen & Clarkson 2003).

text: Waiwhakareke Restoration Plantings: Establishment of Monitoring Plots 2005-06 Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park is being developed to reconstruct native lowland and wetland ecosystems as were once widespread in the Waikato Region. The 60ha Natural Heritage Park is located on the north-west outskirts of Hamilton City and includes a peat lake (Horseshoe Lake) which is surrounded by introduced willow trees. There is some native marginal vegetation around the lake, including rushes and sedges, and an extensive area of gently sloping pasture completes the catchment. The restoration and recreation of the native plant and animal communities is being lead by the Hamilton City Council in partnership with The University of Waikato, Wintec, Nga Mana Toopu o Kirikiriroa Limited Resource Management and Cultural Consultants and Tui 2000 (McQueen 2005; McQueen & Clarkson 2003).

year: 2006