title: Network of mindfulness and difficulties in regulating emotions in firefighters

authors: Chiang, Hui Ning

abstract: Growing evidence supports the role of mindfulness in regulating emotions in the general population. However, the interactive network of mindfulness facets and difficulties in regulating emotions is not well understood, which is specifically important for individuals involved in high-risk professions, such as first responders. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactive relations between mindfulness facets, acting with awareness, non-judging, describing, observing, and non-reacting, ability to regulate emotions and alcohol use in a sample of firefighters, including military veterans. A sample of 685 career firefighters, including 154 (22.5%) military veterans, who completed measures of mindfulness and difficulties in regulating emotions, was subjected to network analysis. Through network analysis, it was found that the mindfulness facet non-judging was negatively related to emotion regulation challenges, such as nonaccepting attitudes and lack of clarity, and positively related to deficits in goal-directed behavior. Acting with awareness was negatively related to goal-directed behavior deficits and impulsivity. Alcohol use was positively linked to impulsivity and negatively linked to the describing facet of mindfulness. Overall, emotion regulation difficulties were positively linked together, and positive links were found between most mindfulness facets. Directed network analysis identified non-judging and emotion regulation strategy as parental predictors. Non-judging appeared as a protective factor, supporting other mindfulness facets, while lack of emotion regulation strategies exacerbated emotion regulation challenges as a risk factor. This network analysis demonstrated the significance of acting with awareness and a non-judgmental attitude facet of mindfulness in fostering better emotion regulation and potentially playing a protective role against impulsivity and alcohol use in firefighters.

text: Network of mindfulness and difficulties in regulating emotions in firefighters Growing evidence supports the role of mindfulness in regulating emotions in the general population. However, the interactive network of mindfulness facets and difficulties in regulating emotions is not well understood, which is specifically important for individuals involved in high-risk professions, such as first responders. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactive relations between mindfulness facets, acting with awareness, non-judging, describing, observing, and non-reacting, ability to regulate emotions and alcohol use in a sample of firefighters, including military veterans. A sample of 685 career firefighters, including 154 (22.5%) military veterans, who completed measures of mindfulness and difficulties in regulating emotions, was subjected to network analysis. Through network analysis, it was found that the mindfulness facet non-judging was negatively related to emotion regulation challenges, such as nonaccepting attitudes and lack of clarity, and positively related to deficits in goal-directed behavior. Acting with awareness was negatively related to goal-directed behavior deficits and impulsivity. Alcohol use was positively linked to impulsivity and negatively linked to the describing facet of mindfulness. Overall, emotion regulation difficulties were positively linked together, and positive links were found between most mindfulness facets. Directed network analysis identified non-judging and emotion regulation strategy as parental predictors. Non-judging appeared as a protective factor, supporting other mindfulness facets, while lack of emotion regulation strategies exacerbated emotion regulation challenges as a risk factor. This network analysis demonstrated the significance of acting with awareness and a non-judgmental attitude facet of mindfulness in fostering better emotion regulation and potentially playing a protective role against impulsivity and alcohol use in firefighters.

year: 2024

title: Neogene plate tectonic reconstructions and geodynamics of North Island sedimentary basins: Implications for the petroleum systems

authors: Furlong, Kevin P.

subjects: Australia-Pacific plate boundary

abstract: Although the modern Australia-Pacific plate boundary through New Zealand is relatively straight, there have been significant changes in its geometry during the Neogene. Within the North Island sector there has been a fundamental transition from an Alpine Fault translation/transpression regime to a Hikurangi margin subduction regime. This transition has been accompanied by the southward encroachment of the edge of the Pacific plate oceanic slab into Australia lithosphere, shortened and thickened along its eastern margin as a consequence of the prior Alpine Fault transpression, the process now operating in South Island. The response of the Australia lithosphere at the surface to the emplacement of the subducted slab at depth, has differed in the East Coast forearc region versus the foreland in western North Island, where the depth to the slab is greater and there has been a characteristic southward migration of depocentres pinned to the leading edge of the slab. The recent publication of new rotation parameters for relative motion of the Australia, Antarctic and Pacific plates, have provided key new data from which to plot the successive emplacement history of the Pacific slab beneath North Island, thus enabling the comparisons to be made with basin stratigraphy and geohistory. These data also constrain the age of subduction initiation at various points along the present trend of the Hikurangi Trough, identifying a younging of subduction initiation to the southwest. An implication of this younging direction is that the modern accretion¬ary prism south of Cape Kidnappers can be no older than late Miocene (c. 11 Ma). The focus of this paper is on new ideas about the tectonic development of North Island and its basins, which have implications for hydrocarbon exploration.

text: Neogene plate tectonic reconstructions and geodynamics of North Island sedimentary basins: Implications for the petroleum systems Although the modern Australia-Pacific plate boundary through New Zealand is relatively straight, there have been significant changes in its geometry during the Neogene. Within the North Island sector there has been a fundamental transition from an Alpine Fault translation/transpression regime to a Hikurangi margin subduction regime. This transition has been accompanied by the southward encroachment of the edge of the Pacific plate oceanic slab into Australia lithosphere, shortened and thickened along its eastern margin as a consequence of the prior Alpine Fault transpression, the process now operating in South Island. The response of the Australia lithosphere at the surface to the emplacement of the subducted slab at depth, has differed in the East Coast forearc region versus the foreland in western North Island, where the depth to the slab is greater and there has been a characteristic southward migration of depocentres pinned to the leading edge of the slab. The recent publication of new rotation parameters for relative motion of the Australia, Antarctic and Pacific plates, have provided key new data from which to plot the successive emplacement history of the Pacific slab beneath North Island, thus enabling the comparisons to be made with basin stratigraphy and geohistory. These data also constrain the age of subduction initiation at various points along the present trend of the Hikurangi Trough, identifying a younging of subduction initiation to the southwest. An implication of this younging direction is that the modern accretion¬ary prism south of Cape Kidnappers can be no older than late Miocene (c. 11 Ma). The focus of this paper is on new ideas about the tectonic development of North Island and its basins, which have implications for hydrocarbon exploration.

year: 2006

title: Harnessing Indigenous Tweets: The Reo Maori Twitter corpus

authors: Trye, David

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Te reo Māori, the Indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand, is a distinctive feature of the nation’s cultural heritage. This paper documents our efforts to build a corpus of 79,000 Māori-language tweets using computational methods. The Reo Māori Twitter (RMT) Corpus was created by targeting Māori-language users identified by the Indigenous Tweets website, pre-processing their data and filtering out non-Māori tweets, together with other sources of noise. Our motivation for creating such a resource is three-fold: (1) it serves as a rich and unique dataset for linguistic analysis of te reo Māori on social media; (2) it can be used as training data to develop and augment Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools with robust, real-world Māori-language applications; and (3) it will potentially promote awareness of, and encourage positive interaction with, the growing community of Māori tweeters, thereby increasing the use and visibility of te reo Māori in an online environment. While the corpus captures data from 2007 to 2020, our analysis shows that the number of tweets in the RMT Corpus peaked in 2014, and the number of active tweeters peaked in 2017, although at least 600 users were still active in 2020. To the best of our knowledge, the RMT Corpus is the largest publicly-available collection of social media data containing (almost) exclusively Māori text, making it a useful resource for language experts, NLP developers and Indigenous researchers alike.

text: Harnessing Indigenous Tweets: The Reo Maori Twitter corpus Te reo Māori, the Indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand, is a distinctive feature of the nation’s cultural heritage. This paper documents our efforts to build a corpus of 79,000 Māori-language tweets using computational methods. The Reo Māori Twitter (RMT) Corpus was created by targeting Māori-language users identified by the Indigenous Tweets website, pre-processing their data and filtering out non-Māori tweets, together with other sources of noise. Our motivation for creating such a resource is three-fold: (1) it serves as a rich and unique dataset for linguistic analysis of te reo Māori on social media; (2) it can be used as training data to develop and augment Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools with robust, real-world Māori-language applications; and (3) it will potentially promote awareness of, and encourage positive interaction with, the growing community of Māori tweeters, thereby increasing the use and visibility of te reo Māori in an online environment. While the corpus captures data from 2007 to 2020, our analysis shows that the number of tweets in the RMT Corpus peaked in 2014, and the number of active tweeters peaked in 2017, although at least 600 users were still active in 2020. To the best of our knowledge, the RMT Corpus is the largest publicly-available collection of social media data containing (almost) exclusively Māori text, making it a useful resource for language experts, NLP developers and Indigenous researchers alike.

year: 2022-02-14