title: Developing site-specific guidelines for orchard soils based on bioaccessibility – Can it be done?

authors: Gaw, Sally K.

subjects: Oral Bioaccessibility

abstract: Horticultural land within the periurban fringe of NZ towns and cities increasingly is being developed for residential subdivision. Recent surveys have shown that concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and ΣDDT (sum of DDT and its degradation products DDE and DDD) in such soils can exceed criteria protective of human health.¹ Soil ingestion is a key exposure pathway for non-volatile contaminants in soil. Currently in NZ, site-specific risk assessments and the derivation of soil guidelines protective of human health assume that all of the contaminant present in the soil is available for uptake and absorption by the human gastrointestinal tract. This assumption can overestimate health risks and has implications for the remediation of contaminated sites.² In comparison, the bioavailability of contaminants is considered when estimating exposure via dermal absorption and by ingestion of home-grown produce.³ Dermal absorption factors and plant uptake factors are included in the calculations for estimating exposures via these routes.

text: Developing site-specific guidelines for orchard soils based on bioaccessibility – Can it be done? Horticultural land within the periurban fringe of NZ towns and cities increasingly is being developed for residential subdivision. Recent surveys have shown that concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and ΣDDT (sum of DDT and its degradation products DDE and DDD) in such soils can exceed criteria protective of human health.¹ Soil ingestion is a key exposure pathway for non-volatile contaminants in soil. Currently in NZ, site-specific risk assessments and the derivation of soil guidelines protective of human health assume that all of the contaminant present in the soil is available for uptake and absorption by the human gastrointestinal tract. This assumption can overestimate health risks and has implications for the remediation of contaminated sites.² In comparison, the bioavailability of contaminants is considered when estimating exposure via dermal absorption and by ingestion of home-grown produce.³ Dermal absorption factors and plant uptake factors are included in the calculations for estimating exposures via these routes.

year: 2008-04

title: Validating federated learning performance in practice: An agricultural edge hardware testbed analysis

authors: Akhund, Mahnoor

subjects: federated learning

abstract: Smart agriculture, driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, generates vast amounts of data from distributed sensors and devices on farms. Traditional centralised machine learning approaches struggle in rural settings due to intermittent connectivity, limited bandwidth, and data privacy concerns. Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges by collaboratively training models directly on edge devices, for example farm sensors and edge computers, without sending raw data off-site. This thesis presents the design, development, and evaluation of a standards-driven, hardware-based federated learning testbed for smart agriculture. The testbed consists of six NVIDIA Jetson Nano edge computing nodes. A primary objective was to evaluate and compare modern, open-source FL frameworks in a realistic edge environment. Therefore, we specifically tested the FLIGHT framework. FLIGHT was selected for its notable features, including a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) architecture facilitating serverless deployment and native support for hierarchical topologies relevant to distributed farm networks. We developed a reproducible methodology for deploying and benchmarking FLIGHT on these resource-constrained devices, using the Fashion-MNIST image classification dataset as a proxy for agricultural sensor data to compare performance against known benchmarks and simulation expectations. Key contributions include: 1) the physical testbed itself; 2) an open and repeatable experimental framework centered around FLIGHT; and 3) a comprehensive performance analysis under realistic network conditions and device constraints, providing data to bridge the gap between simulation results and practical deployment challenges. The results demonstrate that the federated model achieves competitive accuracy while significantly reducing raw data transfer. Findings indicate that careful configuration of FL can mitigate the impact of limited connectivity, and that even low-power devices can collaboratively train useful models within reasonable time-frames. These insights validate the viability of FL in smart farming scenarios. The developed testbed and its accompanying benchmarking methodology lay a foundation for future research and deployment of FL in agriculture, bridging the gap between theoretical simulations and real-world farm deployments. This work’s significance lies in providing both a practical tool for researchers to rigorously evaluate FL strategies in edge environments and guidance for stakeholders aiming to deploy privacy-preserving AI in agriculture at scale.

text: Validating federated learning performance in practice: An agricultural edge hardware testbed analysis Smart agriculture, driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, generates vast amounts of data from distributed sensors and devices on farms. Traditional centralised machine learning approaches struggle in rural settings due to intermittent connectivity, limited bandwidth, and data privacy concerns. Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges by collaboratively training models directly on edge devices, for example farm sensors and edge computers, without sending raw data off-site. This thesis presents the design, development, and evaluation of a standards-driven, hardware-based federated learning testbed for smart agriculture. The testbed consists of six NVIDIA Jetson Nano edge computing nodes. A primary objective was to evaluate and compare modern, open-source FL frameworks in a realistic edge environment. Therefore, we specifically tested the FLIGHT framework. FLIGHT was selected for its notable features, including a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) architecture facilitating serverless deployment and native support for hierarchical topologies relevant to distributed farm networks. We developed a reproducible methodology for deploying and benchmarking FLIGHT on these resource-constrained devices, using the Fashion-MNIST image classification dataset as a proxy for agricultural sensor data to compare performance against known benchmarks and simulation expectations. Key contributions include: 1) the physical testbed itself; 2) an open and repeatable experimental framework centered around FLIGHT; and 3) a comprehensive performance analysis under realistic network conditions and device constraints, providing data to bridge the gap between simulation results and practical deployment challenges. The results demonstrate that the federated model achieves competitive accuracy while significantly reducing raw data transfer. Findings indicate that careful configuration of FL can mitigate the impact of limited connectivity, and that even low-power devices can collaboratively train useful models within reasonable time-frames. These insights validate the viability of FL in smart farming scenarios. The developed testbed and its accompanying benchmarking methodology lay a foundation for future research and deployment of FL in agriculture, bridging the gap between theoretical simulations and real-world farm deployments. This work’s significance lies in providing both a practical tool for researchers to rigorously evaluate FL strategies in edge environments and guidance for stakeholders aiming to deploy privacy-preserving AI in agriculture at scale.

year: 2025

title: HE PI KA RERE 'An Early Childhood Approach to a Cultural Milieu'

authors: Karu, Joceleen Helen

subjects: Early childhood education

abstract: This study explores the issues surrounding the inculcation of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori, Māori language customs and values among early childhood teacher educators in a tertiary setting and how these academics go about preparing students with limited or sufficient knowledge of te reo Māori (Māori language) me ngā tikanga Māori (Māori cultural practices) to meet expectations. Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum is a curriculum commonly referred to as a bicultural curriculum that contains two expressions of the curriculum, one for general early childhood centres and another for kōhanga reo, neither of which are translations of one another and further asserts the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/ the Treaty of Waitangi and the responsibility of teachers for bicultural development in the education of all children. Equally important, Te Whāriki acknowledges the dual heritage existent within Aotearoa/ New Zealand and further encourages teachers in early childhood settings to have knowledge of te reo and tikanga Māori. Policy imperatives reflected within the New Zealand Graduating Teaching Standards (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2010) and the Ministry of Education’s document Tātaiako/ Cultural Competencies (2011) place further emphasis on the need for those in initial teacher education to demonstrate their conversancy with te reo me ngā tikanga Māori.
The purpose of this study is to provide a narrative of the ways in which the early childhood initial teacher education programme prepares students to use te reo and tikanga Māori. It offers a premise to engage in further discussion of the continued effectiveness of early childhood teacher educators in the maintenance and delivery of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori and sets in motion a cyclical platform for further research from a traditional worldview which reflects and embodies the Māori language, culture and identity through a Kaupapa Māori philosophy and praxis.

text: HE PI KA RERE 'An Early Childhood Approach to a Cultural Milieu' This study explores the issues surrounding the inculcation of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori, Māori language customs and values among early childhood teacher educators in a tertiary setting and how these academics go about preparing students with limited or sufficient knowledge of te reo Māori (Māori language) me ngā tikanga Māori (Māori cultural practices) to meet expectations. Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum is a curriculum commonly referred to as a bicultural curriculum that contains two expressions of the curriculum, one for general early childhood centres and another for kōhanga reo, neither of which are translations of one another and further asserts the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/ the Treaty of Waitangi and the responsibility of teachers for bicultural development in the education of all children. Equally important, Te Whāriki acknowledges the dual heritage existent within Aotearoa/ New Zealand and further encourages teachers in early childhood settings to have knowledge of te reo and tikanga Māori. Policy imperatives reflected within the New Zealand Graduating Teaching Standards (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2010) and the Ministry of Education’s document Tātaiako/ Cultural Competencies (2011) place further emphasis on the need for those in initial teacher education to demonstrate their conversancy with te reo me ngā tikanga Māori.
The purpose of this study is to provide a narrative of the ways in which the early childhood initial teacher education programme prepares students to use te reo and tikanga Māori. It offers a premise to engage in further discussion of the continued effectiveness of early childhood teacher educators in the maintenance and delivery of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori and sets in motion a cyclical platform for further research from a traditional worldview which reflects and embodies the Māori language, culture and identity through a Kaupapa Māori philosophy and praxis.

year: 2015