title: First national consultation on physical literacy in England: Summary findings

authors: Duncan, MJ

abstract: The first national consultation on physical literacy aimed to capture current understanding and perceptions of physical literacy among key stakeholders in England, and to identify the challenges, needs and opportunities for supporting physical literacy among individuals/organisations.

One hundred and ninety-three individual stakeholders completed an online survey between 3rd May and 5th June, 2022. The respondents were drawn from a wide range of job roles and sectors, though the majority worked in education, sport and physical activity. Stakeholders who responded to this survey provided a range of responses in relation to the concept of physical literacy. Implicit in the responses appeared to be a general valuing for physical literacy as a concept and awareness of its importance for children and young people specifically, and through the lifecourse.

text: First national consultation on physical literacy in England: Summary findings The first national consultation on physical literacy aimed to capture current understanding and perceptions of physical literacy among key stakeholders in England, and to identify the challenges, needs and opportunities for supporting physical literacy among individuals/organisations.

One hundred and ninety-three individual stakeholders completed an online survey between 3rd May and 5th June, 2022. The respondents were drawn from a wide range of job roles and sectors, though the majority worked in education, sport and physical activity. Stakeholders who responded to this survey provided a range of responses in relation to the concept of physical literacy. Implicit in the responses appeared to be a general valuing for physical literacy as a concept and awareness of its importance for children and young people specifically, and through the lifecourse.

year: 2022

title: Investigating aquaphotomics for fruit quality assessment

authors: Kaur, Harpreet

subjects: Fruit quality

abstract: The methods of aquaphotomics were explored for internal fruit quality assessment, such as dry matter (DM) and soluble solid content (SSC) measurement using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Fruits like apple and kiwifruit are more than 80% water. The NIR spectrum of whole intact fruit is dominated by water absorption peaks that shift and vary in shape with changes in quantities such as SSC, DM, and temperature. These variations can significantly reduce predictive model performance for fruit quality parameters.  Because the absorption peak at 1450 nm (first overtone of the OH stretch of water) and 970 nm (second overtone of the OH stretch of water) in the samples varies with SSC, DM concentration, and temperature, an investigation was undertaken on the aquaphotomics approach to quantify changes in the water structure that are apparent in the two wavelength regions.
The key question examined was whether aquaphotomics can help in the development of better and simpler prediction models or hardware for intact fruit quality measurements beneficial to the industry. To find answers to this question, several experiments were conducted. Much work in aquaphotomics has been done in the longer wavelength region, that is, at the first overtone (1300–1600 nm), which requires short pathlength cells due to higher water absorption. Experiments were performed on simple aqueous systems such as sucrose solution of various concentrations and an aqueous system such as apple and kiwifruit juice. The second overtone wavelength region (800‒1100 nm) was also scrutinized for fruit juice measurements using a long pathlength cell. Eventually, experiments were conducted on whole intact fruit.
A Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectrophotometer was used to acquire spectra of aqueous samples over the wavelength range of 900 to 1800 nm. For whole, intact fruit spectra collection, spectrophotometers in the wavelength range below 1100 nm were utilized. An in-house benchtop spectrometer based on the Zeiss MMS-1 NIR spectrometer operated in interactance mode was used along with some commercially available handheld spectrophotometers such as the F-750 produce quality spectrometer and the SCiO spectrometer. The spectra acquired with the instruments were analyzed using multivariate data analysis. The calibration models were developed using partial least square regression (PLSR) and multiple linear regression to estimate quality attributes.
The NIR spectrum of fruit is affected by temperature. Therefore, a calibration equation developed at one fixed temperature cannot reliably predict samples at a different temperature. Using the framework of aquaphotomics, the changes within the water structure of fruit juice and whole intact fruit occurring with changes in temperature were analysed. Water wavelengths affected by temperature variation were identified in the first and second overtone regions. Using aquagrams, it appeared that different water species were activated in the first and second overtone region. The influence of increasing temperature on the peak absorbance of the juice was a lateral shift in the first overtone region, whereas it was vertical in the second overtone region of water. Two correction pre-treatments; extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC) and external parameter orthogonalization (EPO) were used in conjunction with principal component loading of water as an interferent spectrum. They were able to correct for temperature effects by at least a factor of 10 to insignificant levels.
It was concluded that the aquaphotomics paradigm offers fundamental insights into the role of the various light absorption mechanisms but only in conjunction with chemometrics tools, like EMSC and EPO, leading to an improvement in predictive model performance. The investigated methods have good potential to be used for quality assessment of fruit in industry.

text: Investigating aquaphotomics for fruit quality assessment The methods of aquaphotomics were explored for internal fruit quality assessment, such as dry matter (DM) and soluble solid content (SSC) measurement using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Fruits like apple and kiwifruit are more than 80% water. The NIR spectrum of whole intact fruit is dominated by water absorption peaks that shift and vary in shape with changes in quantities such as SSC, DM, and temperature. These variations can significantly reduce predictive model performance for fruit quality parameters.  Because the absorption peak at 1450 nm (first overtone of the OH stretch of water) and 970 nm (second overtone of the OH stretch of water) in the samples varies with SSC, DM concentration, and temperature, an investigation was undertaken on the aquaphotomics approach to quantify changes in the water structure that are apparent in the two wavelength regions.
The key question examined was whether aquaphotomics can help in the development of better and simpler prediction models or hardware for intact fruit quality measurements beneficial to the industry. To find answers to this question, several experiments were conducted. Much work in aquaphotomics has been done in the longer wavelength region, that is, at the first overtone (1300–1600 nm), which requires short pathlength cells due to higher water absorption. Experiments were performed on simple aqueous systems such as sucrose solution of various concentrations and an aqueous system such as apple and kiwifruit juice. The second overtone wavelength region (800‒1100 nm) was also scrutinized for fruit juice measurements using a long pathlength cell. Eventually, experiments were conducted on whole intact fruit.
A Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectrophotometer was used to acquire spectra of aqueous samples over the wavelength range of 900 to 1800 nm. For whole, intact fruit spectra collection, spectrophotometers in the wavelength range below 1100 nm were utilized. An in-house benchtop spectrometer based on the Zeiss MMS-1 NIR spectrometer operated in interactance mode was used along with some commercially available handheld spectrophotometers such as the F-750 produce quality spectrometer and the SCiO spectrometer. The spectra acquired with the instruments were analyzed using multivariate data analysis. The calibration models were developed using partial least square regression (PLSR) and multiple linear regression to estimate quality attributes.
The NIR spectrum of fruit is affected by temperature. Therefore, a calibration equation developed at one fixed temperature cannot reliably predict samples at a different temperature. Using the framework of aquaphotomics, the changes within the water structure of fruit juice and whole intact fruit occurring with changes in temperature were analysed. Water wavelengths affected by temperature variation were identified in the first and second overtone regions. Using aquagrams, it appeared that different water species were activated in the first and second overtone region. The influence of increasing temperature on the peak absorbance of the juice was a lateral shift in the first overtone region, whereas it was vertical in the second overtone region of water. Two correction pre-treatments; extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC) and external parameter orthogonalization (EPO) were used in conjunction with principal component loading of water as an interferent spectrum. They were able to correct for temperature effects by at least a factor of 10 to insignificant levels.
It was concluded that the aquaphotomics paradigm offers fundamental insights into the role of the various light absorption mechanisms but only in conjunction with chemometrics tools, like EMSC and EPO, leading to an improvement in predictive model performance. The investigated methods have good potential to be used for quality assessment of fruit in industry.

year: 2020

title: Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae: Rangatahi perspectives of leadership within Ngāti Maniapoto

authors: Moss, Luke

subjects: Rangatahi

abstract: Research on youth leadership development is often saturated by adult perceptions and thus the literature often lacks youth voice and youth perspective on what integral areas are needed for successful youth leadership development. This research focuses on the rangatahi of Ngāti Maniapoto and their perspectives of leadership within the iwi to aid the gap in academic literature relating to youth perception of leadership development.

Maniapoto has an abundance of leadership examples from the plethora of tūpuna that have developed the iwi to the leaders of contemporary Maniapoto pushing the iwi forward. The purpose of this research is to delve into the perspectives of rangatahi Maniapoto that pertain to good leadership qualities, their perception of leadership, unique leadership styles within Maniapoto, rangatahi leadership skills and perspectives of youth development within the iwi. By interviewing rangatahi with strong connection to Maniapoto this information of their perspectives revealed four integral areas of rangatahi leadership development were collated into a model for dissemination and use within the iwi for youth development practices. This model is named Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae and has four areas, education, collective, communication and vision. Education was identified by rangatahi as they found that learning Maniapoto reo and tikanga was integral for a Maniapoto leader, in addition they saw an opportunity to establish a wānanga to future proof our Maniapototanga. A collective approach to leadership was highlighted as the rangatahi perceive that Maniapoto leaders need to be well known in the community and have good relationships with iwi members to be successful. Rangatahi reported that communication was an important attribute for leaders to have, not just speech but communicating by doing was essential for a Maniapoto leader. Finally, rangatahi explained that leaders need to have a vision for the taiao and a vision for our people to be a successful leader, and be able to take the iwi to a place they have not been to before.

This study adds to the scarce literature on youth perceptions on youth leadership development and definitively answers the question on how rangatahi of Maniapoto perceive leadership and how rangatahi of Maniapoto would develop leadership within Te Nehenehenui. The key findings presented in this thesis indicate that rangatahi from Maniapoto engage and identify leadership in many ways, however they do agree that leadership development is necessary for Maniapoto to flourish in the future. Applying this model and research within the iwi will create new foundations for leadership to grow within Maniapoto, and fill the gap of leadership for the iwi that rangatahi have identified.

text: Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae: Rangatahi perspectives of leadership within Ngāti Maniapoto Research on youth leadership development is often saturated by adult perceptions and thus the literature often lacks youth voice and youth perspective on what integral areas are needed for successful youth leadership development. This research focuses on the rangatahi of Ngāti Maniapoto and their perspectives of leadership within the iwi to aid the gap in academic literature relating to youth perception of leadership development.

Maniapoto has an abundance of leadership examples from the plethora of tūpuna that have developed the iwi to the leaders of contemporary Maniapoto pushing the iwi forward. The purpose of this research is to delve into the perspectives of rangatahi Maniapoto that pertain to good leadership qualities, their perception of leadership, unique leadership styles within Maniapoto, rangatahi leadership skills and perspectives of youth development within the iwi. By interviewing rangatahi with strong connection to Maniapoto this information of their perspectives revealed four integral areas of rangatahi leadership development were collated into a model for dissemination and use within the iwi for youth development practices. This model is named Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae and has four areas, education, collective, communication and vision. Education was identified by rangatahi as they found that learning Maniapoto reo and tikanga was integral for a Maniapoto leader, in addition they saw an opportunity to establish a wānanga to future proof our Maniapototanga. A collective approach to leadership was highlighted as the rangatahi perceive that Maniapoto leaders need to be well known in the community and have good relationships with iwi members to be successful. Rangatahi reported that communication was an important attribute for leaders to have, not just speech but communicating by doing was essential for a Maniapoto leader. Finally, rangatahi explained that leaders need to have a vision for the taiao and a vision for our people to be a successful leader, and be able to take the iwi to a place they have not been to before.

This study adds to the scarce literature on youth perceptions on youth leadership development and definitively answers the question on how rangatahi of Maniapoto perceive leadership and how rangatahi of Maniapoto would develop leadership within Te Nehenehenui. The key findings presented in this thesis indicate that rangatahi from Maniapoto engage and identify leadership in many ways, however they do agree that leadership development is necessary for Maniapoto to flourish in the future. Applying this model and research within the iwi will create new foundations for leadership to grow within Maniapoto, and fill the gap of leadership for the iwi that rangatahi have identified.

year: 2021