title: Mood disorders and poetry: Archaeology of the self

authors: Fraser, Deborah

subjects: creativity

abstract: The focus of this article is on poetry therapy as a readily accessible resource about mood disorders. An examination of poems that reveal each writer's ability to explore moods with a particular focus on the experience of depression is presented. The creating and sharing of these poems has benefits for both writers and readers in terms of witnessing mood, understanding the inner life, and healing. As such, poetry therapy is well suited as an archaeology of the self which is vital in the treatment of depression. It is also argued that there is a distinct need for the inclusion of poetry therapy as part of the repertoire of support for those who suffer from depression.

text: Mood disorders and poetry: Archaeology of the self The focus of this article is on poetry therapy as a readily accessible resource about mood disorders. An examination of poems that reveal each writer's ability to explore moods with a particular focus on the experience of depression is presented. The creating and sharing of these poems has benefits for both writers and readers in terms of witnessing mood, understanding the inner life, and healing. As such, poetry therapy is well suited as an archaeology of the self which is vital in the treatment of depression. It is also argued that there is a distinct need for the inclusion of poetry therapy as part of the repertoire of support for those who suffer from depression.

year: 2011

title: Changes in carbon and nitrogen stocks following conversion of plantation forest to dairy pasture on pumice soils, in the Central North Island

authors: Lewis, Riki Windsor

subjects: Carbon

abstract: Since 1990 approximately 36,000 ha of land in the Waikato has been converted from pine plantation to dairy farms. By changing land use from plantation forest to pasture there is potential to change soil properties. The property of interest, due to international discussion (Kyoto Protocol), is the potential for soils to store carbon. My main objective was to determine the rate and magnitude of change in soil carbon, soil nitrogen, and C:N ratio following land conversion from pine plantation to pasture. My study examined three areas (Atiamuri, Tokoroa and Wairakei) in the Central North Island of New Zealand. At each study area sites ranging from pine plantation, through 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 years since conversion, to long-term (>40 years) dairy or sheep/beef pasture, were identified. Three transects were established at each site and 7 soil core samples each to a depth of 60 cm, were taken at random intervals along each transect. Soil cores were split into horizons with samples from each horizon bulked together for each transect. At the midpoint of each transect a pit was dug and soil dry bulk density samples were taken from each horizon. At one pit from each site a sample of each soil horizon was taken. In the laboratory all soil samples were passed through a 2 mm sieve and air dried. Air dried samples were crushed and analysed for total carbon and total nitrogen with a TruSpec CN Carbon/Nitrogen Determinator. Soil dry bulk density was lower (P<0.05) in the pine sites Ap horizons (0.47 to 0.54 g cm-3) than the Ap horizon for all other sites (0.59 to 0.76 g cm-3) at the Atiamuri, Tokoroa and Wairakei areas. There was no significant difference in Ap horizon depths between pine forest, recent conversion and long-term pasture sites at any of the study areas. Carbon concentration in the Ap horizon (5.5 to 9 %) showed few significant differences between land-use sites. The total soil carbon at Atiamuri and Wairakei was higher (P<0.05) in the long-term pastures (88 to 100 t/ha) than in the pine (42 to 54 t/ha), however there was no significant difference between pine and long-term pasture at Tokoroa and data from recently converted sites were variable with no apparent significant differences. Total soil nitrogen at all three study areas was higher (P<0.05) in the long-term pasture sites (5 to 8 t/ha) than in the pine sites (9 to 12 t/ha). The C:N ratio in the Ap horizon was higher (P<0.05) in pine sites (mean of 16) than in the long-term pasture sites (mean of 10). The variability in the recently converted sites meant that generally no short-term changes in carbon, nitrogen or C:N ratio, following conversion from pine forest to dairy pasture were discernable.

text: Changes in carbon and nitrogen stocks following conversion of plantation forest to dairy pasture on pumice soils, in the Central North Island Since 1990 approximately 36,000 ha of land in the Waikato has been converted from pine plantation to dairy farms. By changing land use from plantation forest to pasture there is potential to change soil properties. The property of interest, due to international discussion (Kyoto Protocol), is the potential for soils to store carbon. My main objective was to determine the rate and magnitude of change in soil carbon, soil nitrogen, and C:N ratio following land conversion from pine plantation to pasture. My study examined three areas (Atiamuri, Tokoroa and Wairakei) in the Central North Island of New Zealand. At each study area sites ranging from pine plantation, through 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 years since conversion, to long-term (>40 years) dairy or sheep/beef pasture, were identified. Three transects were established at each site and 7 soil core samples each to a depth of 60 cm, were taken at random intervals along each transect. Soil cores were split into horizons with samples from each horizon bulked together for each transect. At the midpoint of each transect a pit was dug and soil dry bulk density samples were taken from each horizon. At one pit from each site a sample of each soil horizon was taken. In the laboratory all soil samples were passed through a 2 mm sieve and air dried. Air dried samples were crushed and analysed for total carbon and total nitrogen with a TruSpec CN Carbon/Nitrogen Determinator. Soil dry bulk density was lower (P<0.05) in the pine sites Ap horizons (0.47 to 0.54 g cm-3) than the Ap horizon for all other sites (0.59 to 0.76 g cm-3) at the Atiamuri, Tokoroa and Wairakei areas. There was no significant difference in Ap horizon depths between pine forest, recent conversion and long-term pasture sites at any of the study areas. Carbon concentration in the Ap horizon (5.5 to 9 %) showed few significant differences between land-use sites. The total soil carbon at Atiamuri and Wairakei was higher (P<0.05) in the long-term pastures (88 to 100 t/ha) than in the pine (42 to 54 t/ha), however there was no significant difference between pine and long-term pasture at Tokoroa and data from recently converted sites were variable with no apparent significant differences. Total soil nitrogen at all three study areas was higher (P<0.05) in the long-term pasture sites (5 to 8 t/ha) than in the pine sites (9 to 12 t/ha). The C:N ratio in the Ap horizon was higher (P<0.05) in pine sites (mean of 16) than in the long-term pasture sites (mean of 10). The variability in the recently converted sites meant that generally no short-term changes in carbon, nitrogen or C:N ratio, following conversion from pine forest to dairy pasture were discernable.

year: 2011

title: Diacritic Restoration and the Development of a Part-of-Speech Tagset for the Māori Language

authors: Cocks, John

subjects: Māori

abstract: This thesis investigates two fundamental problems in natural language processing: diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging. Over the past three decades, statistical approaches to diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging have grown in interest as a consequence of the increasing availability of manually annotated training data in major languages such as English and French. However, these approaches are not practical for most minority languages, where appropriate training data is either non-existent or not publically available. Furthermore, before developing a part-of-speech tagging system, a suitable tagset is required for that language. In this thesis, we make the following contributions to bridge this gap:

Firstly, we propose a method for diacritic restoration based on naive Bayes classifiers that act at word-level. Classifications are based on a rich set of features, extracted automatically from training data in the form of diacritically marked text. This method requires no additional resources, which makes it language independent. The algorithm was evaluated on one language, namely Māori, and an accuracy exceeding 99% was observed.

Secondly, we present our work on creating one of the necessary resources for the development of a part-of-speech tagging system in Māori, that of a suitable tagset. The tagset described was developed in accordance with the EAGLES guidelines for morphosyntactic annotation of corpora, and was the result of in-depth analysis of the Māori grammar.

text: Diacritic Restoration and the Development of a Part-of-Speech Tagset for the Māori Language This thesis investigates two fundamental problems in natural language processing: diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging. Over the past three decades, statistical approaches to diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging have grown in interest as a consequence of the increasing availability of manually annotated training data in major languages such as English and French. However, these approaches are not practical for most minority languages, where appropriate training data is either non-existent or not publically available. Furthermore, before developing a part-of-speech tagging system, a suitable tagset is required for that language. In this thesis, we make the following contributions to bridge this gap:

Firstly, we propose a method for diacritic restoration based on naive Bayes classifiers that act at word-level. Classifications are based on a rich set of features, extracted automatically from training data in the form of diacritically marked text. This method requires no additional resources, which makes it language independent. The algorithm was evaluated on one language, namely Māori, and an accuracy exceeding 99% was observed.

Secondly, we present our work on creating one of the necessary resources for the development of a part-of-speech tagging system in Māori, that of a suitable tagset. The tagset described was developed in accordance with the EAGLES guidelines for morphosyntactic annotation of corpora, and was the result of in-depth analysis of the Māori grammar.

year: 2012