title: Biodiversity inventories in high gear: DNA barcoding facilitates a rapid biotic survey of a temperate nature reserve

authors: Telfer, A

abstract: Comprehensive biotic surveys, or ‘all taxon biodiversity inventories’ (ATBI), have traditionally been limited in scale or scope due to the complications surrounding specimen sorting and species identification. To circumvent these issues, several ATBI projects have successfully integrated DNA barcoding into their identification procedures and witnessed acceleration in their surveys and subsequent increase in project scope and scale. The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario partnered with the rare Charitable Research Reserve and delegates of the 6th International Barcode of Life Conference to complete its own rapid, barcode-assisted ATBI of an established land trust in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

text: Biodiversity inventories in high gear: DNA barcoding facilitates a rapid biotic survey of a temperate nature reserve Comprehensive biotic surveys, or ‘all taxon biodiversity inventories’ (ATBI), have traditionally been limited in scale or scope due to the complications surrounding specimen sorting and species identification. To circumvent these issues, several ATBI projects have successfully integrated DNA barcoding into their identification procedures and witnessed acceleration in their surveys and subsequent increase in project scope and scale. The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario partnered with the rare Charitable Research Reserve and delegates of the 6th International Barcode of Life Conference to complete its own rapid, barcode-assisted ATBI of an established land trust in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

year: 2015-08-30

title: An algorithmic approach to OpenFlow ruleset transformation

authors: Sanger, Richard

abstract: In an ideal development cycle for an OpenFlow application, a developer designs a pipeline to suit their application's needs and installs rules to that pipeline. Their application will run on any OpenFlow switch, whether software or hardware based. A network operator deploying this application would assess their network's requirements and purchase OpenFlow hardware to meet these requirements; such as bandwidth, port density, and flow table size. In reality, this level of interoperability does not exist as many OpenFlow switches are built on a fixed-function pipeline. Fixed-function pipelines limit the matches and actions available to rules depending on the table, but in doing so make more efficient use of expensive hardware resources such as TCAM.

This thesis investigates improving OpenFlow device interoperability by developing a method to rewrite existing rulesets to new complex fixed-function pipelines. Additionally, this thesis developed the tools to assess and verify the interoperability and equivalence of OpenFlow rulesets and pipelines. 

This thesis developed a library and tools for working with descriptions of fixed-function pipelines, specifically, the Table Type Pattern description. This library provides a method to check if an existing ruleset is compatible with a new pipeline. Additionally, this thesis designed and implemented a pragmatic approach to compare if the forwarding behaviour of two OpenFlow 1.3 rulesets is equivalent. Equivalence checking provides a tool to verify that an OpenFlow application rewritten to program a new pipeline maintains the correct forwarding behaviour.

Finally, this thesis investigates the problem of algorithmically rewriting an existing OpenFlow ruleset, programmed by an existing application, to fit a different fixed-function pipeline. Solving this problem allows an OpenFlow application to be written once and run on any OpenFlow switch. This research aimed to solve this problem in a comprehensive manner that did not rely on the target pipeline supporting features such as OpenFlow metadata. This thesis developed and implemented a general method to convert an OpenFlow 1.3 to a complex constrained fixed-function.

text: An algorithmic approach to OpenFlow ruleset transformation In an ideal development cycle for an OpenFlow application, a developer designs a pipeline to suit their application's needs and installs rules to that pipeline. Their application will run on any OpenFlow switch, whether software or hardware based. A network operator deploying this application would assess their network's requirements and purchase OpenFlow hardware to meet these requirements; such as bandwidth, port density, and flow table size. In reality, this level of interoperability does not exist as many OpenFlow switches are built on a fixed-function pipeline. Fixed-function pipelines limit the matches and actions available to rules depending on the table, but in doing so make more efficient use of expensive hardware resources such as TCAM.

This thesis investigates improving OpenFlow device interoperability by developing a method to rewrite existing rulesets to new complex fixed-function pipelines. Additionally, this thesis developed the tools to assess and verify the interoperability and equivalence of OpenFlow rulesets and pipelines. 

This thesis developed a library and tools for working with descriptions of fixed-function pipelines, specifically, the Table Type Pattern description. This library provides a method to check if an existing ruleset is compatible with a new pipeline. Additionally, this thesis designed and implemented a pragmatic approach to compare if the forwarding behaviour of two OpenFlow 1.3 rulesets is equivalent. Equivalence checking provides a tool to verify that an OpenFlow application rewritten to program a new pipeline maintains the correct forwarding behaviour.

Finally, this thesis investigates the problem of algorithmically rewriting an existing OpenFlow ruleset, programmed by an existing application, to fit a different fixed-function pipeline. Solving this problem allows an OpenFlow application to be written once and run on any OpenFlow switch. This research aimed to solve this problem in a comprehensive manner that did not rely on the target pipeline supporting features such as OpenFlow metadata. This thesis developed and implemented a general method to convert an OpenFlow 1.3 to a complex constrained fixed-function.

year: 2020

title: Two Decades After Siaan Nathan’s (1999) Study: Revisiting the Responsiveness of Professional Clinical Psychology Programmes

authors: Chan, Joanna

abstract: Clinical psychology training programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand are predominantly monocultural and centred on perspectives from Western Europe and North America. Several initiatives have sought to address the monocultural dominance of Western psychology in training programmes, with limited sustainability. We surveyed clinical psychology programme directors (N=6) to assess the progress of programmes towards meeting Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations across five key domains (Māori representation across programme staff and students, advisory group, admissions process and programme content). Promisingly, progress regarding the inclusion of Māori-focused content and faculty representation was identified. However, all directors reported that the increase in Māori student representation was slow, with half (n=3) reporting the number of tauira Māori applicants to programmes was an ongoing concern. The limited progress towards ensuring increased Māori representation was thought to reflect system constraints. The findings highlight the pressing need for clinical psychology training to fulfil Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations to support tino rangatiratanga for Māori that leads to transformative change. Notably, equity for Māori was identified as a priority through the provision of sufficient and sustainable resourcing for kaupapa Māori psychologies.

text: Two Decades After Siaan Nathan’s (1999) Study: Revisiting the Responsiveness of Professional Clinical Psychology Programmes Clinical psychology training programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand are predominantly monocultural and centred on perspectives from Western Europe and North America. Several initiatives have sought to address the monocultural dominance of Western psychology in training programmes, with limited sustainability. We surveyed clinical psychology programme directors (N=6) to assess the progress of programmes towards meeting Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations across five key domains (Māori representation across programme staff and students, advisory group, admissions process and programme content). Promisingly, progress regarding the inclusion of Māori-focused content and faculty representation was identified. However, all directors reported that the increase in Māori student representation was slow, with half (n=3) reporting the number of tauira Māori applicants to programmes was an ongoing concern. The limited progress towards ensuring increased Māori representation was thought to reflect system constraints. The findings highlight the pressing need for clinical psychology training to fulfil Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations to support tino rangatiratanga for Māori that leads to transformative change. Notably, equity for Māori was identified as a priority through the provision of sufficient and sustainable resourcing for kaupapa Māori psychologies.

year: 2025