title: A community participation intervention to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma, Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast Thailand

authors: Apinundecha, C.

subjects: Nakhon Ratchasima province

abstract: This paper explores HIV/AIDS stigma in the socio-cultural context of Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the northeastern region of Thailand. Action research was used to develop a community participation intervention. The intervention was implemented in one village over a period of eight months. We describe the intervention and then test its effect on HIV/AIDS knowledge and HIV/AIDS stigma using a non-equivalent pre-test-post-test control group design. Analysis of co-variance confirms that, controlling for initial levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge and stigma, the intervention had a significant effect on HIV/AIDS knowledge score (p<0.01) and HIV/AIDS stigma score (p<0.01). Participatory observations by the researchers on villagers' perceptions and behaviour were consistent with the quantitative results. These results suggest that community interventions which empower the community, combined with a financial contribution to reduce resource constraints, are a useful and effective means of increasing interaction between people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and other community members, increasing tolerance and reducing HIV/AIDS stigma.

text: A community participation intervention to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma, Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast Thailand This paper explores HIV/AIDS stigma in the socio-cultural context of Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the northeastern region of Thailand. Action research was used to develop a community participation intervention. The intervention was implemented in one village over a period of eight months. We describe the intervention and then test its effect on HIV/AIDS knowledge and HIV/AIDS stigma using a non-equivalent pre-test-post-test control group design. Analysis of co-variance confirms that, controlling for initial levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge and stigma, the intervention had a significant effect on HIV/AIDS knowledge score (p<0.01) and HIV/AIDS stigma score (p<0.01). Participatory observations by the researchers on villagers' perceptions and behaviour were consistent with the quantitative results. These results suggest that community interventions which empower the community, combined with a financial contribution to reduce resource constraints, are a useful and effective means of increasing interaction between people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and other community members, increasing tolerance and reducing HIV/AIDS stigma.

year: 2007

title: The amplitude and origin of sea-level variability during the Pliocene epoch

authors: Grant, G.R.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Earth is heading towards a climate that last existed more than three million years ago (Ma) during the ‘mid-Pliocene warm period’¹, when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were about 400 parts per million, global sea level oscillated in response to orbital forcing²,³ and peak global-mean sea level (GMSL) may have reached about 20 metres above the present-day value⁴,⁵. For sea-level rise of this magnitude, extensive retreat or collapse of the Greenland, West Antarctic and marine-based sectors of the East Antarctic ice sheets is required. Yet the relative amplitude of sea-level variations within glacial–interglacial cycles remains poorly constrained. To address this, we calibrate a theoretical relationship between modern sediment transport by waves and water depth, and then apply the technique to grain size in a continuous 800-metre-thick Pliocene sequence of shallow-marine sediments from Whanganui Basin, New Zealand. Water-depth variations obtained in this way, after corrections for tectonic subsidence, yield cyclic relative sea-level (RSL) variations. Here we show that sea level varied on average by 13 ± 5 metres over glacial–interglacial cycles during the middle-to-late Pliocene (about 3.3–2.5 Ma). The resulting record is independent of the global ice volume proxy³ (as derived from the deep-ocean oxygen isotope record) and sea-level cycles are in phase with 20-thousand-year (kyr) periodic changes in insolation over Antarctica, paced by eccentricity-modulated orbital precession⁶ between 3.3 and 2.7 Ma. Thereafter, sea-level fluctuations are paced by the 41-kyr period of cycles in Earth’s axial tilt as ice sheets stabilize on Antarctica and intensify in the Northern Hemisphere³, ⁶. Strictly, we provide the amplitude of RSL change, rather than absolute GMSL change. However, simulations of RSL change based on glacio-isostatic adjustment show that our record approximates eustatic sea level, defined here as GMSL unregistered to the centre of the Earth. Nonetheless, under conservative assumptions, our estimates limit maximum Pliocene sea-level rise to less than 25 metres and provide new constraints on polar ice-volume variability under the climate conditions predicted for this century.

text: The amplitude and origin of sea-level variability during the Pliocene epoch Earth is heading towards a climate that last existed more than three million years ago (Ma) during the ‘mid-Pliocene warm period’¹, when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were about 400 parts per million, global sea level oscillated in response to orbital forcing²,³ and peak global-mean sea level (GMSL) may have reached about 20 metres above the present-day value⁴,⁵. For sea-level rise of this magnitude, extensive retreat or collapse of the Greenland, West Antarctic and marine-based sectors of the East Antarctic ice sheets is required. Yet the relative amplitude of sea-level variations within glacial–interglacial cycles remains poorly constrained. To address this, we calibrate a theoretical relationship between modern sediment transport by waves and water depth, and then apply the technique to grain size in a continuous 800-metre-thick Pliocene sequence of shallow-marine sediments from Whanganui Basin, New Zealand. Water-depth variations obtained in this way, after corrections for tectonic subsidence, yield cyclic relative sea-level (RSL) variations. Here we show that sea level varied on average by 13 ± 5 metres over glacial–interglacial cycles during the middle-to-late Pliocene (about 3.3–2.5 Ma). The resulting record is independent of the global ice volume proxy³ (as derived from the deep-ocean oxygen isotope record) and sea-level cycles are in phase with 20-thousand-year (kyr) periodic changes in insolation over Antarctica, paced by eccentricity-modulated orbital precession⁶ between 3.3 and 2.7 Ma. Thereafter, sea-level fluctuations are paced by the 41-kyr period of cycles in Earth’s axial tilt as ice sheets stabilize on Antarctica and intensify in the Northern Hemisphere³, ⁶. Strictly, we provide the amplitude of RSL change, rather than absolute GMSL change. However, simulations of RSL change based on glacio-isostatic adjustment show that our record approximates eustatic sea level, defined here as GMSL unregistered to the centre of the Earth. Nonetheless, under conservative assumptions, our estimates limit maximum Pliocene sea-level rise to less than 25 metres and provide new constraints on polar ice-volume variability under the climate conditions predicted for this century.

year: 2019

title: He oranga tō te wai: Māori Pedagogies - A Culturally Responsive View of Aquatic Education and Drowning Prevention in Aotearoa

authors: Haimona, Mark Waihape

abstract: Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death and hospitalisation among Māori in Aotearoa. Drowning reports (Water Safety New Zealand, 2010, 2016, 2019) indicate Māori are over-represented in drowning compared to non-Māori, and on average account for up to a quarter of all drowning fatalities each year. Māori male aged 15-44 years and Māori children under five are most at risk of drowning (WSNZ, 2018, 2). A recent Aotearoa study on children’s water survival skills suggest changes are needed to improve how children develop fundamental aquatic skills and how teachers can best teach those skills (Button et al., 2017). In particular, the teaching of water safety skills for broader use in the open water environments of Aotearoa. 
Māori pedagogies within physical education, health, and education in the outdoors (Hemara, 2000; Jackson et al, 2016; Phillips, 2018) have demonstrated the benefits of Māori teaching methods that foster positive learning outcomes for Māori. (Bishop & Berryman, 2006, 2009). As such, this research investigated core components of Māori pedagogies that can improve aquatic education for Māori. It sought to validate traditional and contemporary aquatic teachings and water safety practices that Māori exercise as an expression of ira tangata (human development) and their relationship with te ao tūroa (the long-standing world). By means of kaupapa Māori research and the development of a new framework - Tāne Whānau Mārama, this thesis offers valuable insights into the importance of culturally responsive pedagogies in aquatic education that will enhance the health, educational achievements, and well-being of Māori whānau and communities.

text: He oranga tō te wai: Māori Pedagogies - A Culturally Responsive View of Aquatic Education and Drowning Prevention in Aotearoa Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death and hospitalisation among Māori in Aotearoa. Drowning reports (Water Safety New Zealand, 2010, 2016, 2019) indicate Māori are over-represented in drowning compared to non-Māori, and on average account for up to a quarter of all drowning fatalities each year. Māori male aged 15-44 years and Māori children under five are most at risk of drowning (WSNZ, 2018, 2). A recent Aotearoa study on children’s water survival skills suggest changes are needed to improve how children develop fundamental aquatic skills and how teachers can best teach those skills (Button et al., 2017). In particular, the teaching of water safety skills for broader use in the open water environments of Aotearoa. 
Māori pedagogies within physical education, health, and education in the outdoors (Hemara, 2000; Jackson et al, 2016; Phillips, 2018) have demonstrated the benefits of Māori teaching methods that foster positive learning outcomes for Māori. (Bishop & Berryman, 2006, 2009). As such, this research investigated core components of Māori pedagogies that can improve aquatic education for Māori. It sought to validate traditional and contemporary aquatic teachings and water safety practices that Māori exercise as an expression of ira tangata (human development) and their relationship with te ao tūroa (the long-standing world). By means of kaupapa Māori research and the development of a new framework - Tāne Whānau Mārama, this thesis offers valuable insights into the importance of culturally responsive pedagogies in aquatic education that will enhance the health, educational achievements, and well-being of Māori whānau and communities.

year: 2023