title: Hidden Terminal Detection in Wide-Area 802.11 Wireless Networks

authors: Raynel, Scott McKenzie

subjects: hidden terminals

abstract: The hidden terminal problem is an important issue in wireless networks based on the CSMA medium access control scheme. Hidden terminals pose a complex challenge to network operators trying to identify the underlying cause of performance issues.
This thesis describes new methods for the detection and measurement of the hidden terminal problem in wireless networks based on commodity hardware and software platforms. These new methods allow network operators to identify areas of a network where hidden terminals are likely to exist; detect instances of the hidden terminal problem occurring; and estimate the total impact hidden terminals are having on the performance of the network.
A new framework for measurement of wireless networks is described which provides a new approach to wireless measurement on Linux based wireless routers. The new framework is used to implement the methods and they are deployed across an operational commercial wireless network and are shown to be useful.

text: Hidden Terminal Detection in Wide-Area 802.11 Wireless Networks The hidden terminal problem is an important issue in wireless networks based on the CSMA medium access control scheme. Hidden terminals pose a complex challenge to network operators trying to identify the underlying cause of performance issues.
This thesis describes new methods for the detection and measurement of the hidden terminal problem in wireless networks based on commodity hardware and software platforms. These new methods allow network operators to identify areas of a network where hidden terminals are likely to exist; detect instances of the hidden terminal problem occurring; and estimate the total impact hidden terminals are having on the performance of the network.
A new framework for measurement of wireless networks is described which provides a new approach to wireless measurement on Linux based wireless routers. The new framework is used to implement the methods and they are deployed across an operational commercial wireless network and are shown to be useful.

year: 2012

title: The postcolonial lesbian text: readings of four novels by Renée

authors: Sayer, Susan

abstract: This thesis addresses the question: “How might a text, written in a signifying relationship to the postcolonial nation Aotearoa New Zealand, be read as a lesbian text?” Part One addresses the possibility of the reading postcolonial lesbian text in four novels by Renée. It begins with an overview of humanist and poststructuralist reading and writing strategies which are contested within a contemporary Western lesbian literary field. At an intersection of poststructuralist and postcolonial debates I identify the potential for a queer reading strategy to disrupt lesbian humanist discourses by bringing the term lesbian into a textual relationship with the categories of (at least) sex, gender, sexuality, race and class. 

Also in Part One, I locate the four novels by Renée in the context of a New Zealand lesbian literature which is not widely recognised. I demonstrate how the hostile reception of four novels by Renée has been characterised by a colonialist discourse which manifests as the vestiges of a colonialist literary aesthetic operating in a contemporary culture sphere. Part One also outlines the strategy I have developed for reading the four novels by Renée. This strategy was originally formulated by Roland Barthes for rereading the classic text. The classic textual model is located within a Western humanist system of representation, the cornerstone of which is the Western humanist subject. Firstly, I adapt Barthes’s strategy to a rereading of three short colonialist texts, texts which promote a relationship of agreement with the reader as to the cultural and symbolic authority of the British Empire. This rereading strategy makes it possible to read the privileged Western humanist subject as always and already sexed-gendered-sexualised-classed-raced variously male-masculine-hetero-bourgeoisie-white. Barthes also offers a strategy for reading the writerly text. In contrast with the classic text, the writerly text positions the reader as a producer rather than as a consumer of the text.

Secondly, in Part Two I demonstrate how a queer reading strategy can be productively applied to texts written in signifying relationships to a postcolonial context. In my reading of the four novels by Renée I demonstrate how each is characterised by a writerly approach to the constitution of colonialist subjectivities, these writerly texts being unlike classic colonialist texts in that they foreground the traces of cultural and symbolic inscription in colonialist discourses. I demonstrate, for example, how in the writerly text of each of the four novels the British Empire is connotatively signified in relation to family, home and nation in colonialist discourses. In each of the four novels, lesbian and other queer subjectivities are also discursively reconstituted in signifying relationships to colonialist texts of family, home, nation and empire. I demonstrate how, in relation to signifying imperatives of colonialist discourses, the novels are characterised by a postcolonial textuality which manifests the symbolic and cultural authority of the British Empire. It is my thesis that the four novels by Renée are writerly texts which foreground the traces of an earlier British textual imperialism operating in the postcolonial nation Aotearoa New Zealand. My queer reading of four novels by Renée also makes manifest the postcolonial lesbian text.

text: The postcolonial lesbian text: readings of four novels by Renée This thesis addresses the question: “How might a text, written in a signifying relationship to the postcolonial nation Aotearoa New Zealand, be read as a lesbian text?” Part One addresses the possibility of the reading postcolonial lesbian text in four novels by Renée. It begins with an overview of humanist and poststructuralist reading and writing strategies which are contested within a contemporary Western lesbian literary field. At an intersection of poststructuralist and postcolonial debates I identify the potential for a queer reading strategy to disrupt lesbian humanist discourses by bringing the term lesbian into a textual relationship with the categories of (at least) sex, gender, sexuality, race and class. 

Also in Part One, I locate the four novels by Renée in the context of a New Zealand lesbian literature which is not widely recognised. I demonstrate how the hostile reception of four novels by Renée has been characterised by a colonialist discourse which manifests as the vestiges of a colonialist literary aesthetic operating in a contemporary culture sphere. Part One also outlines the strategy I have developed for reading the four novels by Renée. This strategy was originally formulated by Roland Barthes for rereading the classic text. The classic textual model is located within a Western humanist system of representation, the cornerstone of which is the Western humanist subject. Firstly, I adapt Barthes’s strategy to a rereading of three short colonialist texts, texts which promote a relationship of agreement with the reader as to the cultural and symbolic authority of the British Empire. This rereading strategy makes it possible to read the privileged Western humanist subject as always and already sexed-gendered-sexualised-classed-raced variously male-masculine-hetero-bourgeoisie-white. Barthes also offers a strategy for reading the writerly text. In contrast with the classic text, the writerly text positions the reader as a producer rather than as a consumer of the text.

Secondly, in Part Two I demonstrate how a queer reading strategy can be productively applied to texts written in signifying relationships to a postcolonial context. In my reading of the four novels by Renée I demonstrate how each is characterised by a writerly approach to the constitution of colonialist subjectivities, these writerly texts being unlike classic colonialist texts in that they foreground the traces of cultural and symbolic inscription in colonialist discourses. I demonstrate, for example, how in the writerly text of each of the four novels the British Empire is connotatively signified in relation to family, home and nation in colonialist discourses. In each of the four novels, lesbian and other queer subjectivities are also discursively reconstituted in signifying relationships to colonialist texts of family, home, nation and empire. I demonstrate how, in relation to signifying imperatives of colonialist discourses, the novels are characterised by a postcolonial textuality which manifests the symbolic and cultural authority of the British Empire. It is my thesis that the four novels by Renée are writerly texts which foreground the traces of an earlier British textual imperialism operating in the postcolonial nation Aotearoa New Zealand. My queer reading of four novels by Renée also makes manifest the postcolonial lesbian text.

year: 1998

title: Perceptions, expectations and interactions: a study of teachers and pupils in five ethnically mixed primary classrooms

authors: St George, Alison

abstract: Teachers’ perceptions of their pupils, expectations for pupil general ability, teacher-pupil interaction and pupil achievement were investigated in this naturalistic study of 5 teachers and 90 pupils in their New Zealand ethnically mixed Standard 3 classrooms.
A pilot study showed that teachers at this level tended to perceive pupils in terms of constructs reflecting academic work skills, home background and personal/social attributes. Using rating scales developed from the pilot study it was apparent that the teachers had a conception of the ideal pupil. It was suggested that this influenced expectations for pupils’ ability to do well at school. Girls and Pakeha pupils were seen as being closer to the ideal pupil stereotype than boys or Polynesian pupils, and for Polynesian pupils this was reflected in lower teacher expectations. Teacher expectations tended to be borne out by standardized achievement test results and accounted for a large proportion of teacher rated achievement variance. Ethnic group made a small but significant independent contribution to achievement variance on two of the Progressive Achievement Tests and on teacher rated achievement.
Using data on teacher-pupil dyadic interaction collected with the Brophy-Good system, contrasting patterns of interaction were noted between expectation groups (high, middle and low teacher expectations). The differences were largely qualitative and there were no expectation group differences in the total number of public or private dyadic interactions. High expectation pupils initiated more contacts with the teacher, answered more open public academic questions and received a lot less criticism for work or behaviour than the other groups. The low expectation group experienced a greater proportion of teacher initiated contacts and were asked more direct public academic questions which were of the product rather than the process type. The middle expectation group generally fell in between the high and low groups, but received the most criticism and the highest proportion of process questions. Teachers appeared to be attempting to prevent inequalities in quantity of interaction and this was discussed in terms of the perception of pupil attributes. Expectation group differences in interaction were not always the same for boys and girls or for all teachers. Despite the differences in teachers’ perceptions and expectations for Polynesian and Pakeha pupils, no ethnic group differences in teacher-pupil interaction were evidenced. 
No consistent and clear-cut expectation group differences were found in pupils’ perceptions of teacher behaviour. There was a moderate positive correlation between perception of the quantity of teacher contact and observed interaction but not regarding the affective quality of teacher contacts. 
The findings were discussed in terms of the theory and research on person perception and expectation phenomena in interpersonal behaviour. Some practical implications for educational practice were commented upon.

text: Perceptions, expectations and interactions: a study of teachers and pupils in five ethnically mixed primary classrooms Teachers’ perceptions of their pupils, expectations for pupil general ability, teacher-pupil interaction and pupil achievement were investigated in this naturalistic study of 5 teachers and 90 pupils in their New Zealand ethnically mixed Standard 3 classrooms.
A pilot study showed that teachers at this level tended to perceive pupils in terms of constructs reflecting academic work skills, home background and personal/social attributes. Using rating scales developed from the pilot study it was apparent that the teachers had a conception of the ideal pupil. It was suggested that this influenced expectations for pupils’ ability to do well at school. Girls and Pakeha pupils were seen as being closer to the ideal pupil stereotype than boys or Polynesian pupils, and for Polynesian pupils this was reflected in lower teacher expectations. Teacher expectations tended to be borne out by standardized achievement test results and accounted for a large proportion of teacher rated achievement variance. Ethnic group made a small but significant independent contribution to achievement variance on two of the Progressive Achievement Tests and on teacher rated achievement.
Using data on teacher-pupil dyadic interaction collected with the Brophy-Good system, contrasting patterns of interaction were noted between expectation groups (high, middle and low teacher expectations). The differences were largely qualitative and there were no expectation group differences in the total number of public or private dyadic interactions. High expectation pupils initiated more contacts with the teacher, answered more open public academic questions and received a lot less criticism for work or behaviour than the other groups. The low expectation group experienced a greater proportion of teacher initiated contacts and were asked more direct public academic questions which were of the product rather than the process type. The middle expectation group generally fell in between the high and low groups, but received the most criticism and the highest proportion of process questions. Teachers appeared to be attempting to prevent inequalities in quantity of interaction and this was discussed in terms of the perception of pupil attributes. Expectation group differences in interaction were not always the same for boys and girls or for all teachers. Despite the differences in teachers’ perceptions and expectations for Polynesian and Pakeha pupils, no ethnic group differences in teacher-pupil interaction were evidenced. 
No consistent and clear-cut expectation group differences were found in pupils’ perceptions of teacher behaviour. There was a moderate positive correlation between perception of the quantity of teacher contact and observed interaction but not regarding the affective quality of teacher contacts. 
The findings were discussed in terms of the theory and research on person perception and expectation phenomena in interpersonal behaviour. Some practical implications for educational practice were commented upon.

year: 1978