title: Development and Basic Calibration of an Acoustic Vector Network Analyser

authors: MacDonell, Marcus Scott Glengarry

subjects: Vector Network Analysis

abstract: This project aims to develop a method that drastically improves measurement of the acoustic properties of objects. Previously research at the University of Waikato has made progress with acoustic technologies as a precursor to a dual port vector network analyser. These technologies have been furthered to this end by 3D printing a modified coupler that now includes a flange with alignment pins, and a groove to house an O-ring as well as a number of other ``custom'' components for the coupler assembly. This assembly has been interfaced successfully with a VNA and collected data, this process is not straightforward and requires carefully thought-out adjustment to produce sensible data. Complicating this process is the vast difference in propagation speeds for acoustic and electromagnetic signals. The swept measurements performed show promising results that further prove the hardware and indicate that particular calibration terms namely those for isolation that are normally ignored in the electromagnetic domain are potentially crucial in the acoustic domain.

text: Development and Basic Calibration of an Acoustic Vector Network Analyser This project aims to develop a method that drastically improves measurement of the acoustic properties of objects. Previously research at the University of Waikato has made progress with acoustic technologies as a precursor to a dual port vector network analyser. These technologies have been furthered to this end by 3D printing a modified coupler that now includes a flange with alignment pins, and a groove to house an O-ring as well as a number of other ``custom'' components for the coupler assembly. This assembly has been interfaced successfully with a VNA and collected data, this process is not straightforward and requires carefully thought-out adjustment to produce sensible data. Complicating this process is the vast difference in propagation speeds for acoustic and electromagnetic signals. The swept measurements performed show promising results that further prove the hardware and indicate that particular calibration terms namely those for isolation that are normally ignored in the electromagnetic domain are potentially crucial in the acoustic domain.

year: 2017

title: Developing a critical media research agenda for health psychology

authors: Hodgetts, Darrin

subjects: health

abstract: This article outlines reasons why psychologists should concern themselves with media processes, noting how media are central to contemporary life and heavily implicated in the construction of shared understandings of health. We contend that the present research focus is substantially medicalized, privileging the investigation and framing of certain topics, such as the portrayal of health professionals, medical practices, specific diseases and lifestyle-orientated interventions, and restricting attention to social determinants of health as appropriate topics for investigation. We propose an extended agenda for media health research to include structural health concerns, such as crime, poverty, homelessness and housing and social capital.

text: Developing a critical media research agenda for health psychology This article outlines reasons why psychologists should concern themselves with media processes, noting how media are central to contemporary life and heavily implicated in the construction of shared understandings of health. We contend that the present research focus is substantially medicalized, privileging the investigation and framing of certain topics, such as the portrayal of health professionals, medical practices, specific diseases and lifestyle-orientated interventions, and restricting attention to social determinants of health as appropriate topics for investigation. We propose an extended agenda for media health research to include structural health concerns, such as crime, poverty, homelessness and housing and social capital.

year: 2006

title: Local Cryo-history: Redefining the creation, transformation and circulation of Aotearoa’s nineteenth century glacier knowledge

authors: Annandale, Claudi - Ann

abstract: The creation, transformation and dissemination of knowledge constantly shapes the narrative of glacier history. However, the intersecting layers that human encounters with the frozen environment, Indigenous knowledge, and popular thought add to glacier histories is often overlooked. By analysing the trends and intellectual traditions that emerged in nineteenth century New Zealand, a period defined as glaciology's 'classical' era of study, this thesis aims to broaden the Southern Alps’ local science-focused glacier discourse.   

Māori, for example, possessed unique mātauranga (knowledge) that was documented through Europeans employing local guides to accompany them across the Southern Alps. This mātauranga shaped some encounters nineteenth-century scientists, surveyors, and travellers had with Kā Tiritiri o te Moana’s glacier environment. New Zealand scholars like Julius von Haast and James Hector, on the other hand, further refined their understanding of New Zealand glaciers through the transnational exchange of knowledge and intellectual debates. A combination of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic aesthetic also influenced popular glacier narratives that emerged during the nineteenth century. For example, the imagination of journalists, mountaineers and travellers reflected the broader cultural trends that circulated from Europe to New Zealand before their knowledge was disseminated to the public.  

By interrogating mātauranga Māori, formal scientific study, and popular settler imagination about glaciers, this thesis redefines New Zealand’s nineteenth-century glacier history as inherently multilayered through the circulation, creation, transformation and dissemination of glacier knowledge. In doing so, it highlights glaciers not only as physical entities defined by scientific study but as ideas shaped by diverse knowledge systems, cultural perceptions, and historical contingencies.

text: Local Cryo-history: Redefining the creation, transformation and circulation of Aotearoa’s nineteenth century glacier knowledge The creation, transformation and dissemination of knowledge constantly shapes the narrative of glacier history. However, the intersecting layers that human encounters with the frozen environment, Indigenous knowledge, and popular thought add to glacier histories is often overlooked. By analysing the trends and intellectual traditions that emerged in nineteenth century New Zealand, a period defined as glaciology's 'classical' era of study, this thesis aims to broaden the Southern Alps’ local science-focused glacier discourse.   

Māori, for example, possessed unique mātauranga (knowledge) that was documented through Europeans employing local guides to accompany them across the Southern Alps. This mātauranga shaped some encounters nineteenth-century scientists, surveyors, and travellers had with Kā Tiritiri o te Moana’s glacier environment. New Zealand scholars like Julius von Haast and James Hector, on the other hand, further refined their understanding of New Zealand glaciers through the transnational exchange of knowledge and intellectual debates. A combination of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic aesthetic also influenced popular glacier narratives that emerged during the nineteenth century. For example, the imagination of journalists, mountaineers and travellers reflected the broader cultural trends that circulated from Europe to New Zealand before their knowledge was disseminated to the public.  

By interrogating mātauranga Māori, formal scientific study, and popular settler imagination about glaciers, this thesis redefines New Zealand’s nineteenth-century glacier history as inherently multilayered through the circulation, creation, transformation and dissemination of glacier knowledge. In doing so, it highlights glaciers not only as physical entities defined by scientific study but as ideas shaped by diverse knowledge systems, cultural perceptions, and historical contingencies.

year: 2025