title: The Experiences of Older Women Participating in the Workforce

authors: Squire, Marjorie Olwyn

subjects: older women

abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of older working nurses and the reason they were still in the workforce while the majority of their cohort had exited from active nursing.  New Zealand's legislative changes in the Human Rights Act, 1993 and the Employment Relations Act, 2000 makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age.  In effect, this means the abolishment of mandatory retirement as the individual is now able to exit from the workforce by choice.  For nurses the choice for exiting the workforce occurs noticeably in the 50-54 age group with further declines in subsequent years.  This research study revealed a group of older nurses who valued autonomy in their nursing practice and valued the contribution they made as experienced practitioners in a variety of health sectors in the Waikato.  As the demographic shift in New Zealand's population is towards older age groups and likely to require future nursing care, it becomes essential to retain experienced nurses in the workforce.  This small scale qualitative study interviewed ten registered nurses over the age of 60 to discover how social life was constructed as they aged.

text: The Experiences of Older Women Participating in the Workforce The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of older working nurses and the reason they were still in the workforce while the majority of their cohort had exited from active nursing.  New Zealand's legislative changes in the Human Rights Act, 1993 and the Employment Relations Act, 2000 makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age.  In effect, this means the abolishment of mandatory retirement as the individual is now able to exit from the workforce by choice.  For nurses the choice for exiting the workforce occurs noticeably in the 50-54 age group with further declines in subsequent years.  This research study revealed a group of older nurses who valued autonomy in their nursing practice and valued the contribution they made as experienced practitioners in a variety of health sectors in the Waikato.  As the demographic shift in New Zealand's population is towards older age groups and likely to require future nursing care, it becomes essential to retain experienced nurses in the workforce.  This small scale qualitative study interviewed ten registered nurses over the age of 60 to discover how social life was constructed as they aged.

year: 2008

title: Computational Bayesian inference using low discrepancy sequences

authors: Brown, Paul Tamataatoi

subjects: Bayesian Inference

abstract: The Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) provides fast and accurate Bayesian inference for complex hierarchical models. For INLA, and other deterministic methods, the hyperparameter space is explored and points are laid out in a grid structure. These points are used in some numerical integration scheme for which marginal posterior distributions are computed. The main drawback is that the number of points increase exponentially with the number of hyperparameters. The grid is a type of quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) point set. Low discrepancy sequences (LDS) are QMC point sets that are well known to have significant advantages over grids in terms of convergence and accuracy, and suffer less from the so-called curse of dimensionality.

This work makes several important contributions. We introduce a new method using LDS to compute marginal posterior distributions for hyperparameters, discuss the convergence properties of the approximations and show that they converge to the true posterior. We also show how these methods can be incorporated into the INLA inference framework, and we outline important extensions that improve the accuracy of our approximations with little extra computational effort needed. Lastly, we build a unique spatio-temporal model of residential crime in Hamilton, using INLA’s stochastic partial differential equation approach to a Log-Gaussian Cox Process, and use an LDS to approximate the latent parameters of the model.

Our results show that for a fixed number of points or computational time, LDS methods can outperform general grid-based methods, leading to better marginal posterior approximations. Modifying the method for the purposes of incorporation to INLA, we show that we can outperform INLA’s grid with respect to computational speed, and obtain accurate and flexible approximations to the model hyperparameters.

text: Computational Bayesian inference using low discrepancy sequences The Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) provides fast and accurate Bayesian inference for complex hierarchical models. For INLA, and other deterministic methods, the hyperparameter space is explored and points are laid out in a grid structure. These points are used in some numerical integration scheme for which marginal posterior distributions are computed. The main drawback is that the number of points increase exponentially with the number of hyperparameters. The grid is a type of quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) point set. Low discrepancy sequences (LDS) are QMC point sets that are well known to have significant advantages over grids in terms of convergence and accuracy, and suffer less from the so-called curse of dimensionality.

This work makes several important contributions. We introduce a new method using LDS to compute marginal posterior distributions for hyperparameters, discuss the convergence properties of the approximations and show that they converge to the true posterior. We also show how these methods can be incorporated into the INLA inference framework, and we outline important extensions that improve the accuracy of our approximations with little extra computational effort needed. Lastly, we build a unique spatio-temporal model of residential crime in Hamilton, using INLA’s stochastic partial differential equation approach to a Log-Gaussian Cox Process, and use an LDS to approximate the latent parameters of the model.

Our results show that for a fixed number of points or computational time, LDS methods can outperform general grid-based methods, leading to better marginal posterior approximations. Modifying the method for the purposes of incorporation to INLA, we show that we can outperform INLA’s grid with respect to computational speed, and obtain accurate and flexible approximations to the model hyperparameters.

year: 2019

title: Monitoring first year Maori students enrolled in selected Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences courses: A report prepared for the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

authors: Levy, Michelle Patricia

subjects: maori students

abstract: Monitoring first year Maori Students Enrolled in Selected Faculty of Arts andSocial Sciences Courses. The total number of Maori students targeted by this project was 182, representing 93% of the total number of Maori students enrolled in Semester B level one courses. The majority of students participating in this initiative were first year students, although a small number of students taking 100 level courses were second, third or graduate year students. 11 Student views on the monitoring and support initiative Students were provided with the opportunity to comment on the monitoring and support initiative. All students contacted (49) recommended that this intervention continue for future first year Maori students enrolled in FASS.

text: Monitoring first year Maori students enrolled in selected Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences courses: A report prepared for the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Monitoring first year Maori Students Enrolled in Selected Faculty of Arts andSocial Sciences Courses. The total number of Maori students targeted by this project was 182, representing 93% of the total number of Maori students enrolled in Semester B level one courses. The majority of students participating in this initiative were first year students, although a small number of students taking 100 level courses were second, third or graduate year students. 11 Student views on the monitoring and support initiative Students were provided with the opportunity to comment on the monitoring and support initiative. All students contacted (49) recommended that this intervention continue for future first year Maori students enrolled in FASS.

year: 2003-03-01