title: Managing human disturbance of wildlife in coastal areas

authors: Wallace, Philippa Jane

subjects: Social Sciences

abstract: Human disturbance of wildlife is an under-recognised and under-regulated problem. This article discusses traditional approaches to conservation management in protecting wildlife from disturbance in the context of the New Zealand coastal environment and threatened birds. Limitations and challenges are identified and alternative actions proposed. The key problems are deficiencies in regulation of species disturbance, lack of definition of thresholds of harm that contemplate rarity and conservation status, insufficient comprehensive wildlife conservation planning and the need for innovative planning methods that address species mobility, permeable boundaries and environmental dynamism. Regulatory controls including enforcing setbacks/approach distances through either extended species protection or 'mobile habitat' protection are recommended.

text: Managing human disturbance of wildlife in coastal areas Human disturbance of wildlife is an under-recognised and under-regulated problem. This article discusses traditional approaches to conservation management in protecting wildlife from disturbance in the context of the New Zealand coastal environment and threatened birds. Limitations and challenges are identified and alternative actions proposed. The key problems are deficiencies in regulation of species disturbance, lack of definition of thresholds of harm that contemplate rarity and conservation status, insufficient comprehensive wildlife conservation planning and the need for innovative planning methods that address species mobility, permeable boundaries and environmental dynamism. Regulatory controls including enforcing setbacks/approach distances through either extended species protection or 'mobile habitat' protection are recommended.

year: 2016

title: Using Mesh Shaders for isosurface extraction

authors: Elliott, Hamish Robert

subjects: CGI

abstract: This thesis investigates the use of the Mesh Shader graphics pipeline, utilising in particular its ability of parallel and dynamic choice of geometry, to gain computation efficiencies in realising the Marching Cubes isosurface extraction algorithm. The thesis details how the Marching Cubes algorithm was mapped to the Mesh Shader pipeline, to form a baseline implementation. In addition, two heuristic-based variants are presented that reduced the GPUs workload, but at the potential cost of compromising accuracy. In evaluation of the work, a comparison of the baseline Mesh Shader pipeline implementation is made with a previous compute-shader based implementation. We also present a set of experiments that investigate the speed and accuracy of the two heuristic-based variants.

text: Using Mesh Shaders for isosurface extraction This thesis investigates the use of the Mesh Shader graphics pipeline, utilising in particular its ability of parallel and dynamic choice of geometry, to gain computation efficiencies in realising the Marching Cubes isosurface extraction algorithm. The thesis details how the Marching Cubes algorithm was mapped to the Mesh Shader pipeline, to form a baseline implementation. In addition, two heuristic-based variants are presented that reduced the GPUs workload, but at the potential cost of compromising accuracy. In evaluation of the work, a comparison of the baseline Mesh Shader pipeline implementation is made with a previous compute-shader based implementation. We also present a set of experiments that investigate the speed and accuracy of the two heuristic-based variants.

year: 2022

title: “I learned quite a lot of the Maths stuff now that I think of it”: Māori Medium Students reflecting on their Initial Teacher Education

authors: Hawera, Ngārewa

subjects: initial teacher education

abstract: Research involving preservice or initial teacher education (ITE) indicates that mathematics education is a vital component of study. Little is known however, of indigenous student views of their compulsory mathematics education courses for a teaching degree. This research contributes to that knowledge space as it explores Māori medium ITE students’ perceptions of mathematics education in Aotearoa New Zealand. A thematic and qualitative analysis of a focused group discussion provides insights into key factors that students reported as significant links between their university and practicum experiences (teaching practice in schools). Some suggestions for strengthening that programme were also expressed. Findings indicate that factors linked to teacher ‘cultural competencies’, including an ethic of care, respectful relationships, revision of content knowledge, language learning, assessment practices, exposure to different ideas and planning and pedagogy were important. Navigating student-mentor teacher tensions as well as clarifying the significance of ideas in texts were highlighted as areas for strengthening. Mathematics educators preparing students for indigenous primary school settings may find this study useful.

text: “I learned quite a lot of the Maths stuff now that I think of it”: Māori Medium Students reflecting on their Initial Teacher Education Research involving preservice or initial teacher education (ITE) indicates that mathematics education is a vital component of study. Little is known however, of indigenous student views of their compulsory mathematics education courses for a teaching degree. This research contributes to that knowledge space as it explores Māori medium ITE students’ perceptions of mathematics education in Aotearoa New Zealand. A thematic and qualitative analysis of a focused group discussion provides insights into key factors that students reported as significant links between their university and practicum experiences (teaching practice in schools). Some suggestions for strengthening that programme were also expressed. Findings indicate that factors linked to teacher ‘cultural competencies’, including an ethic of care, respectful relationships, revision of content knowledge, language learning, assessment practices, exposure to different ideas and planning and pedagogy were important. Navigating student-mentor teacher tensions as well as clarifying the significance of ideas in texts were highlighted as areas for strengthening. Mathematics educators preparing students for indigenous primary school settings may find this study useful.

year: 2017