title: Infra-red vision in ferrets (Mustela furo)

authors: Newbold, Haylie Goldene

subjects: ferret

abstract: Ferrets are labelled Unwanted Organisms under the Biosecurity Act (1993) due to their predation on New Zealand's native protected species and their status as potential vectors of Bovine Tuberculosis. There was suspicion that ferrets could detect the infrared light-emitting equipment used to monitor predator and prey behaviour. A two-alternative forced-choice operant procedure was used to test whether five pigmented male ferrets could detect infrared (870 and 920 nm) light. 
First, the ferrets were taught to press a lever under a lit visible (white) light emitting diode (LED) for food rewards. After up to 101 40-minute sessions, each ferret could lever press under the lit-light at or above the pass criteria of 75% responses over four consecutive (or five out of six) sessions. 
The same ferrets were then tested for stimulus generalisation over different stimulus properties by changing the wavelength/colour and intensity of the lit-light. The overall mean accuracy of each ferret's response to each coloured light varied between 92% and 84%. When a red light was systematically dimmed to halve the intensity nine times, all five ferrets still met the set pass criteria with overall accuracies of between 88% and 78%. This indicated that changing the properties of the light stimuli would not disrupt the ferrets' abilities to perform the learned task. This test was a necessary prerequisite before changing the light stimuli to potentially invisible wavelengths in the infrared spectrum.
The light stimulus was changed to a single infrared (870) nm LED. Two of five ferrets showed strong evidence (response accuracies of 77%   4 and 72%   2) and one ferret showed weak evidence (60%   3) that they could see the light at this wavelength. Extraneous cues such as ultrasound emitted at the onset of a stimulus light or a predictable schedule of reinforcement were eliminated as potential response cues. These tests helped to prove that the ferrets were using only the light stimulus to discriminate which stimulus was lit. It may be possible that at least some feral ferrets can detect the light produced from infrared monitoring equipment that emits light wavelengths at or below 870 nm. This has significant implications for conservation because infrared equipment is used by conservation agencies in New Zealand and overseas to monitor predator and prey behaviour in the wild. If the infrared lighting is detected by the subject being observed, then it may potentially influence the behaviour of the animal, or attract a predator towards threatened native species.

text: Infra-red vision in ferrets (Mustela furo) Ferrets are labelled Unwanted Organisms under the Biosecurity Act (1993) due to their predation on New Zealand's native protected species and their status as potential vectors of Bovine Tuberculosis. There was suspicion that ferrets could detect the infrared light-emitting equipment used to monitor predator and prey behaviour. A two-alternative forced-choice operant procedure was used to test whether five pigmented male ferrets could detect infrared (870 and 920 nm) light. 
First, the ferrets were taught to press a lever under a lit visible (white) light emitting diode (LED) for food rewards. After up to 101 40-minute sessions, each ferret could lever press under the lit-light at or above the pass criteria of 75% responses over four consecutive (or five out of six) sessions. 
The same ferrets were then tested for stimulus generalisation over different stimulus properties by changing the wavelength/colour and intensity of the lit-light. The overall mean accuracy of each ferret's response to each coloured light varied between 92% and 84%. When a red light was systematically dimmed to halve the intensity nine times, all five ferrets still met the set pass criteria with overall accuracies of between 88% and 78%. This indicated that changing the properties of the light stimuli would not disrupt the ferrets' abilities to perform the learned task. This test was a necessary prerequisite before changing the light stimuli to potentially invisible wavelengths in the infrared spectrum.
The light stimulus was changed to a single infrared (870) nm LED. Two of five ferrets showed strong evidence (response accuracies of 77%   4 and 72%   2) and one ferret showed weak evidence (60%   3) that they could see the light at this wavelength. Extraneous cues such as ultrasound emitted at the onset of a stimulus light or a predictable schedule of reinforcement were eliminated as potential response cues. These tests helped to prove that the ferrets were using only the light stimulus to discriminate which stimulus was lit. It may be possible that at least some feral ferrets can detect the light produced from infrared monitoring equipment that emits light wavelengths at or below 870 nm. This has significant implications for conservation because infrared equipment is used by conservation agencies in New Zealand and overseas to monitor predator and prey behaviour in the wild. If the infrared lighting is detected by the subject being observed, then it may potentially influence the behaviour of the animal, or attract a predator towards threatened native species.

year: 2007

title: Ab initio molecular dynamics investigation of beryllium complexes

authors: Raymond, Onyekachi

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Structures of aqueous [Be(H₂O)₄]²⁺, its outer-sphere and inner-sphere complexes with F⁻, Cl⁻, and SO₄²⁻, and dinuclear complexes with a [Be₂(κ-OH)(κ-SO₄)]⁺ core have been studied through Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) simulations with the BLYP functional. According to constrained CPMD/BLYP simulations and pointwise thermodynamic integration, the free energy of deprotonation of [Be(H₂O)₄]²⁺ and its binding free energy with F⁻ are 9.6 and −6.2 kcal/mol, respectively, in good accord with available experimental data. The computed activation barriers for replacing a water ligand in [Be(H₂O)₄]²⁺ with F⁻ and SO₄²⁻, 10.9 and 13.6 kcal/mol, respectively, are also in good qualitative agreement with available experimental data. These ligand-substitution reactions are indicated to follow associative interchange mechanisms with backside (SN2-like) attack of the anion relative to the aquo ligand it is displacing. Outperforming static density functional theory computations of the salient kinetic and thermodynamic quantities involving simple polarizable continuum solvent models, CPMD simulations are validated as a promising tool for studying the structures and speciation of beryllium complexes in aqueous solution.

text: Ab initio molecular dynamics investigation of beryllium complexes Structures of aqueous [Be(H₂O)₄]²⁺, its outer-sphere and inner-sphere complexes with F⁻, Cl⁻, and SO₄²⁻, and dinuclear complexes with a [Be₂(κ-OH)(κ-SO₄)]⁺ core have been studied through Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) simulations with the BLYP functional. According to constrained CPMD/BLYP simulations and pointwise thermodynamic integration, the free energy of deprotonation of [Be(H₂O)₄]²⁺ and its binding free energy with F⁻ are 9.6 and −6.2 kcal/mol, respectively, in good accord with available experimental data. The computed activation barriers for replacing a water ligand in [Be(H₂O)₄]²⁺ with F⁻ and SO₄²⁻, 10.9 and 13.6 kcal/mol, respectively, are also in good qualitative agreement with available experimental data. These ligand-substitution reactions are indicated to follow associative interchange mechanisms with backside (SN2-like) attack of the anion relative to the aquo ligand it is displacing. Outperforming static density functional theory computations of the salient kinetic and thermodynamic quantities involving simple polarizable continuum solvent models, CPMD simulations are validated as a promising tool for studying the structures and speciation of beryllium complexes in aqueous solution.

year: 2020

title: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools

authors: Milne, Beverley Ann

subjects: Maori education

abstract: If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

text: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

year: 2013