title: Science and technology development and the depoliticization of the public space: The case of socially and culturally sustainable biotechnology in New Zealand

authors: Macdonald, Linda R.

subjects: biotechnology

abstract: Purpose – The authors aim to review a five-year multi-study research programme on the role of public dialogue in the social and cultural sustainability of biotechnology developments in New Zealand. 
Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a critical review of all the published research products from a five-year government-funded study of the cultural and social aspects of sustainable biotechnology in New Zealand. 
Findings – The review research highlights how New Zealand Government policies on biotechnology, which motivated the research programme, were fore-grounded on economic progress and competitive positioning. Thus, debate on sustainable biotechnology issues became cast in economic and technical terms, while public dialogue became seen as diversionary and unsubstantiated. The analysis concludes that the programme was ineffective in influencing government policy and fell victim to the very problem of science governance that its purpose was designed to address. 
Research limitations/implications – The research develops implications regarding the ability of government-funded sustainability research to influence policy. 
Originality/value – The review focuses on the purpose, content, outcomes, and context of the research programme and identifies a number of key themes that arose from the programme that are useful for other sustainability policy researchers. The reviewers conclude that this case demonstrates that the marketization of the public sphere depoliticises the social and cultural construction of the nation's future.

text: Science and technology development and the depoliticization of the public space: The case of socially and culturally sustainable biotechnology in New Zealand Purpose – The authors aim to review a five-year multi-study research programme on the role of public dialogue in the social and cultural sustainability of biotechnology developments in New Zealand. 
Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a critical review of all the published research products from a five-year government-funded study of the cultural and social aspects of sustainable biotechnology in New Zealand. 
Findings – The review research highlights how New Zealand Government policies on biotechnology, which motivated the research programme, were fore-grounded on economic progress and competitive positioning. Thus, debate on sustainable biotechnology issues became cast in economic and technical terms, while public dialogue became seen as diversionary and unsubstantiated. The analysis concludes that the programme was ineffective in influencing government policy and fell victim to the very problem of science governance that its purpose was designed to address. 
Research limitations/implications – The research develops implications regarding the ability of government-funded sustainability research to influence policy. 
Originality/value – The review focuses on the purpose, content, outcomes, and context of the research programme and identifies a number of key themes that arose from the programme that are useful for other sustainability policy researchers. The reviewers conclude that this case demonstrates that the marketization of the public sphere depoliticises the social and cultural construction of the nation's future.

year: 2011

title: A comparison of free access, multiple stimulus without replacement, and concurrent schedule preference assessment methods for evaluating food preference

authors: Bates, Nicole

abstract: Outcomes from three preference assessment methods were examined in a study of food preference with goats. The methods used were: free access, multiple stimulus without replacement, and a concurrent schedule analysis. Results from each method were compared, in terms of the preference ranking they produced. Two male goats, one domesticated wild goat and one Saanen, were used as subjects in this study. Each method yielded similar results, although the concurrent schedule test provided more comprehensive information than either of the other methods. There was moderate agreement between the multiple stimulus without replacement and the concurrent schedule tests, however the free access procedure identified only the two most highly preferred items and provided limited information on preference level of the remaining food items. Five foods were tested in this experiment, all of different texture and composition – crushed maize, sheep and goat pellets, chopped lucerne, lucerne haylage, and timothy and lucerne haylage. During the free access, goats were given unrestricted access to a particular food for 12 seconds. During the multiple stimulus without replacement, goats were presented with all five foods simultaneously and allowed to make one choice. Once the subject had selected a food by pressing the respective cover with their muzzle, that cover was removed to allow access to that food only. When the subject stopped eating, the cover was replaced - subjects could then select another food. This process was repeated until either all five feeds had been sampled or goats had not made contact with any covers for fifteen seconds. The concurrent schedule test involved making two foods available concurrently. Food delivery was determined by a VI 60s schedule and controlled by a computer software program that was linked to the apparatus. The assessment procedure was arranged so that each food was tested alongside every other food. Data was analysed in terms of the proportion of time and responses allocated to each food. Proportion of time and responses varied considerably depending on the food that was available concurrently.

text: A comparison of free access, multiple stimulus without replacement, and concurrent schedule preference assessment methods for evaluating food preference Outcomes from three preference assessment methods were examined in a study of food preference with goats. The methods used were: free access, multiple stimulus without replacement, and a concurrent schedule analysis. Results from each method were compared, in terms of the preference ranking they produced. Two male goats, one domesticated wild goat and one Saanen, were used as subjects in this study. Each method yielded similar results, although the concurrent schedule test provided more comprehensive information than either of the other methods. There was moderate agreement between the multiple stimulus without replacement and the concurrent schedule tests, however the free access procedure identified only the two most highly preferred items and provided limited information on preference level of the remaining food items. Five foods were tested in this experiment, all of different texture and composition – crushed maize, sheep and goat pellets, chopped lucerne, lucerne haylage, and timothy and lucerne haylage. During the free access, goats were given unrestricted access to a particular food for 12 seconds. During the multiple stimulus without replacement, goats were presented with all five foods simultaneously and allowed to make one choice. Once the subject had selected a food by pressing the respective cover with their muzzle, that cover was removed to allow access to that food only. When the subject stopped eating, the cover was replaced - subjects could then select another food. This process was repeated until either all five feeds had been sampled or goats had not made contact with any covers for fifteen seconds. The concurrent schedule test involved making two foods available concurrently. Food delivery was determined by a VI 60s schedule and controlled by a computer software program that was linked to the apparatus. The assessment procedure was arranged so that each food was tested alongside every other food. Data was analysed in terms of the proportion of time and responses allocated to each food. Proportion of time and responses varied considerably depending on the food that was available concurrently.

year: 2018

title: Diacritic Restoration and the Development of a Part-of-Speech Tagset for the Māori Language

authors: Cocks, John

subjects: Māori

abstract: This thesis investigates two fundamental problems in natural language processing: diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging. Over the past three decades, statistical approaches to diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging have grown in interest as a consequence of the increasing availability of manually annotated training data in major languages such as English and French. However, these approaches are not practical for most minority languages, where appropriate training data is either non-existent or not publically available. Furthermore, before developing a part-of-speech tagging system, a suitable tagset is required for that language. In this thesis, we make the following contributions to bridge this gap:

Firstly, we propose a method for diacritic restoration based on naive Bayes classifiers that act at word-level. Classifications are based on a rich set of features, extracted automatically from training data in the form of diacritically marked text. This method requires no additional resources, which makes it language independent. The algorithm was evaluated on one language, namely Māori, and an accuracy exceeding 99% was observed.

Secondly, we present our work on creating one of the necessary resources for the development of a part-of-speech tagging system in Māori, that of a suitable tagset. The tagset described was developed in accordance with the EAGLES guidelines for morphosyntactic annotation of corpora, and was the result of in-depth analysis of the Māori grammar.

text: Diacritic Restoration and the Development of a Part-of-Speech Tagset for the Māori Language This thesis investigates two fundamental problems in natural language processing: diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging. Over the past three decades, statistical approaches to diacritic restoration and part-of-speech tagging have grown in interest as a consequence of the increasing availability of manually annotated training data in major languages such as English and French. However, these approaches are not practical for most minority languages, where appropriate training data is either non-existent or not publically available. Furthermore, before developing a part-of-speech tagging system, a suitable tagset is required for that language. In this thesis, we make the following contributions to bridge this gap:

Firstly, we propose a method for diacritic restoration based on naive Bayes classifiers that act at word-level. Classifications are based on a rich set of features, extracted automatically from training data in the form of diacritically marked text. This method requires no additional resources, which makes it language independent. The algorithm was evaluated on one language, namely Māori, and an accuracy exceeding 99% was observed.

Secondly, we present our work on creating one of the necessary resources for the development of a part-of-speech tagging system in Māori, that of a suitable tagset. The tagset described was developed in accordance with the EAGLES guidelines for morphosyntactic annotation of corpora, and was the result of in-depth analysis of the Māori grammar.

year: 2012