title: Sharing their wor[l]ds: Appreciating student’s voices in strength-based youth leadership development

authors: McNae, Rachel Elizabeth

abstract: Students have an important contribution to make in helping adults understand what their lives are like and how they learn best. However, within schools in particular, young people are frequently positioned within deficit discourses—as vessels needing to be filled, or broken beings that require fixing, resulting in them more likely to be positioned as passive recipients of policy and practice as opposed to active agents of change (Roberts & Nash, 2009). This article examines the implementation of an alternative approach to enhancing student leadership in five New Zealand high schools and argues for the powerful nature of strength-based learning opportunities, which shifts the focus from “what needs improving” to “what might be possible”. This research project engaged appreciative inquiry to transform the focus of a traditional teaching and learning relationship and bring adults and young people together in a learning partnership that focused attention on their desired needs and voices—aligning these with the students’ strengths, and positive dimensions of their leadership formation. Critical to this work was the formation of youth-adult partnerships, which created new opportunities and relational spaces for students to share their voices and experience learner agency. The findings from this research provide privileged insights into the wor[l]ds of student leaders.

text: Sharing their wor[l]ds: Appreciating student’s voices in strength-based youth leadership development Students have an important contribution to make in helping adults understand what their lives are like and how they learn best. However, within schools in particular, young people are frequently positioned within deficit discourses—as vessels needing to be filled, or broken beings that require fixing, resulting in them more likely to be positioned as passive recipients of policy and practice as opposed to active agents of change (Roberts & Nash, 2009). This article examines the implementation of an alternative approach to enhancing student leadership in five New Zealand high schools and argues for the powerful nature of strength-based learning opportunities, which shifts the focus from “what needs improving” to “what might be possible”. This research project engaged appreciative inquiry to transform the focus of a traditional teaching and learning relationship and bring adults and young people together in a learning partnership that focused attention on their desired needs and voices—aligning these with the students’ strengths, and positive dimensions of their leadership formation. Critical to this work was the formation of youth-adult partnerships, which created new opportunities and relational spaces for students to share their voices and experience learner agency. The findings from this research provide privileged insights into the wor[l]ds of student leaders.

year: 2018

title: Enhancing Clinical Decision Support Systems through Hospital Information System Integration and Machine Learning in a Context of the Emergency Department

authors: Jiang, Hongwei

abstract: This study conducts design science research (DSR) aimed at addressing the challenge of improving clinical decision support (CDS) in Emergency Departments (EDs). Making timely decisions by physicians to meet the diverse demands within hospital EDs is a challenge as the inadequacies of current Hospital Information Systems (HIS) can host fragmented Electronic Health Record (EHR) data across multiple sub-systems. The advancement of Information Technology (IT), notably machine learning (ML), brings new initiatives for addressing this issue. To tackle this complexity, this research deploys DSR to design a novel system integration architecture. This architecture provides a comprehensive framework that orchestrates HIS integration across multiple strata, encompassing the business, application, and technology layers, to facilitate the integration of ML-based Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) within the ED setting. Two design artefacts are developed as outcomes of DSR: firstly, the development of the system integration architecture, and secondly, the creation of the ML-based CDSS. The former serves as a meticulously designed blueprint for HIS integration, ensuring the effective functioning of ML-based CDSS at the point of care. The latter represents a pioneering CDSS system, harnessing the power of ML algorithms to furnish real-time, context-aware decision support. The impact of the ML-based CDSS on ED efficiency is subjected to rigorous evaluation. This evaluation is conducted by leveraging historical Electronic Health Record (EHR) data within a simulated ED environment. The simulation, calibrated with parameters drawn from a real-world hospital ED setting, yields promising results. These findings underscore the feasibility and the manifold benefits of integrating ML-based CDSS to augment ED efficiency. Furthermore, this research makes a noteworthy contribution to the theoretical underpinnings of information system design. It achieves this by pioneering the development of a novel system integration architecture. This architecture serves as a bridge, alleviating the knowledge gap that traditionally separates HIS integration from ML-based CDSS. The study advances the understanding of strategic design and integration of hospital information systems to support ML and CDSS. Ultimately, this advancement holds the potential to catalyse substantial improvements in patient care and outcomes, especially within the intricate and high-stakes environment of the Emergency Department.

text: Enhancing Clinical Decision Support Systems through Hospital Information System Integration and Machine Learning in a Context of the Emergency Department This study conducts design science research (DSR) aimed at addressing the challenge of improving clinical decision support (CDS) in Emergency Departments (EDs). Making timely decisions by physicians to meet the diverse demands within hospital EDs is a challenge as the inadequacies of current Hospital Information Systems (HIS) can host fragmented Electronic Health Record (EHR) data across multiple sub-systems. The advancement of Information Technology (IT), notably machine learning (ML), brings new initiatives for addressing this issue. To tackle this complexity, this research deploys DSR to design a novel system integration architecture. This architecture provides a comprehensive framework that orchestrates HIS integration across multiple strata, encompassing the business, application, and technology layers, to facilitate the integration of ML-based Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) within the ED setting. Two design artefacts are developed as outcomes of DSR: firstly, the development of the system integration architecture, and secondly, the creation of the ML-based CDSS. The former serves as a meticulously designed blueprint for HIS integration, ensuring the effective functioning of ML-based CDSS at the point of care. The latter represents a pioneering CDSS system, harnessing the power of ML algorithms to furnish real-time, context-aware decision support. The impact of the ML-based CDSS on ED efficiency is subjected to rigorous evaluation. This evaluation is conducted by leveraging historical Electronic Health Record (EHR) data within a simulated ED environment. The simulation, calibrated with parameters drawn from a real-world hospital ED setting, yields promising results. These findings underscore the feasibility and the manifold benefits of integrating ML-based CDSS to augment ED efficiency. Furthermore, this research makes a noteworthy contribution to the theoretical underpinnings of information system design. It achieves this by pioneering the development of a novel system integration architecture. This architecture serves as a bridge, alleviating the knowledge gap that traditionally separates HIS integration from ML-based CDSS. The study advances the understanding of strategic design and integration of hospital information systems to support ML and CDSS. Ultimately, this advancement holds the potential to catalyse substantial improvements in patient care and outcomes, especially within the intricate and high-stakes environment of the Emergency Department.

year: 2024

title: Ethnobotany, germination and growth of eleocharis sphacelata

authors: Kapa, Mieke M

subjects: Eleocharis

abstract: Eleocharis sphacelata, distributed over Australia, Papa New Guinea and predominantly in the north of the North Island New Zealand, occupies the littoral margins of fresh water wetlands and lakes. To assist Eleocharis sphacelata revegetation efforts, research recorded traditional ecological knowledge held by users, determined best methodologies for germination of seed, and established techniques for improved transfer of juvenile plantlets. 
Interviews with cultural knowledge holders revealed a declining but persistent oral repository in tikanga (customs) and practices despite diminishing plant availability. Eleocharis sphacelata has traditionally and contemporarily been used as a fibre for weaving into mats, with its spongy pith providing increased warmth and comfort. Group harvesting, with some cutting and others sorting and binding is the first step in a short preparation sequence, with the drying of the stems (for most this is in the shade) the only other preparation needed before weaving commences. Cultural genealogical descriptions provide a clear portrait of the ecological position Eleocharis sphacelata sits within its natural habitat and presents a phylogeny or schemata comparable to biological science. Published information identifies cultural uses and practices for the fibre of this wetland sedge. 
Fresh and stored seeds were subjected to five treatments at three water levels to determine the best methodology for increased germination rates. Findings illustrate how a scarification pre-treatment and water depth increases up to 15 cm enhances germination rates of Eleocharis sphacelata. Overnight bleaching of seed harvested one month earlier (January 2008) then sown under damp conditions provided increased germination until April. Fresh bleached seed sown under 5 cm and 15 cm of water produced significant increases in germination from September. Seasonal timing and variation in water depth as germination triggers indicate dual germination strategies employed by Eleocharis sphacelata.
In November 2007 seed grown seedlings and vegetative propagules were planted in situ under three water depths to establish which plantlet type would provide increased juvenile survival when used in revegetation projects. Findings determined that seed grown seedlings planted under 15 cm of water had the highest survival and produced a greater number of culms per plantlet, however vegetative propagules were better able to survive in damp conditions. Flowering occurred in over 25% of remaining vegetative and seed grown seedlings by the following October indicating the potential for new transfers to be reproducing within one season. 
Further collaborating between Māori and western science would augment and enhance understanding of transferable environmental methodologies. Possible dual germination strategies by the seed were revealed and further research would determine if this replicates the reproductive and growth capabilities of Eleocharis sphacelata and other wetland sedges in their natural environment. Additional seed quality and technological research would increase potential for seed performance. Determining genetic variety within local, regional and national Eleocharis sphacelata swards would establish bounds of local provenance.

text: Ethnobotany, germination and growth of eleocharis sphacelata Eleocharis sphacelata, distributed over Australia, Papa New Guinea and predominantly in the north of the North Island New Zealand, occupies the littoral margins of fresh water wetlands and lakes. To assist Eleocharis sphacelata revegetation efforts, research recorded traditional ecological knowledge held by users, determined best methodologies for germination of seed, and established techniques for improved transfer of juvenile plantlets. 
Interviews with cultural knowledge holders revealed a declining but persistent oral repository in tikanga (customs) and practices despite diminishing plant availability. Eleocharis sphacelata has traditionally and contemporarily been used as a fibre for weaving into mats, with its spongy pith providing increased warmth and comfort. Group harvesting, with some cutting and others sorting and binding is the first step in a short preparation sequence, with the drying of the stems (for most this is in the shade) the only other preparation needed before weaving commences. Cultural genealogical descriptions provide a clear portrait of the ecological position Eleocharis sphacelata sits within its natural habitat and presents a phylogeny or schemata comparable to biological science. Published information identifies cultural uses and practices for the fibre of this wetland sedge. 
Fresh and stored seeds were subjected to five treatments at three water levels to determine the best methodology for increased germination rates. Findings illustrate how a scarification pre-treatment and water depth increases up to 15 cm enhances germination rates of Eleocharis sphacelata. Overnight bleaching of seed harvested one month earlier (January 2008) then sown under damp conditions provided increased germination until April. Fresh bleached seed sown under 5 cm and 15 cm of water produced significant increases in germination from September. Seasonal timing and variation in water depth as germination triggers indicate dual germination strategies employed by Eleocharis sphacelata.
In November 2007 seed grown seedlings and vegetative propagules were planted in situ under three water depths to establish which plantlet type would provide increased juvenile survival when used in revegetation projects. Findings determined that seed grown seedlings planted under 15 cm of water had the highest survival and produced a greater number of culms per plantlet, however vegetative propagules were better able to survive in damp conditions. Flowering occurred in over 25% of remaining vegetative and seed grown seedlings by the following October indicating the potential for new transfers to be reproducing within one season. 
Further collaborating between Māori and western science would augment and enhance understanding of transferable environmental methodologies. Possible dual germination strategies by the seed were revealed and further research would determine if this replicates the reproductive and growth capabilities of Eleocharis sphacelata and other wetland sedges in their natural environment. Additional seed quality and technological research would increase potential for seed performance. Determining genetic variety within local, regional and national Eleocharis sphacelata swards would establish bounds of local provenance.

year: 2009