title: Further examination of cross-modal association in canine (Canis familiaris) scent detection: Extending research on training dogs to identify multiple odours

authors: Lints, Jessica

subjects: conditional discrimination

abstract: Dogs' superior olfactory capabilities and trainability have led to widespread use of dogs for scent detection research and work. Previous research has largely focused on dogs' ability to detect and discriminate single odours, however more research is needed to understand dogs’ ability to use multiple sensory modalities to identify and discriminate odours. Continuing research started by Campbell- Smith (2024), the current study hypothesized, a) dogs are capable of using cross-modal association to match odours to images of shapes and b) the inclusion of an error correction procedure and physical screen border on the touch screen where the images are presented will increase dogs responding accuracy and decrease biases towards specific shapes and screen quadrants, previously observed by Campbell-Smith. Four dogs were trained using shaping and chaining to engage in a conditional discrimination task using an automated scent delivery carousel and touch screen. Challenges faced early on during the initial conditional discrimination sessions prompted the inclusion of a simple visual discrimination task and an errorless learning procedure. The findings were largely consistent with Campbell-Smith, in that all dogs had above chance (50%) accuracy rates overall, but none met the mastery criteria (80%) overall. The correction procedure and physical touch screen border did reduce overall biases in all dogs, but did not increase responding accuracy enough to meet the mastery criteria. This suggests that the procedures used in these experiments may not be optimal for training dogs to accurately match odours and visual stimuli. Alternative procedures should be investigated in the future. The current findings provide more information as to dog's cross-modal identification capabilities, as well as further understanding of dogs’ visual capabilities and a comparison of dogs’ accuracy on conditional discrimination with and without an errorless learning procedure.

text: Further examination of cross-modal association in canine (Canis familiaris) scent detection: Extending research on training dogs to identify multiple odours Dogs' superior olfactory capabilities and trainability have led to widespread use of dogs for scent detection research and work. Previous research has largely focused on dogs' ability to detect and discriminate single odours, however more research is needed to understand dogs’ ability to use multiple sensory modalities to identify and discriminate odours. Continuing research started by Campbell- Smith (2024), the current study hypothesized, a) dogs are capable of using cross-modal association to match odours to images of shapes and b) the inclusion of an error correction procedure and physical screen border on the touch screen where the images are presented will increase dogs responding accuracy and decrease biases towards specific shapes and screen quadrants, previously observed by Campbell-Smith. Four dogs were trained using shaping and chaining to engage in a conditional discrimination task using an automated scent delivery carousel and touch screen. Challenges faced early on during the initial conditional discrimination sessions prompted the inclusion of a simple visual discrimination task and an errorless learning procedure. The findings were largely consistent with Campbell-Smith, in that all dogs had above chance (50%) accuracy rates overall, but none met the mastery criteria (80%) overall. The correction procedure and physical touch screen border did reduce overall biases in all dogs, but did not increase responding accuracy enough to meet the mastery criteria. This suggests that the procedures used in these experiments may not be optimal for training dogs to accurately match odours and visual stimuli. Alternative procedures should be investigated in the future. The current findings provide more information as to dog's cross-modal identification capabilities, as well as further understanding of dogs’ visual capabilities and a comparison of dogs’ accuracy on conditional discrimination with and without an errorless learning procedure.

year: 2025

title: Screening for risk of Low Energy Availability in elite female netball athletes and the prevalence of injury

authors: Davie, Courtney

abstract: Low Energy Availability (LEA) is a condition commonly seen in female athletes, often as a consequence of insufficient dietary intake relative to energy expenditure, resulting in an energy deficit. A negative energy balance can severely impact normal physiological functions, often causing the body to downregulate to conserve energy as a means to survive. LEA poses a significant health risk, which has been associated with a plethora of unfavourable health and performance outcomes such as; reproductive function, bone health, gastrointestinal function, cardiovascular health, immune function and psychological impairment. Until now, limited research has been available for the prevalence of LEA in the team sport population, as most previous studies have concentrated on endurance and/or individual sport athletes. As highlighted in the literature review in the first part of this thesis, the prevalence of LEA ranges from 2-100% in various sports and disciplines, however the few studies to investigate the prevalence of LEA in team sport athletes have found reasonably high rates of LEA present.  The associated health outcomes are continuously emerging in research, alongside the multiple measures to screen and diagnosis for LEA, which are explained in the literature review. The second part of this thesis comprises of an original study investigating the prevalence of LEA within elite female netball athletes in New Zealand. Fifty-three elite netballers volunteered to participate in this study and were required to complete an adapted version of the Low Energy Availability in Females questionnaire (LEAF-Q) to identify risk of LEA. Analysis found a concerning prevalence of 53% of participants considered ‘at-risk’ of developing LEA, with additional findings discovering 85.7% of the ‘at-risk’ athletes had sustained an injury within the last 12 months. The final section of this thesis summarises the overall findings of the thesis, as well as providing practical applications, and highlighting direction for future research in this area.

text: Screening for risk of Low Energy Availability in elite female netball athletes and the prevalence of injury Low Energy Availability (LEA) is a condition commonly seen in female athletes, often as a consequence of insufficient dietary intake relative to energy expenditure, resulting in an energy deficit. A negative energy balance can severely impact normal physiological functions, often causing the body to downregulate to conserve energy as a means to survive. LEA poses a significant health risk, which has been associated with a plethora of unfavourable health and performance outcomes such as; reproductive function, bone health, gastrointestinal function, cardiovascular health, immune function and psychological impairment. Until now, limited research has been available for the prevalence of LEA in the team sport population, as most previous studies have concentrated on endurance and/or individual sport athletes. As highlighted in the literature review in the first part of this thesis, the prevalence of LEA ranges from 2-100% in various sports and disciplines, however the few studies to investigate the prevalence of LEA in team sport athletes have found reasonably high rates of LEA present.  The associated health outcomes are continuously emerging in research, alongside the multiple measures to screen and diagnosis for LEA, which are explained in the literature review. The second part of this thesis comprises of an original study investigating the prevalence of LEA within elite female netball athletes in New Zealand. Fifty-three elite netballers volunteered to participate in this study and were required to complete an adapted version of the Low Energy Availability in Females questionnaire (LEAF-Q) to identify risk of LEA. Analysis found a concerning prevalence of 53% of participants considered ‘at-risk’ of developing LEA, with additional findings discovering 85.7% of the ‘at-risk’ athletes had sustained an injury within the last 12 months. The final section of this thesis summarises the overall findings of the thesis, as well as providing practical applications, and highlighting direction for future research in this area.

year: 2021

title: Delivering the Maori-language newspapers on the Internet

authors: Apperley, Mark

subjects: computer science

abstract: Although any collection of historical newspapers provides a particularly rich and valuable record of events and social and political commentary, the content tends to be difficult to access and extremely time-consuming to browse or search. The advent of digital libraries has meant that for electronically stored text, full-text searching is now a tool readily available for researchers, or indeed anyone wishing to have asscess to specific information in text. Text in this form can be readily distributed via CD-ROM or the Internet, with a significant impact on accessibility over traditional microfiche or hard-copy distribution. For the majority of text being generated de nouveau, availability in electronic form is standard, and hence the increasing use of full-text search facilities. However, for legacy text available only in printed form, the provision of these electronic search tools is dependent on the prior electronic capture of digital facsimile images of the printed text, followed by the conversion of these images to electronic text through the process of optical character recognition (OCR). This article describes a project undertaken at the University of Waikato over the period 1999 to 2001 to produce a full-text searchable version of the Niupepa or Maori- language newspaper collection for delivery over the Internet.

text: Delivering the Maori-language newspapers on the Internet Although any collection of historical newspapers provides a particularly rich and valuable record of events and social and political commentary, the content tends to be difficult to access and extremely time-consuming to browse or search. The advent of digital libraries has meant that for electronically stored text, full-text searching is now a tool readily available for researchers, or indeed anyone wishing to have asscess to specific information in text. Text in this form can be readily distributed via CD-ROM or the Internet, with a significant impact on accessibility over traditional microfiche or hard-copy distribution. For the majority of text being generated de nouveau, availability in electronic form is standard, and hence the increasing use of full-text search facilities. However, for legacy text available only in printed form, the provision of these electronic search tools is dependent on the prior electronic capture of digital facsimile images of the printed text, followed by the conversion of these images to electronic text through the process of optical character recognition (OCR). This article describes a project undertaken at the University of Waikato over the period 1999 to 2001 to produce a full-text searchable version of the Niupepa or Maori- language newspaper collection for delivery over the Internet.

year: 2002