title: Measurement of implant electrode leads using time-domain reflectometry to predict the resonant length for MRI heating

authors: McCabe, Steven Owen

abstract: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines can generate hazardous RF heating of patients with implanted neurostimulation leads. Consequently, most patients with these implants are contraindicated from having MRI scans. The level of RF heating has a strong dependence on lead length and is most severe when the length is close to a specific resonant length. Recent studies have shown that simple modifications to the lead construction and insulating material can alter the resonant length and significantly ameliorate this heating hazard, achieving MRI safety. We propose a technique using time domain reflectometry (TDR) to find the resonant length of an arbitrary lead such to minimise the amount of MRI machine time needed to find the length of highest heating. The results are compared with temperature measurements made in a 3-Tesla MRI machine and with a CW dipole radiator in the lab.

text: Measurement of implant electrode leads using time-domain reflectometry to predict the resonant length for MRI heating Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines can generate hazardous RF heating of patients with implanted neurostimulation leads. Consequently, most patients with these implants are contraindicated from having MRI scans. The level of RF heating has a strong dependence on lead length and is most severe when the length is close to a specific resonant length. Recent studies have shown that simple modifications to the lead construction and insulating material can alter the resonant length and significantly ameliorate this heating hazard, achieving MRI safety. We propose a technique using time domain reflectometry (TDR) to find the resonant length of an arbitrary lead such to minimise the amount of MRI machine time needed to find the length of highest heating. The results are compared with temperature measurements made in a 3-Tesla MRI machine and with a CW dipole radiator in the lab.

year: 2016

title: Love me long time: safety and risk in heterocoupledom at adolescence.

authors: Parker, Lisa Maree

abstract: This thesis argues that heterocoupledom at adolescence discursively constitutes Girlfriends and Boyfriends as gendered subjects of safety and risk. The gendering of safety and risk operates to position Girlfriends as risk navigators who make pre-emptive and response-able moves. Safety and risk are regarded as disciplinary techniques that regulate Girlfriends’ performances in relation to defending or maintaining safety and managing risk. It is argued that this positioning as risk navigators only makes ‘sense’ when the subject of Girlfriend is figured as already unsafe and yet responsible for risk. Boyfriends are argued to be positioned as already safe and capable risk takers within heterocoupledom and this configuration means that young men’s engagements with safety and risk remain normalised and unproblematic.

Interviews with young women and focus groups with young women and men were conducted in the mid 1990's. i then read these texts from a feminist discursive position. This discursive approach to feminist psychology is described as it shifted politically and across disciplinary boundaries. Drawing from feminist readings of Foucauldian understandings of power and heterosexuality, i have examined the ways in which hegemonic discourses of heterocoupledom constitute Girlfriends as subjects who are expected to take responsibility for managing and navigating safety and risk. Throughout i ‘make strange’ the way risk warnings convey a taken for granted sensibility that young women should take precautions against harm, abuse and violence, and defend against their safety. The constitution of Girlfriend as already unsafe and Boyfriend as already safe is problematised.

The thesis is structured around a reading of the constitution of gendered heterocoupledom, romance, risk and adolescence, and problematises how heterocoupledom is entered into, the labours of love, and the young women’s responses to harm, abuse, and violence from Boyfriends. Among the many discourses discussed, a discourse of feminine sexuality as threatened and threatening is argued to position young women as already unsafe. A girl-power femininity is argued to have been recuperated to incite young women to become subject to the labours of navigating for safety. i also pay attention to the many subversions of the discourses of gender that young people make in their everyday heterocoupledom and how masculinity and femininity are remixed in a post-modern, globalised capitalist Western context where both recuperation and resistance are at work. The overall focus remains on the disciplinary workings and implications for Girlfriends of navigating a double danger where safety (as managing risk) depends on the re-invention and reification of the already unsafe subject - Girlfriend.

text: Love me long time: safety and risk in heterocoupledom at adolescence. This thesis argues that heterocoupledom at adolescence discursively constitutes Girlfriends and Boyfriends as gendered subjects of safety and risk. The gendering of safety and risk operates to position Girlfriends as risk navigators who make pre-emptive and response-able moves. Safety and risk are regarded as disciplinary techniques that regulate Girlfriends’ performances in relation to defending or maintaining safety and managing risk. It is argued that this positioning as risk navigators only makes ‘sense’ when the subject of Girlfriend is figured as already unsafe and yet responsible for risk. Boyfriends are argued to be positioned as already safe and capable risk takers within heterocoupledom and this configuration means that young men’s engagements with safety and risk remain normalised and unproblematic.

Interviews with young women and focus groups with young women and men were conducted in the mid 1990's. i then read these texts from a feminist discursive position. This discursive approach to feminist psychology is described as it shifted politically and across disciplinary boundaries. Drawing from feminist readings of Foucauldian understandings of power and heterosexuality, i have examined the ways in which hegemonic discourses of heterocoupledom constitute Girlfriends as subjects who are expected to take responsibility for managing and navigating safety and risk. Throughout i ‘make strange’ the way risk warnings convey a taken for granted sensibility that young women should take precautions against harm, abuse and violence, and defend against their safety. The constitution of Girlfriend as already unsafe and Boyfriend as already safe is problematised.

The thesis is structured around a reading of the constitution of gendered heterocoupledom, romance, risk and adolescence, and problematises how heterocoupledom is entered into, the labours of love, and the young women’s responses to harm, abuse, and violence from Boyfriends. Among the many discourses discussed, a discourse of feminine sexuality as threatened and threatening is argued to position young women as already unsafe. A girl-power femininity is argued to have been recuperated to incite young women to become subject to the labours of navigating for safety. i also pay attention to the many subversions of the discourses of gender that young people make in their everyday heterocoupledom and how masculinity and femininity are remixed in a post-modern, globalised capitalist Western context where both recuperation and resistance are at work. The overall focus remains on the disciplinary workings and implications for Girlfriends of navigating a double danger where safety (as managing risk) depends on the re-invention and reification of the already unsafe subject - Girlfriend.

year: 2002

title: Whānau Stories: Creating meaningful engagement and wellbeing for the indigenous culture of Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Cruse, Diana Caroline Annavale

subjects: Engagement

abstract: This research sees my interests coalesce into a particular focus on how collaborative partnerships with parents/caregivers can provide whānau Māori with opportunities to strengthen wellbeing in their own lives. It is located in Aotearoa New Zealand and within the context of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum.  The Ministry of Education has a target that 98% of all children in Aotearoa New Zealand under 5 will attend an early childhood education setting (Ministry of Education, 2016), with Māori children having lower participation rates than the national participation rate (Ministry of Education, 2013).  The premise for this thesis is that meaningful whānau engagement in early learning contexts within Aotearoa New Zealand can empower whānau Māori, and honour the promises made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi of partnership, participation, and protection.
Therefore, this thesis sets out to examine what constitutes meaningful engagement for whānau Māori in an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how meaningful engagement can assist whānau to enjoy an increase of wellbeing.
To explore this issue, I conducted research within an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, using methodologies of Kaupapa Māori Research and Narrative Inquiry.  I listened to the narratives of whānau Māori indicating how meaningful engagement was created for them, and investigated if links were generated between engagement and wellbeing for their whānau. These links were identified in the literature as significant levers for educational success.
This research discovered three stages of engagement for the whānau Māori who participated in this study: establishing engagement, developing engagement and solidifying engagement.  Once created, meaningful engagement can lead to flourishing, indicating that there is relationship between meaningful engagement and whānau wellbeing.

text: Whānau Stories: Creating meaningful engagement and wellbeing for the indigenous culture of Aotearoa New Zealand This research sees my interests coalesce into a particular focus on how collaborative partnerships with parents/caregivers can provide whānau Māori with opportunities to strengthen wellbeing in their own lives. It is located in Aotearoa New Zealand and within the context of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum.  The Ministry of Education has a target that 98% of all children in Aotearoa New Zealand under 5 will attend an early childhood education setting (Ministry of Education, 2016), with Māori children having lower participation rates than the national participation rate (Ministry of Education, 2013).  The premise for this thesis is that meaningful whānau engagement in early learning contexts within Aotearoa New Zealand can empower whānau Māori, and honour the promises made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi of partnership, participation, and protection.
Therefore, this thesis sets out to examine what constitutes meaningful engagement for whānau Māori in an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how meaningful engagement can assist whānau to enjoy an increase of wellbeing.
To explore this issue, I conducted research within an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, using methodologies of Kaupapa Māori Research and Narrative Inquiry.  I listened to the narratives of whānau Māori indicating how meaningful engagement was created for them, and investigated if links were generated between engagement and wellbeing for their whānau. These links were identified in the literature as significant levers for educational success.
This research discovered three stages of engagement for the whānau Māori who participated in this study: establishing engagement, developing engagement and solidifying engagement.  Once created, meaningful engagement can lead to flourishing, indicating that there is relationship between meaningful engagement and whānau wellbeing.

year: 2017