title: The Innovative Subject in Education: A Philosophical Perspective

authors: Heraud, Richard

subjects: Innovation

abstract: The field of innovation studies is both very recent and constituted through a variety of disciplines. It has become one of the dominant discourses of the modern research university driving reforms, the changing relationship of the university to the knowledge economy and international rankings of institutions. This thesis reviews these literatures and their implications for a student-centred view. Specifically, the thesis examines the literature of innovation in economics, reviewing and analysing the work of three selected theorists – List, Schumpeter, and Lundvall – and the figure of the innovator as entrepreneur. The predominant economic understanding of innovation treats the process of innovation as a black box and neoliberalism views innovation as a means of increasing productivity, largely ignoring the student's contribution. This thesis argues that students’ capacity for innovation, which is already present in their subjectivities as tacit knowledge is enhanced through the use open architectures and digital platforms that becomes the basis for social innovation as a form of collective intelligence in higher education. This new model of open and social innovation is a very different notion to the standard economic view, bringing to the fore the ethics of collaboration in the service of peer and co-production that is more suited to the digital age of social media.

text: The Innovative Subject in Education: A Philosophical Perspective The field of innovation studies is both very recent and constituted through a variety of disciplines. It has become one of the dominant discourses of the modern research university driving reforms, the changing relationship of the university to the knowledge economy and international rankings of institutions. This thesis reviews these literatures and their implications for a student-centred view. Specifically, the thesis examines the literature of innovation in economics, reviewing and analysing the work of three selected theorists – List, Schumpeter, and Lundvall – and the figure of the innovator as entrepreneur. The predominant economic understanding of innovation treats the process of innovation as a black box and neoliberalism views innovation as a means of increasing productivity, largely ignoring the student's contribution. This thesis argues that students’ capacity for innovation, which is already present in their subjectivities as tacit knowledge is enhanced through the use open architectures and digital platforms that becomes the basis for social innovation as a form of collective intelligence in higher education. This new model of open and social innovation is a very different notion to the standard economic view, bringing to the fore the ethics of collaboration in the service of peer and co-production that is more suited to the digital age of social media.

year: 2017

title: Random projections as regularizers: learning a linear discriminant from fewer observations than dimensions

authors: Durrant, Robert J.

subjects: random projections

abstract: We prove theoretical guarantees for an averaging-ensemble of randomly projected Fisher linear discriminant classifiers, focusing on the casewhen there are fewer training observations than data dimensions. The specific form and simplicity of this ensemble permits a direct and much more detailed analysis than existing generic tools in previous works. In particular, we are able to derive the exact form of the generalization error of our ensemble, conditional on the training set, and based on this we give theoretical guarantees which directly link the performance of the ensemble to that of the corresponding linear discriminant learned in the full data space. To the best of our knowledge these are the first theoretical results to prove such an explicit link for any classifier and classifier ensemble pair. Furthermore we show that the randomly projected ensemble is equivalent to implementing a sophisticated regularization scheme to the linear discriminant learned in the original data space and this prevents overfitting in conditions of small sample size where pseudo-inverse FLD learned in the data space is provably poor. Our ensemble is learned from a set of randomly projected representations of the original high dimensional data and therefore for this approach data can be collected, stored and processed in such a compressed form. We confirm our theoretical findings with experiments, and demonstrate the utility of our approach on several datasets from the bioinformatics domain and one very high dimensional dataset from the drug discovery domain, both settings in which fewer observations than dimensions are the norm.

text: Random projections as regularizers: learning a linear discriminant from fewer observations than dimensions We prove theoretical guarantees for an averaging-ensemble of randomly projected Fisher linear discriminant classifiers, focusing on the casewhen there are fewer training observations than data dimensions. The specific form and simplicity of this ensemble permits a direct and much more detailed analysis than existing generic tools in previous works. In particular, we are able to derive the exact form of the generalization error of our ensemble, conditional on the training set, and based on this we give theoretical guarantees which directly link the performance of the ensemble to that of the corresponding linear discriminant learned in the full data space. To the best of our knowledge these are the first theoretical results to prove such an explicit link for any classifier and classifier ensemble pair. Furthermore we show that the randomly projected ensemble is equivalent to implementing a sophisticated regularization scheme to the linear discriminant learned in the original data space and this prevents overfitting in conditions of small sample size where pseudo-inverse FLD learned in the data space is provably poor. Our ensemble is learned from a set of randomly projected representations of the original high dimensional data and therefore for this approach data can be collected, stored and processed in such a compressed form. We confirm our theoretical findings with experiments, and demonstrate the utility of our approach on several datasets from the bioinformatics domain and one very high dimensional dataset from the drug discovery domain, both settings in which fewer observations than dimensions are the norm.

year: 2014-08-19

title: Quantification of Nitro-toxins in Karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) Drupes

authors: MacAskill, Jessica Jane

abstract: The karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) is a tree native to New Zealand (NZ), found throughout the North and South Islands. Traditionally, many parts of the karaka were used by Māori, however the parts of the karaka of most interest are the berry and nut as they were valuable food sources, in particular the nut. Karaka was known to be a toxin-bearing food, however implementation of a traditional baking and soaking process meant that the nuts were left in states fit for consumption, more often than not. The nuts also had the benefit of being able to be stored for future use when other food sources were short in supply. Karaka was readily consumed up until the 1950s, after this consumption rates decreased rapidly, after the toxic effects were associated with the incorrect preparation of the nuts.

Studies on karaka have revealed that the toxicity of the nuts primarily arises from various nitropropanoyl glucopyranoses (NPGs), twelve of which have been detected in karaka. The quantity of these NPGs has been infrequently studied and it is often only one of the NPGs-karakin which is quantified, although it is believed the toxicity in nuts arises collectively from all of the NPGs. As a result, there is the need to be able to quantify the NPGs in karaka and look at potential toxin removal techniques. If toxin removal can be accomplished, there is the potential for karaka to be a marketable ‘traditional’ or ‘Kiwi’ food item. Additionally, the toxins removed as a by-product may prove to have their own potential commercial applications, for example as insecticides or repellents. 

Since all the NPGs are assumed to be toxic, a method was developed to quantify the total toxicity in the nuts. The method involves the release of NPA via acid hydrolysis of the nitropropanoyl ester groups of the NPGs. The NPA is then able to be measured and subsequently quantified using HPLC. The method incorporates a correction factor (CF) that was determined to give the original NPA content at a time of zero (NPA0), accounting for the unavoidable loss of NPA that arises from the hydrolysis method.

The average quantity of NPA in karaka nuts was found to range from 50.25 to 138.62 g kg-1 (dry weight) which is equivalent to 5.0 to 13.9%. These are much higher percentages than any previously reported because the method used in this study measured total NPA. Earlier methods measured a limited range of NPGs (often a single NPG) unhydrolysed and could have missed NPA arising from other compounds that contribute to total toxicity. Additionally, the concentrations of NPA in karaka nuts were influenced by a number of factors including intra and inter tree variation, storage conditions and ripeness. Although quantification was focused on determining NPA content in nuts, a test conducted also showed NPA to be present in increasingly lower levels in the berry flesh, shell and pellicle respectively. 

Nuts were subjected to various potential industrial processing techniques, treatment times and conditions, in order to determine their efficacy for toxin removal. Treatments included boiling, microwave cooking, soxhlet extraction, oven roasting, autoclaving and cold-water treatments. The efficiency of each treatment varied considerably, with both heat and water proving to be beneficial in toxin removal. However, treatments involving water were found to be more effective than heat treatments alone. Out of all treatment types, times and conditions tested, none were found to leave nuts with a NPA concentration lower than the estimated safe level of daily consumption for a 70 kg adult (< 1.75 mg). Additionally, only some of the treatments resulted in nuts being left in visually appealing states. At present, toxin removal by a single process in order to render karaka nuts safe to consume appears to be an impractical activity. However, if treatment protocols were combined and modified, there is the potential for the development of an effective detoxification process. Furthermore, tests on the treatment solutions revealed that NPA can be obtained in solution as a by-product of nut treatment; with cold-water proving to be more effective than treatments that also used heat. Obtaining NPA as a by-product of toxin removal in nuts appears to be a feasible option for a natural source of NPA.

text: Quantification of Nitro-toxins in Karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) Drupes The karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) is a tree native to New Zealand (NZ), found throughout the North and South Islands. Traditionally, many parts of the karaka were used by Māori, however the parts of the karaka of most interest are the berry and nut as they were valuable food sources, in particular the nut. Karaka was known to be a toxin-bearing food, however implementation of a traditional baking and soaking process meant that the nuts were left in states fit for consumption, more often than not. The nuts also had the benefit of being able to be stored for future use when other food sources were short in supply. Karaka was readily consumed up until the 1950s, after this consumption rates decreased rapidly, after the toxic effects were associated with the incorrect preparation of the nuts.

Studies on karaka have revealed that the toxicity of the nuts primarily arises from various nitropropanoyl glucopyranoses (NPGs), twelve of which have been detected in karaka. The quantity of these NPGs has been infrequently studied and it is often only one of the NPGs-karakin which is quantified, although it is believed the toxicity in nuts arises collectively from all of the NPGs. As a result, there is the need to be able to quantify the NPGs in karaka and look at potential toxin removal techniques. If toxin removal can be accomplished, there is the potential for karaka to be a marketable ‘traditional’ or ‘Kiwi’ food item. Additionally, the toxins removed as a by-product may prove to have their own potential commercial applications, for example as insecticides or repellents. 

Since all the NPGs are assumed to be toxic, a method was developed to quantify the total toxicity in the nuts. The method involves the release of NPA via acid hydrolysis of the nitropropanoyl ester groups of the NPGs. The NPA is then able to be measured and subsequently quantified using HPLC. The method incorporates a correction factor (CF) that was determined to give the original NPA content at a time of zero (NPA0), accounting for the unavoidable loss of NPA that arises from the hydrolysis method.

The average quantity of NPA in karaka nuts was found to range from 50.25 to 138.62 g kg-1 (dry weight) which is equivalent to 5.0 to 13.9%. These are much higher percentages than any previously reported because the method used in this study measured total NPA. Earlier methods measured a limited range of NPGs (often a single NPG) unhydrolysed and could have missed NPA arising from other compounds that contribute to total toxicity. Additionally, the concentrations of NPA in karaka nuts were influenced by a number of factors including intra and inter tree variation, storage conditions and ripeness. Although quantification was focused on determining NPA content in nuts, a test conducted also showed NPA to be present in increasingly lower levels in the berry flesh, shell and pellicle respectively. 

Nuts were subjected to various potential industrial processing techniques, treatment times and conditions, in order to determine their efficacy for toxin removal. Treatments included boiling, microwave cooking, soxhlet extraction, oven roasting, autoclaving and cold-water treatments. The efficiency of each treatment varied considerably, with both heat and water proving to be beneficial in toxin removal. However, treatments involving water were found to be more effective than heat treatments alone. Out of all treatment types, times and conditions tested, none were found to leave nuts with a NPA concentration lower than the estimated safe level of daily consumption for a 70 kg adult (< 1.75 mg). Additionally, only some of the treatments resulted in nuts being left in visually appealing states. At present, toxin removal by a single process in order to render karaka nuts safe to consume appears to be an impractical activity. However, if treatment protocols were combined and modified, there is the potential for the development of an effective detoxification process. Furthermore, tests on the treatment solutions revealed that NPA can be obtained in solution as a by-product of nut treatment; with cold-water proving to be more effective than treatments that also used heat. Obtaining NPA as a by-product of toxin removal in nuts appears to be a feasible option for a natural source of NPA.

year: 2013