title: Composition Portfolios

authors: Vu, Viet Anh

subjects: Composition

abstract: This portfolio was inspired by Vietnamese life in nineteenth century. Celebrate the magnificent scenery and landscape; The Nguyen Dynasty and kingdom; traditional folk dances and festivals and the influences of the French culture.

text: Composition Portfolios This portfolio was inspired by Vietnamese life in nineteenth century. Celebrate the magnificent scenery and landscape; The Nguyen Dynasty and kingdom; traditional folk dances and festivals and the influences of the French culture.

year: 2011

title: Understanding accountability in an ever-changing New Zealand health system

authors: Zainal Abidin, Nor Azizah Binti

subjects: accountability

abstract: The purpose of this research was to understand how the constant adoption of reforms affected accountability understanding and its practices in the New Zealand public health system. 

This study adopted a qualitative methodology and took a critical hermeneutics approach in order to explore the reasons for, and formats of, public health reform, and the experience of health policy implementers in dealing with reforms, policy changes, and accountability. To develop new insights about accountability and its practices, this study reviewed a range of policy documents and relevant publications, and interviewed senior health managers who were experienced in dealing with reforms. 

The research evidence is presented in line with Ricoeur’s stages of understanding; these are: preunderstanding, understanding, and finally, comprehensive understanding. The preunderstanding was developed from study of secondary sources, while the understanding was achieved through interviews. A comprehensive understanding results from both review of and reflection on preunderstanding and understanding. 

The findings are that reform can be described as a ‘means without ends’ because it was continually implemented in a political loop, in which, demand and supply for change were determined by the government’s political interests. Postreform accountability was full of frustrations because of its complexity in practice. Surprisingly, despite that fact, the health managers still believe that accountability per se is essential. This study proposes that postreform accountability can be understood as two sides of the same coin: accountability means being accountable, in a normative sense, and not being able to be accountable, in practice.
The adoption of constant reforms has increased the level of organisational complexity. This has affected the notion of accountability and its practices because accountability rests in the organisational structures. This study suggests that accountability cannot be detached from its normative and mechanism perspectives. No matter how much the policy has changed or will change in the future, the possibility of policy implementers facing similar challenges and the same feelings is high because reform produces two identical outcomes for accountability: i.e., hopes and frustrations. 

The study contributes in three ways to an understanding of accountability in the context of reform. First, it offers valuable insights into the ongoing developments in the public health system and the issues of accountability. Second, it contributes to the wider understanding of the effects reform have on the notion of accountability and its practices. Third, it advances understanding relating to recent discussions on postreform accountability.

text: Understanding accountability in an ever-changing New Zealand health system The purpose of this research was to understand how the constant adoption of reforms affected accountability understanding and its practices in the New Zealand public health system. 

This study adopted a qualitative methodology and took a critical hermeneutics approach in order to explore the reasons for, and formats of, public health reform, and the experience of health policy implementers in dealing with reforms, policy changes, and accountability. To develop new insights about accountability and its practices, this study reviewed a range of policy documents and relevant publications, and interviewed senior health managers who were experienced in dealing with reforms. 

The research evidence is presented in line with Ricoeur’s stages of understanding; these are: preunderstanding, understanding, and finally, comprehensive understanding. The preunderstanding was developed from study of secondary sources, while the understanding was achieved through interviews. A comprehensive understanding results from both review of and reflection on preunderstanding and understanding. 

The findings are that reform can be described as a ‘means without ends’ because it was continually implemented in a political loop, in which, demand and supply for change were determined by the government’s political interests. Postreform accountability was full of frustrations because of its complexity in practice. Surprisingly, despite that fact, the health managers still believe that accountability per se is essential. This study proposes that postreform accountability can be understood as two sides of the same coin: accountability means being accountable, in a normative sense, and not being able to be accountable, in practice.
The adoption of constant reforms has increased the level of organisational complexity. This has affected the notion of accountability and its practices because accountability rests in the organisational structures. This study suggests that accountability cannot be detached from its normative and mechanism perspectives. No matter how much the policy has changed or will change in the future, the possibility of policy implementers facing similar challenges and the same feelings is high because reform produces two identical outcomes for accountability: i.e., hopes and frustrations. 

The study contributes in three ways to an understanding of accountability in the context of reform. First, it offers valuable insights into the ongoing developments in the public health system and the issues of accountability. Second, it contributes to the wider understanding of the effects reform have on the notion of accountability and its practices. Third, it advances understanding relating to recent discussions on postreform accountability.

year: 2015

title: Two-step human−environmental impact history for northern New Zealand linked to late-Holocene climate change

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Following resolution of a long-standing debate over the timing of the initial settlement of New Zealand from Polynesia (late 13th century), a prevailing paradigm has developed that invokes rapid transformation of the landscape, principally by fire, within a few decades of the first arrivals. This model has been constructed from evidence mostly from southern and eastern regions of New Zealand, but a more complicated pattern may apply in the more humid western and northern regions where forests are more resilient to burning. We present a new pollen record from Lake Pupuke, Auckland, northern New Zealand, that charts the changing vegetation cover over the last 1000 years, before and after the arrival of people. Previous results from this site concurred with the rapid transformation model, although sampling resolution, chronology and sediment disturbance make that interpretation equivocal. Our new record is dated principally by tephrochronology together with radiocarbon dating, and includes a cryptotephra deposit identified as Kaharoa tephra, a key marker for first settlement in northern New Zealand. Its discovery and stratigraphic position below two Rangitoto-derived tephras enables a clearer picture of environmental change to be drawn. The new pollen record shows an early phase (step 1) of minor, localised forest clearance around the time of Kaharoa tephra (c. 1314 AD) followed by a later, more extensive deforestation phase (step 2) commencing at around the time of deposition of the Rangitoto tephras (c. 1400‒1450 AD). This pattern, which needs to be corroborated from other well-resolved records from northern New Zealand, concurs with an emerging hypothesis that the ‘Little Ice Age’ had a significant impact on pre-European Māori with the onset of harsher conditions causing a consolidation of populations and later environmental impact in northern New Zealand.

text: Two-step human−environmental impact history for northern New Zealand linked to late-Holocene climate change Following resolution of a long-standing debate over the timing of the initial settlement of New Zealand from Polynesia (late 13th century), a prevailing paradigm has developed that invokes rapid transformation of the landscape, principally by fire, within a few decades of the first arrivals. This model has been constructed from evidence mostly from southern and eastern regions of New Zealand, but a more complicated pattern may apply in the more humid western and northern regions where forests are more resilient to burning. We present a new pollen record from Lake Pupuke, Auckland, northern New Zealand, that charts the changing vegetation cover over the last 1000 years, before and after the arrival of people. Previous results from this site concurred with the rapid transformation model, although sampling resolution, chronology and sediment disturbance make that interpretation equivocal. Our new record is dated principally by tephrochronology together with radiocarbon dating, and includes a cryptotephra deposit identified as Kaharoa tephra, a key marker for first settlement in northern New Zealand. Its discovery and stratigraphic position below two Rangitoto-derived tephras enables a clearer picture of environmental change to be drawn. The new pollen record shows an early phase (step 1) of minor, localised forest clearance around the time of Kaharoa tephra (c. 1314 AD) followed by a later, more extensive deforestation phase (step 2) commencing at around the time of deposition of the Rangitoto tephras (c. 1400‒1450 AD). This pattern, which needs to be corroborated from other well-resolved records from northern New Zealand, concurs with an emerging hypothesis that the ‘Little Ice Age’ had a significant impact on pre-European Māori with the onset of harsher conditions causing a consolidation of populations and later environmental impact in northern New Zealand.

year: 2018