title: Uptake of ΣDDT, arsenic, cadmium, copper, and lead by lettuce and radish grown in contaminated horticultural soils

authors: Gaw, Sally K.

subjects: horticultural soil

abstract: Horticultural soils can contain elevated concentrations of selected trace elements and organochlorine pesticides as a result of long-term use of agrichemicals and soil amendments. A glasshouse study was undertaken to assess the uptake of weathered ΣDDT {sum of the p,p′- and o,p-isomers of DDT [1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane], DDE [1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene] and DDD[1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane]}, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) residues by lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and radish (Raphanus sativus) from field-aged New Zealand horticultural soils. Concentrations of ΣDDT, DDT, DDE, Cd, Cu, and Pb in lettuce increased with increasing soil concentrations. In radish, similar relationships were observed for ΣDDT, DDE, and Cu. The bioaccumulation factors were less than 1 with the exception of Cd and decreased with increasing soil concentrations. Lettuce Cd concentrations for plants grown on four out of 10 assayed soils were equivalent to or exceeded the New Zealand food standard for leafy vegetables of 0.1 mg kg−1 fresh weight. Concentrations of As, Pb, and ΣDDT did not exceed available food standards. Overall, these results demonstrate that aged residues of ΣDDT, As, Cd, Cu, and Pb in horticultural soils have remained phytoavailable. To be protective of human health, site-specific risk assessments and soil guideline derivations for residential settings with vegetable gardens need to consider the produce consumption pathway.

text: Uptake of ΣDDT, arsenic, cadmium, copper, and lead by lettuce and radish grown in contaminated horticultural soils Horticultural soils can contain elevated concentrations of selected trace elements and organochlorine pesticides as a result of long-term use of agrichemicals and soil amendments. A glasshouse study was undertaken to assess the uptake of weathered ΣDDT {sum of the p,p′- and o,p-isomers of DDT [1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane], DDE [1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene] and DDD[1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane]}, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) residues by lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and radish (Raphanus sativus) from field-aged New Zealand horticultural soils. Concentrations of ΣDDT, DDT, DDE, Cd, Cu, and Pb in lettuce increased with increasing soil concentrations. In radish, similar relationships were observed for ΣDDT, DDE, and Cu. The bioaccumulation factors were less than 1 with the exception of Cd and decreased with increasing soil concentrations. Lettuce Cd concentrations for plants grown on four out of 10 assayed soils were equivalent to or exceeded the New Zealand food standard for leafy vegetables of 0.1 mg kg−1 fresh weight. Concentrations of As, Pb, and ΣDDT did not exceed available food standards. Overall, these results demonstrate that aged residues of ΣDDT, As, Cd, Cu, and Pb in horticultural soils have remained phytoavailable. To be protective of human health, site-specific risk assessments and soil guideline derivations for residential settings with vegetable gardens need to consider the produce consumption pathway.

year: 2008

title: Sites of value? Discourses of religion and spirituality in the production of a New Zealand film and television series

authors: Hardy, Ann

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: This interdisciplinary study examines the nature of the discourses of religion and spirituality circulating in and around the production of a feature film, Saving Grace and a television mini-series, The Chosen, made and released in New Zealand during the period 1997-1999. Its interest is in the manner in which discourses of religion and spirituality are enlisted and modified in the process of mediation for public screening.
Drawing on various insights derived from post-structuralist theory, and informed by recent work in the sociology of religion, the study operates within a modified tripartite model which balances information about the production context of the projects with text-interpretation, and analysis of media constructions (or reviews) of the text. Initially, a description of the complex socio-historical context in which the texts are situated, both globally and locally, is developed. The manner in which selected members of the production teams for the two projects understood meanings around religion and spirituality is then explored through the discursive analysis of material gained by the process of depth-interviewing. The production of the projects was followed over an extended time-duration, in order to ascertain whether those understandings changed under the many influences constituting the conditions of production. The second aspect of the analysis is interpretation of the texts themselves through an analysis of their narrative and generic structures, as well as their discursive content. Finally, responses and evaluations of the text by, in the case of Saving Grace, a series of 'interim' audiences, and for both projects, by media reviewers, are outlined and analyzed.
On the basis of this research it is argued that investigation of the production of these projects provides valuable insights both into the changing nature of constructions of religion and spirituality within New Zealand culture and into the tensions involved in their textual encoding. These insights are to be found not just in the texts themselves, where professional norms of 'good' production, constrained and limited the ways in which discourses of religion and spirituality could be encoded, but also in the 'personal' speech of the research participants, marked both by a strong disapproval of institutional religiosity, and a wide-spread interest in informal varieties of spirituality.

text: Sites of value? Discourses of religion and spirituality in the production of a New Zealand film and television series This interdisciplinary study examines the nature of the discourses of religion and spirituality circulating in and around the production of a feature film, Saving Grace and a television mini-series, The Chosen, made and released in New Zealand during the period 1997-1999. Its interest is in the manner in which discourses of religion and spirituality are enlisted and modified in the process of mediation for public screening.
Drawing on various insights derived from post-structuralist theory, and informed by recent work in the sociology of religion, the study operates within a modified tripartite model which balances information about the production context of the projects with text-interpretation, and analysis of media constructions (or reviews) of the text. Initially, a description of the complex socio-historical context in which the texts are situated, both globally and locally, is developed. The manner in which selected members of the production teams for the two projects understood meanings around religion and spirituality is then explored through the discursive analysis of material gained by the process of depth-interviewing. The production of the projects was followed over an extended time-duration, in order to ascertain whether those understandings changed under the many influences constituting the conditions of production. The second aspect of the analysis is interpretation of the texts themselves through an analysis of their narrative and generic structures, as well as their discursive content. Finally, responses and evaluations of the text by, in the case of Saving Grace, a series of 'interim' audiences, and for both projects, by media reviewers, are outlined and analyzed.
On the basis of this research it is argued that investigation of the production of these projects provides valuable insights both into the changing nature of constructions of religion and spirituality within New Zealand culture and into the tensions involved in their textual encoding. These insights are to be found not just in the texts themselves, where professional norms of 'good' production, constrained and limited the ways in which discourses of religion and spirituality could be encoded, but also in the 'personal' speech of the research participants, marked both by a strong disapproval of institutional religiosity, and a wide-spread interest in informal varieties of spirituality.

year: 2003

title: Te Puea Herangi: an ethno-biographical study

authors: King, Michael

abstract: Early explanations of Maori leadership (for example Buck 1950) tended to emphasize the principle of male primogeniture - the expectation that community leadership would in the normal course of affairs pass to the eldest sons of lines of first-born males. Later studies of Western-educated leaders and those with a non-traditional power base (see Butterworth 1969, Cody 1953, Condliffe 1971, and Henderson 1972) continued to emphasize male primacy. Against the tenor of these studies, however, is the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century the Maori King Movement was dominated and welded together by a woman who preached male primogeniture though her life seemed to contradict the principle; Te Puea Herangi was not of a senior descent line and neither compensated for its absence by a substantial degree of European education nor consolidated her position by marriage. Nor was she simply a forceful leader in Maori terms only: Professor J.G.A. Pocock (in The Maori and New Zealand Politics) called her “possibly the most influential woman in our political history”.

This study examines Te Puea's leadership role: how she came to assume it, how she exercised it, and its consequences. Analytical concepts like Max Weber's distinctions between charismatic, traditional and rational-legal authority, have been avoided. The danger of adopting them is that the themes and emphases of research material can be easily and unintentionally warped to fit the model, in the interests of tidiness and intelligibility. Instead, this study proceeds by way of a detailed and chronological examination of the major events of Te Puea's life, and an evaluation of actions and statements as they occur and in the context in which they occur. It is, in other words, a consideration of Te Puea's life in terms of her own concepts, and in relation to the Maori and wider public affairs of her day. Explanations for her behaviour are sought within the boundaries of her own life and culture rather than from the imposition of alien models.

text: Te Puea Herangi: an ethno-biographical study Early explanations of Maori leadership (for example Buck 1950) tended to emphasize the principle of male primogeniture - the expectation that community leadership would in the normal course of affairs pass to the eldest sons of lines of first-born males. Later studies of Western-educated leaders and those with a non-traditional power base (see Butterworth 1969, Cody 1953, Condliffe 1971, and Henderson 1972) continued to emphasize male primacy. Against the tenor of these studies, however, is the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century the Maori King Movement was dominated and welded together by a woman who preached male primogeniture though her life seemed to contradict the principle; Te Puea Herangi was not of a senior descent line and neither compensated for its absence by a substantial degree of European education nor consolidated her position by marriage. Nor was she simply a forceful leader in Maori terms only: Professor J.G.A. Pocock (in The Maori and New Zealand Politics) called her “possibly the most influential woman in our political history”.

This study examines Te Puea's leadership role: how she came to assume it, how she exercised it, and its consequences. Analytical concepts like Max Weber's distinctions between charismatic, traditional and rational-legal authority, have been avoided. The danger of adopting them is that the themes and emphases of research material can be easily and unintentionally warped to fit the model, in the interests of tidiness and intelligibility. Instead, this study proceeds by way of a detailed and chronological examination of the major events of Te Puea's life, and an evaluation of actions and statements as they occur and in the context in which they occur. It is, in other words, a consideration of Te Puea's life in terms of her own concepts, and in relation to the Maori and wider public affairs of her day. Explanations for her behaviour are sought within the boundaries of her own life and culture rather than from the imposition of alien models.

year: 1977