Higher Degree Theses

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Privacy leakage quantification in vehicular ad hoc networks
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Daramas, Atthapan; Kumar, Vimal; Barcellos, Marinho
Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) offer the benefits of enhancing road safety and efficiency through the frequent information exchange among vehicles through continuous broadcasting of their locations and kinematics. While VANETs can be a potential solution to reduce road accidents, frequently announcing locations raises concerns about user privacy, as vehicles may become targets of trajectory tracking, resulting in the exposure of sensitive locations visited by vehicle users. Several works in the literature have tackled the problem of privacy leakage and privacy preservation through mechanisms that use periodically changing pseudo-identities---known as pseudonyms in VANETs. However, most of this work was done before standards bodies, such as ETSI and SAE, developed VANET communication standards that described how messages should be formed and broadcast, and when pseudonyms should be changed. The use of VANET communication standards makes attempts by the research community to preserve users' privacy outdated and leaves the quantification of privacy leakage in VANETs unaddressed. By keeping communication standards as the context, this thesis aims to fill the gap in understanding potential privacy threats in VANETs and to quantify privacy leakage when these standards are enforced. We analyse potential VANET privacy threats using the LINDDUN framework — a privacy threat elicitation framework and uncover 13 privacy threats in VANET communication, ranging from unawareness of vehicle communication to privacy leakage through user reidentification when the full trajectory is reconstructed. The ability to reidentify a user's true identity from a reconstructed trajectory highlights two sides of the same coin in VANET privacy issues: privacy leakage through communication and the adversary's ability to reconstruct vehicle trajectories. Given the scarcity of real-world datasets, research on VANET privacy quantification can be hindered from being conducted in accordance with communication standardisations. We analyse two real-world VANET communication datasets and identify three limitations in these datasets that render them inadequate for VANET privacy quantification research. Therefore, we develop two VANET communication datasets based on the VANET communication standards from two major standards bodies, ETSI and SAE, to serve as substitutes for inadequate real-world datasets. Based on the findings from our privacy threat elicitation, three vehicle trajectory reconstruction models are developed to simulate privacy attacks against the standardised VANET communication. The three proposed trajectory reconstruction models include a path history-based approach, a Bayesian approach, and a Kalman filter approach. Our trajectory reconstruction models show that 65 to 98% of the trajectory can be fully reconstructed, where the amount of fully reconstructed trajectory depends on the tracking models and the communication standards. Our findings indicate that the VANET communication standards may not sufficiently protect users from privacy threats, as most of the trajectory can be reconstructed by the adversary, and highlight the need for enhanced privacy-preserving mechanisms that can be deployed alongside existing standards.
Integration of agricultural systems for environmental sustainability: Vermicomposting organic resources for waste management and food production in a circular economy
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Robertson, Charlotte; Lay, Mark; Gavin, Chanelle; Bertram, Danielle; Quintern, Michael
Food production creates organic waste. Dissolved air flotation (DAF) sludges from meat processing are problematic to dispose of; they are odorous, have high moisture contents and are rich in nutrients. Direct land application without stabilisation of nutrients is common. Paper wastes can often be recycled, but food-contaminated paper wastes are usually landfilled. Nutrients in these two organic resources are therefore usually wasted. This research demonstrated that the compost worm (Eisenia fetida Savigny) could produce vermicompost from novel mixtures of chicken DAF sludge and cardboard, meeting the New Zealand Standards for vermicasts and provided a beneficial effect on plant growth. This research investigated whether commercially produced vermicast applied to onions, potatoes and maize affected yield and/or quality over three consecutive years, with crop rotation on a market garden farm. While international field trials have shown vermicast to improve crop yields, this has not been investigated in rotational crop farming for maize, potatoes and onions. It also has not been conducted in New Zealand at the scale in this thesis. The treatments applied were annual applications of either chicken litter applied at 3 t fresh matter (FM)/ha, vermicast applied at 12.5 t FM/ha or 25 t FM/ha. The treatments were compared to a Control (normal farm management). All treatments, including the Control, received normal fertiliser rates. The trials showed that vermicast applied at 25 t fresh matter (FM)/ha increased onion density and yield (with estimated farmgate profit of >$800/ha), as well as maize grain kernel mass compared to the Control in the third season. This season was the driest, indicating the vermicast provided benefits to crops under abiotic stress. The chicken litter treatment reduced onion density in the second and third seasons. In the third season, this led to an increase in average onion bulb mass, but did not translate to an increase in yield above that of the Control. Additional glasshouse studies were conducted on the application of commercially produced vermicast to determine whether the method or timing of application impacted onion bulbs under glasshouse conditions. Another study investigated the potential for vermicast to supplement diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser in a phosphorus (P) sparing trial in onions on a low Olsen P soil. Final soil Olsen P contents from treatments with 12.5 t FM/ha vermicast and 100% and 75% of recommended P were not significantly different to the Control (100% P and no vermicast). No effect of timing or supplementation of DAP was found on onion size or mass, though these trials were found to be underpowered. The effect of vermicast application timing in relation to crop production has not previously been investigated. Neither has the potential for vermicast to supplement imported phosphate fertiliser on low Olsen P soils. The outcome of this thesis is that beneficial vermicast can be produced from organic wastes and has potential to improve food production in New Zealand. It may also be possible to use vermicast to reduce reliance on conventional fertilisers such as DAP.
Learning strategies: testing Pask’s conversation theory in a computer environment
(The University of Waikato, 1993) Barbour, Robert H.; Ericksen, Neil; Katterns, Robert
Pask’s “Conversation Theory”, is an influential view of the nature of conversations between people, especially in learning situations. The theory provided a predictive framework within which to extend Pask’s laboratory work. Existing work used participant human observers to study the learning process. This technique may be unsuited to the normal classroom context. Software extensions to a geographical image library, map and data store, the BBC Domesday System, were used to extend Pask’s work. In carrying out this research, the three main principles from Conversation Theory were examined: 1) that people learn in different ways; 2) that the degree of matching between the learning strategies of teachers and learners strongly influences the rate of learning; and 3) that learning takes place as a conversation between participants whose essential features can be successfully automated. This thesis examined and evaluated three questions derived from Pask’s Conversation Theory in the light of empirical results collected in Phase 1 of a two phase research design. These questions were: 1) whether differences in learning preferences were detectable in modified versions of Ford’s (1985) questionnaire; 2) whether preferences for learning strategies were reflected in individual differences in learning behaviour; 3) whether matching learning preferences with learning experiences enhanced the learning process. Methods of investigation in Phase 1 included: a modified questionnaire; and using the BBC Domesday System to capture learning behaviour with a series of software tools. Findings show: that differences in learning preferences were detectable in questionnaire responses; that differences in learning behaviour were detected also in learning performances; that differences in preferences and behaviour were minimally correlated. Questions emerged from the lack of expected strength of agreement between findings of Phase 1. These questions are discussed in Phase 2 in relation to recent developments in both epistemology and the theory of computer science. The two further questions guiding the research in Phase 2 were: 4) whether matching learning and teaching strategies enhances learning; 5) whether a computer can act as a conversation participant in a teaching-learning context. Methods employed in Phase 2 include an examination of the findings of Phase 1 in the light of recent philosophical literature. Findings from Phase 2 show why matching is undecidable and why a computer cannot contribute to a conversation in the way a person does. Results in Phase 2 uphold Pask’s first principle, leave the second undecided and cast serious theoretical doubt on the third. The implications of the findings for educators, geographers and computer scientists are discussed.
Theoretical paradigms of understanding in accounting: from structuralism to pluralism
(The University of Waikato, 1993) Davey, Howard; Pratt, Michael; Lawrence, Stewart R.
Accounting thought has been largely driven by the immediate needs of accounting practitioners and hence the praxis of accounting has leaned heavily towards practice rather than theory. Resulting from this has been a loose patina of rules and conventions, frequently without articulation and frequently lacking detailed research and theorising. Two, at times overlapping, responses to this situation may be identified. One response can be described as the ‘professional’ or ‘institutional’ response, with researchers undertaking conceptual framework-type work which, although debatable, has provided little more than a political solution and has not adequately addressed the need for fundamental research and theory. The second response can be described as the development of theorising. Accounting researchers within this category in particular uplifted the scientific approach and have more recently considered alternative methods of gaining knowledge which are themselves reactions to the scientific approach. The purpose of the thesis is to examine and criticise the principal extant theoretical paradigms of understanding in accounting with a view to offering guidance for future researchers in accounting. In doing this a phenomenological approach is used. The thesis concludes that although there are strengths associated with the scientific approach, it is not universally appropriate nor does it confer any automatic legitimacy on the research. As a corollary, knowledge or understanding that has resulted from alternative approaches (whether they be interpretive case study or ethnomethodological research) should be included in the accounting body of knowledge. Further, by de-privileging the scientific approach researchers working in alternative areas do not then need to resort to the claim that their work is ‘scientific’ in order to gain ‘legitimacy’. The conclusion is that a pluralistic approach would liberate accounting from the privilege accorded to scientific research. As a consequence, this would impose a more stringent requirement on the researcher and the reader to study the objectives, setting and methodology of research. Liberating accounting research from the dominance of the scientific approach means that research can be discriminated on these bases. Results can then be evaluated in their own right without one technique being privileged over another. The importance of this conclusion is that the whole range of approaches to gaining knowledge is open to researchers - there is no prescription of one methodology or method, the positivist approach is not privileged over the ethnomethodological or vice versa. Consequently, a particular approach is held only as a belief statement by an individual and knowledge is recognised to be merely that which we believe it to be. Thus the ultimate conclusion of this thesis is that we need an open exchange of views and a more empathic attitude to understanding and analysis while not being tied to particular structures nor particular rules. Hence the title, Theoretical Paradigms of Understanding in Accounting: From Structuralism to Pluralism.
Formative evaluation of Heartbeat New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 1992) Dehar, Mary-Anne Bailey; Thomas, David
A formative evaluation approach was applied over a 21 month period to Heartbeat New Zealand, an emergent heart disease prevention and health promotion programme. The aim of the research was to constructively influence the development of Heartbeat by providing ongoing evaluation input to the programme. Formative evaluation input involved two major aspects, of information collection and feedback, and consultation. Major data sources were interviews and questionnaires, direct participation and observation, and programme documents. It was found that while formative evaluation was only one source of influence upon the development of the Heartbeat programme, and formative evaluation findings and recommendations were not always accepted or fully implemented by programme personnel, positive outcomes of the formative evaluation input were apparent. In the Heartbeat Awards project, formative evaluation helped answer questions concerning the feasibility, appropriateness and effectiveness of an intervention aimed at creating and supporting behaviour change by altering environmental influences upon health. Formative evaluation of the Heartbeat Community Project identified the need for, and facilitated, the reorientation of the project from a traditional health educative approach to reflect more innovative health promotion strategies. Formative evaluation led to the development of a framework for later outcome evaluation of the overall Heartbeat programme which was tailored to the activities, characteristics and context of the programme. Formative evaluation activities identified problems in overall programme functioning in terms of programme management, planning and coordination, and communication, and action in these areas was recommended. The research both confirmed key points about formative evaluation identified in the evaluation literature, and highlighted further issues relating to the particular approach adopted in the Heartbeat programme. Major implications identified for future programmes were the importance of early and ongoing strategic planning and the importance of programme decision-makers adopting a model of information-based decision-making.
Trophic manipulation in freshwater plankton communities
(The University of Waikato, 1993) Edgar, Nick B.; Chapman, M. Ann
The effects of zooplankton herbivory on natural phytoplankton communities in two urban mesotrophic lakes in the North Island of New Zealand were studied over the course of one year. Lakes Rotoroa and Pupuke have zooplankton assemblages typical of most New Zealand lakes, in having a low species diversity, being dominated by calanoid copepods, and lacking Daphnia. In situ enclosure (limnocorral) experiments were conducted in each season of the year in each lake using 1 m³ (1000 litre) volume plastic bags. The enclosures were initially filled with lake water filtered through an 80 μm mesh plankton net to remove the majority of the zooplankton. Subsequently, a gradient of zooplankton biomass was established in eight enclosures by adding crustacean zooplankton collected from the epilimnion. Four densities (each duplicated) were established: exclosure (no zooplankton added), 1X, 2X, and 4X ambient zooplankton biomass. Experiments were conducted for 10 days with physico-chemical and biological sampling made on Days 0, 3, 6, and 10. Their aim was to investigate the role of zooplankton grazing on total algal biomass, the dynamics of population level responses of the phytoplankters, feeding selectivities of the herbivores and any changes in nutrient dynamics mediated by zooplankton grazing. In Lake Rotoroa zooplankton grazing had no significant effect on total algal biomass in autumn. In winter, spring and summer there were significant reductions in phytoplankton biomass particularly in the size fraction ≤ 80 μm. In Lake Pupuke grazing caused no change in algal biomass in autumn and winter, but in spring it was significantly reduced. However, in summer algal biomass was positively associated with zooplankton biomass possibly indicating that nutrient regeneration by zooplankters was important in this season. At the population level, algal species-specific response to herbivory varied between grazing suppression, a lack of response, increased abundance or in some cases, a unimodal response. The majority of phytoplankters in Lake Rotoroa were ‘decreasers’. In Lake Pupuke most algae were ‘unresponsive’ to grazing. Most ‘decreasers’ were of smaller size ≤ 30 μm in Greatest Axial Linear Dimension (GALD). ‘Unresponsive’ algae and ‘increasers’ were usually >30 μm in GALD. Relationships with algal biovolume were less consistent, but there was an upper limit to the volume of suppressed algae (~ 6,000 μm³) above which no species were significantly grazed. In Lake Rotoroa the presence of herbivores increased the availability of nitrogen (NH₄ and DON) in spring and of phosphorus (DRP and DOP) in summer. In Lake Pupuke zooplankton altered nutrient concentrations little during spring but increased the availability of both organic N and P during the summer experiment. The results suggest that integration of the ecological forces of grazing and nutrient limitation are required to explain patterns of planktonic seasonal succession, rather than depicting the two control processes as mutually exclusive.
Aspects of the sedimentology of New Zealand bryozoans and mixed carbonate-clastic deposits: a contribution to the temperate shelf carbonate model
(The University of Waikato, 1992) Smith, Abigail M.; Nelson, Campbell S.
Carbonate sediments are forming on modern shelves in both tropical and temperate latitudes. Temperate shelf carbonate sediments have a distinctive character and, unlike their tropical counterparts, have many poorly understood aspects. Bryozoans are major skeletal components of many temperate carbonate deposits, but very little is known about their sedimentology. Aspects of the sedimentology of New Zealand bryozoans are investigated here. Many temperate carbonates are also closely associated with terrigenous siliciclastic sediments, forming a mixed deposit. A New Zealand example is presented here from the Hauraki Gulf, a semi-enclosed sea in northeastern North Island. The results of these studies are applied to the temperate shelf carbonate model. Bryozoans are important sedimentologically as producers, stabilizers, encrusters, bioeroders, subjects of diagenesis, and eventually as fossils. Most bryozoans precipitate carbonate at rates of less than 1 g CaCO₃/y (mean = 0.07 g CaCO₃/y). In the Hauraki Gulf the maximum determined is 0.8 g CaCO₃/y and overall production by one bryozoan population is about 24 g CaCO₃/m²/y, generally much less than the few rates published from elsewhere. Bryozoans in New Zealand fall into five mineralogical classes. Calcite may be low-Mg (<3 wt% MgCO₃), moderate-Mg (3-5 wt% MgCO₃), or high-Mg (5-10 wt% MgCO₃). Bimineralic skeletons may be mainly calcite, or mainly aragonite, reflecting two different modes of origin: developmental bimineralism, with discrete age-related layers, or diagenetic bimineralism, where metastable aragonite alters over time. Carbonate mineralogy is most closely linked to higher taxonomic order, while bryozoan colonial growth form is weakly correlated. Isotopes (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) and co-precipitates (Ca, Mg, Sr, Fe, Mn) in bryozoan carbonate are related to mineralogy, taxon, water depth, and degree of terrigenous mixing. Bryozoans precipitate carbonate close to isotopic equilibrium with sea water, and thus reflect their temperate climate. After death, bryozoan carbonate is subject to abrasion, bioerosion, and dissolution. Different bryozoan colonial growth forms are more or less resistant to abrasion, and the less resistant forms may produce large quantities of carbonate mud. Bryozoans are active in biological diagenesis, as borers, encrusters, and as substrate. Dissolution of bryozoans depends on mineralogy and on morphology. Depth, hydraulic energy, and substrate are all important controls on bryozoan distribution and on diagenesis. Bryozoan assemblages, therefore, reflect these environmental factors. Destructive diagenesis reduces and limits this relationship. Sediments in the Hauraki Gulf are highly variable spatially, and are a good example of in situ mixing of terrigenous and biogenic material. Four sediment facies are described: high-carbonate gravel (64% CaCO₃), muddy sand (38% CaCO₃), sand (31% CaCO₃), and mud (15% CaCO₃). The patchy distribution of these facies is controlled by water depth, water energy, source of sediment, and by substrate availability. Bivalves are the dominant carbonate-producers, with bryozoans, gastropods, and barnacles subdominant. Holocene sea-level rise has reworked sediments, and much is palimpsest. The degree of carbonate-elastic mixing appears to influence temperate assemblage in New Zealand carbonates, such that foramol and mollusc assemblages predominate when terrigenous material is abundant, while the bryomol assemblage is more common in high-carbonate settings. Early marine diagenesis of temperate carbonates includes constructive and destructive processes, but destruction predominates. Abrasion is controlled by hydraulic energy, and indirectly by climate. Biological diagenesis is evident in Hauraki Gulf shells, and operates on a time scale of 100s to 1000s of years. Bioerosion is controlled by biota, thus by environment and climate, and by substrate. Carbonate mud may indicate its origin by mineralogy or by particle morphology. Dissolution is controlled by sea-water chemistry, and the mineralogy and morphology of grains. Constructive processes such as encrustation and local cementation do occur in temperate shelf sediments. Nevertheless, most temperate carbonates, including bryozoan-dominated ones, are subject mainly to destructive processes, often over a long time due to low sediment accumulation rates. Temperate carbonates thus may have a relatively low preservation potential, and could be under-represented in the fossil record.
Regulation of denitrification in organic riparian soils
(The University of Waikato, 1991) Schipper, Louis A.; Harfoot, Chris; McFarlane, Paul; Silvester, Warwick B.
Riparian zones have been shown to remove nitrate from groundwater before it enters surface waters thus providing protection of surface water quality. Microbial denitrification is considered to be a mechanism which may be responsible for nitrate removal in riparian zones. The aim of the present study was to identify the rate at which denitrification occurred in riparian zones and to identify factors which regulated the rate. This was investigated using laboratory and field studies. In laboratory studies, the addition of a range of single sources of carbon promoted denitrification in organic riparian soil during 10-day incubations. Denitrification lag times and rates were shown to be dependent on the broad groups of organic compounds tested. The denitrifier population responded most rapidly following the addition of a range of sugars, whereas the denitrification rate was highest following the addition of the fermentation endproducts lactate and ethanol. Cellulose and propionate did not stimulate denitrification above the control. Denitrification showed a diauxic response to xylan addition. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were shown to inhibit denitrification for at least the first 100 hours of incubation, after which acetate and butyrate were used by denitrifiers: however, propionate continued to be inhibitory. It was thought that VFAs inhibited bacteria following acidification of the bacterial cytoplasm. A longer-term incubation experiment (100 days) examined the suitability of three plant materials (fresh pine needles, senescent pine needles, and fresh watercress leaves) undergoing decomposition to act as electron donors for denitrification. Although denitrification was stimulated following the addition of all plant materials denitrification was greatest in those incubations where fresh rather than senescent plant material was added. Nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide production were shown to be dependent on the plant substrate added. Results demonstrated the interactive ecology of denitrifying, methanogenic, and fermentative bacteria in these anaerobic soils. Evidence suggested that denitrifying bacteria were dependent on fermentative bacteria making the added plant carbon more readily available. The long-term persistence (>100 days) of denitrifying activity in the absence of electron acceptors was also demonstrated. Field studies were conducted in an organic riparian zone receiving nitrate from incoming groundwater. Mean and median denitrification rates were found to be 1.2 and 0.98 gN.m⁻².day⁻¹; while mean and median N₂O production rates were found to be 0.073 and 0.088 gN.m⁻².day⁻¹. These rates were 1 to 3 orders of magnitude greater than those reported in previous studies of upland soils. Up to 77% of the variation in onsite denitrification rate could be explained by nitrate concentration and denitrifying enzyme activity. Temperature may also have regulated the rate at which denitrification occurred; however, too few sampling trips at different temperatures were conducted to fully establish a temperature effect. Nitrate concentrations, and consequently denitrification rates, were highest at the upslope edge of the riparian zone and decreased towards the downslope end. The denitrification rate appeared to be high enough to be responsible for the major proportion of nitrate removal observed in this riparian zone.
No place like home: New Zealand literature and the 1930s
(The University of Waikato, 1992) Murray, Stuart; Arvidson, Ken; Williams, Mark
This thesis seeks to re-evaluate the New Zealand literature of the 1930s. It does so in the belief that the decade’s writing has been subjected to a variety of critical processes that have resulted in an image of the period which is erroneous. This misreading affects not just the 1930s, but also applies to the wider context of New Zealand literature, as the decade occupies such a pivotal point in the history of that literature. The method of the thesis is an exploration of the decade’s writing by an opening chapter discussing the period in general, and then a series of author-centred chapters. While each author-centred chapter concentrates on one or two principal figures, the contents of each chapter attempt to display a discursive nature, relating each writer to a wider context. The thesis aims to show that the New Zealand literature of the 1930s is a far more flexible and complex body of writing than has hitherto been admitted. The canonisation of the decade as an era of nationalist expression imposes a narrow range of critical attitudes which fail to deal with the full multiplicities of the writing. In order to overcome these limitations, the thesis explores the literature not only in the context of this reductive criticism (attempting to explain the philosophies behind the nationalist rigidities) but also juxtaposes it with international writing from the same period. The codes and structures of literature from Europe (particularly England), the Americas and Australia all inform the New Zealand writing of the 1930s. An analysis of the New Zealand material in this light offers new conclusions on the literature’s significance. These conclusions are defined by useful complexities. The decade’s writing is seen to be far less streamlined than subsequent literary histories portray. Instead, the literature displays a multiplicity of expression; influences and origins blend in expositions characterised by their mobility. Recognition of this mobility challenges the orthodox canonisation of the 1930s. Writers such as Frank Sargeson and A.R.D. Fairburn, who are perceived to express the nationalist tone of the decade, are seen to reflect less of the period’s diversity than Robin Hyde, a writer traditionally peripheralised in the nationalist depiction of the era. The thesis promotes the conclusion that writers such as Hyde and Allen Curnow, seeking to address the complexities of the 1930s in a complex expression of their own, come closest to a mode of writing that reflects the turbulent nature of the decade.
For and about women: women’s studies in New Zealand universities 1973-1990
(The University of Waikato, 1993) Matthews, Kay Morris; Middleton, Sue; Ritchie, Jane; McLaren, Ian
This study is about the process of constructing feminist educational history. It has as its focus the development of women’s studies in New Zealand universities between 1973 and 1990. The central question addressed is ‘how does one research and write a feminist educational history?’ Both traditional literary historical techniques and feminist oral history techniques were used to collect research data. Three theoretical models were then used to arrange and analyse the research material. The five phases of women’s history as advocated by Gerda Lerner provided a conceptual framework for the identification of parallel phases of development in women’s studies in New Zealand. Phase theory was used by Renate Klein in 1986 to document characteristics of development in women’s studies across a number of countries. In this study, I argue that although women’s studies in New Zealand shared early characteristics with those of overseas universities, by the mid-1980s it had developed its own unique developmental features. These were closely tied to the small size of New Zealand universities, the strong lobbying power of groups of feminist academics and the competition for students between the universities. Basil Bernstein’s theory of the structure of the curriculum offered insights into the nature of knowledge codes and provided a way of conceptualising the university as an academic institution within which feminist academics experienced both constraints and possibilities in their bid to establish women’s studies. This study documents and analyses the history of women’s studies in New Zealand universities and, at the same time, serves as a methodological guide for future feminist educational historians.
Corporate reporting quality and corporate sustainability: Evidence from the early adopters of IFRS sustainability reporting framework
(The University of Waikato, 2026-07-27) Hussain, Muhammad Mubashir; Low, Mary; Hsiao, Pei-Chi
This novel study explores the corporate reporting quality (CRQ) under the newly developed Contemporary Corporate Reporting (CCR) regime that advocates for uniformly structured sustainability reporting disclosures through the release of IFRS Sustainability-focused Disclosure Standards (IFRS Ss) in 2023, and the integration of these sustainability standards into the existing IFRS Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) to deliver Enhanced Corporate Reporting (ECR, 2023). The study evaluates Sustainability Reporting Quality (SRQ) using the new Conceptual Framework for Sustainability Reporting (CFSR), and Financial Reporting Quality (FRQ) using the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (CFFR). Under these both conceptual frameworks for corporate reporting (CR), the essential information attributes titled as Qualitative Characteristics (QCs) are prescribed, and these separate yet complementary QCs are employed to provide quantitative metrics to assess SRQ and FRQ. Henceforth, CRQ is a hybrid form of SRQ and FRQ, the study also examines how enhanced CRQ assists stakeholders in evaluating corporate performance and foreseeing corporate sustainability (CS), particularly within an EESG-led milieu. A mixed-methods approach was adopted for this study. Data was extracted from annual corporate reports, including financial, sustainability, integrated, and IFRS S-compliant reports. Two purpose-focused indexes were developed using the standardised QCs of both CR conceptual frameworks. The FRQ index comprises 42 items, whereas the SRQ index encompasses 37 items, together forming an index of 79 items for measuring CRQ. Content analysis was performed, and the data disclosures were operationalised using a uniform quantitative scale (0–3). The data was then processed by means of MS Excel, and later, it was analysed using the SPSS (version 30). This study covers six countries such as Türkiye declared the mandatory adoption of IFRS Ss for its corporate sector, while early voluntary adopter companies of IFRS Ss came from countries of Bangladesh, Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya, and Nigeria. The findings indicate that the adoption of IFRS Ss and their integration into financial reporting enhance consistency, reliability, coherence, and scrutinisation of corporate disclosures within a broader EESG context, enabling stakeholders and regulators make informed decisions, assess overall corporate performance, and foresee corporate value creation capability over time. Comparative analysis between 2023 (pre-integration) and 2024 (post-integration) demonstrates meaningful refinements particularly in sustainability-based disclosures alongside gradual improvements in FRQ, jointly reflecting enhancement in the overall CRQ. Corporate sustainability (CS) was particularly emphasised in this study due to its linkage with ECR through EESG considerations, representing quadruple bottom line (QBL). Under this study, CS represents a blend of both financial or economic sustainability (E) and ESG sustainability, and stakeholders are believed to assess and anticipate EESG-led CS through ECR, which simultaneously reveals financial and sustainability-grounded performance. This research makes conceptual, methodological, practical, and academic contributions. Conceptually, it integrates both CR streams to elevate CRQ through FRQ and SRQ taken together, validating dual materiality and extending the theoretical breadth of ECR. Methodologically, it operationalises standardised QCs of both CR conceptual frameworks of the IFRS Foundation to construct structured FRQ and SRQ indexes, which translate qualitative disclosures into measurable quantitative datasets. Practically, it calls for collaborative efforts among standard-setters, professional bodies, regulators, and other stakeholders to strengthen and promote the ECR frameworks on a global scale. Academically, it contributes by bringing in new research literature as it will be one of the first studies that explores the impact of the new sustainability-based standards (IFRS Ss) on overall CRQ. This study also provides a comprehensive insight into sustainability reporting and its adaptation into CR from historical developments to the contemporary ECR regime. Despite certain challenges, this study is distinctive in topic, context, methodology, and contribution. Its implications encourage the global corporate sector to adopt and apply IFRS Ss together with IFRSs to enhance the consistency, transparency, standardisation, and reliability of CR disclosures. This pragmatic integration of both CR streams is targeted to realise the perceived benefits of ECR, particularly in making informed decisions, assessing the overall corporate performance, and ensuring CS across firms and the broader corporate sector worldwide.
The influence of multi-scale spatial heterogeneity of aquatic vegetation on turbulence, mixing, and dispersion in coastal environments
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Nelli, Vinay; Mullarney, Julia C.; Chassagne, Rémi; Rafael, Tinoco; Nardin, William
Aquatic vegetation is a common feature of coastal, estuarine, and riparian environments. Aquatic vegetation provides many ecosystem and habitat ser-vices such as acting as a buffer zone to capture sediment, particulate matter, and pollutants, thus preventing these materials from entering the open ocean. Vegetation can also dissipate hydrodynamic energy and mitigate against phys-ical hazards. However, to quantify and predict these effects across a range of forcing regimes and environments necessitates a detailed understanding of flow-vegetation interactions. Therefore in recent decades, many laboratory and numerical studies have focussed on elucidating physical processes such as turbulence generation, mixing, and dispersion in aquatic vegetated flows. However, such laboratory and numerical studies typically simplify vegetation geometries, often by representing canopies as regular arrangements of uniform cylinders, or by applying uniform time-invariant hydrodynamic forcing, which does not always capture real-world conditions. This thesis assesses the impact of spatial heterogeneity of aquatic vegetation across different spatial scales ranging from the vegetation stem-scale (O(0.01 m)) to the larger-scales ob-served in multi-patch arrays of vegetation (O(10 m)). We develop generalized theoretical models that incorporate multi-scale heterogeneity observed in the real-world aquatic vegetation. Field measurements and model predictions of turbulent kinetic energy in canopies of sparse vegetation under tidal flows: In the second chapter, we conducted field experiments measuring high resolution velocity data in a sparse canopy of pneumatophores coexisting with a very sparse stand of young mangrove saplings to study the small-scale turbulence (O(0.01 − 0.1 m)). There was no significant wave activity observed for the duration of the experiments making the dataset well suited for testing existing models developed from laboratory experiments under uniform currents. The measured turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) was compared with existing models which assume the eddy length scales to be on the order of the stem-diameter. In these cases the models significantly under-predicted the TKE in the real world setting. However, by modifying predictions to include the measured eddy length scales (around 15-times larger than stem diameter), the model was found to perform well, with percentage errors in predicted TKE of around 67%.The generation of the larger eddies was attributed to the presence of the saplings. This result therefore highlights the importance of characterizing the correct length scales in spatially heterogeneous vegetation canopies. The influence of patchy vegetation on tidal flows: Field dye measurements of intra- and inter-patch mixing, residence times, and dispersion parameters: In the third chapter, we explored medium- and large-scale (O(>1 m)) flow and mixing processes in multi-patch vegetation systems. We deployed a randomly arranged patch array of 20 identical patches on an intertidal flat and measured flow behaviours and tracer dispersion across 3 densities (which were kept the same in every patch), for different submergence levels. High-resolution spatial and temporal dye intensities obtained from UAV based dye imagery in combination with Rhodamine WT dye releases were used to estimate longitudinal and transverse dispersion coefficients. The dispersion coefficients were strongly dependent on submergence ratios with a clear inverse proportionality between dispersion coefficients and submergence levels. The intermediate density patches showed slightly greater dispersion compared to denser patches, which was attributed to the variability in the flow path of the dye clouds between different releases. Furthermore, local behaviours of the tracers were studied using the temporal variance and dye residence times at every location (video pixel). The values of both the local parameters increased from upstream to downstream inside the array with some particularly large values within close proximity of individual patches. The dye residences showed no dependence on submergence levels as the vegetation-induced dispersion compensated for the reduced bare-bed dispersion at low submergence levels. Finally, a general model for predicting dispersion coefficient as a function of submergence ratio is proposed and validated with field measurements. The impact of the spatial distribution of patches on dispersion in submerged aquatic vegetation for varying vegetation densities and submergence ratios: The third chapter only considered a single patch arrangement, a relative patch diameter of Λ = 100, and constant system dimensions of 6×6 m. Therefore, in the fourth chapter we conducted numerical simulations of 8 different patch arrangements using Horizontal Large Eddy Simulation (HLES) in Deflt3D combined with the in-built rigid vegetation model. A few additional simulations were also undertaken to study the impact of system dimensions and relative patch diameter on dispersion coefficients. The results showed significant variability in dispersion coefficients between the different patch arrangements. The results confirmed the inverse relation-ship between dispersion coefficients and submergence levels in the field and also showed the impact of vegetation density with higher densities producing larger dispersion values. However, for greater submergence levels (Sr > 2) the impact of both the vegetation densities and patch arrangements were negligible. The results from different relative patch diameters also implied that the frontal area density is a better parameter to characterize patch regimes instead of the solid volume fraction. Furthermore, the results from the longer patch arrays (12×12 m) showed that the dispersion coefficients reduced with increase in vegetation densities beyond a certain density, which is the opposite trend to that observed in the shorter patch arrays. Finally, a general dispersion model for predicting dispersion coefficients based on frontal area density and submergence levels is proposed for patchy aquatic vegetation. The results from the thesis have helped to elucidate the importance of char-acterizing spatial heterogeneity of aquatic vegetation across different scales to understand the scale-dependent physical processes. Furthermore, significant contributions were made by developing the existing and newer models for predicting turbulence and dispersion in aquatic vegetation systems which can be used to understand and manage coastal and wetland aquatic systems.
“We don’t have to carry the shame”: Autobiographical documentary filmmaking as a collective healing artifact for child abuse survivors
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Visage, Anthea; Perrott, Lisa; Schott, Gareth R.
Sitting at the intersection between autobiographical documentary theory and child abuse-related trauma theory, this thesis explores the wellbeing outcomes and impacts for child abuse survivors who create and view autobiographical documentaries that represent discourses about child abuse, intergenerational trauma, and healing. Adopting an anti-pathologising approach to trauma, this thesis explores and amplifies the historically silenced voices of child abuse survivors. Life is given to the underrepresented experiential accounts of autobiographical documentarians, with a focus on an uncharted community of practitioners: survivor-filmmakers. Further elevating survivor narratives, I position myself as a survivor-researcher, embracing an autoethnographic approach wherein my ‘presence’ remains integral to the research (Ellis et al., 2000; Bochner et al., 2016; Bochner, 2022; 2016). As a secondary research focus, this thesis seeks to understand what affordances survivor-researchers may bring to research projects that explore the experiences of child abuse survivors. A tripartite model for analysis of audio-visual texts frames the exploration, spanning three domains: production, text, and (potential) audience reception (Thompson, 1990). Trauma-and-violence-informed interviews were conducted to investigate the experiences of four survivor-filmmakers: Gwen van de Pas (Groomed, 2021); Tracey Arcabasso Smith (Relative, 2022); Jasmín Mara López (Silent Beauty, 2022); and Ginene Humphrey (Dandelions, TBC). Audio-visual methods of textual analysis, critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992a; 1992b; 1998; 2001), and affect analysis (Rose, 2016; Tait, 2016; Plantinga & Tan, 2007) were applied to identify affordances and examine the discursive functionality of the documentaries. Interviews with wellbeing professionals were conducted to investigate the potential therapeutic value of the texts for survivor-viewers. Interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2022a; 2022b; 2019). Synthesising the findings across the three domains, the research reveals how autobiographical documentary filmmaking and viewing can function as therapeutic healing tools, affording survivor-filmmakers and survivor-viewers the ability to re/process, challenge and let go of shame – a central aspect of the survivor experience, perpetuated and reinforced by victim-blaming culture. The filmmaking process functions as a ‘platform of vulnerability’ for survivor-filmmakers, a double-edged sword where traumatic stress and retraumatisation can be evoked, and where shame can be challenged. Challenging shame occurs through therapeutically impacting other survivors, experiencing survivorship, and re/processing in a myriad of ways, which engagement with representational strategies helps afford (including reenactments to represent traumatic memories and the child self, animation to represent, connect with and re-parent the inner-child, and using ocean imagery and sound as a mode of cultural memory). Post-release, autobiographical documentaries about abuse and healing may function as ‘collective healing artefacts,’ taking on an immortal life of their own that leads to ongoing therapeutic impact for survivors. The concept ‘vicarious therapy’ is coined to encapsulate how survivor-viewers may vicariously experience therapeutic impact, such as gaining a sense of survivorship, and re/processing possibilities of traumatic growth. This occurs through the intertwined processes of witnessing and feeling survivors – the elicitation of memories and affect(s) – and how autobiographical documentary representations can speak survivors’ shared language of shame. In other words, they can authentically represent aspects of the survivor experience. Contrasting individualistic healing approaches that dominate mainstream therapeutic practice, the findings magnify the value of collective approaches to heal abuse related trauma and shame. Autobiographical documentary filmmaking, and cinematherapy utilising autobiographical documentaries, may function as tools of collective healing. Findings suggest the need to move towards shame-sensitive approaches to autobiographical documentary filmmaking, building on the trauma-informed guidelines created by the Documentary Accountability Working Group (2022).
Love Letter : A study of South Asian Women, and their relationships with Māori and other racialised Women in Aotearoa
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Alam-Simmons, Ara; Waitoki, Waikaremoana; Rata, Arama; Roa, Thomas
This project records the experiences of South Asian women in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and what those experiences reveal about the possibilities and limits of solidarity with Māori and other racialised women under conditions of settler colonialism and white supremacy. This work is a response to my own relational experiences as a South Asian woman living in Aotearoa, and to the conversations that have emerged from years of active community involvement. This project centres women's voices through the lens of Indigenous, Black, and women-of-colour feminist thinking and praxis. Using a toolkit methodology comprising collaging, one-to-one conversations, found poetry, and autoethnography, the study engaged fifteen South Asian women across three interconnected sites of inquiry. The first explored how South Asian women make sense of their own experiences of colonisation and what it might mean to reclaim identity outside of colonial narratives. The second took a look at women's relationships with other racialised women, including Māori women, to understand what those relationships reveal about the conditions under which solidarity becomes possible, conditional, or foreclosed. The third drew on my own autoethnographic account to illuminate how deliberate acts of remembering, unsettling colonial narratives, resisting co-optation, and being in solidarity can function as a decolonial practice grounded in relational accountability to Māori sovereignty and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The central empirical finding of this thesis is that solidarity among South Asian women and between South Asian women and Māori is not a natural outcome of shared marginalisation or identity. It is a relational practice that is structured, conditional, and sometimes foreclosed by the intersecting dynamics of settler colonialism, caste supremacy, heteropatriarchy, biculturalism, and internalised colonial narratives. Key findings demonstrate that solidarity requires, first, an internal reckoning: healing from internalised oppression, reclaiming ancestral histories, cultural practices, language, and knowledge systems, and developing critical consciousness of complicity within settler-colonial structures. Second, it requires an external and political commitment: confronting caste supremacy within South Asian communities, refusing model minority positioning, and grounding relationships that engages in a political committment to Te Ao Māori and Māori sovereignty, rather than in the false promise of inclusion within settler-colonial frameworks. Additionally, this thesis, locates caste supremacy in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This thesis makes both an empirical and methodological contribution to the Asian-Indigenous solidarities literature. Methodologically, it demonstrates that arts-based approaches can make visible the complexity and diversity of South Asian women's relational lives in ways that conventional qualitative research cannot, offering a practical toolkit that can be taken up in community and activist spaces beyond the university. Conceptually, it offers two frameworks as new contributions to the decolonial solidarities literature. The first extends the whakawhanaungatanga framework developed by Rata and Al-Asaad (2019) by adding two new dimensions. These are restoration, which centres the reclaiming of identity, healing, and spiritual practice as political acts; and reconstruction, which names the need for joint political struggle as the governing horizon of solidarity. The second is a decolonial framework developed through the autoethnographic inquiry. This is made up of four interconnected dimensions: historical remembering, unsettling settler colonial narratives, resisting co-optation, and being in solidarity that is led by Te Ao Māori and accountable to Māori sovereignty. Together, these frameworks offer South Asian and other tauiwi of colour communities practical and political pathways for building solidarities that refuse settler-colonial logics and actively contribute to creating more just and relational ways of living together in Aotearoa.
Outcomes of cemented and hybrid primary total hip arthroplasty in osteoarthritis: A New Zealand regional study
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Pearce, Amy; Hebert-Losier, Kim; Joshi, Chaitanya
Introduction: Primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) for osteoarthritis (OA) success is typically assessed using implant survival as the primary outcome; however, revision surgery alone underestimates the true burden of suboptimal outcomes (e.g., pain or poor function). Secondary outcomes, or patient-reported outcomes (PROMs), therefore provide a complementary assessment of THA success. During the last two decades, fully cemented THAs have been progressively replaced by uncemented ones, despite limited long-term comparative evidence. Although national registry data allow analysis of broad implant category types, they may lack implant and PROM detail compared to regional registries. This Thesis evaluates whether changes in implant design and fixation strategy have translated into significant and meaningful improvements in implant survival and patient outcomes in the Bay of Plenty region of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). Aims: This Thesis aimed to evaluate long-term survival and PROMs of an early generation cemented, modern cemented, and modern hybrid primary THA for OA, and identify patient factors or funding source associated with these outcomes. The work first synthesised existing evidence comparing cemented and hybrid fixation. It then compared survival between the earlier generation THA and its modern cemented successor of the same lineage. Thereafter, the work identified long-term PROMs in earlier generation cemented THA and then compared 10-year PROMs between the two cemented THA generations. Finally, survival and PROM outcomes of the hybrid THA were compared with the modern cemented. Influential patient and funding factors of primary and secondary outcomes were identified across all studies. Methods: This Thesis comprised a systematic literature review and linked retrospective cohort studies using prospectively collected arthroplasty survival and PROM data from the NZ joint registry (NZJR) and Tauranga Orthopaedic Research Inc. registry for the Bay of Plenty region. Patients undergoing primary THA for OA between 2003 to 2023 with earlier generation cemented, modern cemented, or modern hybrid THAs were included. PROMs included the Oxford Hip Score (OHS), McMaster University Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC), and Veterans Rand 12-item health survey (VR-12). Baseline differences were addressed using propensity score weighting. Implant survival was analysed using Cox regression, and PROMs were analysed longitudinally including changes from baseline. Multivariable models examined the influence of sex, ethnicity, age at surgery, body mass index (BMI), American Anesthesiologist Society (ASA) rating, and funding source (public versus private) on outcomes. Results: In the literature, five studies compared survival and three compared PROMs between cemented and hybrid primary THA for OA. Survival outcomes were no different between THAs in three studies, but cemented survival was superior in two studies. PROMs were no different in the three available studies.
“Eles Deturpam o Que Tu És”: Coloniality, resistance, and the reconfiguration of colonial power in Quilombos of Amapá, Brazil
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Farias da Silva, Brenda; Norris, Adele N.
This thesis examines the persistence and reconfiguration of colonial structures in Brazil’s northern region, focusing on the state of Amapá – a critical borderland of Amazonian modernity. With a particular focus on Quilombos (formerly-enslaved Black settlements), it addresses the central argument that coloniality, understood as the enduring matrix of power, race, and knowledge established during the European conquest, continues to shape the present. While state and corporate narratives portray the Amazon region as a site of sustainable progress, this study aims to demonstrate how colonial logics of isolation, extractivism, and silencing persist under the banner of development and conservation. A decolonial and interpretive methodology combining qualitative semi-structured interviews was employed to answer three interrelated questions: (1) How have colonial structures of racial, spatial, and epistemic domination persisted and been reconfigured in Brazil’s northern region, particularly in Amapá? (2) How do Quilombola women from Amapá experience and resist intersecting forms of racialized labor and territorial dispossession? (3) How do decolonial frameworks enhance our understanding of the relationship between racial capitalism, gendered violence, and the afterlives of slavery in northern Brazil? Participants’ narratives, practices, and silences were analyzed as contributions to theorize coloniality, survival, and epistemic disobedience. The findings reveal that racial capitalism in Amapá operates not only through extractive economies but also through established colonial regimes that devalue subaltern knowledge while maintaining racial hierarchies. The legacies of historical servitude and land dispossession persist through bureaucratic omission and policy frameworks that privilege private and corporate interests over collective rights. In response, communities articulate diverse forms of resistance that merge political action, cultural continuity, and strategic silence. Ultimately, this thesis argues that decolonial practices are not abstract ideals but lived behaviors emerging from the endurance and creativity of those who continue to resist distortion and erasure. Research findings contribute to decolonial theory by reterritorializing coloniality within the Amazonian frontier and advancing a decolonial research praxis grounded in ethical rigor, linguistic fidelity, and co-produced knowledge. Findings offer critical insight into how racial capitalism and epistemic domination are contested through localized acts of survival, reinterpretation, and creation.
Pictures in the substantiation of organisation: a study of radiology
(The University of Waikato, 1992) McArthur, William; Bettison, David; Goldsmith, Michael
The motivation for this study is an interest in technologically produced imagery and its effect on the contemporary world. Natural events, pictures, diagrams, paintings, spectacular performing arts, icons, etc, are persistent features in the repertoire of language for expressing and constituting knowledge. Much of present day common sense knowledge, however, is constituted through observation made in direct, yet technologically mediated ways. From television to computer graphics and radiographs, a plethora of technologies offer visual experience of a kind available only through techno-scientific means. Using technical instruments requires constructs created by user’s and see-er’s. Language that evolves, is often interpretable only through a unique cultural practice dependent on expertise. Technically produced imagery raises issues of individual and collective interpretation. The thesis method is eclectic to discern the complexity this involves. Intertwining of technical and scientific modes of professional conduct is examined through the implication of Galilean discovery, by way of the technical effects of glass in the 17th Century, and Roentgen’s accidental discovery through x-rays in the late 19th Century. Field work centers on issues pertinent to technologically mediated knowledge. This involved a small group of radiologists in the hospital of a provincial New Zealand city. Engaged variously in difficult radiographic interpretation, they are teaching newly qualified doctors entering the radiological profession to successfully “see” the imagery evoked by the radiograph. Medical practitioners, and especially radiologists, are a profession required specifically to develop skills of image and sign interpretation. Fundamental to their accountability is intersubjective agreement on what is “seen” on a radiograph and other technical equipment. The third dimension of “depth” has to be accurately imputed to a two dimensional radiograph. Radiological “objectivity” is the outcome of collective discourse. Central to this discourse is a specific employment of particular metaphors. Metaphorical transferrence occurs during the process of diagnosis as the interpreter moves between what is seen on the radiograph and his or her medical repertoire. Diagnosis through the inspection of visual items involves the skilled (but often intuitive) decoding of complex systems of iconic and symbolic (conventional, arbitrary) signs. Diagnosis is sanctioned by collective agreement accomplished through dialogue. The basis of the radiological code is an inextricable use of metaphor and metonymy in the syntagmatic construction of an image. The nature of what is seen on the radiograph is based on the notion of caricature. This implies that the person who can interpret a radiograph is able to “see” in it the embodiment of some image which may be completely obscure to the uninitiated. Caricature interpretation is fundamental to constituting the typifications of daily life. This has particular significance in what might be termed a “techno visual” life-world.
A systems analysis of an area mental health service
(The University of Waikato, 1992) Keith, Catherine B.
The mental health services existing in a defined geographic area in New Zealand were studied in an effort to establish priorities for service development. It was clear from a preliminary review of the services that while community based services were operating in the area, they were under-resourced and very poorly monitored. They did not provide care that was comprehensive and the population they were intended to service was not clearly specified. Information about who used the services, where they came from and why, was difficult to obtain. There were no psychiatric beds in the general hospital in the area which served a population of approximately 300,000. Acute inpatient care was provided in a 300 bed psychiatric hospital remote from the main centres of population. The acute area of this hospital provided 50 beds and appeared to be under strain most of the time. No standardised criteria for admission and discharge to and from the service were in place. The aims of the acute service, the boundaries of clinical responsibility between assessment, symptom control, treatment and continuing care were vague. To begin the study, a scale was developed and used to assess the feasibility of evaluating individual psychiatric services. A one day census of patients registered with the services was then carried out. The services included inpatient services, general hospital and court liaison services, community mental health centres, day hospital programmes, domicilliary nursing services, a substance abuse service, a rapid assessment service and a child and family service. The census uncovered a lack of adequate record systems for both patient and management information. As a consequence, a patient case register, based on a minimum data set of patient information, was developed. Meantime, a preliminary review of the acute services in the psychiatric hospital revealed a service under stress. Major sources of this stress were identified as inadequacies in the physical environment and a large and apparently uncontrollable variation in amount of service use by individuals admitted to the acute area. In the last phase of the research, the problem of uncontrollable variance in amount of acute inpatient service use was examined. This focus on acute inpatient care was justified because it was the most restrictive and expensive form of care offered and there was clearly a need to describe and explain how this service worked and whether it was cost effective. A study of five hundred and thirty eight people admitted to the acute inpatient service during 1988 was designed to determine the factors which predicted amount of service use. An instrument was constructed to record information on selected predictor variables. The instrument was built around the registration form developed in the process of establishing the patient information system. Predictor variables were chosen from an extensive literature review of factors determining service use, and from clinical and management opinion on what information was most necessary for service development and clinical management. Choices were also made to include information which was being gathered at the time, albeit unsystematically, by existing clinical history taking and admission and discharge procedures. The research method involved selecting a comprehensive range of predictor variables as potential indicators for amount of acute psychiatric service use, and dividing them into systems variables, which were by definition outside the control of the patient, socio-economic variables and behavioural variables which were consumer characteristics. A range of socioeconomic, systems and behavioural variables was approved for inclusion in the study by the researcher, clinicians and management. These variables were measured and related to the criterion variable, amount of service use (ASU). The criterion (ASU) was defined as number of bed days spent in the acute inpatient service during a twelve month period. Variables categorised as systems variables (environmental and service features over which the consumer had no control), were found to be the strongest predictors of service use, compared to sociodemographic factors or behavioural characteristics of the users. This suggested that the system of service was provider rather than consumer driven. The results also indicated that, in the absence of evidence to support the effectiveness of acute inpatient care, there was a need to develop alternatives. There was an equally urgent need to implement evaluation procedures which will begin to measure the effectiveness of care delivered in all mental health service settings. The methods developed in this thesis (to determine evaluation feasibility, to develop a client case register, to determine predictor variables for amount of service use) resulted in a useful general model which can be used to describe, explain and to some extent predict and control patterns of human service use in a variety of settings. The theoretical underpinnings for the work, which were originally derived from general systems theory, from the discipline of evaluation research and from the community psychology literature, are strengthened and endorsed by the results. The data obtained extend the case register system developed in the early phases of the project to provide a substantial foundation on which to build a comprehensive data base. This can be regularly updated and expanded allowing for ongoing service evaluation. For the first time in the region, clinical and service policy decisions can be based on information which is both objective and reliable.
Studies in the importance of accounting in New Zealand: a Foucauldian perspective
(The University of Waikato, 1992) Hooper, Keith; Lawrence, Stewart R.; Pratt, Michael
The aim of this thesis is to illustrate from three constructed cases why and how some knowledges that have been marginal (like accounting before the nineteenth century) become powerful (Hoskin and Macve, 1991, p. 10). In other words, to explain from a New Zealand context why and how the practice and profession of accounting grew to be so influential and important in relation to its comparatively humble 18th century bookkeeping and clerical origins. It is argued that the practice of accounting became more important in the nineteenth century because such practice facilitated the exercise of power and discipline in the context of a growing, European dominated society. According to Foucault (1977) the new human disciplines (e.g. medicine, law accounting, etc.) which appeared in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were not the product of emergent economic needs but rather the product of new disciplinary powers. Moreover, the importance of such new disciplines, Foucault (1977) claimed, should not be traced in a linear fashion relating, for example, legislation and institutional development, but from a postmodern perspective stressing diffuse and contingent origins. In other words, no single source of origin can fully explain such phenomena. The three studies examined in this thesis are not meant to be representative or necessarily typical of contemporary practice, rather they serve to illustrate the diffuse and separate sources of accounting’s power origins within a New Zealand. From the 1860s, three events took place which were to change the social and commercial structure of the new colony: the passing of the first New Zealand Companies Act 1860, the Native Lands Settlement Act 1865 (which individualised Māori land titles and permitted direct European purchase), and large scale European immigration into New Zealand. The colony during this period changed from a Māori dominated economy based on tribal ownership of land to a European capitalist economy based on individual land ownership. With limited manufacturing capacity and few mineral resources, land was the basis of wealth and economic power in New Zealand. The period from 1870 to 1930 was crucial because it was during those years that most land in New Zealand was transferred from Māori to European ownership. The common theme shared by the three separate cases depicted in this thesis is that to a greater or lesser extent they are about conflict over land - its acquisition and the power and wealth its ownership conveys. The overall aim is to provide a critical history of accounting in New Zealand in Foucauldian terms, and to provide an explanation of the present by tracing its genealogy. To achieve this end some consideration of New Zealand’s history is necessary and, in particular, the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi to New Zealand society. The cases are suited to a Foucauldian interpretation because they represent local, discontinuous histories concerning struggle and insurrection, elements which Foucault considered to be vital for genealogical research. The first case study (of three) examined in this thesis demonstrates how land was transferred to individual European ownership and the part played by an accountant and other professionals in executing land transactions. It also illustrates the close conceptual links of accounting practice with European values such as capital accumulation and shows how an accountant was able to use his knowledge to advance his employer/client’s interests. Thus the former explains the character of the discursive practices of accounting, while the latter illustrates how accounting practice served the ends of the ascendant power structure. The second case study continues to develop these themes by exploring the history of company formation in colonial New Zealand. The emphasis is on conflict between directors and shareholders and in particular the struggle for control of a land company. The study depicts the way in which the privileged use of accounting knowledge may serve the particular interests of a powerful business elite. The final study depicts the activities of a practising public accountant acting for an overseas client. Once again two themes are apparent: accounting as an instrument of European capital accumulation, and accounting as a modern power discipline. The latter theme explaining how power may be exercised. Research for these studies was conducted in various national archives containing collections of private papers. Use was also made of past newspaper accounts of company meetings and contemporary commentaries on business affairs. Secondary sources were used extensively in the first four chapters to furnish background material relevant to the themes and arguments developed.
Lateral electron disequilibrium in radiotherapy treatment planning
(The University of Waikato, 1991) Hoban, Peter William; Round, W. Howell
Lateral electron disequilibrium on the central-axis of small-diameter circular beams is investigated using the EGS4 Monte Carlo system, for 10 MV photons. Monte Carlo results generated using the reciprocity technique are presented. In water, disequilibrium is found to occur for beams with diameters of less than approximately 4 cm. In lung of density 0.25 g cm⁻³, disequilibrium occurs for diameters less than approximately 16 cm. The lateral electron equilibrium factor is defined and used to quantify the degree of disequilibrium. Convolution dose calculation for 10 MV photons, using polyenergetic energy deposition kernels, gives a slight error in central-axis dose, due to beam hardening with depth. Primary and scattered polyenergetic kernels formed for a surface primary photon spectrum contain less and more fractional energy respectively than primary and scattered kernels formed for a beam hardened spectrum. A beam hardening correction to the kernels used in the convolution is proposed. This correction improves the agreement of convolution results with Monte Carlo predictions. A superposition algorithm is developed and used to calculate dose in a lung phantom for 10 MV photons. Results show an overestimate in dose in the lung for a 5 cm square field when compared with experiment and Monte Carlo results. Disagreement is due to the assumption made in the density scaling method that secondary electrons travel in straight lines. A modification to the interaction voxel weighting in the density scaling procedure improves the result. The superposition method for 4 MV and 10 MV photons has been incorporated into the GRATIS treatment planning system. Two and three-dimensional electron pencil beam algorithms are used to calculate the dose distribution in a water medium containing a small cavity for a 12 MeV electron beam. The measured hot spot beneath the cavity is 122%. The 2-D method predicts 114% and the 3-D method predicts 127%. Both profile and depth dose curves produced by the 3-D method are superior to those produced by the 2-D method. The 3-D pencil beam algorithm has been incorporated into the GRATIS treatment planning system.

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