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Coastal evolution of the Rangitāiki Plains, Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa-New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Rackham, Bailey; La Croix, Andrew D.; Carvalho, Rafael
The Rangitāiki Plains is a tectonically active alluvial plain in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Throughout the mid-late Holocene (8 ka to present), the Rangitāiki Plains have undergone substantial geomorphological change, with the coastline prograding approximately 10 km over the past 6.5 ka, leaving relic shoreline features known as beach ridges. Previous studies of the Rangitāiki Plains have utilised tephrochronology and radiocarbon dating to determine the ages of several palaeoshorelines. These dates provided minimum ages for beach ridges and resulted in aging constraints; furthermore, limited textural and geochemical characterisation of beach ridges has hampered understanding of sediment provenance and reworking changes. Addressing these research gaps is important as this knowledge is especially relevant in coastal management, modern climate change, and increasing anthropogenic impacts on the coastline. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating on the Rangitāiki Plains produced older beach ridge ages than those derived via tephrochronology. OSL dating also showed that beach ridge ages coincided with volcanic eruption events. The OSL progradation rates extend to much older time frames than those based on tephrochronology, starting at 7.6 ka rather than 5.5 ka. New data concludes a prominent progradation peak up to 43.03 m yr⁻¹ between 5.202±0.368 ka and 5.187±0.447 ka, around the time of the Whakatāne eruption. By 4 ka, progradation had slowed to only 1.14 m yr⁻¹, suggesting that longshore drift occurred earlier than previously calculated (2 ka), or that progradation slowed before longshore drift commenced. XRF and XRD analysis of sediments from Rangitāiki Plains confirms that beach ridge sediments comprise of intermediate igneous sediments that have been tephra fingerprinted to the Taupō Volcanic Zone.
Tootling for supporting the inclusion of students with special needs in general education classrooms: A systematic literature review
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Kabalinskaya, Alevtina; Anderson, Angelika
Disruptive behaviours negatively impact students’ academic and social progress, leading to poor outcomes later in life. The effects can be especially detrimental for students with additional needs. After decades of reliance on a punitive approach to behaviour management in schools, positive behaviour interventions are gaining recognition for their ability to manage problematic behaviours by teaching students the appropriate ways to interact and creating positive and supportive environments. The Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Interventions and Support (SWPBIS) framework provides a proactive, flexible approach to behaviour management through a tiered system of supports. Supports are provided in accordance with the needs of a student, with the strategies of Tier 1 designed to support the needs of the majority of students. Considering that physical placement of special needs students in general education classrooms does not always mean meaningful inclusion of those students on academic and social processes of the classrooms, strategies for inclusion are needed. As inclusion strategies should target both typical and special needs students, they should be implemented schoolwide, as Tier 1 strategies. In this systematic literature review a positive behaviour intervention called Tootling is evaluated as a potential strategy for enhancing inclusion of students with special needs in general education classrooms. Being implemented classwide Tootling has a potential improving behaviour of special needs students without separating or singling them out in any other way. The review examined sixteen studies that assessed the effects of Tootling at the classwide level in inclusive classrooms, alongside three studies that focused on individual students with special needs. Studies were evaluated using the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards for research design quality (Institute of Education Studies, 2017). Data were systematically aggregated to provide an overview of participants, methodologies, and findings. Additionally, the outcome data was subjected to systematic visual analysis for additional validation. Findings indicate that Tootling is an effective, evidence-based intervention for reducing disruptive behaviour and increasing appropriate behaviour in inclusive classrooms, meeting the WWC “5-3-20” threshold (Institute of Education Studies, 2017). The evidence for the effect of Tootling on passive off-task behaviour was insufficient with a small number of studies that evaluated passive off-task and inconclusive results of those studies. The results regarding the effect of Tootling on disruptive and appropriate behaviour in individual students with special needs were promising. Further research from various research teams covering larger numbers of diverse participants is needed to strengthen the evidence base and explore long-term impacts.
Interrogating the intersection of participation and performance outcomes in school sport: A case study of sport in educational settings
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Sherlock Ludlow, Finlay; Roberts, William M.; Townsend, Robert C.
The aim of this research was to explore the challenges faced by educators when attempting to offer both participation and performance pathways for pupils in a school setting. Education is often overlooked when performance sport is integrated into community, youth, and school settings. This research sought to explore the nuances of school sport delivery within New Zealand. Amidst falling participation rates of youth in sport, it is evident that schools play a critical role in offering quality sporting experiences to young people. One of the driving factors of the falling rates of participation is the professionalisation (including specialisation) of youth sport. To counter this, initiatives such as 'Balance is Better' and GoodSports have been developed to prioritise youth development in sport. Yet schools and sporting academies can deliver sport how they see fit, and as such, do not need to align to these initiatives. It is therefore important to understand what the day-to-day delivery of youth sport looks like within schools. Specifically, this research considers the tensions that school sport staff face in delivering sport programmes within a complicated youth sport landscape. This thesis adopts a pragmatic paradigm, informing a qualitative case study. The primary tools for data collection were observations and interviews with nine staff across a range of roles within an independent school in New Zealand. Using Practice Architectures as a theoretical lens through which to analyse data, interactions within the school were grouped into social-political; cultural-discursive; and material-economic arrangements. Through the bundles of these arrangements, three key tensions emerge when considering some of the challenges faced by sport staff in education settings: 1) inconsistent and ineffective leadership to determine the direction of sport; 2) a disconnect in values between practitioners; 3) a need for processes to socialise the staff to the school values. The findings and implications of this study highlight the importance of schools offering opportunities for staff to align themselves with the values of the school, and the importance of the school having a sense of what day-to-day sporting delivery looks like to its students. Beyond this, it is argued that further research and sport governance platforms (such as that of Sport New Zealand) should work to support schools to ensure that sport is delivered in accordance with school values and youth development initiatives.
Developing new multiscale models for the numerical simulation of Pultruded GFRP Structural Elements
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Abbaszadeh, Hadi; Mochida, Yusuke
Pultruded Fibre-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) are innovative structural elements gaining popularity for various structural applications due to their unique properties, such as magnetic transparency and an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. These materials have been extensively studied through experimental and numerical methods to assess their performance as structural components. Accurately describing the micro- and macro-scale mechanical features of FRP elements necessitates complex computational models to predict their strength and investigate design parameters through numerical simulations. This research initially reviews the state-of-the-art in numerical modelling of structural fibre-reinforced polymeric elements, particularly pultruded Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymers (GFRP). It highlights their use as load-bearing structural elements and evaluates various numerical methods, including Finite Element Method (FEM), eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM), Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT), Cohesive Zone Modelling (CZM), Multiscale Reduced Order Modelling (ROM), and Random Lattice Modelling (RLM). Each method's distinctive features, challenges, and capabilities are discussed in detail. The aim is to assess the reliability of these numerical models for simulating FRP structural elements and provide recommendations for future research by discussing 160 references from the literature. In the next step, the experimental characterization of Pultruded GFRP materials evaluated. These composites exhibit remarkable strength, comparable or even superior to steel, and resistance to environmental effects. However, their strongly orthotropic behaviour and spatial variability in mechanical properties present challenges. Fibre orientation and distribution significantly affect the ultimate strength and stiffness of these materials. This work includes an experimental campaign on GFRP specimens in uniaxial tension and three-point bending, testing coupon specimens with fibre orientations of 0, 15, 45, and 90 degrees to characterize ultimate strength and failure modes. Detailed statistical measures of the strength values are presented, aiming to understand the variability in mechanical properties of commercially available profiles. In addition, the stiffness parameter was considered to investigate by analytical study comparing experimental results. Despite the promising properties of pultruded GFRP, their relatively low stiffness and strength in the direction orthogonal to the fibres limit their widespread adoption in civil engineering applications. This work investigates the mechanical behaviour of pultruded GFRP beams using analytical methods, presenting experimental results from a small-scale campaign conducted by the researcher. These results validate the analytical model and compare the elastic stiffness concerning fibre orientation, providing insights into the potential and limitations of pultruded GFRP elements in structural applications. Finally, the last step of study demonstrates the inherent limitations of traditional lattice models and propose a new model to simulate the orthotropic materials` behaviours in different conditions. This section presents an innovative approach by using irregular lattice networks to simulate the elastic behaviour of orthotropic GFRP structural elements by Voronoi Cell Lattice Modelling (VCLM), focusing on different fibre-to-matrix elasticity ratios and fibre to load orientations. The proposed method first estimates the elastic properties for various fibre orientations and verifies the model against standard deformation cases and experimental data. Additionally, it compares numerical predictions to established theories like the Tsai-Hill criterion. Through sensitivity analysis, it explores how fibre-to-matrix ratios and Young’s modulus affect macroscopic Poisson’s ratio, offering new insights into stiffness effects on anisotropic material simulations.
Countering gentrification in Tāmaki Makarau: Towards a framework for urban environmental justice
(WERO,Te Ngira Institute for Population Research, The University of Waikato, 2025) Terruhn, Jessica; Simon-Kumar, Rachel; Dirks, Kim; Edwards, Andrea
This policy brief argues for urban policies that actively aim to end gentrification. Gentrification is intimately tied to state-led processes of urban renewal. Though historically understood as the displacement of low-income households as an unfortunate byproduct of socioeconomic and demographic neighbourhood change, contemporary gentrification is constituted by profit-driven investment decisions that erase undervalued neighbourhoods and their communities in the name of urban renewal (variously referred to as redevelopment, regeneration, renaissance, or revitalisation). These processes of gentrification fundamentally contribute to environmental injustice. At the same time as creating ‘zones of abundance’, neighbourhood regeneration projects simultaneously (re-)create ‘zones of neglect and sacrifice’, which are burdened with environmental risks. As low-income and ethnic minority households are more likely to either reside in or to be displaced into these neighbourhoods, they are disproportionately exposed to environmental risk factors. Moreover, gentrification enables and legitimises the exclusion of marginalised communities in multiple ways: 1) it devalues existing places and their residents in favour of regeneration, 2) it displaces longtime residents from regenerated neighbourhoods because of increasing property values, and/or 3) it alienates longtime residents as neighbourhood aesthetics, amenities and services change and become unaffordable and/or irrelevant. As gentrification contributes to low-income households’ experiences of precarity and severs community ties and place attachments, it generates significant costs to personal and community health and wellbeing as well as social cohesion. The recommendations articulated in this brief emphasise the importance of transformative policy solutions that actively counter gentrification. These include: • Equitable investment in urban infrastructure • Prioritising affordable housing • Ensuring accessible transportation • Empowering local communities • Implementing a Te Tiriti o Waitangi approach to policy development