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The interplay of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, collective entrepreneurship, and civic wealth creation in the tourism and agricultural sectors: A Sri Lankan perspective
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Gajanayaka, Channa; Pavlovich, Kathryn; Sinha, Paresha N.
Entrepreneurship research frequently treats entrepreneurship ecosystems, collective entrepreneurship, and civic wealth creation as parallel or pairwise explanations, leaving limited understanding of how these domains interact, generate reinforcing (or weakening) feedback, and co-evolve over time, particularly in emerging-economy contexts where institutional coordination is uneven and entrepreneurial practice is routinely shaped by shocks and livelihood insecurity. This thesis addresses that gap by developing the Triadic Synergy Model (TSM), an original, mechanism-based analytical lens that specifies reciprocal influence and feedback among Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (EE), Collective Entrepreneurship (CE), and Civic Wealth Creation (CWC), while conceptualizing Individualistic Entrepreneurship (IE) as a cross-cutting constraining practice logic that dampens triadic coupling. Empirically, the study adopts a qualitative multiple-case design focused on Sri Lanka’s tourism and agricultural sectors, drawing on semi-structured interviews with SME entrepreneurs, conducted primarily in participants’ mother tongue, with follow-up interviews and iterative thematic analysis and cross-case comparison to identify mechanisms, boundary conditions, and sectoral patterning. Findings show that CE is not a generic claim of “working together” but an achieved coordination capability: synergy emerges when participation is sustained and governance is credible. Under these conditions, CE enhances EE functioning by translating ecosystem supports into usable capacity (e.g., shared infrastructures, pooled learning routines, and collective voice) and can catalyze civic endowments when collective enterprise is organized around inclusion, stakeholder participation, and community capability building. EE is experienced less as a static set of “elements” than as workable access points (e.g., regulatory and procedural infrastructure, skills, finance, market channels, and shared resource pools) that condition day-to-day continuity and shape whether collective arrangements and civic pathways can persist. CWC is evidenced as multidimensional endowment creation and, in necessity-driven settings, as a survival and resilience pathway; however, civic wealth durability depends on participation infrastructures and credible support regimes rather than enterprise goodwill alone. Across the triad, boundary conditions are systematic: low trust, role ambiguity, opportunism concerns, politicization, and survival-first constraints weaken CE and narrow civic outcomes, interrupting the reinforcing loops the TSM specifies. By sector, tourism exhibits more consistent triadic reinforcement due to higher interdependence and more visible participation infrastructures, whereas agriculture shows stronger IE resistance, coordination fragility, and weaker feedback channels, yielding more constrained and discontinuous reinforcing pathways. By integrating Active Influence and Reactive Adaptation logics, the thesis advances a contingent, governance-sensitive explanation of when ecosystem supports translates into durable collective capability and when entrepreneurial activity produces civic wealth that consolidates over time in emerging-economy sectors.
Collage or chaos? Music documentary and the art of audiovisual remediation in Moonage Daydream
(Taylor & Francis, 2026-06-03) Perrott, Lisa
Upon its release in 2022, Brett Morgen’s documentary Moonage Daydream sparked vigorous debate among film reviewers and fans of David Bowie. Many criticisms appear to stem from unmet expectations about what a music documentary might be, along with a dearth of scholarly examination of how the film is situated in relation to experimental approaches to documentary filmmaking. While considering the discursive implications of public commentary about Moonage Daydream, audiovisual analysis is employed to examine the intersection of found footage and avant-garde assemblage strategies, audiovisual aesthetics, and animation. By contextualising Brett Morgen’s approach in relation to experimental approaches to documentary film, I explore Moonage Daydream in relation to the history of found footage film, music documentary, and avant-garde approaches to art. Through multimodal analysis of the film’s audiovisual construction, I explicate Morgen’s use of conceptually driven creative strategies – such as cut-up, bricolage, and remediation. I argue that these methods are not only consistent with the creative-critical agenda of found footage documentary filmmaking, but they also mirror Bowie's creative approach. While situating Moonage Daydream as a valuable example of remediation, contextually informed analysis reveals the creative-critical potential of found footage filmmaking and avant-garde approaches to audiovisual assemblage in music documentary.
Expression of gonadal immune genes during prepubertal sex change in spotty wrasse (Notolabrus celidotus)
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Longney, Jana; Muncaster, Simon; van der Burg, Chloé
Teleost fish display exceptional diversity in their reproductive strategies, including sequential hermaphroditism, in which individuals undergo complete functional sex change during adulthood (monandry) and in some cases, a second male morph can arise prior to puberty (diandry). While the endocrine and genetic mechanisms underlying sex change have been extensively studied, the contribution of the immune system to gonadal remodelling remains poorly understood. This thesis investigates the role of immune processes during female-tomale prepubertal sex change in initial-phase members of the New Zealand spotty wrasse (Notolabrus celidotus). This study integrates histological analysis with gene expression profiling to examine immune involvement across transitional stages of gonadal sex change. Histological examination revealed stage-dependent changes in gonadal leukocyte (eosinophilic granular cell) abundance and localisation, coinciding with ovarian degeneration and testicular development. Gene expression analyses demonstrated coordinated increases in immuneassociated markers (cd68, il-1β, and tnf-α), particularly during late transitional and male stages. Notably, immune activation was not confined to early degenerative phases but persisted into the male phase, suggesting roles beyond debris clearance, likely including tissue organisation and maintenance. Although inter-individual variability limited statistical significance for some markers, consistent directional trends across genes and concordance with histological observations support a biologically meaningful pattern of immune modulation during sex change. By building a body of evidence that links immune gene expression with histological evidence of leukocyte involvement, this study highlights a likely localised immune function response as a key mechanism associated with vertebrate sex change. Importantly, it identifies immune cells as active contributors to sex change rather than passive responders.
Verifying interoperability in evolving IoT systems
(SciTePress, 2026) Zhang, Hongming; Bowen, Judy; Turner, Jessica Dawn; König, Jemma Lynette
As IoT devices age they must be replaced to maintain reliability and performance. During upgrades, ensuring interoperability among new and existing devices is critical for preserving designated system behaviours. Existing formal verification approaches rely on system documentation or source code to build formal models or extract flat models from system logs. We propose a novel log-driven verification framework that automatically discovers executable Hierarchical Colored Petri Nets (HCPNs) from raw IoT system logs. The framework integrates model checking to verify cross-layer interoperability during IoT system evolution and device replacement. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using a street lighting system study.
Synthesis and kinetics of isomerisation of 2',6'-dihydroxychalcones
(The University of Waikato, 1987) Miles, Christopher O.; Main, Lyndsay
The first-order rate constant, kₒbₛ, for the chalcone - flavanone isomerisation has been determined over the pH range 0-14 in water (μ = 1.0 mol 1⁻¹ with KC1) at 30°C for the following 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcones: 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcone (34); 2' ,6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxychalcone (38); 2' ,6'-dihydroxy-3,4-dimethoxychalcone (40); 2' ,6'-dihydroxy-3,4,5-trimethoxychalcone (42); 2' ,6'-dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxychalcone (44); 4-chloro-2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcone (46); 2' ,6'-dihydroxy- 4,4'-dimethoxychalcone (32); 2' ,6'-dihydroxy-3,4,4'-trimethoxychalcone (36); and 2' ,4,6'-trihydroxy-4'-rhamnoglucosyloxychalcone (naringin-chalcone) (48). The pH-rate profiles have been analysed in terms of contributions to cyclisation and ring opening of the various ionised chalcone and flavanone species, and individual rate and equilibrium constants for all the contributing reactions have been determined. Rate measurements with D₂O as the solvent (for 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46) revealed a large (presumably primary) hydrogen kinetic isotope effect for one of the contributing reactions, the cyclisation of the chalcone mono-anion. Enthalpies and entropies of activation for the mono-anion cyclisation have also been determined for chalcones 34, 36, 38, 42, 44, and 46. ¹H n.m.r. studies of the product from the cyclisation of the mono-anion in D₂O for two chalcones (34, 38) showed little preference in protonation at the 3-position of the flavanone. Mass spectrometry allowed measurement of the preference for protonation over deuteriation at the 3-position of the flavanone during cyclisation of the mono-anions of 32 and 38, under kinetically-controlled conditions in H₂O - D₂O mixtures. The data obtained were not in accord with the those from kinetic isotope effect measurements. The above results were considered in terms of possible mechanisms for the various reactions involved in the isomerisation. Factors contributing to the specially high rate of cyclisation of 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcones as compared to simple 2'-hydroxychalcones, and to the high stability of the 5-hydroxyflavanones as compared to simple flavanones (relative to their isomeric chalcones) were also considered. The low stability of the 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcones, compared to the 2'-hydroxychalcones (relative to their flavanones) was found to be due to a highly reactive mono-anion form combined with a lower first pKₐ, and a greatly reduced susceptibility of the flavanone anions to base-catalysed ring opening. By utilising the above kinetic results, new and improved syntheses of 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcones have been developed in the face of what are shown to be unreliable literature reports. The following compounds have been synthesised and characterised for the first time: (32); (34); (36); (38); 5-hydroxy-4' -methoxyflavanone (39); (40); 5-hydroxy-3' ,4'-dimethoxyflavanone (41); (42); 5-hydroxy-3' ,4' ,5'-trimethoxyflavanone (43); (44); 5-hydroxy-2' ,4' ,6'-trimethoxyflavanone (45); (46); 5-hydroxy-4'-chloroflavanone (47): 6-benzyl-7-benzyloxy-5-hydroxyflavanone (68); 6-benzyl-5,7-dihydroxyflavanone (69); 2 '-hydroxy-6 '-tetrahydropyrany loxy-3, 4, 5-trimethoxychalcone (70); 3'-benzyl-4' ,6'-dibenzyloxy-2'-hydroxychalcone (72); 2' ,3,4' ,6'-tetrahydroxy- 4-methoxychalcone (86); 2'-hydroxy-4' ,6'-dimethoxy-3'-methylchalcone (93). Two new routes to 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcones were developed. The first involved base-catalysed condensation of acetophenones and benzaldehydes with free phenolic groups protected as their tetrahydro-pyranyl ethers, followed by deprotection at pH 2. The second involved reaction of flavanones with chlorosilanes, in the presence of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene, in which ring opening of the O-silylated flavanone was immediately followed by silylation of the resultant phenolate oxygen, thereby preventing recyclisation. The crystal structures of 5-hydroxy-4' ,7-dimethoxyflavanone (33) and 2' ,6'-dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxychalcone (44) were determined by X-ray crystallography, 44 being the first 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcone for which a crystal structure has been obtained. A computer programme was developed for the analysis of pH-rate data for 2'-hydroxy- and 2', 6'-dihydroxy-chalcones, but which is suitable for the analysis of pH-rate data for most mono- or di-acids in which the contributing reactions are (pseudo) first-order. The programme can also include second-order H⁺-catalysed reaction of the di-acid, and one second-order OH⁻-catalysed reaction, and calculates the concentrations of the various ionised species present on the basis that the two pKₐ values may not be well-separated. This programme has been used to successfully analyse the 2' ,4'-dihydroxychalcone - 7-hydroxyflavanone pH-rate profile previously reported, but not analysed, in the same way as for the 2' ,6'-dihydroxychalcones.