Welcome to Research Commons

Research Commons is the University of Waikato's open access research repository, housing research publications and theses produced by the University's staff and students.

Communities in Research Commons

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Recent Submissions

Identifying and categorising metaphors in New Zealand breast cancer discourse: Methods and challenges
(2026) Malik, Sara; Calude, Andreea S.; Ulatowski, Joseph W.
Metaphor is one of the common features in health communication, particularly in cancer discourse, as analysed by Semino et al (2018). While studying metaphors offers valuable insights, the process of identifying and categorizing them is challenging (Glynn and Biryukova, 2022). In this paper, we outline methods of metaphor identification and categorization in the YouTube breast cancer discourse of New Zealand English and also discuss the challenges involved. We collected a corpus of forty-six personal narratives from New Zealand, posted between 2011 and 2023 on YouTube by breast cancer organizations. The data was transcribed using the Whisper AI tool and curated to include only patients’ discourse. This presentation discusses: (a) methods of metaphor identification, (b) methods of metaphor categorization, and (c) challenge in metaphor categorization and its solution. For identification, we used Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980), the Metaphor Identification Procedure (Pragglejaz Group, 2007), and the New Zealand Oxford Dictionary to determine the basic meanings of words. For metaphor categorization, we used two approaches: (a) source domain labels, for instance, violence (terms representing any form of physical harm are categorized under the ‘violence’ category, such as ‘fight’, ‘hit’, ‘aggressive’) and (b) recurrent categories identified in existing literature. One challenge was that some metaphors were borderline and could not fit neatly into a single category. To address this, we classified them as extensions of an existing category. For example, the term ‘fight’ clearly denotes physical harm and fits within the violence category, whereas ‘death sentence’ reflects punishment rather than direct violence. Therefore, it is considered an extension of the violence category, named as punishment metaphor. This study offers a systematic approach to metaphor identification and categorization, which can often be a challenging task.
You're killing me
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Blood, Andrew; Slaughter, Tracey; Chidgey, Catherine
If we build superintelligence, the joke is on us. By the 2050s, when most human skills have been replicated and automated by artificial intelligence, humanity has one last trick up its sleeve. Humour. Because AI doesn’t have a funny bone. Yes, it might be super intelligent, but it cannot fathom how or why jokes work. It just doesn’t get it. Worse, jokes expose bugs in its operating system and any AGI trying to understand them gets tied up in recursive knots. Comedy is an existential threat. Likewise, the authoritarian regimes that control the algorithms behind AI also feel threatened by comedians because comedy, amongst many other things, often contains deep human truths. And that’s something that scares them. Therefore, to the authorities and artificial intelligence alike, the comedian is the most dangerous person in the room. You’re Killing Me, is a speculative fiction novel. A twisted retelling of the Pandora myth, where all the techno plagues released upon humankind refuse to go back into their black boxes, and our last remaining hope comes courtesy of those who are prepared to stand up. Page by page, we are drawn into a world that is ever more complex and disorienting, where omnipresent AGI surrounds us, and synthetic human companions called Pandoras live alongside us. We work with them, fall in love and make love to them, and even reproduce with them. Which also means we commit adultery with them, fight with them, divorce and despise them, and are openly species-ist towards them. In fact, everything we do to humans we do to them, so their arrival, instead of making us happier, only multiplies the ways in which we are unhappy. To make matters worse, synthetic human population growth outstrips that of humans, and the colossal data centres that power them push our planet’s resources to the limit. ‘Machines drink first. Humans drink second,’ is the law. The only sane response is to laugh. And thankfully, comedy is a weapon. Humour has always been a survival mechanism, and now it’s our only chance of survival. The battle between humanity and AI is set. The question is, who will have the last laugh? The future’s dark. But at least it has a funny side.
From user feedback to iterative decision-making: A low-burden multi-channel feedback framework for mobile health applications targeting non-communicable diseases
(ACM, 2026) He, Yuyu; Wang, William Yu Chung; Zahid, Arnob
Mobile health applications (mHealth Apps) can support the long-term management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However, their practical value is commonly limited by low user dropout rates and declining engagement over time. To identify meaningful directions for further improvement, a more comprehensive user evaluation is needed. Existing evaluation methods generally rely on questionnaires and interviews, which can provide valuable quantitative and qualitative evidence. At the same time, studies on user-generated content (UGC) show that free-text feedback can also reveal specific directions for product iteration. Yet these sources of feedback are often collected and analysed separately. Further exploration is required on how to integrate multiple feedback sources while minimising the burden on users with limited time and energy, thereby generating actionable evidence to support subsequent iterations. Therefore, this study proposes a low-burden, multi-channel user feedback framework for NCDs mHealth Apps. It integrates three types of feedback—questionnaires, interviews, and UGC—to obtain more comprehensive user feedback evidence and provide a basis for subsequent iterations. The framework comprises three stages: feedback collection and problem identification, cross-source evidence collation, and iteration-oriented outcome delivery. It aims to gather more comprehensive, timely user feedback, facilitating product iterations that better align with user needs and laying the groundwork for future validation in real-world settings.
The impact of data aggregation: Advocating for individualized analysis in wearable sensor research
(ACM, 2025) König, Jemma; Penaredondo, Jascha; Lim, Nick Jin Sean; Hinze, Annika; Bowen, Judy; Viller, Stephen; Paay, Jeni; Fredericks, Joel; Turner, Jane; Vickery, Nicole; Wadley, Greg; Muñoz, Diego; Capel, Tara; Atiq, Arzoo; Davis, Hilary; Boden, Marie; Harman, Joel; Ploderer, Bernd
The use of wearable sensors to record physiological data is becoming increasingly common, both in research and in daily life. User studies collect data using wrist bands, chest straps, and headbands to measure heart rate, skin conductance, and brain activity, to name a few. These readings can then be used to classify a range of physical and cognitive functions, such as cognitive and physical workload, cognitive and physical fatigue, stress, and attention. However, while physiological data is highly individualized, many researchers use machine learning classification methods that combine the participants' data into one dataset. In this paper, we demonstrate the negative impact this has on results and show that the individualized nature of physiological data requires individualized analysis and classification.
Studies of the structures and redox chemistries of chromate zeolites
(The University of Waikato, 1994) Brown, Mark Langtry; Langdon, Alan G.; Cartner, Tony
Solid-state reactions of sodium chromate, sodium molybdate, and sodium tungstate and zeolites of the types A, X, Y, mordenite, and silicalite at temperatures between 465°C and 655°C resulted in substantial uptakes of the salts. The occluded oxyanions could not be removed by boiling water indicating either a strong interaction with the zeolite lattice or occlusion in β-cages. Factors found to influence the amount of oxyanion occluded were temperature, time, and zeolite to oxyanion mole ratio. Under certain conditions maximum loading was achieved within 24 hours in the absence of significant zeolite framework degradation. In the chromate system, solid-state reactions performed near 800°C resulted in collapse of the zeolite framework and crystallisation of chromate nosean. The kinetics of chromate uptake by 13X followed a √t dependence over the initial stages of reaction indicating a diffusion controlled rate determining step. An apparent activation energy of 124 ± 10 kJ mol⁻¹ was calculated. Occluded sodium chromate was removed from X and Y type zeolites upon heating in strong alkali or salt solutions. A salt-exchange mechanism for chromate removal is proposed. The physiochemical nature of chromate loaded zeolites was examined using a variety of experimental techniques including PXRD, EPR, XRF, DTA, SEM, XPS, FTIR and Raman spectroscopies, and BET surface area determination. All results were consistent with the occlusion of chromate within the α-cages of X, Y, and A type zeolites. No evidence for β-cage occlusion was observed. Maximum chromate uptakes per unit cell were 13.6 for 13X, 13.4 for Y52, and 32.3 for 5A. These uptakes correlated with half the number of S6R facing α-cages of these zeolites suggesting coordination across two S6R. A model consisting of the oxyanion coordinated across its two sodium cations located near the Sɪɪ sites is proposed. Coordination across S5R of mordenite and silicalite was proposed. The Si/ Al ratio had no effect on the maximum chromate uptake. Redox reactions of sodium chromate salt were investigated. Reduction by H₂₍g₎ formed NaCrO₂ and NaOH. Reoxidations were incomplete ceasing at an average oxidation state of Cr(+4.67) through the formation of Na₂CrO₄ and Na₂CrO₃ in a 1:2 ratio. The addition of NaOH to the partially oxidised product allowed full oxidation indicating a dependence of oxidation product on NaOH concentration. A mechanism consistent with the degree of reoxidation was deduced. Chromate occluded in zeolites was reduced by H₂₍g₎ and reoxidised by O₂₍g₎ The degree of loading affected the product of reduction. Reductions of chromates in lowly-loaded zeolites ceased at Cr(IV), chromates in moderately-loaded zeolites (MLZ) were reduced to Cr(III), while chromates in highly-loaded zeolites (HLZ) were reduced to an average oxidation state of Cr(+3.5) containing equimolar amounts of Cr(III) and Cr(IV). The formation of occluded Cr(III)-Cr(IV) “dimers” was postulated. Chromates in chromate nosean reacted with H₂₍g₎ to give a reduction product similar to that of HLZ, i.e. with an average oxidation state of Cr(+3.5). A unit cell edge contraction from 9.107(2) Å for chromate nosean to 8.916(6) Å upon reduction was shown to be consistent with the formation of [Na₄.CrO₂]³⁺, [Na₄.CrO₃]²⁺, [Na₄.OH]³⁺, and [Na₄]⁴⁺ clusters per two unit cells. Changes to the X-ray pattern upon reduction to an average oxidation state of Cr(+3.5) indicated transformation of chromate noselite to a reduced chromate sodalite. The movement of the reduced chromate species off the anion site and coordination to the lattice was envisaged. Reaction with O2(g) at 600°C formed chromate sodalite. Retention of the sodalite framework was attributed to the anion lying off the anion site. Heating the chromate sodalite in air at 1000°C for 2 hours reformed chromate noselite through movement of the chromate oxyanions back to anion sites. The effect of temperature, zeolite type, and degree of loading on the kinetics of redox reactions were investigated. Unlike the reactions in nosean, transport control was not a feature of the reactions and zeolite structure had no significant effect on the redox kinetics. Reductions generally followed second-order kinetics and were highly activated processes with apparent activation energies between 86 ± 2 kJ mol⁻¹ and 97 ± 10 kJ mol⁻¹. In contrast, reoxidations were usually described by chemisorption kinetics. Preliminary investigations indicated a lack of activity of chromate zeolites in ethylene polymerisation and oxidation of methanol reactions. Chromate zeolites were also unable to oxidise CO(g) and CHi(g).