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The Māori Land Court: Exploring the Space between Law, Design, and Kaupapa Māori
No full textAotearoa/New Zealand is currently contemplating legislative reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993, the statutory regime that governs Māori land. With the focus of both Māori and the Crown once again strongly on the Māori land law regime, this thesis takes the opportunity to bring a new perspective to the Māori Land Court, as the legal entity that sits at the centre of that regime. It draws on law’s recent, growing interest in design-based concepts and practices and how these can usefully be brought to bear on legal subject matters. It combines law and design, within a Kaupapa Māori research and theoretical framework, with two overarching objectives: to explore whether a design perspective can enrich our understanding of the relationship between owners of Māori land and the Māori Land Court; and to explore what design might contribute to ongoing and future Court reform.
The relationship between owners of Māori land and the Māori Land Court is unique, and many owners of land may not be engaged with the Court or with their land interests, for a range of complex reasons. In illustration of this, many thousands of interests in Māori land have not been succeeded to through the Court, and remain in the ownership of a deceased individual. Design may make a valuable contribution here in that it encourages us to take seriously the notion that courts ought to be designed with all users in mind. This thesis draws on the emerging legal design field being developed by researchers in North America and Europe, and on accounts of Māori design within Aotearoa/New Zealand, to start to make the Western theory appropriate for application in our Indigenous legal spaces.
As part of the thesis, a small qualitative research study was undertaken with seven current Māori landowners, who have each recently used the Court to succeed to interests in Māori land. The research methodology was informed by design and Kaupapa Māori. Participants were asked to create collages and respond to exercises pertaining to their interactions with the Court, and then describe to the researcher what they made. The research sought to gain insights into the experience of succeeding to land through the Court.
Drawing on the results of that research, the thesis makes suggestions for how we can better attend to the experience of succeeding to Māori land through the Court, and better support those people who do so. The thesis also puts forward a framework for organising the different landowner relationships that surround the Court into three groups, of use, non-use (or potential use), and future-use. This framework may help us to consider how we can design the Māori Land Court system in such a way that all landowners will see its meaning and relevance to their lives.
The thesis also considers whether a design perspective might contribute to ongoing Court reform. The Crown has begun to mobilise “co-design” approaches towards policy and law reform in areas that affect Māori, and we may see a similar approach applied to the Māori Land Court in the future. To date, however, co-design approaches have promised more than they have delivered. The thesis suggests that a successful design-oriented reform approach to the Court would be collaborative, convivial, imaginative, experimental, and creative. It would connect with Indigenous political projects of reframing, envisioning, and creating. Furthermore, the field research suggests that Māori stakeholders are willing to engage in creative research methods, and that valuable insights emerge when they are asked to apply their creativity to issues of significance in their lives. These findings may prove useful if a design-based law reform approach is applied to the Māori Land Court in the future
What is the significance of the Wharetoa school?
No full textMy choice of this subject was due to the current controversy arising out of the statement of the present Minister of Education that “education in New Zealand must of necessity have an agricultural bias.” Before deciding that question I felt that I should know something of the significance of the Wharetoa School and its relationship to the district in which it is situated.
There has also been much adverse criticism of the School and pupils by teachers and people outside the district. I was “warned” about the type of school I should be entering when I was appointed to the Wharetoa School in 1930. I have since found that many of the criticisms were unfounded and applied perhaps only to the period 1928-1929.
The district, as the following description in the introduction will show, is very suited to an inquiry of this type, being isolated and having defining characteristics of its own. […] [Extract from Forword
Investigation of Fully Concentrated Rare-Earth Crytals for Microwave Upconversion
No full textSuperconducting qubits are currently one of the leading qubit designs, showing great success in some of the world's most powerful quantum computers. Superconducting qubits, however, communicate at microwave frequencies, which is problematic when it comes to the task of long distance communication as unless the communication channel is cryogenically cooled the microwave photons are swamped by thermal noise. Optical photons, on the other hand, are ideal for long distance communication, particularly at frequencies that lie within the telecommunications band. One solution to the superconducting qubits communication problem is to create a device that can convert an input microwave photon into an optical photon with unit quantum efficiency. A device of such could then be used alongside existing optical fibre networks to connect distant superconducting processors. Furthermore, an upconversion device would allow superconducting qubit systems to take advantage of quantum technologies in the optical region, such as optical quantum memories.
Several different approaches have been taken in attempts to experimentally implement such a device. Recently a theoretical proposal showed that the strong non-linearities that occur near the collective resonances in fully concentrated rare-earth crystals can be used to efficiently upconvert microwave photons. In this thesis we begin experimental investigations of two fully concentrated rare-earth crystals, GdVO4 and DyPO4, for their application to microwave upconversion.
Absorption spectra of the two crystals in the optical region are measured using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, in order to characterise and explore the possible optical states to be used in the upconversion process. Experiments are then carried out at microwave frequencies to explore the coupling between the collective spin resonances (magnons) that occur within the crystals and a microwave cavity. It is found that not only can the ultrastrong coupling regime be reached in these systems but that the linewidth of the magnon mode is narrow, measuring 35MHz at T = 25mK. This is the first experimental evidence of ultrastrong coupling between a microwave cavity and antiferromagnetic magnon modes in a rare-earth crystal. Furthermore, narrow transition linewidths are a crucial requirement in the proposed upconversion method, therefore the narrow linewidth experimentally measured here is an important validation of the proposals feasibility.
The results presented in this thesis show that microwave upconversion mediated by fully concentrated rare-earth crystals has an exciting future. Perhaps one day rare-earth crystals will be used to overcome the major communication problem superconducting qubits currently face
Superconductivity in strongly spin-orbit coupled systems
No full textSuperconductivity is a low-temperature quantum state of matter, marked by the vanishing of electrical resistance and the expulsion of magnetic flux fields. A thorough microscopic understand of superconductivity was gained through the seminal theory by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (BCS theory), in which electrons are bound into so-called Cooper pairs by an attractive interaction in the material. In this theory the origin of the attractive interaction is the coupling of electrons to lattice vibrations which makes electrons pair together in a relative orbital s-wave state.
In the last decades, superconductors with properties that cannot be explained by the predictions of BCS theory have been discovered. The pairing mechanism in these unconventional superconductors remains incompletely understood, however, a symmetry-based phenomenological approach has proved to be very useful in determining the stable superconducting states and gap structures even if the pairing mechanism is unknown. More recently, materials with strong spin-orbit coupling have moved into the focus of attention due to their possible unconventional superconductivity. The mixing of orbital and spin degrees of freedom imposes strong constraints on the permissible Cooper pair structures but can be favourable for interesting exotic phenomena.
In this thesis we will theoretically study the physics of superconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling. Using field theory techniques and group theory arguments we investigate the properties of orbitally non-trivial pairing states. The presence of multiple bands qualitatively changes the nodal structure of an inversion-symmetric time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductor. Instead of point or line nodes, the gap exhibits extended nodal pockets, called Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces.
These surfaces originate from the “inflation” of point and line nodes in the absence of time-reversal symmetry. We present a comprehensive theory for Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces and investigate their thermodynamic stability in a paradigmatic model. We find that a pairing state with Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces can be stabilized at moderate spin-orbit coupling strengths. Our results show that Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces of experimentally relevant size can be thermodynamically stable.
Strontium ruthenate (Sr2RuO4) has long been thought to be the textbook example of an odd-parity spin-triplet chiral p-wave superconducting state. However, recent spin-susceptibility measurements have observed a singlet-like response and cast serious doubts on this prediction. We propose an alternative even-parity pairing state, which is consistent with the new experimental observations. This state can be energetically stable once a realistic three-dimensional model of Sr2RuO4 is considered. This state naturally gives rise to Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces
Conscious decisions to move and cortical movement preparation: which comes first?
No full textThe idea that conscious decisions determine our actions has been challenged by a report which suggested that the brain starts preparing for a movement before the conscious decision to move (Libet et al., 1983). Since they found that cortical movement preparation started before the conscious decision to move, Libet et al. argued that movements are initiated unconsciously, and not as a result of our conscious decisions. In this thesis, we described the study on which these claims were based, summarised several criticisms of Li bet et al. 's conclusions, and presented four experiments addressing two main alternative explanations ofLibet et al. 's results. One of these was based on a smearing artifact that occurs during EEG averaging, and the other questioned Libet et al. 's assumption that the EEG present before the decision to move reflected the processes underlying movement initiation.
The main aim of the first two experiments was to test an explanation ofLibet et al. 's results based on an artifact of EEG averaging. In these two experiments, temporal order judgment methodology was used to look at the distribution in time of the reported times of the decision to move. Specifically, we tested whether the earliest reported decision-time could have occurred before the onset of cortical movement preparation (which Libet et al. reported at 500 msec before the movement). The results of Experiment 2 (but not Experiment 1) suggested that the earliest decisions may have been reported more than 500 msec before the movement Thus (since the earliest decisions occurred before the RP onset) there was some support for the possibility that the decision may have been before the start of the RP on each individual trial, despite Libet et al.'s averaged results.
A second possible explanation for Libet et al. 's results was based on a review of different measures of cortical movement preparation (summarised in Chapter 3), which suggested that the Readiness Potential (the RP, which Libet et al. used to measure movement preparation) may not be specific to movement initiation, but may instead reflect a number of processes associated with the anticipation of a future movement. We also argued that the Lateralised Readiness Potential (LRP), which measures hand-specific movement preparation, seems to reflect the processes necessary for a movement to be initiated immediately.
The main aim of Experiments 3 and 4 was to compare participants' reported decision-times with both the RP and the LRP. The results of these studies suggest that reported decision-times were always after the start of the RP (this was partly because the RP recorded here started longer before the movement than that reported by Libet et al., 1983). In contrast, decisions were often reported before the start of the LRP. We concluded that although there may be some anticipation of a future movement (represented by the RP) more than a second before the movement occurs, the specific processes necessary for the movement to be initiated (represented by the LRP) may not start until after the decision to move
Achieving continual learning in deep neural networks through pseudo-rehearsal
No full textNeural networks are very powerful computational models, capable of outperforming humans on a variety of tasks. However, unlike humans, these networks tend to catastrophically forget previous information when learning new information. This thesis aims to solve this catastrophic forgetting problem, so that a deep neural network model can sequentially learn a number of complex reinforcement learning tasks. The primary model proposed by this thesis, termed RePR, prevents catastrophic forgetting by introducing a generative model and a dual memory system. The generative model learns to produce data representative of previously seen tasks. This generated data is rehearsed, while learning a new task, through a process called pseudo-rehearsal. This process allows the network to learn the new task, without forgetting previous tasks. The dual memory system is used to split learning into two systems. The short-term system is only responsible for learning the new task through reinforcement learning and the long-term system is responsible for retaining knowledge of previous tasks, while being taught the new task by the short-term system.
The RePR model was shown to learn and retain a short sequence of reinforcement tasks to above human performance levels. Additionally, RePR was found to substantially outcompete state-of-the-art solutions and prevent forgetting similarly to a model which rehearsed real data from previously learnt tasks. RePR achieved this without: increasing in memory size as the number of tasks expands; revisiting previously learnt tasks; or directly storing data from previous tasks. Further results showed that RePR could be improved by informing the generator which image features are most important to retention and that, when challenged by a longer sequence of tasks, RePR would typically demonstrate gradual forgetting rather than dramatic forgetting. Finally, results also demonstrated RePR can successfully be adapted to other deep reinforcement learning algorithms
Tidal energy theory and turbine array design in constricted channels
No full textThis thesis extends existing tidal energy theory to include the effects of channel constriction - previous general theoretical works have been limited to unconstricted rectangular channel geometries. This work uses a combination of 1-D and 2-D mathematical modelling to explore how channel constriction affects the upper-limits of tidal energy generation, how turbine arrays should be designed in constricted channels and how turbine arrays will affect constricted channels when they are operational. 1-D modelling is fast and efficient and is particularly suitable for performing a broad systematic study. However, flow in constricted channels is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Thus, a 2-D depth-averaged model is adopted to examine how 2-D flow, more realistic geometries, and more realistic tidal forcing impact on the derived 1-D theory. A comparison is done between the 1-D and 2-D models. As the 1-D model used here is similar to models used to build the foundations of tidal energy theory for unconstricted channels, this comparison serves to validate findings in these works also.
Initial work treats turbines as an arbitrary amount of drag in a basic 1-D channel model, this drag is increased in a myriad of test channels with differing degrees of constriction. Both channels connecting two ocean bodies (regular channels), and channels connecting an ocean body to a lagoon or bay (lagoon channels) are tested. Findings show that for channels of similar size, more constriction in the channel results in less power available for extraction (channel potential). Faster flows in the constricted region result in greater energy loss to friction and less energy is available for electricity generation. Lagoon channels can be geometrically modified (by increasing/decreasing the degree of constriction) to increase channel potential. A simple approximation for channel potential in the literature is extended to constricted channels.
An analytical turbine model is then nested into the 1-D channel model. This allowed for a systematic exploration of array design in a myriad of channel geometries. Power generation was maximised by placing one row of turbines in the smallest cross-section and filling it to maximum blockage. Arrays built outside of the constriction can generate the same amount of power as arrays in the constriction but use more turbines. Using the power-to-force ratio as an economic indicator, building stronger turbines to withstand the forces of the constriction are worthwhile in terms of enhanced power generation. Results from the 2-D model showed that large amounts of kinetic energy are lost from constricted small channels in the constriction jet. In larger channels, the jet can mix in with the surrounding flow before the channel exit. Adding turbines dampens the jet by reducing flow through the channel, this allows more of this lost energy to be captured. Turbines were found to have an effect on the channel head difference driving flow. This was not accounted for in the 1-D model. When accounted for, the 1-D model showed good agreement for large channels. Agreement was within 40% for smaller channels but the 1-D model could not account for the kinetic energy loss in the jet
Food Heritagisation and Tourism. Following the Cheese in the Italian Dolomites
No full textThe Italian writer Italo Calvino in his book Mr. Palomar describes a scene when the title character is standing in line in a cheese shop and in front of him are displayed cheeses of every form, smell and taste. While observing these specialities Mr. Palomar realises that “behind every displayed object [is] the presence of the civilization that has given it form and takes form from it” (Calvino, 2007, p. 73). This thesis aims to explore what ‘gives form and takes form’ from the mountain cheese of the Valle del Primiero in the Italian Dolomites.
Food is the essence of life and we all need food to survive. However, food is much more than simple sustenance and it is deeply part of who we are. Food is part of the roots of a community and thus it is embedded in the culture of a place and the identity of its people; it is a heritage resource. At the same time food is a touristic attraction. Each destination offers experiences associated with its own particular type of food and thus creates different foodscapes. As a result, food is part of the process of heritage-making occurring in a locality as well as of tourism. The two processes are interrelated and this study aims to explore this intricate play. While the implications of the promotion of food heritage resources for tourism have been investigated, the construction of the food heritage resources within the locality and their implications for tourism need more attention. This research aims to explore this side of the relationship and thus to explore the role of food heritage for a destination and its community.
I conducted 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Valle del Primiero over which time I met malgari (mountain farmers who lead the cattle from the village barns to the mountain pasture), farmers, cheese makers, hospitality providers and members of the local Slow Food condotta. These represent the different communities of practice of the locality involved in the production, transformation, preparation and promotion of the cheese. Through the observations and reflections recorded in fieldwork journals, the informal conversations, the semi-structured interviews and the focus group discussions, I investigated the multiple voices and perspectives of these communities of practice around the local cheese. With the support of Actor Network Theory I organised the different narratives in four versions of cheese which I named Genuine Cheese, Touristic Cheese, Official Cheese and Cheese of Belonging.
The emergence of four stories about the same cheese reflects the fact that the cheese is part of a worldmaking process that is constantly created and recreated through the mobilisation of the different actors. Therefore, even if the physical reality of the cheese is singular, the social reality reflects a composite cheesescape that expresses a multitude of voices, positions, elements and practices. Furthermore, the analysis of these versions of cheese also reveals how food heritage, as a tourism related resource, can be part of a process of encounters and negotiations that ultimately lead to the creation of a new sense of belonging between the members of the community and their place. Specifically, the illustration of the Cheese of Belonging and the proposed ‘Food of Belonging’ triangle demonstrate a process through which the communities of practice realise, recognise and adhere to a common understanding of the food heritage resource of the locality. This process is at the base of the co-creation of food heritage-based tourism experiences. This study concludes that tourism is a social and cultural force that can shape new relations between people and place and that food can offer a pathway to create new heritage-based networks in a locality
Protein discovery platform using deer antler as a model of mammalian regeneration
No full textThe ability to activate and regulate stem cells during wound healing and tissue regeneration is a promising field which could bring innovative approaches into regenerative medicine. The regenerative capacity of invertebrates has been well documented, however in mammals, stem cells that drive organ regeneration are rare. Deer antler is the only known mammalian structure that can annually regenerate to produce a complex tissue. The neural crest derived stem cells that drive this process result in antler growing at up to 2 cm/day. Deer antler appears to outweigh lower-order animal models when investigating the regulation of stem cell-based regeneration. Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a multifunctional heparin-binding growth factor; the PTN gene is found highly expressed within the active antler stem cell tissues. The studies presented in this thesis aimed to examine the location of stem cells during antler growth, the proteomic profiles of different pools of stem cells involved in antler generation and regeneration, and the role of the PTN growth factor family in stem cell regulation.
The differentially expressed proteins between cells derived from stem cell niches involved in antlerogenesis (antlerogenic periosteum) and regeneration (potentiated and dormant pedicle periosteum), and cells derived from deer facial periosteum as a control (n = 3) were identified using 2D-DIGE-based quantitative proteomics. Label-free mass spectrometry was further used to detect the protein expression profiles of antler stem cell tissues under different stages of activation and included: dormant pedicle periosteum, growth centre, post-active stem cells from mid-beam periosteum, and control facial periosteum (n = 3). Mesenchymal stem cell markers CD73, CD90 and CD105, along with PTN/midkine (MDK) growth factors and their receptors (PTPRZ, ALK, NOTCH2, ITGAV and ITGB3), were examined in antler tissues using immunohistochemistry. In vitro effects of PTN on proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of antler stem cells were also investigated.
Ninety-two differentially expressed proteins were identified by 2D-DIGE. Bioinformatic analysis indicated the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process may participate in the initiation of wound healing and subsequent antler regeneration; cell mobility was highly involved during antler regeneration; energy and nucleotide metabolism may however be less active in antler regeneration as compared to that in antler generation phase. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the central role of stem cells in the development of this mammalian structure by localising the mesenchymal stem cell markers within the antler growth centre. Label-free quantification distinguished unique markers of dormant (6), active (87) and post-active (3) antler stem cells showing that the greatest number of proteins was exclusively found in the active stem cell tissue. There were only 12 proteins detected with expression levels that significantly differed between tissue with dormant stem cells and the control tissues. Protein profiles of these two groups showed that antler stem cells may use similar mechanisms to maintain dormancy within a stem cell niche. One hundred fifty-three significantly regulated proteins were found between antler stem cell tissues under different activation stages; activation of antler stem cells was associated with up-regulation of a number of canonical pathways and molecular/cellular functions such as Hippo and canonical Wnt signalling. PTN was identified as the dominant growth factor in the PTN/MDK family with higher expression levels in the antler growth centre. High expression of PTPRZ and ALK co-localised with PTN suggested their potential interactions. The high levels of PTN and PTPRZ also reflected the antler stem cell activation status during the regenerative process. When antler stem cells were cultured in vitro under the normoxic condition, no PTN was expressed and exogenous PTN did not induce differentiation or proliferation but rather stem cell maintenance.
In summary, this research project explores potential biomarkers for mammalian stem cells, as well as the key proteins, biological processes and pathways involved in stem cell maintenance, development and activation during antler generation and regeneration
Bioplanning: Practices of governing and resistance. A Foucaultian analytic of planning and resistance to planning practices in the occupied Palestinian West Bank following the peace process
No full textOver the last twenty-five years of the Oslo era, Israel continued its interventionist colonialism that led to nearly irreversible political, economic, and cultural transformations within Palestinian society in the West Bank. The temporary peace agreement has become permanent, and is considered by experts on the Palestinian cause to be the most recent episode of foreign powers functioning within the limited space of the West Bank, leading to the exhaustion of Palestinians as the powers’ means of exercise. While Israel’s methods of land seizures and control of natural resources have been examined, the town planning discourse has not been sufficiently deployed as a means to understand the process of subjugation and resistance. The main question this research raises is how the antecedent powers used town planning propositions, laws, and institutions to control issues of life and death, leading to Israel becoming a biopower in the West Bank, which, supported by the Palestinian Authority’s self-proclaimed sovereignty over isolated Palestinian localities, constitutes a system of governmentality. Based on the work of Michel Foucault, the problematisation of the present era must be placed within a historical framework. Hence, this project combines poststructuralist planning theory and Foucault’s modern power theory to provide a theoretical framework with which to analyse planning discourse as a form of governmentality. Through accessing archival data and utilising Foucault’s genealogy as the primary tool of investigation, the research concludes with presenting the nature of power and resistance, and how these shape the present subject.1
1 The researcher uses the term ‘subject’ to refer to individuals and groups shaped by power and resistance