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The Role of Social Support in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: A Meta-Analysis and Empirical Study Among First-Year University Students
No full textNon-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), the intentional harming of one’s own body without suicidal intent, represents a paradoxical attempt to cope with emotional pain by inducing physical pain (Nock, 2009). It is most observed during adolescence and early adulthood (Swannell et al., 2014). Individuals engage in NSSI for a range of intrapersonal (e.g., emotion regulation, self-punishment) and interpersonal reasons (e.g., communicating distress, setting interpersonal boundaries) (Nock, 2009). Social support has been highlighted as a protective factor against NSSI, although research findings on this topic have been conflicting; while some research indicates that strong social support lowers NSSI risk, others reveal weaker or more complex effects. This thesis examined the role of social support in NSSI in two stages: a meta-analysis and a subsequent cross-sectional study. Study 1 involved a meta-analysis of previous research examining the link between social support and NSSI among adolescents and young adults. A systematic search identified 58 eligible studies across multiple databases, contributing 64 independent samples and 160 effect sizes. Data were computed in R using a multilevel meta-analysis to account for dependencies between effect sizes. Analysis revealed a small but consistently significant negative link between social support and NSSI. Multiple sources of support (e.g., family, friends, and teachers) showed this protective effect. Tests for publication bias suggested minimal bias. Study 2 examined various psychosocial factors and their relationships with NSSI behaviours in first-year university students. Participants (N = 135) completed online surveys assessing perceived social support, emotional dysregulation, perceived stress, and perceived support-seeking and need. Rather than focusing on the sources of social support, this study specifically examined different types of support (emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support) and satisfaction with each support type. 78.1% of participants reported a history of NSSI, and 52.6% had engaged in NSSI at least once during the past year. Correlation indicated that all types of social support were linked to a decrease in NSSI engagement. However, this effect was indirect, with emotional regulation acting as a mediator between the level of social support and feelings of satisfaction. There was no evidence that the frequency of social support or satisfaction had any moderating effects on the relationship between emotional dysregulation, stress level, and NSSI. In summary, these studies indicate that social support is beneficial but cannot address the issue independently. Effective support systems should create comprehensive strategies to effectively address the complexity of NSSI. Educational institutions play a crucial role in this effort, as they can offer psychoeducation that raises awareness, reduces stigma, and encourages help-seeking. In parallel, peer support programs offer a promising relational form of support that validates students’ emotional experiences and helps students regulate distress in safe, non-clinical settings, but more empirical research is needed to establish the effectiveness of these programs.</p
Cautious Interest: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Value of a Digital Mental Health Clinic in Aotearoa
No full textEvidence-based digital mental health interventions can be effective and scaled up to serve large numbers of people; however, user engagement is often low. Digital mental health clinics, where practitioners collaborate with clients to support them, assess their needs, and guide them in selecting and using digital interventions, have been implemented in several countries. I aimed to explore key stakeholders’ perspectives on whether and how such a model might offer opportunities to improve mental health service provision or support in Aotearoa.To achieve this, I carried out semi-structured interviews (n=5), two co-design workshops (n=17) involving diverse whole-group, small-group, and written activities, and follow-up email questionnaires (n=3). Participants were a purposive sample of Aotearoa leaders and experts in mental health policy and service delivery, digital mental health, and psychology or health research, as well as mental health practitioners and workers with lived experience.I created transcripts and written summaries of all data collected across these interviews, workshops, and questionnaires, and analysed these in relation to my overall research questions using thematic analysis. I developed five themes: First, Mental health is tapu, it is important to get this right, emphasised the important nature of work in mental health and the critical need for safe, effective, and culturally appropriate support. Second, “We are creatures of habit” – caution and hesitancy around change, explored apprehension toward virtual and digital approaches and the resistance that can accompany new approaches to mental health care. Third, Human support is essential, we feel that digital is not enough, reflected the benefits of human support and the need for it to be a central component of a digital clinic. Fourth, Logistics matter, highlighted the importance participants placed on the digital clinic model and how it is implemented in determining its success. The fifth and concluding theme, Cautious optimism and cautious interest, captured both the opportunities a digital clinic presents, such as supporting those who face barriers to accessing services and those on waitlists or who do not meet service criteria, as well as participants’ concerns, including virtual risk assessment and the ‘digital divide’ contributing to inequity in access. I conclude by discussing implications and suggestions for implementation of a digital clinic in Aotearoa.My findings suggest there is potential value in a digital clinic in Aotearoa alongside, and not replacing, Aotearoa’s mental health services. Safety, equity, accessibility, and human support must be at the forefront to ensure that a digital clinic adds to the capacity of mental health services to better reach and meet the needs of diverse groups. Further research should explore the needs of indigenous and minoritised populations, costs, benefits, policy alignment, and opportunities for appealing and effective piloting.</p
MY WORLD, MY CHOICES, AND MY IDENTITY: A PRELIMINARY DESCRIPTIVE MODEL FOR YOUTH OFFENDING IN AOTEAROA, NEW ZEALAND.
No full textYouth offending remains a significant concern for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers due to its profound social, psychological, and impacts on communities. Having robust aetiological theories of youth offending is essential for developing effective intervention and prevention strategies. To guide this research, I employed the Meta-Theoretical Framework developed by Ward and Hudson (1998) to structure prominent theories relevant to youth offending. In this, I identified a gap in Level 3 micro theories, which provides a descriptive conceptual map of the offence process grounded in the narratives of individuals to describe the ‘how’ of offending behaviour.This exploratory study developed a Descriptive Model of the offence process for 20 young males aged 14 to 18 in New Zealand. I recruited participants from the North Island who were actively involved with organisations or participating in community hubs because of their offending. I conducted semi-structured interviews to capture participants’ retrospective accounts of their experiences, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours before, during, and after an offence.To develop the model, I employed Grounded Theory to analyse and develop three smaller distinct models that represented different aspects of the overall Descriptive Model. These models included the Contextual Model, which incorporated environmental, social, and personal factors influencing offending, such as parental experiences, family dynamics, and values; the Offence Process Model, which incorporated psychological and behavioural mechanisms, including goal-directed actions and decision-making; and the Offence Evaluation Model, which focuses on reflections, identity shifts, and defensive strategies following their offending. From these models, I extracted and linked categories to form the overarching Descriptive Model. The categories included in the model were: young person, psychological goals, psychological functioning, social groups, socialisation, offending strategies, identity construction, and defensive strategies.The findings from this study demonstrate the interplay between individual and contextual factors, offering a nuanced three-stage framework for understanding youth offending. The model aligns with aspects of developmental life-course theories and provides avenues for refining and expanding existing theoretical frameworks. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of capturing young people’s lived experiences to inform theoretical, clinical, and practical advancements. Future research should validate the model with diverse samples, integrate cultural perspectives, and assess its applicability as an initial youth-oriented practice framework for designing intervention and prevention strategies.</p
Estimating the impact of 'Predator Free' Wellington on Wellington tree wētā (Hemideina crassidens)
No full textThe Wellington tree wētā (Hemideina crassidens) is a large-bodied nocturnal insect native to Aotearoa New Zealand. H. crassidens can inhabit environments with invasive mammals, therefore they provide an opportunity to study responses to mammalian predator presence.By comparing populations within a 'Predator Free' area and a 'Predator Present' area, it is possible to estimate how the removal of invasive mammal species influences certain endemic species. Populations of H. crassidens were examined with a before-after control-impact (BACI) study design within Wellington City, Aotearoa New Zealand. Eight suburbs had H. crassidens observations recorded between 2017 and 2024, where complete rat elimination had occurred in two suburbs during 2020 under the 'Predator Free' Wellington initiative. H. crassidens populations were observed to increase significantly in rat eliminated areas compared to the rest of Wellington. A more in-depth analysis of H. crassidens populations was done within the Wellington suburbs of Miramar and Kaori. This study addressed how morphology, abundance, and sex ratio of H. crassidens were influenced by native regenerating forests, and mature pine habitats within Miramar and Karori. In addition, Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) was applied to estimate the true population density, detection rate, spatial parameters, and total population number within each study site. SECR is rarely performed on insects, hence the study is a test to determine if H. crassidens can effectively have their density determined with such a method.The main question I asked is “does ‘Predator Free’ Status influence the populations of H. crassidens, or is habitat type a stronger influence? To answer this, the population abundance, body size, and sex were compared within two suburbs of Wellington, 'Predator Free' Miramar, and 'Predator Present' Karori using a two-by-two crossed design.Population abundance was significantly influenced by 'Predator Free' status and habitat type, with the greatest number of wētā observed within Karori’s 'Predator Present' native forest and the fewest in the Karori pine plantation site. Body length was observed to be larger on average in Karori habitats, while male head size was larger within mature pine plantation forests regardless of ‘Predator Free’ status.Many H. crassidens were found within the same gallery for weeks or months on end which resulted in non-independent observation counts between sessions. There was difficulty in recapturing H. crassidens after they disperse, however a true population density estimate was achieved. Native regenerating forests contained the higher density estimates; with the largest density observed within Karori. Total population estimates aligned with habitat area, which suggests that H. crassidens populations are likely influenced by multiple factors and predator-control isn’t the largest influence.It is likely that for future experiments using SECR with artificial wētā galleries, the galleries need to be closer together (<5m) or have multiple on the same tree at varying heights to increase the number of “spatial recaptures”. The results of this experiment can therefore guide future studies for monitoring tree wētā, particularly where information on movement is central to the monitoring.</p
Quantifying co-seismic and post-seismic erosion using geomorphic change detection following the Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake, New Zealand
No full textMountain belts are built by uplift and deformation, the associated earthquakes commonly triggering widespread and destructive landsliding across the landscape. The quantification of co-seismic landslide erosion is important because post-seismic observations reveal enhanced mass wasting and fluvial transport of sediment following a large earthquake. These cascading processes, conceptualised as the hazard response chain, have implications for both the management of hazards in seismically active regions and long-term landscape evolution. However, direct observations of the geomorphic processes driving the sediment cascade are rare, particularly across different physiographic settings. The aim of this study is to advance our understanding of earthquake induced landscape dynamics by accurately estimating both the volume of co-seismic landslides and the rate at which their sediment is remobilised after an earthquake.The original contribution of this thesis is to quantify co- and post-seismic surface processes with GCD to reduce the uncertainty when estimating co-seismic and post-seismic erosion. The range and resolution of remote sensing data collected before and after the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake, New Zealand, are of a higher spatial and temporal resolution than those available following previous large earthquakes globally. Using these datasets, several new approaches to quantifying co-seismic and post-seismic erosion are presented. These include: i) the use of a pre- to post-seismic difference model to individually estimate volume for the majority of source areas within a co-seismic landslide inventory; ii) the volumetric quantification of co-seismic landslide debris location on hillslopes immediately after the earthquake to determine the portion of sediment delivered off-slope to the fluvial domain; and iii) the quantification of a catchment scale post-seismic sediment cascade to directly observe earthquake impact on landscape processes.Understanding the influence of local controls advances the understanding of how earthquakes topographically focus denudation and the duration of sediment cascades. The total volume from the > 30,000 co-seismic landslides is 234 +81/-55 (1σ) M m3. The 9 largest co-seismic landslides in bedrock, all >100,000 m2, represented 38% of the total volume. Source material and failure mechanism regulated the evacuation of landslide sediment in the years after the earthquake. Where catchments were dominated by debris (soil and rock) avalanches, the volume of sediment which was post-seismically eroded on hillslopes within 5 years of the earthquake was equal to up to 25% of the total volume of landslide debris. For a singular large rock avalanche, up to 54% of the debris volume was remobilised. However, <10% of the of the debris volume was transported beyond the range front of the Seaward Kaikōura Ranges over these 5 years. In contrast, ≤1% of the volume of large coherent rock slides in Neogene siltstones, sandstones and limestones was remobilised, despite these landslides dominating the total volume of co-seismic landsliding. Therefore, the local physiographic setting regulated how the hillslopes responded to strong ground shaking, the volume and duration of earthquake induced erosion, and the mass balance of earthquakes.</p
Presence & Place
No full textIn the context of New Zealand’s increasingly secular identity, the potential for spiritual experiences within the contemporary architectural landscape is often overlooked, contributing to a growing disconnect between the built environment and its inhabitants, and hindering connections to place. Consequently, this research addresses this disconnect by exploring spiritual typologies in a society shifting away from religious agendas, while engaging with the atmospheric qualities of place. This thesis asks how architecture can facilitate a spiritual experience to connect people to place. A design-led methodology guides this inquiry, employing research for and research through design. An iterative process explores three projects; design experiments, followed by two architectural outcomes that increase in scale and complexity. Drawing on existing theoretical frameworks, this research examines how diverse identities engage with spiritual space, and how ephemeral and atmospheric qualities of site can be employed in the design process. The first design chapter explores a series of experiments, investigating materiality, texture, and light to form spiritual atmospheres. The mid-scale design investigates spirituality and atmosphere at the architectural scale, through an observation tower and a semi-subterranean retreat. The final design chapter addresses collective spirituality within the urban context, through an urban farm and arts studio in central Christchurch. These architectural outcomes, alongside the iterative design inquiries explored throughout the thesis, emphasise the potential of spiritual experiences to strengthen people’s relationship to place within Aotearoa’s unique context.</p
Truck. Train. Plane. The Uncanny Architecture of Mangaweka
No full textThis project began with a simple road trip. On an overcast autumn day in 2023, I was driving north with friends along State Highway One. We were in the middle of the Rangitīkei and had just passed the small town of Bulls when we were searching for somewhere to stop. It was then that we came across a small town with a side road on our left—which we unconsciously decided to pull into. Thinking little of it, we unexpectedly found ourselves on the ‘Historic Main Street’ of Mangaweka.I was instantly captivated by how strange Mangaweka felt. We all stayed much longer than intended, trying to absorb this small, abandoned town’s eerie atmosphere. Even after we left, the presence of this place stayed with us, sparking a conversation in the car about how Mangaweka made us feel. It was an overwhelming sense of dread and sorrow—a deep melancholy. It was as though the town itself carried the weight of its history in a ruin of its past life in its current state. You could feel that something had occurred at this site for it to have resulted in how it is now, that significant events had implicated its current existence. It was as if you could see the hay bale rolling down the street and feel the ghosts hovering over your shoulders.Small-town New Zealand can feel deeply unsettling, especially to an outsider. These places often evoke unease, a sense of eeriness or discomfort, and sometimes, even fear—it is like entering a party uninvited and finding that all eyes have turned to you. This sensation stems from an outsider’s perspective, where the lack of belonging amplifies these feelings of unease. Yet, such experiences also provide opportunities. As Fisher (2016) notes in regards to the weird and eerie, the external viewpoint allows us to see “the inside from the perspective of the outside” (p. 10). Without a deep understanding and knowledge of a location’s history or significance, the outsiders’ experiences are unfamiliar and mysterious, enabling us to reimagine their possibilities. For me, Mangaweka epitomised this sensation and more. It left me wanting to know more about its history, story, and its significance, proving that it is far from just another abandoned small town in Aotearoa.This project aims to explore and define this distinctive feeling and then use it as a framework for reimagining the revitalisation of small-town New Zealand. Through this approach, the project challenges conventional notions of small-town redevelopments, proposing that these distinctive qualities could become the driving force in their remaking. By safeguarding these emotional and architectural experiences, we could better appreciate these spaces as a unique and significant form of architectural identity in Aotearoa. To consider designing for the strange and the uncanny, we could better represent and celebrate the identity of New Zealand’s small towns—by capturing and amplifying their unique character.</p
Using citizen science Raspberry Shake seismometers to enhance earthquake location and characterization: a case study from Wellington, New Zealand
No full text
The recent development of low-cost citizen seismometers has opened new avenues for earthquake analysis. We explore the integration of Raspberry Shake citizen seismometers with the national GeoNet seismic network to improve the precision of earthquake locations in Wellington, New Zealand. We use a dataset of 19 earthquakes between magnitudes 1.1 and 3.5 and between hypocentral distances of 22 km and 102 km. Our findings demonstrate that using Raspberry Shake seismometers in conjunction with the GeoNet network is effective for both the locating and characterisation of earthquakes. Notably, we find that precise station locations are less critical for precise earthquake location, a significant factor given that the publicly available Raspberry Shake locations are obfuscated to protect user privacy. These results suggest that, dependent on network geometry, citizen seismometer data can be a valuable tool in seismic monitoring and improve earthquake location capability, whilst remaining cost-effective
Recurrent Multi-Scale U-Nets for Improved Medical Image Segmentation: A Comprehensive Investigation
No full textMedical image segmentation is a critical task in healthcare, with numerous challenges stemming from the variability of medical images, the complexity of the structures being segmented, and the need for precise accuracy. Segmentation problems often suffer from noisy data, irregular shapes, and overlapping structures, which make it difficult to achieve both high accuracy and topological consistency. Moreover, the computational cost of processing large, high-dimensional datasets poses further limitations. This thesis addresses these issues by proposing novel approaches that enhance the performance and robustness of segmentation models, focusing on improving segmentation accuracy, maintaining topological consistency, and optimizing computational efficiency across diverse datasets.In this research, we solve two different medical image segmentation problems. A contributions chapter has been dedicated to each. First, we achieve leading performance according to Sensitivity (SEN), Jaccard Index (JC), and F1 scores on Phase Contrast Microcopy datasets within the Cell Tracking Challenge (CTC). We select the 2D+Time datasets for our research for which both Gold and Silver Truths were available, amounting to 8 datasets. Cell Microscopy Segmentation is a field of research with practical research and diagnostic merit. This can help to track the movement of target cell types, diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, identify malignant cell growths, or detect abnormal blood cells (sickle cell anemia). We achieve these results using our novel approach of Weighted Spatial DICE (WSD) Loss to train our new architecture leveraging recurrent connections: Bidirectional Squeeze Excitation Modified Attentional Recurrent Multi-Scale-UDet (BiSE-MARM-UDet).For our second contributions chapter, we address the Retina Blood Vessel Segmentation problem. This problem is of practical value to solve as accurate identification of the vascular tree network can help identify diseases such as Retinopathy, Glaucoma, Retinal Detachment, and Coroidal Tumours. Blood vessels are contiguous structures however, and diseases identification need to connective topology of the vascular tree to be correct. Thus we specialize BiSE-MARM-UDet for topologically accurate segmentation of fine-scaled structures, introducing Bidirectional-Multi-Scale-Attentional-Recurrent-UDet (BiMAR-UDet). Additionally, WSD Loss is improved using electric field divergence to yield the Topology-Aware Loss Function Weighted-Spatial-Electrical-Divergence-DICE (WSEDD) Loss. We train and evaluate our methods using the fundus image datasets: DRIVE, STARE, IOSTAR, and CHASEDB1. This model achieves leading performance by not only SEN, JC, and F1 scores, but also Betti Error (BE) as a topological metric. BE measures the sum in error in the Betti numbers β0 and β1.In both contributions chapters, we have conducted extensive ablation studies pertaining to both our Architectural and Loss contributions. We provide extensive evidence that our methods are effective, and cutting edge at solving both segmentation problems.</p
Investigating the effects of kappa opioid receptor agonists on CD4+ T cell subsets
No full textMultiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS), characterised by the infiltration of autoreactive T cells into the brain and spinal cord. These cells drive immune-mediated damage to the myelin sheath, resulting in inflammation and nerve damage within the CNS and subsequent neurological symptoms. CD4+ T cells play a key role in MS pathogenesis with the Th1 subset activating pro-inflammatory CNS resident immune cells, and the Th17 subset promoting disruption of the blood-brain barrier. Regulatory T cells (Tregs), which typically downregulate immune responses are often reduced in number and less suppressive in patients with MS. Despite the availability of several disease-modifying treatments, there is an ongoing need for remyelinating and neuroprotective therapies to complement the current immune-targeting options. The kappa opioid receptor (KOR) is a G-protein coupled receptor widely expressed throughout the CNS and on peripheral cell populations. The KOR is involved in various signalling pathways, including the stress response, pain, reward and inflammation. KOR agonists were initially investigated for their potential as non-addictive pain medications due to their reduced risk of dependency compared to other opioids like morphine. KOR agonists have also shown promise for driving repair in models of demyelinating disease. KOR knockout in mice worsens the progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of MS while KOR agonist U50,488 was shown to decrease disease severity and demyelination in the model. However, many KOR agonists induce dysphoria and aversive side effects which have limited their use in the clinic. Nalfurafine, a selective, KOR agonist, has been investigated by our lab group for its potential remyelinating properties in the EAE model. Nalfurafine has previously been approved for the treatment of pruritus in kidney dialysis patients and unlike most KOR agonists exhibits very few side effects, making it a promising candidate for further translation into the clinic. In studies by the La Flamme group, nalfurafine treatment was shown to reduce disease severity and promote remyelination in two MS models, (EAE and cuprizone-induced demyelination). Importantly, nalfurafine also prevented the infiltration of T cells into the CNS and altered myelin-specific T cell responses, highlighting potential immune modifying abilities. Specifically, nalfurafine treatment in vitro and in vivo reduced levels of INFγ and IL-17, cytokines associated with the subsets Th1 and Th17, respectively. This thesis further investigates the immunomodulatory effects of KOR agonists, in particular their influence on the differentiation and expansion of CD4+ T cell subsets under healthy and disease conditions. Naïve CD4+ T cells were successfully differentiated and expanded into effector subsets using anti-CD3/CD28 activation beads. However, KOR agonist treatment did not show significant effects on this expansion. In splenocyte cultures, nalfurafine treatment resulted in a modest reduction in RORγT expression, suggesting a decrease in Th17 responses. We also observed an increase in the ratio of Treg to Th17 cells following nalfurafine treatment, indicating a shift towards a more regulatory immune environment. To explore the effects of in vivo KOR agonist treatment on peripheral T cell populations, a shortened version of the EAE model was used. Nalfurafine reduced the proportion of RORγT+ CD4+ cells in both the blood and spleen, suggesting that nalfurafine may influence T cell subsets in peripheral tissues before their migration into the CNS. Additionally, bulk RNA sequencing of spinal cord samples from healthy and EAE mice treated with nalfurafine was used to assess the effect of nalfurafine treatment on gene expression. Gene ontology analysis revealed that many genes downregulated following nalfurafine treatment were involved in immune-related pathways, further supporting the immune modifying potential of this treatment. Downregulated genes include STAT molecules associated with transcriptional regulation of CD4+ subsets, as well as numerous genes known to be involved in Th17 function and pathogenesis during EAE. Overall, this thesis provides evidence that nalfurafine treatment can modulate CD4+ T cell subsets. These findings suggest that nalfurafine may provide a promising strategy for the treatment of MS by modifying immune responses alongside addressing the need for remyelination and neuroprotection. Further research is needed to determine the specific mechanism through which KOR agonists can influence CD4+ T cells and how modulating immune responses may contribute to enhanced repair and recovery in the EAE model following KOR agonist treatment. </p
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