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Meta-Learning Loss Functions for Deep Neural Networks
No full textHumans can often quickly and efficiently solve new complex learning tasks given only a small set of examples. In contrast, modern artificially intelligent systems often require thousands or millions of observations in order to solve even the most basic tasks. Meta-learning aims to resolve this issue by leveraging past experiences from similar learning tasks to embed the appropriate inductive biases into the learning system. Historically methods for meta-learning components such as optimizers, parameter initializations, and more have led to significant performance increases. This thesis aims to explore the concept of meta-learning to improve performance, through the often-overlooked component of the loss function. The loss function is a vital component of a learning system, as it represents the primary learning objective, where success is determined and quantified by the system's ability to optimize for that objective successfully. In this thesis, we developed methods for meta-learning the loss function of deep neural networks. In particular, we first introduced a method for meta-learning symbolic model-agnostic loss function called Evolved Model Agnostic Loss (EvoMAL). This method consolidates recent advancements in loss function learning and enables the development of interpretable loss functions on commodity hardware. Through empirical and theoretical analysis, we uncovered patterns in the learned loss functions, which later inspired the development of Sparse Label Smoothing Regularization (SparseLSR), which is a significantly faster and more memory-efficient way to perform label smoothing regularization. Second, we challenged the conventional notion that a loss function must be a static function by developing Adaptive Loss Function Learning (AdaLFL), a method for meta-learning adaptive loss functions. Lastly, we developed Neural Procedural Bias Meta-Learning (NPBML) a task-adaptive few-shot learning method that meta-learns the parameter initialization, optimizer, and loss function simultaneously.</p
Mechanistic insight into the induction of liver tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells by glycolipid-peptide vaccination
No full textWe recently demonstrated that vaccines comprising antigenic peptides conjugated to a glycolipid agonist, termed glycolipid-peptide (GLP) vaccines, efficiently generate substantial numbers of long-lived CD8+ liver-resident memory T (Trm) cells that are crucial for protection against malaria liver-stage infection. To understand the underlying mechanism, we examined the prerequisites for priming, differentiation, and secondary boosting of liver Trm cells using these GLP vaccines. Our study revealed that generation of long-lived liver Trm cells relies on CD8+ T cell priming by type 1 conventional dendritic (cDC1) cells, followed by post-priming exposure to a combination of vaccine-derived inflammatory and antigenic signals. Boosting of liver Trm cells is feasible using the same GLP vaccine, but a substantial delay is required for optimal responses due to natural killer T (NKT) cell anergy. Overall, our study unveils key requirements for the development of long-lived liver Trm cells, offering valuable insights for future vaccine design
Housing Tomorrow: Investigating Prefabricated Medium Density Housing in Aotearoa
No full textAotearoa has a housing problem. This is neither new information, nor an easily fixable issue, with several factors overlapping to create a complex web. Previous research has demonstrated the need for quality, affordable housing, with both prefabrication and intensification advocated as key strategies. Despite their may benefits, their adoption remains low in New Zealand, both in isolation and in combination, with literature revealing they share many challenges and benefits. This research builds on existing knowledge investigating how these systems may begin to interact. Its main objective is to use design-led research to adapt prefabrication and medium density to Aotearoa’s context and improve its appeal to both public and industry. Through a non-linear approach, it cycles through gathering, applying and testing knowledge to develop a range of scalable, site-adaptable pre-designed units. Its relevance lies in its investigation of the intersection of several highly researched themes to understand how Aotearoa may begin to innovate the building industry and build better tomorrow.</p
Humanising harm: A realist evaluation of restorative responses to adverse events in the Aotearoa New Zealand Health and Disability System
No full textDespite two decades of policy and improvement efforts, the global incidence of adverse events is stubbornly persistent. When harm occurs, elaborate systems respond to identify the cause(s), mitigate reoccurrence, resolve complaints, and even establish culpability. Institutions encourage independent ‘investigations’ that apply profession-specific protocols and methods to achieve their aims. In the complex adaptive health environment, the adversarial character of these responses and the efficacy of the methods applied are increasingly debated. In the aftermath of harm, and through the processes of disclosure, investigation, resolution, and change, the human impacts of the initial event are often inadequately addressed, and the experience of harm is compounded. Restorative approaches are emerging globally to address this gap. Characterised by a focus on relational principles, practices, and goals, a restorative response is guided by addressing harms, responding to needs, restoring trust, and promoting repair. As a novel approach in the Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) health and disability system, there is tentative evidence for use, and an evidence gap exists regarding how restorative approaches work (or not), for whom and in what contexts.Using the explanatory power of realist evaluation and the multilevel and multimethod data collection and analysis required, this thesis tests and refines theories in two phases. The focus of examination is: (1) identifying the ways in which compounded harm manifests within the context of the embedded system; (2) how resources associated with the Ministry of Health restorative response to harm from surgical mesh use were introduced into particular contexts, the emotional or cognitive responses triggered in stakeholders, and the outcomes produced; (3) the systemic conditions that facilitate, hinder, or otherwise affect a restorative response; and (4) developing middle-range theory that explains how restorative responses mitigate compounded harm and generate the outcomes stakeholders desire. The examination surfaced different understandings about how harm emerges and should be responded to and mitigated within the complex health environment. The human experience is influenced by lived and living experience and multiplicity. In the complex adaptive health environment, a restorative response is influenced by interdependent structures, institutional practices, and dynamic conditions. Compounded harm is a complex phenomenon associated with institutional ownership of harm and violations of dignity, mutuality, consent, care, identity and responsibility. When compounded harm is amplified it can extend trauma, distress and even contribute to suicidal ideation. Understanding how colonisation and inequity influence the experience is essential. A restorative response is human-centred and relational and has the potential to generate mutually beneficial outcomes associated with mutual learning, mutual healing, collaboration and restoration. Applying an equity lens to outcome attainment enhances the potential for resolution and reconciliation. The key contribution of the thesis is the development of eight middle-range theories, which illuminate in which contexts specific mechanisms generate a range of desired outcomes (the dignity, equity, safety, reintegration, apology and complexity theories) or contribute to compounded harm (the violation and trauma theories). Restorative responses are a nascent area of development in health systems, and sharing emerging findings with healthcare stakeholders has informed policy and practice development in NZ and beyond. Based on the assumption that interdependent institutions want to nurture restorative potential in the NZ health and disability system, the theories can guide development and mitigate the risk of compounded harm. In NZ, development should occur within a Tiriti o Waitangi framework in partnership with Māori.</p
A Feminist Perspective on Food-Related Patents: On Messiness, Nature and the Social
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Corrections for grammatical agreement in Ophiodermatidae
No full textOphiodermatidae Ljungman, 1867 contains eleven genera, with 131 species. Five of these genera were identified as being misgendered according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999) Article 30, and eight species names which agreed with the gender of the genus must be corrected. As well, four species in Stereoderma must also be corrected.</p
Who Deserves to be Saved? A Foucaldian Discourse Analysis of Indonesian Media on Foreign Terrorist Fighter (FTF) Repatriation
No full textThis study investigates how the repatriation of Indonesian foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) is constructed in Indonesian online media, with a focus on the roles that gender and health narratives play in shaping these constructions. Although global discourse about FTF repatriation is extensive, research examining how these debates are constructed and circulated within Indonesian media remains limited. Existing studies in the Indonesian context primarily focus on legal frameworks, state policy decisions, or national security concerns, often neglecting the complex discursive processes through which FTFs—particularly women and children—are constructed as political subjects. This study addresses that gap by critically analysing 28 news articles published by two of Indonesia’s most prominent online news portals, Detik.com and Kumparan.com, using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA). This approach is informed by post-structuralist understandings of discourse and draws on Foucault’s concepts of subjectivity and governmentality, as well as the specific technology of power known as biopower.The analysis identified four dominant discursive patterns. First, a persistent rejection discourse is reproduced by both state actors and the media, framing repatriation as a direct threat to national security while silencing alternative voices and limiting public debate. Second, children are framed as morally and politically salvageable subjects, positioned as passive victims whose innocence makes them eligible for repatriation and rehabilitation, while adult returnees are constructed as irredeemable threats requiring exclusion. This reflects the biopolitical sorting practices through which the state governs life, distinguishing who may be permitted to return and who remains outside the boundaries of care. Third, women are discursively positioned within deeply paternalistic frameworks, which deploy culturally specific concepts such as bapakism and ibukism, and which render their subjectivities invisible or subordinate. Women are frequently portrayed as passive followers of male family members, reducing their political agency and homogenising their experiences with those of children. Fourth, health-related metaphors frame radicalism as an ideological contagion or ‘virus,’ further dehumanising returnees and legitimising the state’s role in surveillance, containment, and ongoing risk management. These intersecting discourses reveal how media and state discourses work together to sustain a narrow and exclusionary framework for understanding FTF repatriation in Indonesia. Media coverage serves not only as a site of public information but also as a mechanism through which state power extends its reach, reinforcing dominant narratives that legitimise state control while marginalising returnees’ experiences and voices. By applying Foucauldian concepts of biopower, subjectification, and governmentality, this study demonstrates how discourse operates as a key instrument in regulating which populations are rehabilitated, which are excluded, and under what conditions repatriation may proceed. This reflects a biopolitics of citizenship, in which state and media discourses delineate the boundaries of national belonging and determine who is rendered governable, redeemable, or permanently excluded. The findings suggest that without greater inclusion of gender-sensitive, health-informed, and ethically reflexive perspectives, both media narratives and policymaking risk perpetuating marginalisation, undermining effective reintegration, and limiting the possibilities for more humane and just approaches to repatriation governance.</p
Kahikatea tū i te uru. Exploring connections between trees, people, culture, biodiversity, and climate change in Ōtaki
No full textThis is a summary of research that explored the relationship between Trees, People, Culture, Biodiversity and Climate near the Ōtaki River.The report was created as a way to share knowledge gained through our research to the community where it occurred, and to summarise insights and outcomes from the two Master's theses in a way that was accessible to the community. The physical report was gifted as part of a collection, along with the two Master's theses at the heart of this work, to the local libraries, Te Wānanga o Raukawa and key individuals who supported this rangahau. This mahi emerged from an inclusive space where diverse backgrounds and perspectives wove together to form a strong kete of knowledge. It responds to our increasingly fragile ngāhere ecosystem by exploring ways of understanding and communicating the importance of native trees through a science, design, and te ao Māori lens in the local area of Ōtaki.The project name, Kahikatea tū i te uru, strength in numbers, anō nei he toa takitini, reflects the strength gained in a gathering in which everyone supports each other as seen in the root system of a grove of kahikatea. It resonates with the intentions and the outcomes of this research, including insights into:How the tikanga of kaitiakitanga protects Papatūānuku and her cloak of life, working alongside insects and birds;How insects and birds thrive when trees grow together closely;How people grow together when reconnected with their whenua, their wai within their taiao, and in the case of this project also through the planting of trees;How carbon dioxide is more likely to be absorbed and to stay out of the atmosphere when trees grow together and in doing so support a new ecosystem;How different disciplinary research methods can intertwine and strengthen each other.</p
Long-term impacts of elevated carbon dioxide and grazing on grassland soil microbiomes
No full textGrazed grassland represents the most extensive land use globally, covering approximately 26% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface. These ecosystems provide essential services and play a pivotal role in global biogeochemical cycles, particularly carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling, with substantial implications for global C pools under changing environmental conditions. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), as the primary agent of global change, can alter soil microbiomes with consequences for these soil biogeochemical processes. The response of soil microbial communities to global change drivers, such as rising atmospheric CO₂ and intensified grazing practices, will determine the stability, productivity, and resilience of these landscapes. While numerous studies have explored the sensitivity of soil microbial communities to global change factors, there remains a critical gap in our understanding of how these communities respond to the interactive influences of elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) and grazing practices. Addressing this gap is vital for predicting and managing the future functioning of grasslands under global change. Here I utilised a 23-year Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (NZFACE) experiment incorporating sheep grazing to disentangle the independent and interactive impacts of eCO₂ and grazing on 1) soil biogeochemical properties and soil microbial community abundance and structure, 2) microbial co-occurrence networks, and 3) the abundance of microbial N-cycling functional genes. Bacterial (16S rRNA gene) and fungal (ITS region) sequencing revealed that both eCO₂ and grazing increased bacterial diversity at the expense of fungal diversity. Grazing without excrement drove an increase in oligotrophic taxa linked to decreases in cation exchange capacity, pH, and OlsenP. Conversely, grazing with excrement return lowered soil C:N and near 3-fold increase in ammonium, while eCO₂ significantly decreased OlsenP and C:N. Microbial phospho- and neutral lipid quantification indicated significant interactive effects of eCO₂ and the grazing with excrement return treatments, increasing the biomass of Actinobacteriota, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, total bacteria, and total microbial biomass. As expected this was driven by N inputs and the maintenance of phosphorous (P) levels under grazing with excrement return alleviating the stoichiometric constraints introduced under eCO₂ by increased labile C inputs. These results highlight the pivotal role of grazing in shaping soil properties and microbial communities in these systems. Microbial co-occurrence network topology revealed eCO₂ increases network complexity, reflected by higher edge count, connectivity, and geodesic efficiency. However, this complexity comes at the cost of reduced modularity, indicating homogenisation of microbial niches and potentially increased vulnerability to disturbance. In contrast, grazing particularly with excrement return, increased network modularity, but reduces overall network size, connectivity, and the prevalence of keystone taxa, thereby increasing functional redundancy, but fragmenting microbial networks potentially weakening ecosystem resilience. Notably, the combined eCO₂ and grazing with excrement return treatment produced an intermediate network, partially offsetting grazing induced fragmentation, and eCO₂ induced hyperconnectivity. The connectivity of nitrogen cycling associated bacteria was greatest under the interactive treatment, suggesting increased microbial reliance on N-cycling functions with the large influx of nutrients from the combination of eCO₂ and nutrient return from grazers. These results show the complex interactions of eCO₂ and grazing practices on microbial interactions, highlighting the importance of N-cycling bacteria for microbial network stability. Quantification of nitrogen cycling genes associated with archaeal and bacterial ammonia oxidisation (amoA), nitrite reduction (nirK,nirS), and nitrous oxide reduction (nosZI, nosZII) revealed that grazing with no excrement return elicited significant decreases in abundance of all bacterial functional genes archaeal amoA, while the return of excrement resulted in no significant changes in abundance. Elevated CO₂ treatments induced an increase in nirK genes and a decrease in nosZI genes, causing a denitrification ‘bottleneck’ whereby nitrogen accumulates in the form of N₂O, likely increasing N₂O emissions. Interestingly, grazing with excrement return mitigated nosZI suppression under eCO₂, likely by stabilising soil pH through NH₄⁺ influx evidenced by strong positive correlations between nosZI abundance and soil pH. This suggests that grazing activities can potentially mitigate the accumulation and emissions of N₂O under eCO₂, highlighting the critical role of grazing management in modulating functional microbial responses. These findings underscore the dual role of excrement return in mitigating CO₂ driven stoichiometric imbalances and buffering soil degradation. Under eCO₂, grazing and excrement return stabilised microbial networks and functional gene abundance, counteracting functional niche homogenisation and a denitrification bottleneck. However, all treatments induced microbial network restructuring, raising concerns for ecosystem resilience, and potential risks soil fertility and N₂O emissions. Ultimately, significant interactive effects suggest pasture management approaches must consider the complex interplay between land use and global change factors, as treatments often produced non-additive outcomes that challenge the validity of single factor-experiments as proxies for real world grassland responses.</p
A Construction 3D Printing Framework: Integrating Computational Design within 3D Printing Workflows
No full textOver the past decade, the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry has been limited and fragmented. Despite the rise of innovative solutions, particularly construction 3D printing (C3DP), key challenges in design optimisation and workflow integration remain underdeveloped. This research identifies a critical gap in the application of Industry 4.0 technologies to C3DP and proposes a computational design framework that enables a more efficient and integrated design-to-fabrication process.Internationally, C3DP has gained momentum in R&D for its potential advantages over traditional construction methods. Research has primarily focused on two techniques: on-site printing of full-scale structures and off-site printing of assemblable components. Despite these developments, C3DP has yet to shift conventional design paradigms in the AEC sector. Existing workflows remain dependent on generic CAD software, leading to inefficiencies, fragmented data exchange, and loss of geometric or fabrication-specific detail. While Industry 4.0 offers automation, feedback control, and workflow integration, a structured approach to applying these principles within architectural C3DP workflows has been lacking.This research addressed these gaps by developing a parametric workflow in Grasshopper and Rhinoceros 7, tested through two construction systems: a masonry unit (3DMU) and a wall panel (3DWALL). Through abductive reasoning, digital-physical prototyping, and action-based design research, the study demonstrated how computational tools can support both design intent and fabrication precision. The research specifically responded to three core challenges identified in the literature: the under-integration of computational design into C3DP, the unclear operationalisation of Industry 4.0 in architectural workflows, and the absence of traceable and reproducible systems that connect design and printing logic.The originality lies in the development of a fabrication-aware design system where geometric logic, print constraints, and variation rules are embedded within the computational model. It demonstrated how Industry 4.0 principles such as feedback loops, modular sequencing, and digital traceability can be practically applied to architectural scale 3DP. Algorithmic traceability was implemented to support repeatability, reduce rework, and enable the regeneration of geometries under changing conditions. These contributions were validated through iterative printing with multiple materials and translated into a system that aligns computational structure with real-world production requirements. The workflow developed supports the generation, visualisation, mass customisation, and re-customisation of printed architectural elements. It enables efficient translation of complex design intentions into manufacturable forms while reducing manual intervention.</p
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