Rangahau Aranga: AUT Graduate Review
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Social media and money: How our tweets affect the financial markets
Get PDFSocial media, such as Twitter, has replaced traditional media as a dominant information source (Gan et al., 2020). With social media being a fast and more efficient information dissemination channel, investors can quickly access, update and exchange stock-related information before making trading decisions. In this study, I examine the mechanism by which social media sentiment affects stock prices. I first collect a sample of 2.2 million tweets and quantify each tweet using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to infer whether the tweet has a positive or negative tone. Next, I employ a modified vector autoregression (VAR) model to assess the impact of tweets on stock returns at the minute frequency. I find that Twitter sentiment affects stock prices through its impact on trades. Trades have stronger price impacts with an increase in tweet volume or investor sentiment. In addition, both bullish and bearish tweets amplify the impact of trades on stock returns. Twitter sentiment causes a permanent price movement until a new equilibrium is reached, showing Twitter sentiment contains substantial information to drive stock prices. These findings suggest that trades in the stock market become more informative as tweet activity increases, as well as when tweets contain higher sentiment. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study looking at the exact mechanism of how social media affects the stock market and investors' response behaviour. 
Epidemiology of atrial fibrillation in ischaemic stroke patients: a population-based study in Auckland, New Zealand
Get PDFThis oral presentation aims to discuss the results of my research on the incidence and attack rates of first-ever ischaemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. Stroke is one of the most prevalent causes of death and debilitating neurological conditions. Globally, the absolute number of stroke patients is rising, with high-income countries showing a higher stroke prevalence than low- and middle-income countries. Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common cardiac arrhythmia and a well-known risk factor for ischaemic stroke. It is associated with a five-fold increase in ischaemic stroke risk, more likely to be severe or fatal. In New Zealand, there have been no previous population-based incidence studies of ischaemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. The design of this study allowed, for the first time, an accurate estimation of the frequency of ischaemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, identifying knowledge gaps specific to New Zealand and providing essential information for health policy development. In this study, the pre-stroke prevalence of atrial fibrillation appeared to be very high and was strongly associated with established cardiovascular risk factors. During the study period, the crude incidence rate of first-ever ischaemic stroke in atrial fibrillation patients in the Auckland population was higher than that reported in other population-based studies. The aging of the population could partlyexplain the increasing incidence of ischaemic stroke associated with atrial fibrillation in developed countries, including New Zealand. The atrial fibrillation detection at the time of stroke onset was significantly improved by using historical hospital archives. Moreover, a longer post-stroke duration of electrocardiographic monitoring was associated with higher newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation detection, demonstrating that prolonged monitoring should be considered for all stroke survivors
Dénouement: A Subjective Reflection on Death, Loss and Grief through Animation Practice
Get PDFDeath, a universal human experience, has been represented and understood in numerous ways throughout time and across cultures. Dénouement is a practice-based research project that engages with the emotionally fraught and complex experience of losing a loved one. The research positions the medium of hand-drawn animation as rich territory for exploring visual expressions of the internal, psychological, and abstract dialogue when grieving. As a personal reflection of in-articulable feelings, the aim is not to show the world as it is but as it is travelled through psychologically.
The final short film underpins the practitioner’s passion for drawing the world (as they see it), moving it in time and moving those who view the work, emotionally.
This article is a reflective dénouement of the author's Master's journey. The full Master's thesis can be accessed here: https://openrepository.aut.ac.nz/handle/10292/15296
 
Diabetes knowledge and related cultural safety knowledge: What do new graduate nurses know?
Get PDFIn New Zealand, Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is at epidemic proportions, with poor glycaemic control contributing to more patients with diabetes presenting to inpatient settings. These patients come from diverse cultural backgrounds, so their specific socioeconomic, psychosocial and social requirements are important to understand and address for the delivery of equitable and culturally appropriate diabetes care. Nurses have a central role in providing diabetes care, but they need sufficient diabetes knowledge and cultural safety skills to provide this care effectively. New graduate nurses are educated on the management of diabetes, however, there is no current research on how this education translates to the effective provision of appropriate care for inpatients with T2DM. The purpose of this study is twofold: to measure the diabetes management and related cultural safety knowledge of hospital-based new graduate nurses and to explore their experiences with providing diabetes care. Dewey’s pragmatic paradigm underpins this mixed methods research that will be conducted with new graduate nurses in a South Auckland Hospital. An adapted version of Daly et al.’s existing published telephone questionnaire (2019) will provide quantitative data and focus group interviews, the qualitative data. Findings will highlight nurses’ diabetes knowledge and diabetes-related cultural safety knowledge, and identify gaps that affect a nurse’s ability to tailor diabetes care to the patient’s cultural needs. Nurses who are educated and can give culturally appropriate care can help reduce the number of ethnic minorities presenting with diabetes complications improving the health users’ outcomes. The study’s findings will inform organisations about diabetes education needs and influence undergraduate and post-graduate nursing diabetes training programmes
Kupepeta ‘winnowing’: A metaphor for reading the Bible seMadzimai
Get PDFMy doctoral study engages womanist perspectives in formulating seMadzimai, a Bible reading approach that takes into consideration the ancient contexts of biblical texts while addressing comparative Zimbabwean women’s contexts. In the Shona language seMadzimai means ‘as women’ or ‘from the perspectives of women’. Womanist scholars and theologians prioritise the experiences, perspectives, and aspirations of women of colour. They recognise that distinctive voices - particularly those of women of African descent from diverse cultural contexts - have been few in theological and biblical interpretation discourses (hence the clarion call for more voices). The Shona language and culture (which are essential to the seMadzimai approach), as well as the biblical texts and their ancient contexts, make extensive use of metaphors. Metaphors help people understand new or abstract concepts by relating them to other commonly known concepts. Various metaphors have been suggested to describe approaches to reading the Bible. However, there has neither been gender sensitive Bible reading approaches formulated specifically for Zimbabwean contexts nor metaphors to describe such work. In this oral presentation I propose that kupepeta, or ‘winnowing’ is a suitable metaphor that captures the essence of the task of reading the Bible seMadzimai. The kupepeta metaphor can aid the conceptualization, interpretation, and application of biblical texts in terms of reference that are familiar in Zimbabwean contexts. The presentation surveys several core components of the kupepeta, or winnowing process, while expounding their practical functions, and elucidating their corresponding metaphoric value in illustrating the core elements of the seMadzimai Bible reading approach. 
Advancing Leader-Member Exchange utilising the 4Cs relationship model
Get PDFThe leader-staff member relationship in a workplace setting is fundamental to optimising organisational performance, reducing turnover intentions and increasing both parties' satisfaction, motivation and psychological well-being (Martin et al., 2010). The conceptualisation of the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory and associated self-reporting tools represent the most prevalent approach to understanding leader-member relationships; yet has attracted much scrutiny regarding theory content (Gottfredson et al., 2020). Although researchers have suggested a multitude of constructs, many believe the leader-member relationship consists of Mutual Liking, Trust, Respect and Obligation. This study draws upon the perspective of ten participants from an organisational workplace to explore the structure and content that underpin LMX Theory in the twenty-first century, in order to better understand interpersonal relationships between leaders and members and offer an alternative approach to redefining the theoretical content of the concept. This qualitative study utilised semi-structured interviews adopting deductive and inductive content analysis to augment pre-existing theory and extend current knowledge. Analysis revealed that the 4Cs relationship model consisting of the emotions of Closeness, the thoughts of Commitment, Complementarity behaviours and Co-orientation more appropriately captures the social exchanges' reciprocal nature between a leader and a member. The 4Cs relationship model is a highly validated and reliable relationship model designed for the coach-athlete relationship in a sports context. Mutual Liking and Obligation may no longer be appropriate to considering leader-member relationships, and 24 dimensions, including Trust, Respect, Integrity, Honesty, Openness, and Leading/ Following by Example, can be considered essential elements of the relationship. The findings suggest that the LMX structure is limited and may not be suitable in the modern workplace. The findings demonstrate that the nature of the dyadic relationship between a leader and a member can be more effectively observed using a modified 4Cs model to capture a greater breadth and depth of social exchanges
Healthcare provider payments: Acceptance and preferences of Myanmar general practitioners
Get PDFUniversal Health Coverage (UHC), or people's access to quality essential health services without financial hardship, is one of the sustainable development goals for UN member countries to achieve by 2030. However, progress towards UHC has been uneven globally due to weaknesses in health financing. Although high-income countries such as New Zealand have been practising UHC for decades, it remains challenging for low-to-middle income countries to meet the goal in time. Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation now on the verge of becoming a failed state due to the military coup, has struggled to restructure its healthcare financing mechanisms, especially in purchasing health services from private providers. Previous literature is biased to the Global North, with limited reference to Southeast Asia and little research focused on providers' perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs prior to introducing nationwide strategic purchasing payment mechanisms. These research gaps created an opportunity to investigate the relationships between General Practitioners' (GPs) socio-demographic characteristics and clinic services profile and their perceptions on payment methods. This research sought to examine Myanmar GPs' acceptance of, and preferences for, four major healthcare payment methods. A cross-sectional study was used, recruiting 622 participants with a convenience sampling method. A Qualtrics online survey was disseminated to Myanmar GPs through three different channels. The research showed that performance-based payment was the most acceptable and preferred payment method, followed by fee-forservice. Salary payments were reported as the least acceptable and preferred paymenttype, while findings on capitation were inconclusive. Despite the potential for this research to inform strategic purchasing arrangements in Myanmar, the scope for applying these findings, as initially intended, is not realistic in the immediate future because of the current political turmoil. In this context, the study's results provide valuable insights into the possible role of alternative provider payment architectures, particularly during public health emergencies
Dynamics of plant community flammability in Cockayne’s Arthur’s Pass Plots over nine decades
Get PDFChanges in plant community composition and traits can be used to infer changes in community-level flammability. In subalpine ecosystems, we expect higher community flammability in the decades after fire due to the dominance of grasses (fine fuels) and other high-flammability species like bracken and Dracophyllum spp. This would be followed by a decline in flammability, due to a shift to lower-flammability species. In this study, I aimed to determine the plant community flammability of different subalpine vegetation types over 86 years since fire. I used vegetation monitoring data of nine permanent transects established by Leonard Cockayne in 1932 at Arthur’s Pass and remeasured four times until 2018. I explored how plant morphological and chemical traits predict community flammability in different vegetation types (grassland, shrubland, forest). Combined with existing trait and flammability data, I examined the interrelationships among community composition, shoot flammability (n = 67 species), plant morphology (n = 57) and leaf chemistry (n = 29). I show that community flammability was highly variable across the nine transects in the 86 years since fire. This contrasts with my original hypothesis. However, I show that flammability is strongly related to plant traits, such as leaf specific area and plant dead material. Therefore, I conclude that although post-fire vegetation dynamics are highly variable, changes in plant community flammability are predictable when considered in a trait framework
Mining GitHub to Identify Open-Source Software Health in Blockchain Projects
Get PDFGitHub represents the largest open-source software (OSS) community hosting over 100 million repositories by 56 million developers. Since the rise of Bitcoin [1], blockchain projects have grown dramatically and 84% of the top 200 are hosted on GitHub. Growth inspires many new initiatives and clones, but few projects survive. Identifying healthy projects can assist developers looking to contribute to OSS and researchers seeking innovative teams in addition to reducing fraudulent activity. This presentation is part of a larger ongoing study investigating OSS blockchain performance and health. The hypothesis to be studied is that the health of an OSS project can be determined through publicly available data. This will be investigated by answering the research question: How can factors that influence the health of OSS be identified? The methodology is adapted from a framework for extracting, processing, and analysing OSS [2] that combines eleven variables into a measurement model. Latent variables are introduced to represent the constructs of community engagement, project robustness, and public interest. Statistical analysis methods are employed both for the development and specification of the measurement model and the construction and evaluation of its structural efficacy. Validation is by two mechanisms: confirmatory factor analysis applied to the measurement model and structural equation modelling to estimate the validity of the relationships [3]. In the broader study a tool is to be developed to monitor health and highlight areas for innovation. Preliminary findings indicate that community engagement and project interest are positively correlated to robustness, which, in turn, is expected to be a predictor of software project health. A future hypothesis is that healthy projects can be a leading indicator of innovative technology and practice. If OSS communities and projects can be monitored for health, stake holders can identify areas of strength and weakness, extending to industries beyond blockchain
