BISMA
Not a member yet
5916 research outputs found
Sort by
Development of CVCV word lists for speech recognition assessment in Te Reo Māori.
No full textRecent kaupapa Māori research has identified the need for more cultural safety and equity in audiological practice for Māori. The development of diagnostic audiological assessments in te reo Māori, the lack of which has been shown to be a barrier to Māori receiving quality care, has been recognised as a necessary next step in meeting this need. As Māori still face inequities in hearing health services and outcomes, the need for diagnostic te reo Māori audiological assessments is urgent.
The aim of this research was to develop the Te Reo Māori (TRM) CVCV Words test. This research took a kaupapa Māori approach, in that the development of the TRM CVCV Words was Māori-led and made by Māori, with Māori, and for Māori. It represents deliberate strides towards equity and accuracy in hearing healthcare and in meeting the sector’s obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
This assessment contains 10 lists of consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV) words in te reo Māori. The objectives were for the lists to be linguistically appropriate and equivalent to each other in terms of phonemic balance. To ensure the assessment serves Māori, it also needed to be culturally safe, appropriate, and relevant. To achieve this, the word selection process involved consultation with linguists and experts in Māori language and culture. The words were recorded and edited to produce a prototypical version of the TRM CVCV Words stimuli. Future development will include the re-recording of stimuli, clinical piloting, and validation of the assessment. Once ready for implementation, the assessment will be equivalent to the meaningful CVC words used frequently for speech recognition assessment in Aotearoa
Separation of powers : is it time to remove the Commissioner’s policy information gathering power from his administrative functions?
No full textThe New Zealand (NZ) Commissioner of Inland Revenue’s (Commissioner’s) powers were
increased in 2020 in a manner that not only further impinges upon taxpayers’ rights, but grants
a power to support tax policy making rather than tax administration. This power, set out in s
17GB of the Tax Administration Act 1994 (TAA), was enacted under urgency during the
COVID-19 pandemic restrictions without wider consultation, reflecting what was then an
emerging erosion of NZ’s highly valued Generic Tax Policy Process (GTPP). The
Commissioner’s principal role is to administer the tax system, although Inland Revenue is in a
unique position internationally with the revenue authority having the major input into tax policy
setting beyond that of the NZ Treasury which focuses on long-term fiscal insights. Section
17GB TAA was used specifically to facilitate the High Net-Wealth Individuals (HNWI)
Research Project that provided data for the then Labour Government that was seeking to
provide evidence to support its assertions of tax system unfairness in NZ. This power was also
used (in conjunction with sections 59BA and 59BAB TAA) to gather information on trusts in
order for increased disclosure, a higher trustee tax rate and other obligations to be made on
trustees. Inland Revenue’s current Tax and Social Policy Work Program (TSPWP) includes a
review of this provision, with the provision now set to be repealed with the tabling of a tax Bill
in August 2025. This paper argues that the risks of misuse of this provision, along with the
lack of mandate for its enactment, necessitates a thorough review. A much wider issue that is
considered is whether Inland Revenue (and the Commissioner) should have tax legislation
drafting and the policy leadership role substantially reduced or removed, with the larger role
moving to the NZ Treasury
Reframing the critical plight of Aotearoa | New Zealand’s forgotten fish.
No full textPrevention or mitigation of freshwater invasions to protect both biodiversity and economic values is a global issue. The use of instream barriers to exclude non-desirable ish from vulnerable populations, known as isolation management, has been increasingly implemented, but long-term success has been dificult to document. Exclusion barriers provide “upstream islands”, akin to fenced reserves used in terrestrial conservation. In Aotearoa | New Zealand such tools have been implemented to prevent introduced trout from accessing remnant habitats of threatened river-resident galaxiids (RRGs), making this an ideal system to study outcomes. Field surveys indicated both natural (e.g. drying reaches, waterfalls) and engineered barriers currently protect many RRG populations, with ish densities signiicantly higher above successful trout barriers than any other site. Barrier height was the strongest predictor of exclusion success, supported by a meta-analysis of global studies. However, studies reporting exclusion as a conservation mechanism are sparse (only 11% of trout barrier papers in a systematic review). Despite higher ish densities, population estimates above barriers were small (often less than 500 adult ish), in part driven by short lengths of upstream habitat (frequently less than 500 m). Moreover, temporal surveys highlighted the inherent vulnerability of such populations with ongoing trout invasions and impacts from extreme events such as droughts, resulting in rapid population declines. Thus, there are conservation trade-offs in such interventions: barriers secure populations in the short-term but isolation and limited habitat leave populations precarious and scope for recovery is limited. Overall, my study documents the ongoing vulnerability of above-barrier RRG populations, highlighting the need to reframe recovery by increasing trout free habitat and reverse declines
ANALISIS SALURAN PEMASARAN IKAN LELE DUMBO (CLARIAS GARIPINUS) DI DESA WATES, KECAMATAN TANJUNGANOM, KABUPATEN NGANJUK
No full textLele dumbo (Clarias gariepinus) adalah ikan air tawar yang banyak diminati dan memiliki nilai jual tinggi. Untuk meningkatkan keuntungan pembudidaya diperlukan strategi pemasaran yang tepat agar distribusi berjalan lancar. Keberhasilan budidaya lele tidak hanya bergantung pada pembibitan dan pembesaran, tetapi juga pada sistem pemasaran yang baik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pola saluran pemasaran serta tugas dan fungsi lembaga pemasaran lele dumbo di Desa Wates, Kecamatan Tanjunganom, Kabupaten Nganjuk. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif dengan lokasi yang ditentukan dan dikelompokkan ke dalam wilayah pedesaan dan perkotaan. Responden pembudidaya dipilih menggunakan metode purposive sampling, sedangkan konsumen menggunakan random sampling. Data primer dikumpulkan melalui wawancara menggunakan kuisioner sedangkan data sekunder diperoleh dari instansi terkait serta BPS Kabupaten Nganjuk. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya empat pola saluran pemasaran. Saluran pertama adalah yang paling efisien dengan margin Rp2.700/kg dan Farmer Share sebesar 89,90%. Sementara itu, keuntungan tertinggi terdapat pada saluran kedua yaitu sebesar 10,48%. Setiap lembaga pemasaran memiliki peran penting dalam mendukung proses distribusi ikan lele dumbo diantaranya adalah pembudidaya, pedagang pengepul, pedagang besar, dan pedagang eceran memiliki peran dalam fungsi pertukaran, fisik, dan fasilitas.
 
First order methods with applications to large scale machine learning problems.
No full textThis thesis studies iterative methods for the strongly convex quadratic. Firstly, the convergence
properties of a family of Relaxed ℓ-Minimal Gradient Descent methods are studied.
This family includes the omnipresent Steepest Descent method, as well as the Minimal Gradient
method. Simple proofs are given that show, for an appropriately chosen norm, the
gradient will decrease linearly for all members of the family. Furthermore, these results can
be easily translated to convergence in the 2-norm of the gradient, and convergence of function
values. It is also shown that every Relaxed ℓ-Minimal Gradient Descent method, given
a fixed overhead and storage budget, can be implemented with exactly one matrix vector
product per iteration.
Secondly, an algorithmic framework is presented for the minimization of quadratics. This
is a Flexible Framework, where at every iteration the search direction is a linear combination
of the negative gradient and (possibly) several other ‘sub-search’ directions, where the user
determines which and how many, sub-search directions to include. Then a step size along
each sub-direction in such a way that the gradient is minimized (with respect to a chosen
matrix norm), over the hyperplane specified by the chosen search directions. Theoretical
machinery is developed, which shows that any algorithm that fits into the Flexible Framework
is guaranteed to converge at a linear rate. Moreover, these theoretical results hold even
when relaxation and/or symmetric preconditioning is employed. Several state-of-the-art
algorithms fit into this scheme, including Steepest Descent and Conjugate Gradients.
Finally a family of conjugate direction methods is developed. This family constructs a
set of A²ℓ⁺¹-conjugate search directions, and recovers the Conjugate Gradient method when
ℓ = 0 and Conjugate Residual method when ℓ = 1/2. Theoretical results are developed,
and an efficient implementation is given. It is shown how each member of the family can be
implemented with a single matrix vector product per iteration, given a fixed overhead and
storage budget. The relationship of these methods to the Lanczos method is explored, and
numerical experiments investigating the efficacy of estimating the eigenvalues of A are given
New Zealand’s Tax Reform Experience – Parallels with Australia
No full textNew Zealand’s tax system has undergone significant reform during the last four decades, motivated by both domestic and
international influences. From a domestic perspective, significant modernisation has ensured that it is ‘fit for purpose’
operationally. Alongside this focus, the foundational principles of equity, simplicity and efficiency have guided reforms. With
an increasingly globalised and integrated world, New Zealand’s tax system has needed to adjust to harmonise with standard
international tax practices, and to deal with issues such as base erosion and profit shifting. Reforms have been gradual,
interposed by significant developments in both structure and composition of taxes. Major contributions to the evolving tax
system include ‘Rogernomics’ during the 1980s, along with significant administrative and dispute resolution reforms in the
1990s. Several major tax reviews were prominent in the 2000s and 2010s. More recently, the 2020s are highlighted by the
successful completion of Inland Revenue’s Business Transformation and handling the government’s fiscal response to Covid 19. In many respects New Zealand’s tax reform has either led or followed developments in Australia. This should not come as
a surprise given the close economic and social ties between the two countries. Thus, the aim of this article is to critically
examine New Zealand’s tax system over the last 40 years, focusing on significant changes in tax policy, tax law and tax
administration
To report or not to report? Understanding the impacts of reporting decisions for family and sexual violence in Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textMost victims of family violence (FV) and sexual violence (SV) do not report their
criminal victimisation to police, but instead their experiences remain part of the ‘dark figure of
crime’, or the proportion of actual crimes committed that remain officially unrecorded. The
gap between victimisation and reported victimisation has a number of broad consequences
for the policies and practices of government.
In this report we combine New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) and
other Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) data to consider two broad questions. First, what
individual, community and offence-related factors predict non-reporting of FV and SV
offences to Police (RQ1)? Second, is reporting or not associated with differences in
wellbeing outcomes (RQ2)? Our analyses help to contextualise research and policy that
relies on reported crime, and to identify areas where, as a result, reporting-associated policy
responses may have potential shortcomings