INSPIRATION: A reinforcement learning-based human visual perception-driven image enhancement paradigm for underwater scenes

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Youth Work, Youth Studies, and Co-design: Sustaining a Dynamic Nexus to Progress Youth Participation

AbstractYouth work practitioners and youth researchers both share a keen interest in the lives, experiences, and well-being of young people; however, the skills and expertise held by practitioners and researchers have not always been mutually valued leading to tensions and a research-practice gap. The rise of co-design methods that prioritise relational skills and ethics appears to mark a moment for closing or reducing this gap. Rather than accepting this convergence at face value, in this paper, we examine some of the key tensions around (1) relational ethics and decision-making, (2) holding multiple roles and expertise, and (3) structures that constrain or sustain participation to argue for sustaining a dynamic research-practice nexus. Drawing on our experience and practitioner-researchers, we argue that rather than simply overlooking the practical and ethical tensions between practice and research, sustaining a dynamic nexus comprising of continuing dialogue and collaboration can foster and progress co-design methods in pursuit of the aims of youth participation

The second railway age: Redevelopment of heritage building & transformation of transport hub

Wellington railway station was built in 1937, a symbol of the prosperity of rail transport, which declined over the next 85 years and was gradually replaced by road and air transport. Today, New Zealand's high urbanisation rate and reliance on private vehicles has led to problems such as traffic congestion and does not meet New Zealand's development targets for 2050 emissions standards. This research will be on the basis of a holistic architectural intervention for Wellington Station, including the renovation of the original heritage building and the redevelopment of its surrounding facilities and areas, while introducing contemporary New Zealand architectural concepts of sustainability and decolonisation to promote a better transport hub building. This will be done through a combination of both research through design and research about design research methods and based on extensive literature and precedent studies. The methodology and knowledge gained will be applied to the design of the redevelopment of the railway station, through a multimedia process of diagramming, sketching, iterative modelling and finally critically examining whether the building fulfils the originally specified objectives. As a result, the research will test whether the design of public transport hub typologies in architecture can positively influence characteristics such as the vitality, connectivity and walkability of cities and seeks to address the complex task of social, cultural, environmental, and climatic challenges</p

The Act of Eating: Choreographing Eating Experiences Through Performative Design

While multisensory dining is a well-established exploration in the discipline of interior architecture, the act of eating remains largely unexplored as a proposition for experimental design. This research starts from a place of curiosity about the inherent performativity that plays out in The Act of Eating and brings this curiosity into the space of interior architecture practice. If we approach interior architecture as a social and performative practice, then this opens up the question of how interior architects might design for eating, beyond the typical typology approach of hospitality design, and instead design The Act of Eating itself. This thesis was based on the notion that performative design could be used to revitalise The Act of Eating, with the aim to enhance the multi-sensory and social dimensions of eating, and create playful, intensified eating experiences.This thesis uses a practice-based design methodology to explore the intersection of performance, eating and interior, through a series of experiments and two eating events. The research draws on projects by Marije Vogelzang, Julie Rothhaha and Emilie Baltz, is informed by Pierre Bouridieu’s theory of viewing performance as a 'habitus’ of everyday life, and Dorita Hannah’s articulation of interior architecture setting the stage for people to conduct and perform daily activities. The two eating events EAT ME and Space, Food and You, revealed the social and experiential value of bringing a performative approach to eating design. The research positions a performative approach to interior architecture as a valuable way to enhance the enjoyment and exploration of food through designing eating events and experiences. These events facilitated a playful and dynamic shift, which has the potential to prompt a positive disruption of eating experiences. This research could be of value to the hospitality realm of interior architecture as it pushes the boundaries of what a dining space is by foregrounding The Act of Eating.</p

The Implication Of Transformable Space Saving Furniture On The Interior Design In Small Living Units

This project reviews some excellent and successful design projects that providing the same space different usage scenarios as promoted by the explosion of increased urbanisation, growing population and the reduction of per capita living area. The explosion of the COVID-19 epidemic has eventually changed many people's living situations and working habits; however, most people find it challenging to buy large residential spaces in the city that can meet all their living and working needs. Therefore, the popularity of multi-functional living spaces and folding furniture is increasing significantly. This report aims to study the impact of deformable space-saving furniture in small apartments on the interior design of small living units, focusing on the transformation of small apartments to meet the needs of people living and working at home. The design location is a small apartment in one of the most densely populated areas in Hong Kong. Transforming small apartments into commercial and residential buildings provides new options for people living in small apartments regarding living experience and lifestyle.</p

Talavou o le Moana. The health and wellbeing of Pacific secondary school students in Aotearoa New Zealand. A Youth19 report.

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Micro-grid design and dispatch co-optimisation considering uncertainties and demand response – Cases in New Zealand

One in eight people around the world, approximately one billion people, lack access to reliable electricity. Also, a great majority of people with access to electricity are experiencing some form of energy hardship – around a third (29%) of New Zealand households struggle to afford their electricity bills, spend a major part of their income on power, or often feel cold in winter. In this light, the ever-falling costs and continued efficiency improvements of renewable energy technologies are facilitating the ‘clean energy for all’ initiatives globally. Whilst considerable effort has been devoted to a range of interventions to address the underlying technological, institutional, and regulatory barriers, less attention has been given to address the glaring technical knowledge gaps in quantitative energy planning research, in terms of investment planning and capacity optimisation modelling; for the design of renewable energy systems, and specifically micro-grid systems. In response, this thesis addresses four notable gaps in the literature, namely: (i) the underrepresented usage of state-of-the-art meta-heuristic optimisation algorithms to determine the configurations of components, (ii) the lack of application of game-theoretic frameworks to the study of aggregator-mediated demand-side flexibility procurement, (iii) the limited number of approaches that quantify multiple parametric uncertainties simultaneously, and (iv) the narrow focus on joint micro-grid investment planning and energy scheduling optimisation.To this end, the thesis introduces a novel strategic, meta-heuristic-based, demand response-integrated, uncertainty-aware, long-term micro-grid energy planning and capacity optimisation model, featuring the following key novel generalisations, each addressing one of the above-mentioned gaps: (i) utilising a state-of-the-art meta-heuristic optimisation algorithm, moth-flame optimiser, which is found to have superior performance to a wide variety of well-established and state-of-the-art meta-heuristics in minimising micro-grid life-cycle costs, (ii) characterising the utility-aggregator-customer interactions in interruptible load programmes using non-cooperative game theory in an equitable, market-based approach, (iii) expanding the number of model-inherent parametric uncertainties quantified concurrently without excessive computational demands, and (iv) integrating a dynamic, forward-looking scheduling design framework for the co-optimisation of investment and operational planning costs.To demonstrate the effectiveness of the model in yielding the cost-minimal mix of candidate renewable energy technologies considered for integration into a micro-grid system, the model was applied to four previously unexplored test cases. Four on- and off-grid 100%-renewable and -reliable micro-grid systems were specifically conceptualised for the following cases in New Zealand: (i) the community of 400 permanent inhabitants on Stewart Island, (ii) a rural community of about 350 people near Feilding, (iii) the eight-lot Totarabank Subdivision located in the Wairarapa District, and (iv) a 1,000-strong community in Ohakune that swells to 8,000 people during skiing season. Crucially, the case studies, undertaken on different scales and with different degrees of topological complexity, provide a robust evidence base to support the main research proposition that not only is it technically feasible to implement the smart, integrated renewable energy systems optimised by the proposed model, but they also surpass unsubsidised retail parity.In particular, the thesis demonstrates that using the moth-flame optimisation algorithm, capturing the real flexibility potential of small- to medium-scale end-users, characterising multiple sources of data uncertainty, and adopting look-ahead, predictive dispatch strategies during the investment planning phases of stand-alone and grid-connected micro-grid systems, can pave the way toward achieving greater energy independence, -democracy, -resilience, and -security in rural and semi-urban areas in a cost-effective and environmentally efficient way. Most of all, the developed model provides in-depth, accurate, and robust strategic infrastructure planning decision-making support by adopting a holistic and comprehensive approach to energy planning optimisation. The approach enables a high-level, realistic analysis of the financial implications of the clean energy transition, especially in community-scale installations, necessary to cost-effectively promote private sector investment in the green economy – in the efforts to advance global electrification and economy-wide deep decarbonisation.</p

Abolitionist Justice: Towards an Abolitionist Theory of Justice and the State

Thesis summary for the full PhD thesis with the same title

Katoa: A descriptive, comparative and historical analysis

Katoa, approximately translated as ‘all, every’, functions as the universal quantifier in te reo Māori (the Māori language), inherited from Proto Polynesian *katoa. Less well known is its occurrence as a postnominal modifier in singular noun phrases, contributing the meaning of ‘whole’, and as a nominal head meaning ‘all (of them), the whole (of it)’. As a postverbal modifier, katoa can quantify a subject noun phrase with the same meanings of ‘all, every’ and ‘whole’, and it can modify situations expressed by the verb, meaning ‘wholly, completely’. In this paper, we examine the behaviour of katoa in te reo Māori, comparing some properties of katoa with the behaviour of quantifiers in related Polynesian languages. This, in turn, informs our understanding of the prehistory of quantification in Polynesian, where we observe evidence of both retention and replacement of quantifier forms

From Mistrust to Missed Shots: The effect of interpersonal and institutional trust on COVID-19 vaccination delay and refusal

This thesis investigates the effect of interpersonal and institutional trust on COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. The COVID-19 pandemic unfolded as an unprecedented public health crisis with profound social and economic consequences. Although the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations helped to reduce the spread and severity of the disease, ongoing vaccine hesitancy has presented a challenge to achieving sufficient coverage. Our research seeks to determine whether interpersonal and institutional trust predict COVID-19 vaccination delay and refusal. We use an unprecedentedly rich and representative dataset of over 22,000 New Zealand respondents, sourced from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 General Social Survey. Respondents reported their trust in seven domains: Parliament, police, health, education, courts, media, and the general public. These data are linked to respondents’ vaccination status, vaccination event date, and demographic characteristics. We use linear regression models to assess the correlation between interpersonal and institutional trust and vaccination delay and refusal while controlling for relevant covariates. Our research findings reveal that all measured trust domains exhibit a significant, negative correlation with vaccine hesitancy. As trust increases, vaccination hesitancy decreases. The correlation is strongest for trust in police and interpersonal trust, and weakest for trust in media. By understanding how trust informs vaccination decision-making, we can better prepare for and respond to future pandemics and public health crises.</p