Contracting out local government services: A comparative study of two New Zealand regional councils

Studies of New Zealand public sector reforms since the mid-1980s have tended to focus on the application of New Public Management principles to the central government. Yet local government in New Zealand too has experienced drastic restructuring with a view to ensuring greater rationalisation, efficiency and effectiveness. This article examines contracting out in New Zealand local government, focusing on the delivery of plant pest management by Environment Waikato(the Waikato Regional Council) and the Wellington Regional Council. The study reveals distinct differences in approach by the two councils, determined in each case by pragmatic responses to situational context rather than mere adherence to NPM principles

Denial and distancing in discourses of development: shadow of the 'Third World' in New Zealand

Anxieties about development in New Zealand show up in a deep-rooted fear of the 'Third World' in the country. We examine how the term 'Third World' is deployed in media discourses in economic, social and environmental contexts and how this deployment results in a 'discursive distancing' from anything associated with the 'Third World'. Such distancing demonstrates a fragile national identity that struggles with the contradictions between the nation's desire to be part of the 'First World' of global capitalism and the growing disparities in health and wealth within it. The shadow of the 'Third World' prevents New Zealand from confronting the realities of its own inequities, which in turn comes in the way of a sound development agenda

Science, governance, and public participation: An analysis of decision making on genetic modification in Aotearoa/New Zealand

The acceptance of public participation in science and technology governance in liberal democratic contexts is evident in the institutionalization of a variety of mechanisms for participation in recent decades. Yet questions remain about the extent to which institutions have actually transformed their policy practice to embrace democratic governance of techno-scientific decision making. A critical discourse analysis of the response to public participation by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), the key decision-making body on genetic modification in Aotearoa/New Zealand, in a specific case demonstrates that ERMA systematically marginalized concerns raised by the public about risk management, ethics, and ecological, economic, and cultural issues in order to give primacy to a positivist, technological worldview. Such delegitimization of public perspectives pre-empts the possibility of the democratic governance of science

CCD BVRI and 2MASS Photometry of the Poorly Studied Open Cluster NGC 6631

Here we have obtained the {\it BVRI CCD} photometry down to a limiting magnitude of $V \sim$ 20 for the southern poorly studied open cluster NGC 6631. It is observed from the {\it 1.88 m} Telescope of Kottamia Observatory in Egypt. About 3300 stars have been observed in an area of $\sim 10^{\prime} \times 10^{\prime}$ around the cluster center. The main photometric parameters have been estimated and compared with the results that determined for the cluster using {\it JHKs 2MASS} photometric database. The cluster's diameter is estimated to be 10 arcmin; the reddening E(B-V)= 0.68 $\pm$ 0.10 mag, E(J-H)= 0.21 $\pm$ 0.10 mag, the true modulus (m-M)$_{o}$= 12.16 $\pm$ 0.10 mag, which corresponds to a distance of 2700 $\pm$125 pc and age of 500 $\pm$ 50 Myr.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Characterizing small-scale migration behavior of sequestered CO2 in a realistic geological fabric

For typical reservoir conditions, buoyancy and capillary forces grow dominant over viscous forces within a few hundred meters of the injection wells as the pressure gradient due to injection decreases, resulting in qualitatively different plume migration regimes. The migration regime depends on two factors: the capillary pressure of the leading edge of the plume and the range of threshold entry pressures within the rock at the leading edge of the plume. A capillary channel regime arises when these two factors have the same magnitude. Flow patterns within this regime vary from finger-like structures with minimal rock contact to back-filling structures with compact volumes of saturation distributed between fingers. Reservoir heterogeneity is one of the principal factors influencing CO2 migration pathway in the capillary channel regime. Here we characterize buoyancy-driven migration in a natural 2D geologic domain (1 m × 0.5 m peel from an alluvium) in which sedimentologic heterogeneity has been resolved at sub-millimeter (depositional) resolution. The relevant features of the heterogeneity are grain size distribution, which determines the mean and range of threshold pressures and correlation lengths of threshold pressures in horizontal and vertical directions. The relevant physics for this migration regime is invasion percolation, and simulations indicate that CO2 migrates through the peel in a few narrow pathways which cannot be captured by conventional coarse-grid simulations. The storage efficiency of the capillary channel regime would be low and consequently CO2 would also migrate greater distances than expected from models or simulations that neglect the capillary channel flow regime.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Isotropic properties of the photonic band gap in quasicrystals with low-index contrast

We report on the formation and development of the photonic band gap in two-dimensional 8-, 10- and 12-fold symmetry quasicrystalline lattices of low index contrast. Finite size structures made of dielectric cylindrical rods were studied and measured in the microwave region, and their properties compared with a conventional hexagonal crystal. Band gap characteristics were investigated by changing the direction of propagation of the incident beam inside the crystal. Various angles of incidence from 0 \degree to 30\degree were used in order to investigate the isotropic nature of the band gap. The arbitrarily high rotational symmetry of aperiodically ordered structures could be practically exploited to manufacture isotropic band gap materials, which are perfectly suitable for hosting waveguides or cavities.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR