The Waikato Horticultural Complex: An archaeological reconstruction of a Polynesian horticultural system

This thesis considers the transfer and adaptation of Polynesian horticulture to New Zealand through examination of the archaeology of the Waikato Horticultural Complex, an inland horticultural system relying on intensive soil adaptation within a swidden process. The successful transfer and adaptation of Polynesian horticulture, a system developed in the tropics and based on tropical plants, to the temperate climate of New Zealand has long been considered enigmatic with a number of attempts to understand how this was effected. The Waikato Horticultural Complex is characterised by the quarrying and transport of course lithic material to garden sites, often glossed as Maori-made soils, that are recognised as distinct soil types by soil scientists. The Waikato Horticultural Complex presents archaeologically in two similar but distinct aspects indicating two parallel agronomic processes. A multi-disciplinary approach has been followed in examining the Waikato Horticultural Complex. The examination of the Waikato Horticultural Complex occurs at two scales. The first places the horticultural system within the wider regional landscape through understanding its scale and its interaction with that landscape, primarily the soils, geology and vegetation. Secondly the Waikato Horticultural Complex is contextualised with a review of the archaeology of Polynesian horticulture as understood in Eastern Polynesia, along with an examination of the literature describing the 'made soils' phenomena in New Zealand, where it appears to be a strategy distinct within Polynesia. Specifically the nature of the Waikato Horticultural Complex is described and characterised. The data relating to the Waikato Horticultural Complex drawn on for this thesis has been derived from a mass of reporting generated through the Cultural Heritage Management process. Most of this reporting has been created by the author of this thesis. This data describes the collective attributes or features of the Waikato Horticultural Complex, which relate to forest clearance, garden development including the quarrying of course lithic material and the features and context in which it is found following transport to the gardens, crop storage structures along with elements reflecting domestic activities. Data relating to the palaeo-environment, along with plant microfossil data relating to cultigens is reviewed. Questions of depositional processes and function of the transported material within the associated archaeological contexts are central to understanding potential motives for the application of the labour intensive process. As well as 'standard' archaeological techniques two additional approaches have been applied. At the micro-scale, soil micromorphological techniques have been applied to the examination of both manifestations of the made soil phenomenon, which have resolved questions about depositional and post-depositional processes and the presence or absence of relict features from now-destroyed components of the gardens. To further test the role of actual and potential elements of the agronomy employed in relation to the transported material the results from experimental garden plots have also been considered

The Facebooked organisation: a critique of corporate social media in New Zealand

The research illustrates that people on Facebook communicate with organizations as though the organisations are people too. Furthermore, organisations induce this behaviour through promotional materials that persuaded the follower to engage with them as friends. I began my research as it appeared that organisations hid potentially ruthless profit motives behind a smiling face of friendship on social media networks, particularly on Facebook, which I used daily. Facebook may be a relatively new technology, having been first developed only a decade ago, but it has dramatically changed the way the global society communicates. In New Zealand alone it is estimated half the population uses the tool. Due to this, Facebook is surrounded by a kind of hysteria: in one form or another Facebook makes the news on a near-daily basis, from the celebrification of its founder, to panics over privacy. The dramatic impact Facebook has had in such a short period of time means many remain curious, uninformed and often fearful of how this tool will impact the future. In the last few years, Facebook has added functionality that now enables businesses to have a presence in this forum, which has made it possible for customers to interact with businesses in an entirely new way. This has resulted in hype in the business world, over the untapped potential of this new marketing tool. The aim of my research was to critically explore the relationships between “Facebooked” organisations and the private individuals who interact with the businesses online and with this purpose in mind, I established four research questions to guide the thesis. The first investigates the nature of Facebook interactions between corporations and followers, and the second investigates the multiple realities on the Facebook Pages of the three corporations. The third research question asks how corporations use their Facebook Pages to build follower identification, and the final, overarching research question asks—what is the nature of the ”Facebook effect”? My research uses three New Zealand corporations well-known for their social media use as case studies; ASB Bank New Zealand Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Ltd and Air New Zealand Limited. The research takes a critical perspective and is divided into two parts. The first uses thematic analysis to code and categorise both followers’ comments on the business Facebook Pages and the response to the comments from the corporations. The second part of the research reviews the promotional materials that feed into the Facebook Page and which encourage follower participation, by conducting both a Monin-style close reading (2004) and also a rhetorical analysis using Cheney’s (1983a) rhetorical identification typology. The research indicates that followers are exhibiting extremes of emotion in their comments in a way that appears specific to the online forum of Facebook; individuals speak to the business as if it were a person and show attachment as though it were a friend. Within the Page, the corporation does not encourage such attachment, or respond in like fashion, however the promotional elements they use do so. Such campaigns gave visitors a promise of connection, of friendship and sharing. In my conclusion, my research found that Facebook, though created to achieve utopian ideals of genuine human connection, has, through its focus on profit generation, delivered dystopian results in terms of business-to-individual interaction

A sedimentological study of three saline lakes in the Dry Valleys of Victoria Land, Antarctica

The Dry Valley region of Victoria Land is the largest ice-free area in Antarctica. Within the frigid arid environment of the Dry Valleys, where the mean annual air temperature is -20℃, there are several permanently ice-covered, amictic, saline lakes occupying undrained bedrock depressions. Three of these lakes, namely Lakes Vanda, Bonney and Joyce, have been studied with the aim of determining the nature of their bottom sediments and relating the stratigraphy of bottom sediment cores to Holocene climatic fluctuations. These lakes have an area of 0.8 to 5.2 km², are from 35 to 68m in maximum depth and have an ice-cover 3 to 4m thick. The lakes are chemically and thermally stratified and receive their water from meltwater streams draining the local glaciers. The bottom sediments consist of detrital sands and silts, chemical precipitates and organic material. The detrital sediments consist of feldspar and quartz with smaller quantities of hornblende, augite, hypersthene and mica that are derived locally from the rocks exposed on the adjacent valley sides. These sediments are mainly wind-transported or, to a lesser extent, river-transported into the lakes. The wind derived sediments are either blown onto the lake-ice, where they eventually sink to the lake-floor, or they are blown into the moat developed about the shores of the lake in summer. The chemical precipitates consist mainly of gypsum, halite, aragonite and calcite whose constituent elements were derived from meltwater streams discharging into the lakes; however Lake Bonney also received dissolved solids of marine origin about 300,000 years B.P. and 1,200 years B.P. From the sequence of chemical precipitate - rich bands and grain-size cycles in cores from Lakes Vanda and Joyce, together with the stratigraphy in the Lake Bonney cores, a sequence of climatic fluctuations is inferred. Colder climatic phases are most probably associated with periods of low lake-level during which chemical precipitates formed following the concentration of brines under frigid evaporitic conditions. At these times the sediment input from meltwater streams was low because of the locking-up of water in valley glaciers, and the main source of sediment would probably then be wind-derived. U/Th dating of the chemical precipitates has provided an absolute record of past climatic changes which indicate that the major glacier systems in the Dry Valley region were nonsynchronous. Low lake levels occurred in Lake Vanda some 2,000 and 5,500 years B.P. and on at least four earlier occasions. Sediment cores from Lake Joyce indicate a period of low lake-level about 3,000 years B.P. The Lake Bonney cores suggest periods of low lake-level occurred following each of the marine incursions into the valley (300,000 and 1,200 years B.P.) and that the advance of the Taylor Glacier into the Bonney Basin at least 10,000 years B.P. probably coincided with the Taylor I Glaciation. Frigid evaporitic conditions have continued to operate in Lake Bonney since 1,200 years B.P. with halite crystals forming on the lake-floor. However, the lake-level has been steadily rising over the last 500 years

Establishing an Anthropogenic Nitrogen Baseline Using Native American Shell Middens

Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, has been heavily influenced by anthropogenic nutrients for more than 200 years. Recent efforts to improve water quality have cut sewage nitrogen (N) loads to this point source estuary by more than half. Given that the bay has been heavily fertilized for longer than monitoring programs have been in place, we sought additional insight into how N dynamics in the system have historically changed. To do this, we measured the N stable isotope (δ15N) values in clam shells from as early as 3000 BP to the present. Samples from Native American middens were compared with those collected locally from museums, an archeological company, and graduate student thesis projects, during a range of time periods. Overall, δ15N values in clam shells from Narragansett Bay have increased significantly over time, reflecting known patterns of anthropogenic nutrient enrichment. Pre-colonization midden shell δ15N values were significantly lower than those post-European contact. While there were no statistical differences among shells dated from the late fifteenth century to 2005, there was a significant difference between 2005 and 2015 shells, which we attribute to the higher δ15N values in the effluent associated with recent sewage treatment upgrades. In contrast, the δ15N values of shells from the southern Rhode Island coast remained constant through time; while influenced by human activities, these areas are not directly influenced by point-source sewage discharge. Overall, our results show that this isotope technique for measuring δ15N values in clam shells provides useful insight into how N dynamics in coastal ecosystems have changed during thousands of years, providing managers vital historical information when setting goals for N reduction

The influence of calibration curve construction and composition on the accuracy and precision of radiocarbon wiggle-matching of tree rings, illustrated by Southern Hemisphere atmospheric data sets from ad 1500–1950

This research investigates two factors influencing the ability of tree-ring data to provide accurate 14C calibration information: the fitness and rigor of the statistical model used to combine the data into a curve; and the accuracy, precision and reproducibility of the component 14C data sets. It presents a new Bayesian spline method for calibration curve construction and tests it on extant and new Southern Hemisphere (SH) data sets (also examining their dendrochronology and pretreatment) for the post-Little Ice Age (LIA) interval AD 1500–1950. The new method of construction allows calculation of component data offsets, permitting identification of laboratory and geographic biases. Application of the new method to the 10 suitable SH 14C data sets suggests that individual offset ranges for component data sets appear to be in the region of ± 10 yr. Data sets with individual offsets larger than this need to be carefully assessed before selection for calibration purposes. We identify a potential geographical offset associated with the Southern Ocean (high latitude) Campbell Island data. We test the new methodology for wiggle-matching short tree-ring sequences and use an OxCal simulation to assess the likely precision obtainable by wiggle-matching in the post-LIA interval

Blood pressure-lowering effects of nifedipine/candesartan combinations in high-risk individuals: Subgroup analysis of the DISTINCT randomised trial

The DISTINCT study (reDefining Intervention with Studies Testing Innovative Nifedipine GITS - Candesartan Therapy) investigated the efficacy and safety of nifedipine GITS/candesartan cilexetil combinations vs respective monotherapies and placebo in patients with hypertension. This descriptive sub-analysis examined blood pressure (BP)-lowering effects in high-risk participants, including those with renal impairment (estimated glomerular filtration rate<90 ml min-1, n=422), type 2 diabetes mellitus (n=202), hypercholesterolaemia (n=206) and cardiovascular (CV) risk factors (n=971), as well as the impact of gender, age and body mass index (BMI). Participants with grade I/II hypertension were randomised to treatment with nifedipine GITS (N) 20, 30, 60 mg and/or candesartan cilexetil (C) 4, 8, 16, 32 mg or placebo for 8 weeks. Mean systolic BP and diastolic BP reductions after treatment in high-risk participants were greater, overall, with N/C combinations vs respective monotherapies or placebo, with indicators of a dose-response effect. Highest rates of BP control (ESH/ESC 2013 guideline criteria) were also achieved with highest doses of N/C combinations in each high-risk subgroup. The benefits of combination therapy vs monotherapy were additionally observed in patient subgroups categorised by gender, age or BMI. All high-risk participants reported fewer vasodilatory adverse events in the pooled N/C combination therapy than the N monotherapy group. In conclusion, consistent with the DISTINCT main study outcomes, high-risk participants showed greater reductions in BP and higher control rates with N/C combinations compared with respective monotherapies and lesser vasodilatory side-effects compared with N monotherapy

Comparative effectiveness and safety of non-vitamin K antagonists for atrial fibrillation in clinical practice: GLORIA-AF Registry

Background and purpose: Prospectively collected data comparing the safety and effectiveness of individual non-vitamin K antagonists (NOACs) are lacking. Our objective was to directly compare the effectiveness and safety of NOACs in patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: In GLORIA-AF, a large, prospective, global registry program, consecutive patients with newly diagnosed AF were followed for 3&nbsp;years. The comparative analyses for (1) dabigatran vs rivaroxaban or apixaban and (2) rivaroxaban vs apixaban were performed on propensity score (PS)-matched patient sets. Proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for outcomes of interest. Results: The GLORIA-AF Phase III registry enrolled 21,300 patients between January 2014 and December 2016. Of these, 3839 were prescribed dabigatran, 4015 rivaroxaban and 4505 apixaban, with median ages of 71.0, 71.0, and 73.0&nbsp;years, respectively. In the PS-matched set, the adjusted HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for dabigatran vs rivaroxaban were, for stroke: 1.27 (0.79–2.03), major bleeding 0.59 (0.40–0.88), myocardial infarction 0.68 (0.40–1.16), and all-cause death 0.86 (0.67–1.10). For the comparison of dabigatran vs apixaban, in the PS-matched set, the adjusted HRs were, for stroke 1.16 (0.76–1.78), myocardial infarction 0.84 (0.48–1.46), major bleeding 0.98 (0.63–1.52) and all-cause death 1.01 (0.79–1.29). For the comparison of rivaroxaban vs apixaban, in the PS-matched set, the adjusted HRs were, for stroke 0.78 (0.52–1.19), myocardial infarction 0.96 (0.63–1.45), major bleeding 1.54 (1.14–2.08), and all-cause death 0.97 (0.80–1.19). Conclusions: Patients treated with dabigatran had a 41% lower risk of major bleeding compared with rivaroxaban, but similar risks of stroke, MI, and death. Relative to apixaban, patients treated with dabigatran had similar risks of stroke, major bleeding, MI, and death. Rivaroxaban relative to apixaban had increased risk for major bleeding, but similar risks for stroke, MI, and death. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifiers: NCT01468701, NCT01671007. Date of registration: September 2013

Anticoagulant selection in relation to the SAMe-TT2R2 score in patients with atrial fibrillation. the GLORIA-AF registry

Aim: The SAMe-TT2R2 score helps identify patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) likely to have poor anticoagulation control during anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) and those with scores &gt;2 might be better managed with a target-specific oral anticoagulant (NOAC). We hypothesized that in clinical practice, VKAs may be prescribed less frequently to patients with AF and SAMe-TT2R2 scores &gt;2 than to patients with lower scores. Methods and results: We analyzed the Phase III dataset of the Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation (GLORIA-AF), a large, global, prospective global registry of patients with newly diagnosed AF and ≥1 stroke risk factor. We compared baseline clinical characteristics and antithrombotic prescriptions to determine the probability of the VKA prescription among anticoagulated patients with the baseline SAMe-TT2R2 score &gt;2 and ≤ 2. Among 17,465 anticoagulated patients with AF, 4,828 (27.6%) patients were prescribed VKA and 12,637 (72.4%) patients an NOAC: 11,884 (68.0%) patients had SAMe-TT2R2 scores 0-2 and 5,581 (32.0%) patients had scores &gt;2. The proportion of patients prescribed VKA was 28.0% among patients with SAMe-TT2R2 scores &gt;2 and 27.5% in those with scores ≤2. Conclusions: The lack of a clear association between the SAMe-TT2R2 score and anticoagulant selection may be attributed to the relative efficacy and safety profiles between NOACs and VKAs as well as to the absence of trial evidence that an SAMe-TT2R2-guided strategy for the selection of the type of anticoagulation in NVAF patients has an impact on clinical outcomes of efficacy and safety. The latter hypothesis is currently being tested in a randomized controlled trial. Clinical trial registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov//Unique identifier: NCT01937377, NCT01468701, and NCT01671007