New Zealand's Preferential Trading Arrangements: Implications for the New Zealand Dairy Industry

This paper discusses the economic implications of the preferential trade agreements that New Zealand is currently negotiating, using a computable general equilibrium modelling framework. The New Zealand dairy industry is a particular focus in the results, which come from the GTAP model produced by Purdue University. Results are discussed from the independent simulations of preferential trade agreements between New Zealand and Korea, New Zealand and India, New Zealand and Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, New Zealand and the Gulf Cooperation Council, and expansion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to include Australia, Peru, Viet Nam, Malaysia, and the United States of America.New Zealand, dairy industry, preferential trade agreements, Agribusiness, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics,

Bill Hillier, Christopher Alexander and the representation of urban complexity: their concepts of ‘pervasive centrality’ and ‘field of centres’ brought into dialogue

This paper draws attention to what we propose as a shared sensibility towards the life of cities in the work of Christopher Alexander and Bill Hillier. Specifically, it reflects on some similarities in their conceptions of urban centrality, while also acknowledging their very different intellectual trajectories. A consideration is how both men grounded their theoretical and analytical insights in their personal experience of cities. Alexander’s emphasis on detailed multimodal observation and awareness as a source of design understanding is writ large throughout his many publications. The same could hardly be said of Hillier who consistently prioritized the configurational modelling of urban form. Yet those familiar with Hillier’s teaching and design practice know how his analytical understanding drew on a deep knowledge of cities worldwide. For Hillier space syntax models were not simply outputs of a computational process but a stage in his ongoing dialogue with real places. Direct points of contact between Alexander and Hillier are few. Hillier’s engagement with Alexander in Space is the Machine (1996) takes issue with the inductive epistemology in Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964), while Hillier (2009) refers approvingly to Alexander’s critique of the modernist city in ‘A city is not a tree’ (1965). Conversely, in The Nature of Order, Alexander makes brief but positive reference to Hillier and Hanson’s analysis of ‘G’ in The Social Logic of Space (1984). This paper concludes by explaining why the connection of Alexander and Hillier, two of the great urban thinkers of last half-century, is worth developing further

Water safety plans - Book 1: Planning water safety management for urban piped water supplies in developing countries

Historically, global control of drinking water has relied upon infrequent testing of selected water quality parameters at specified points within a water supply. Weaknesses identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in this approach have resulted in a fundamental change noted in the revised, third edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, 2004. The change involves the development of quality assurance processes known as Water Safety Plans (WSPs) founded upon the HACCP principles used in the food industry. Water Safety Plans - Books 1 and 2, document state of the art research designed to complement the advances being made in the global water quality sector. Book 1 presents guidelines for implementing WSPs in developing countries. Book 2 gives further detail on supporting programmes. Together they provide essential reading for water utility managers, helping them to assess, identify and manage water quality risk in their piped water supplies, as well as individuals and organizations representing vulnerable groups and suggesting methods for improving monitoring and management of water quality in low socio-economic areas. Evidence for these books is drawn from three years of research undertaken in Uganda and India funded by the Department for International Development (DFID)

Water safety plans - Book 2: Supporting water safety management for urban piped water supplies in developing countries

Historically, global control of drinking water has relied upon infrequent testing of selected water quality parameters at specified points within a water supply. Weaknesses identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in this approach have resulted in a fundamental change noted in the revised, third edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, 2004. The change involves the development of quality assurance processes known as Water Safety Plans (WSPs) founded upon the HACCP principles used in the food industry. Water Safety Plans - Books 1 and 2, document state of the art research designed to complement the advances being made in the global water quality sector. Book 1 presents guidelines for implementing WSPs in developing countries. Book 2 gives further detail on supporting programmes. Together they provide essential reading for water utility managers, helping them to assess, identify and manage water quality risk in their piped water supplies, as well as individuals and organizations representing vulnerable groups and suggesting methods for improving monitoring and management of water quality in low socio-economic areas. Evidence for these books is drawn from three years of research undertaken in Uganda and India funded by the Department for International Development (DFID)

The impact of information quality on information research

This contribution analyses the impact of information quality on research. It presents a theoretical discussion of the concept 'information quality' and shows that good information quality entails good research. The discussion is relevant for both researchers and research users, because it shows that information quality is a critical determinant of research success, as measured by the creation of new knowledge. Thus, information quality fundamentally impacts research. Reasons for the existence of low quality information as well as proposed solutions to this problem are provided in the paper

Electronic monitoring devices: necessary steps for their successful integration with current asthma care

Health monitoring devices are changing the way we treat, manage and understand chronic health conditions by continuously collecting data about medication use, symptoms, vital signs and a patient’s surrounding environment. Asthma is the most common chronic condition worldwide and has symptoms that include wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath - all typically treated with inhaled medication. By taking a daily ‘preventer’ inhaler a patient should be able to control their asthma and remain relatively symptom free. However, adherence to preventer medication is often poor, making patients prone to severe symptoms and asthma attacks. This leads to avoidable healthcare costs, mainly through preventable hospitalisations and wasted medication. Electronic monitoring devices (EMDs) are the most accurate method currently available for recording inhaler use. Through rigorous testing they have been shown to be sufficiently accurate and reliable for use in clinical practise. Early signs also suggest that they may improve inhaler use when a ringtone is used to remind the patient when a new dose is due. However, no research to date has considered the attitudes of patients with asthma as well as healthcare providers towards these devices. Human factors in healthcare is a now established area of research, with an international standard (ISO 62366) meaning that medical device developers are required to design for a usable and error-free experience. This creates clear scope for assessing the perceptions of patients and healthcare providers towards EMDs for use in the management of asthma. This was investigated in this thesis using three separate but related research studies. Two studies assessed the attitudes of patients and healthy volunteers, whilst the other analysed the opinions of healthcare providers and stakeholders in asthma care. The first study assessed the attitudes of a sample of adolescents with asthma towards an exemplar EMD – the SmartTrack. Asthma is most prevalent in adolescents, adherence is notoriously poor, and they are often overlooked in medical device design - making assessing their views a priority. The participants used a SmartTrack device for one month and completed questionnaires and interviews on their opinions towards important issues including being monitored and the device’s appearance, social acceptability and practicality. For the second study, a Delphi survey method was used to collect the opinions of stakeholders in asthma care including respiratory consultants, nurses and GPs towards EMDs. They were asked to state the key benefits they thought these devices could have, as well as the key potential costs and barriers for their introduction. Additional rounds of surveys were then used to assess which points they felt were most important and should be prioritised in the future development of these devices. EMDs developed new capabilities over the course of this thesis, meaning that the third study was used to investigate attitudes towards location and activity data, as both were beginning to be integrated with data on inhaler use. Two workshops and a technology trial were conducted with a sample of healthy adolescents from a local sixth form. Participants had their location and activity tracked and then had this data presented back to them. They were asked for their opinions on the usefulness of this data, as well as any potential risks associated with recording it. The findings from all three studies were then brought together to determine the requirements of EMDs going forward. A systems model of asthma care was developed to firstly consider the routes through which EMDs could be purchased, as well as the impacts EMDs could have on various points of the asthma care process, both for the patient and the healthcare provider. The requirements for EMDs were then also related back to this model, to help outline their importance and relevance to the asthma care pathway. From the research it was determined that developers need to reduce the size of EMDs, as well as integrate the ability to monitor inhalation and technique. Commissioners need to work with clinical researchers to identify the types of patients who would benefit most from an EMD, in order to reduce risks of over- purchasing. Furthermore, researchers need to work with healthcare standards bodies to establish how the vast quantities of data produced by EMDs can be successfully integrated into the clinical care process. This thesis has three key contributions. Firstly, it introduces human factors research methods to the domain of EMDs for asthma care. Secondly, it provides a set of requirements for EMDs to help ensure that these devices can be successfully introduced and used in clinical care. Lastly, it supplements the literature on human factors methods being applied to healthcare and provides a new example of where user-focused research has been used to elicit requirements for a medical device

P4_4 Planet Kayakers

During this paper we investigate how the different surface gravity [1] present on other bodies within our solar system affects the size and shape of hydraulic jumps in rivers. We find that the ratio of height to length of the hydraulic jump is a constant, to 3 significant figures. This is due to the fact that on bodies with low surface gravity the wave is taller but longer and for high surface gravity the wave is lower in height but shorter in length. We conclude that any body, apart from Jupiter as it violates the initial conditions needed to form a hydraulic jump, would create waves that could be surfed by kayakers and surfers