Can the mana of Maori men who sexually abuse children be restored?

The problem of child sex abuse is prevalent across all segments of society, and Maori, unfortunately, are overrepresented in this problem. In the total prison population of 6591, 13.6% are identified as child sex offenders. Of the 3,299 Maori in prison 283 (8.5%) are identified as child sex offenders whereas 631 (18.6%) of the 3292 non-Maori have been so identified. However, Maori only represent approximately 15% of the general population. In proportionate terms, approximately one of every 970 Maori men is currently in prison for child sex offences, while for non-Maori that figure is one in 31251. Also, disclosures from offenders suggest that sexual abuse is particularly common in rural or disadvantaged areas, with offenders frequently reporting being abused by multiple offenders and being aware of chronic abuse, little of which was ever reported

An old galaxy group: Chandra X-ray observations of the nearby fossil group NGC 6482

We present the first detailed X-ray observations, using Chandra, of NGC 6482 - the nearest known `fossil group'. The group is dominated by an optically luminous giant elliptical galaxy and all other known group members are at least two magnitudes fainter. The global X-ray properties (luminosity, temperature, extent) of NGC 6482 fall within the range of other groups, but the detailed properties show interesting differences. We derive the gas temperature and total mass profiles for the central 30 kpc using ACIS spatially resolved spectroscopy. The temperature profile shows a continuous decrease outward, dropping to 0.63 of its central value at 0.1 r_200. The derived total mass profile is strongly centrally peaked, suggesting an early formation epoch. These results support a picture in which fossil groups are old, giving time for the most massive galaxies to have merged to produce a central giant elliptical galaxy. Although the cooling time within 0.1 r_200 is less than a Hubble time, no decrease in central temperature is detected. The entropy of the system lies toward the low side of the distribution seen in poor groups, and it drops all the way into the centre of the system, reaching very low values. No isentropic core, such as those predicted in simple preheating models, is present. Given the lack of any central temperature drop in the system, it seems unlikely that radiative cooling can be invoked to explain this low central entropy. We find that the centrally peaked temperature profile is consistent with a steady-state cooling flow solution with an accretion rate of 2 solar mass per year, given the large PdV work arising from the cuspy mass profile. However, solutions involving distributed or non-steady heating cannot be ruled out.Comment: 11 pages, 12 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The skull and mandible of the South African baboon.

This Thesis is submitted to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Surgery. The examination for this degree was completed in 1947.The skull and mandible of the baboon. This is a morphological study of the skulls and mandibles of 102 specimens from known localities in Southern Africa. A detailed reference book on the anatomy of the baboon is particularly important because of the increasing use of this animal in medical science. The skulls and mandibles of captive animals are referred to but are not included in the comparative study since animals in captivity are subject to dietetic disturbances and other factors not yet fully understood. The cranium of an adult male skull is described in all normae. Comparisons are made with the crania of seven adult male baboons from widely separated known localities. This study shows that two main craniofacial types, with intermediate types, occur among the crania of South African baboons. Type 1. crania have small maxillary ridges, shallow maxillary fossae, ventrally directed zygomatic bones, large ventral orbital apertures, well developed superciliary ridges, high temporal lines and sagittal crests. Type 11. crania have large flared maxillary ridges, deep maxillary fossae, ventrolateral ly directed zygomatic bones, small ventral orbital apertures, large supraorbital tori, low temporal lines and no sagittal crests. This apparent1y supports the specific and subspecific claims of some observers. However, a critical examination of the crania of six adult female baboons from the same troop at Bindura, Rhodesia, shows that similar craniofacial types occur among female baboons. It is possible to associate mandibular types with the craniofacial types in adult male baboons. This is not the case with female baboon mandibles.WHSLYP201

Heat Kernel for Open Manifolds

In a 1991 paper by Buttig and Eichhorn, the existence and uniqueness of a differential forms heat kernel on open manifolds of bounded geometry was proven. In that paper, it was shown that the heat kernel obeyed certain properties, one of which was a relationship between the derivative of heat kernel of different degrees. We will give a proof of this condition for complete manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded below, and then use it to give an integral representation of the heat kernel of degree $k$

Shining a light on Madagascar's mangroves

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Diversity and SMEs : Existing Evidence and Policy Tensions : ERC White Paper No.3

The purpose of this White Paper is to present an overarching review of the evidence that currently exists with regard to diversity and SMEs. It outlines longstanding concerns that entrepreneurial activities and ambitions are restricted to a narrow range of social groups, with others, in particular some ethnic minority groups and women, characterised as having both lesser interest in enterprise and lower levels of resources necessary to participate. Attempts to increase participation rates of under-represented groups have resulted in only modest changes. This White Paper introduces the key evidence relating to ethnic minority and women-led enterprises, explaining the context of each group, and summarising research evidence relating to their relative access to finance, markets and management. Research and policy within the field of diversity and SMEs is characterised by a number of tensions, relating to perceived or real discrimination; whether to promote a volume of new businesses or focus on high growth potential firms; whether specialist business support is more effective or desirable than mainstream provision; and whether there is evidence of market failure in the support provided to diverse enterprises

The central elliptical galaxy in fossil groups and formation of BCGs

We study the dominant central giant elliptical galaxies in ``Fossil groups'' using deep optical (R-band) and near infrared (Ks-band) photometry. These galaxies are as luminous as the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), raising immediate interest in their link to the formation of BCGs and galaxy clusters. However, despite apparent similarities, the dominant fossil galaxies show non-boxy isophotes, in contrast to the most luminous BCGs. This study suggests that the structure of the brightest group galaxies produced in fossil groups are systematically different to the majority of BCGs. If the fossils do indeed form from the merger of major galaxies including late-types within a group, then their disky nature is consistent with the results of recent numerical simulations of semi-analytical models which suggest that gas rich mergers result in disky isophote ellipticals. We show that fossils form a homogeneous population in which the velocity dispersion of the fossil group is tightly correlated with the luminosity of the dominant elliptical galaxy. This supports the scenario in which the giant elliptical galaxies in fossils can grow to the size and luminosity of BCGs in a group environment. However, the boxy structure of luminous BCGs indicate that they are either not formed as fossils, or have undergone later gas-free mergers within the cluster environment.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS letter

An evaluation of the use of phallometric assessment for men incarcerated for sexually offending against children in New Zealand: Past results and future directions.

Phallometric assessment, the direct measurement of male sexual arousal in response to stimuli presented in a controlled setting, has been widely used in the assessment of sexual offenders to detect deviant sexual interests, determine treatment needs and inform risk assessments, but they have also been criticised due to a weak theoretical basis, wide variations in methodology and serious concerns around reliability and validity. From 1999 to 2007, phallometric assessments were conducted at two treatment units for incarcerated child sex offenders in New Zealand using a standardised Monarch 3.1 phallometric system which provided a database of 583 cases for analysis. This project, the only large scale analysis of phallometric data known to have been conducted using New Zealand data, was designed to explore a large number of research questions in three areas. The first area explored the factor structure of the assessments and the relationships between arousal profiles and a variety of co-existing demographic and offence related variables including age, social desirability, victim gender and victim age. The second area investigated the ability of a large number of possible phallometric indices to predict future both any sexual reconvictions and those involving children, with a particular focus on the role played by stimuli depicting teenagers. The third area investigated the prevalence and effects of the deliberate suppression of arousal, and analysed the ability of physiological measures to detect such suppression. The results of these investigations indicated that phallometric data factored according to the gender of the stimuli and could be further divided into age preferences resembling pedophila and teleiophilia. Phallometric indices consistently related to known victim gender but not victim age, suggesting that these offenders tended to target victims based on gender preferences but not age preferences to the same degree, posing questions about the relevance of diagnostic labels for age based sexual preferences. Phallometric results were demonstrated to be predictive of sexual reoffending against children and outperformed actuarial or structured dynamic variables. The best predictions were obtained using ratio and z-scored differential deviance indices from initial assessments to predict sexual reconvictions involving children in a sample of extrafamilial offenders, with a maximum AUC found of .69. Post-treatment assessments also predicted reconviction, but change scores from pre to post-treatment did not, suggesting that the practice of conducting post-treatment phallometric assessments is of little value. The investigation into the suppression of arousal found that subjects could reduce the magnitude of their arousal, but could not reduce the discriminative abilities of interpretative indices. In this sample, there was no reliable way to detect markers of suppression using GSR traces, respiration traces or the patterns in the penile traces themselves. While many of these findings support those in the existing literature, others are original contributions which extend the literature, including the use of a Principal Component Analysis on raw phallometric data, an exploration of the effects of the use of pubescent stimuli, a mathematical rather than subjective analysis of the properties of penile, GSR and respiration data in relation to suppression, the use of Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis to clarify the relationship between arousal profiles and victim preferences and an analysis of the effects of varying significance levels on the detection of male victims and the prediction of recidivism. Overall, this research extends and clarifies the phallometric literature through evidence that phallometric assessments may not provide a definitive measure of sexual interests and are not an absolute predictor of reconviction, but are the best available tool for measuring arousal patterns and could be a valuable contributor to a multimodal assessment of risk

An Assessment of International Leading Practice in the Integrated Management of Public Sector Property Assets, and its Application to the Australian Public Sector

This thesis examines the Governance, Management and Administration of Governments' property assets. By examining the developments in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA), this thesis demonstrates why and how an integrated and strategic approach to the management of these assets is an important and crucial element of public administration. The thesis examines the concepts and theory behind the property management discipline and shows that it is as much of an art than a science, with its practice being extensively influenced by context and human behaviour. This data and information is used to develop a hypothesis for a ‘leading’ practice model for the management of government property. Innovations in property management policy and practice introduced by the UK and USA governments since the early 2000s to improve property asset efficiency and effectiveness are being touted as world’s ‘leading’ practice, as is their development of performance ‘measuring instruments’. This assumption that a world’s ‘leading’ practice exists is tested through case studies into the UK and USA governments. Determining the position of the Australian public sector’s asset management capacity and capability against this standard is tested by applying the ‘National Assessment Framework’s Asset Management Maturity Assessment Model’ to a number of Australian public sector government jurisdictions. These measurements are analysed, and compared to an understanding of performance derived from a qualitative analysis of information and data obtained from the literature review, case studies, and the author’s professional experience. Studies are conducted into the Australian public sector to identify gaps between the existing status of the management of property and the ‘leading’ practice model. These gaps are analysed and the barriers to such a practice identified. The thesis develops an understanding of any organisational behavioural issues that influence asset management policy, governance, and capacity to undertake and respond to change. Until the early part of the last decade, governments across the world had typically not understood the importance of real property to the provision of public services and to government financial sustainability. Beyond a number of papers and edited publications describing the experiences of individual jurisdictions, there is a lack of detailed and evidence-based research into the strategic management of government property assets. Little research exists for the Australian public sector. This thesis is intended to provide a platform for the research continuum in an area where little formal study has been undertaken. The significance of this thesis is that it provides a knowledge base for the Australian public sector to improve the management of its property assets (and other asset classes), which have an estimated value of some $325 billion