Rangatahi Wahine: Overcoming the odds – preliminary results

The purpose of my research was to identify factors that have contributed to the development of resilience in young Māori girls’ lives. Incorporated into this was an exploration of their psychosocial competence makeup, to see whether their sense of self, sense of relationship to the world, and ability to negotiate life events, was unique

Maori and epilepsy: Personal perceptions of the cause, treatment and consequences of epilepsy by Maori in the Bay of Plenty

This paper discusses the perceptions of epilepsy held by Maori in the Bay of Plenty. The paper begins by introducing the purpose and rationale of the research. It then moves on to describe the aims and qualitative research methods that were used to collect the data. Finally the paper discusses the findings of the research, this includes: a close look at the unique perceptions of epilepsy that were reported by Maori in the Bay of Plenty; the lack of resources and services available in a small rural town of the Bay of Plenty; the services desired by Maori; attitudes towards medication and the inappropriate behaviour many of the participants experienced by the medical profession

Different coloured tears: Dual cultural identity and Tangihanga – A directed study

Although whānau/family that are configured by both Pākehā and Māori identities number significantly within New Zealand, there has been little or no attention paid to the ways in which these identities influence the bereavement processes that will inevitably impact upon the lives of these whānau/family. The present study explored the experiences of an individual, whose whānau/family included two life ways; Māori and Pākehā. Of specific focus was the ways in which these identities influenced his bereavement subsequent to the death of his beloved wife, who was of Māori descent. One elderly male Pākehā participant was interviewed, using an open-ended narrative approach. The interview was semi structured around five broad themes, but the focus was upon the participant’s experiences and his preference in expressing these. The data analysis utilised a thematic process, which allowed the participant’s experiences to determine the emergent themes. The results depicted the diversity of issues that may be raised for dual cultural whānau/family within bereavement processes. Two central themes are discussed in relation to intercultural conflict and the eventual resolution that was created. Decision making processes, cultural and language differences played significant roles within the conflict and exclusion experienced by the participant. Communication and compromise provided resolution to the prior conflicts experienced. This created positive and unexpected outcomes which resulted in increased understandings and the strengthening of links between the participant, his whānau/family and his wife’s marae

Dual cultural identity and tangihanga: Conflict, resolution and unexpected outcomes

New Zealand has a significant number of dual-cultural whānau (families) which incorporate the identities of both Pākehā (New Zealander of European descent) and Māori (indigenous peoples of New Zealand). Little attention has been paid to the bereavement processes that will inevitably impact upon the lives of these whānau/families. As part of the Tangihanga Research Programme based at The University of Waikato, a directed study was conducted with a participant whose family/whānau included two life ways: Māori and Pākehā. An open-ended narrative approach was used to explore the participant’s bereavement after the death of his beloved wife. Two central themes emerged within the narrative, which related to conflict and eventual resolution. Decision-making processes and language played significant roles in the conflict experienced by the participant. Communication and compromise helped to resolve these conflicts. Unexpected outcomes included new understandings and strengthened connections between the participant and his wife’s marae

Medial Superior Olivary Neurons Receive Surprisingly Few Excitatory and Inhibitory Inputs with Balanced Strength and Short-Term Dynamics

Neurons in the medial superior olive (MSO) process microsecond interaural time differences, the major cue for localizing low-frequency sounds, by comparing the relative arrival time of binaural, glutamatergic excitatory inputs. This coincidence detection mechanism is additionally shaped by highly specialized glycinergic inhibition. Traditionally, it is assumed that the binaural inputs are conveyed by many independent fibers, but such an anatomical arrangement may decrease temporal precision. Short-term depression on the other hand might enhance temporal fidelity during ongoing activity. For the first time we show that binaural coincidence detection in MSO neurons may require surprisingly few but strong inputs, challenging long-held assumptions about mammalian coincidence detection. This study exclusively uses adult gerbils for in vitro electrophysiology, single-cell electroporation and immunohistochemistry to characterize the size and short-term plasticity of inputs to the MSO. We find that the excitatory and inhibitory inputs to the MSO are well balanced both in strength and short-term dynamics, redefining this fastest of all mammalian coincidence detector circuits

Different coloured tears: Dual cultural identity and Tangihanga

Although whānau/family that are configured by both Pākehā and Māori identities number significantly within New Zealand, there has been little or no attention paid to the ways in which these identities influence the bereavement processes that will inevitably impact upon the lives of these whānau/family. The present study explored the experiences of an individual, whose whānau/family included two life ways: Māori and Pākehā. Of specific focus was the ways in which these identities influenced his bereavement subsequent to the death of his beloved wife, who was of Māori descent. One elderly male Pākehā participant was interviewed, using an open ended narrative approach. The interview was semi-structured around five broad themes, but the focus was upon the participant’s experiences and his preference in expressing these. The data analysis utilised a thematic process which allowed the participant’s experiences to determine the emergent themes. The results depicted the diversity of issues that may be raised for dual cultural whānau/family within bereavement processes. Two central themes are discussed in relation to intercultural conflict and the eventual resolution that was created. Decision-making processes, cultural and language differences played significant roles within the conflict and exclusion experienced by the participant. Communication and compromise provided resolution to the prior conflicts experienced. This created positive and unexpected outcomes which resulted in increased understandings and the strengthening of links between the participant, his whānau/family and his wife’s marae

Optimal Traffic Splitting Policy in LTE-based Heterogeneous Network

Dual Connectivity (DC) is a technique proposed to address the problem of increased handovers in heterogeneous networks. In DC, a foreground User Equipment (UE) with multiple transceivers has a possibility to connect to a Macro eNodeB (MeNB) and a Small cell eNodeB (SeNB) simultaneously. In downlink split bearer architecture of DC, a data radio bearer at MeNB gets divided into two; one part is forwarded to the SeNB through a non-ideal backhaul link to the UE, and the other part is forwarded by the MeNB. This may lead to an increase in the total delay at the UE since different packets corresponding to a single transmission may incur varying amounts of delays in the two different paths. Since the resources in the MeNB are shared by background legacy users and foreground users, DC may increase the blocking probability of background users. Moreover, single connectivity to the small cell may increase the blocking probability of foreground users. Therefore, we target to minimize the average delay of the system subject to a constraint on the blocking probability of background and foreground users. The optimal policy is computed and observed to contain a threshold structure. The variation of average system delay is studied for changes in different system parameters.Comment: Conferenc