He wharemoa te rakau, ka mahue. Maori engagement with local government: Knowledge, experiences and recommendations

This report presents the data, analysis and results of focus group research that explored Máori knowledge, experiences and perspectives of local government in Aotearoa New Zealand. Seven focus groups were held with different groups of Máori; 18 – 24 year olds in tertiary study; 18 – 24 year olds in the workforce; people 25 years old and over residing in rural areas, and people 25 years old and over living in urban settings. The purpose of this report is to present the research findings about the knowledge and experiences of Máori in relation to local government, and in particular, their recommendations for the development of the local government sector. It is intended to assist local authorities in their efforts to improve their engagement with Máori, and stimulate further research with Máori about Máori participation in local government decision-making.A research project supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (MAU-039

Wildlife reintroduction: considerations of habitat quality at the release site.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.BACKGROUND: Assessing the suitability of a habitat prior to the release of animals is vital. Proper assessment of the flora will allow reintroduction programmes to determine whether the area will be capable of supporting the released animals in the long-term. Here data are presented from an island in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia which has been used as a release site for agile gibbons (Hylobates agilis albibarbis) since January 2003. RESULTS: Methods and results regarding fruit abundance, fruit productivity, tree density and diversity are presented. This information is then analysed in the context of the island's suitability to sustain released gibbons and without impact on the resident fauna. Based on the above ecological characteristics, the final carrying capacity of the island is estimated to be between 3 and 19 gibbons. CONCLUSION: These data highlight the need to survey areas being considered for release of gibbon prior to the release taking place. For reintroductions to be successful, long-term habitat assessment is vital, both pre- and post-release

Online Supervision Experiences of Graduate Counselors-in-Training

CITs from Liberty University’s online graduate counseling programs will share personal experiences of integrating graduate training into practice with clients. Through the process of fulfilling individual purpose in life during the initial stages of counseling, these CITs will share their unexpected self-discoveries of a meaningfulness while facilitating healing in others

Measuring Transport Resilience: A Manawatu-Wanganui Region Case Study

The resilience of transport networks is attracting greater scrutiny at the international, national and sub-national levels. This research report explores the current state of knowledge about measuring transport resilience and presents a case study to address the question is: How resilient is the road and rail infrastructure in the Manawatu-Wanganui Region? This region in New Zealand’s lower North Island provides an interesting case study due to its strategic location in the North Island’s and indeed New Zealand’s transport network. In addition, it has experienced significant disruptions in the recent past, most notably widespread failures caused by flooding in 2004, and the lengthy closure of a significant inter-regional road connection, the Manawatu Gorge State Highway 3 road, due to a landslide in 2011-2012. It also provides an opportunity to explore this topic outside of a major metropolitan region. The region’s transport networks and infrastructure also have important social and economic functions. This research report is structured around a proposed Transport Resilience Indicator Framework (RIF) which explores six key dimensions of transport infrastructure resilience: engineering, services, ecological, social, economic and institutional. This holistic approach to measuring transport resilience and is envisaged to accommodate both qualitative and quantitative indicators. Within this framework, data were gathered via analysis of secondary sources and nine key informant interviews. The interview participants were from public sector agencies responsible for managing aspects of the region’s transport network, the private sector and one social service provider. The participants had considerable knowledge relating to the planning of the road network and/or its economic and social significance. They also had knowledge of the impacts and/or management of recent disruptions. The institutions responsible for managing the region’s transport network can identify vulnerabilities in the network, but can also collaborate and learn from past disruptions. Concerns were expressed about the level of funding for maintaining and upgrading the region’s transport networks, particularly for territorial authorities with large networks and small rates bases. The region is strongly dependent on the roading network, with limited alternatives during roading network disruptions. It proved difficult to quantify the environmental impacts of transport disruptions. A case study of the response of a local ii health shuttle service provided an example of how a community, by drawing on social capital, was able to adapt and respond appropriately to a transport disruption. One key area identified for further research is assessing the capacity of private contractors to respond to natural hazard events of varying magnitudes. The RIF could also be strengthened by the use of indicators based on quantitative data, in addition to qualitative data. It is suggested that one method of achieving this could this could be to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on expertise, methods and perspectives from related professions, such as engineering and economics. [Executive summary

Barriers to active transport in Palmerston North

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Low-Data Investigation of Higgs Boson Discovery at the LHC

The Standard Model (SM) remains as a complete and effective tool for understanding fundamental particles and their interactions. There is only one particle that the model predicts that has not yet been discovered. The Higgs boson is required as part of the mechanism behind electroweak symmetry breaking, and explains how the weak vector bosons, as well as the charged quarks and leptons gain mass, proportional to their coupling to the Higgs field. The SM predicts many properties of the Higgs, but cannot give a precise value to its mass. Experiment and theoretical arguments have put limits on the Higgs mass to within 114.7 GeV/c2 < MH < 1000 GeV/c2. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN will provide access to a new energy regime that will offer many channels for a potential discovery of the Higgs. In the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector experiment, the “Golden mode” for Higgs discovery features decay to two Z0, with both Z0 decaying to leptonic final states. Full reconstruction analyses suffer from the need for a large data set. Here, an 2 attempt is made to explore analyses of Higgs decay kinematics that may be more sensitive to the Higgs signal, especially for a low-mass Higgs. Since CMS data does not yet exist, analysis of this process must rely on Monte Carlo generated events. The traditional analysis is to find a signal for the Higgs by fully reconstructing the two-Z0 mass. The analysis presented here will focus on H!Z0Z0 !!¯!!!¯!!, and will develop a kinematical signature for this production channel for Z0 detected from events collected in an integrated luminosity of 1 fb−1