Health and health promotion and applied health psychology in sexual and stigmatized minority populations : a collection of papers and a monograph presented in application for the degree of Doctor of Science at Massey University

This Doctor of Science comprises a number of published works, listed in the attached file. As such due to copyright restriction they are not included here but can be accessed individually from the publisher. The author's Curriculum Vitae has been redacted from the attached file for privacy reasons.In a career lifetime of working in both universities and in and with health departments, my work in applied psychology has dealt with stigmatized sexual minorities (particularly MSM) in many countries and settings, including before, during, and after the main impact of the AIDS epidemic (which in many locations and populations is still epidemic or in a subsequent “wave”). Applied health psychology must of necessity make use of many opportunities that cannot be planned in advance, or of situations where study of stigmatized groups is both dangerous (for them and for researchers) and difficult. The unifying theme in this DSc is the stigmatized minority group, the stigmatized disease, and the stigmatized setting. Massey University provided the training for the first “bookend” of my career at its beginning, and this dissertation as the second “bookend” some 45 years later of a career of surprises, opportunities, and challenges – some of the better parts of which are reflected in these pages

Towards a restructuring of racing activity : a classification based investigation into supply and demand aspects of service provision in the North Island : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography at Massey University

The research problem involves the classification of Racecourses in the North Island. The problem evolved because of inertia exhibited by the Racing Clubs in their location compared to the rapidly changing space-economy of the North Island. The service sector, the general conceptual environment of the Racing Industry is analysed on a general and then specific theoretical basis. The importance of population thresholds, economies of scale, and distance are explored. Emphasis is placed on examining possible growth strategies for the activity. Behavioural and market area analysis which is also important to this type of study were not used because of insufficient data. Two main areas of concern were studied in depth. They were, firstly the establishment of a classification of Racecourses, and the testing of the results of the classification against certain hypothesised relationships (dealing with population and course capital investment). Secondly and on the basis of the earlier results the training function was examined. The concepts of distance, and scale economies were explored by using the transportation problem. The positive results obtained in the analysis have implications in the type of policies which may be used to guide Racing activity. The results from the investigation of the training function points to the importance of each particular situation and hence a more specific investigative frame is necessary in any further examination of this function

What Have We Learned about the Resource Curse?

Since 2001, hundreds of academic studies have examined the “resource curse, ” meaning the claim that natural resource wealth tends to perversely affect a country’s governance. There is now robust evidence that one type of mineral wealth, petroleum, has at least three harmful effects: it tends to make authoritarian regimes more durable, to increase certain types of corruption, and to help trigger violent conflict in low and middle income countries. Scholars have also made progress toward understanding the mechanisms that lead to these outcomes, and the conditions that make them more likely. This essay reviews the evidence behind these claims, the debates over their validity, and some of the unresolved puzzles for future research.

Inversion of acoustical data from the SW06 experiment, using a statistical method for signal characterization

his paper presents an application of an acoustic signal characterization scheme for ocean acoustic tomography and geoacoustic inversions proposed by Taroudakis et al., using real data. The work is the first attempt to validate the proposed scheme with data taken from sea experiments. The data have been collected during the SW06 experiment held in the New Jersey Continental Shelf and the inversion results (sea-bed geoacoustic parameters and source range) are compared with those reported by Bonnel and Chapman. The comparison and the signal reconstruction using estimated values of the model parameters is satisfactory being an indication that the new signal characterization method can be used in practical applications of acoustical oceanography

New revision underway: American beetles : a handbook of the beetles of Nearctic America

Several Coleopterists have been asked to revise the family sections, working from diskettes modified and provided from the original "Beetles of the United States." They will rewrite these sections, and will be recognized as the author of the section. They are asked to sign a writing contract with the publisher. Other Coleopterists have been asked to review the family sections of the new book. These persons are acknowledged in the family section text

A comparison of the Shuttle remote manipulator system and the Space Station Freedom mobile servicing center

The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System is a mature system which has successfully completed 18 flights. Its primary functional design driver was the capability to deploy and retrieve payloads from the Orbiter cargo bay. The Space Station Freedom Mobile Servicing Center is still in the requirements definition and early design stage. Its primary function design drivers are the capabilities: to support Space Station construction and assembly tasks; to provide external transportation about the Space Station; to provide handling capabilities for the Orbiter, free flyers, and payloads; to support attached payload servicing in the extravehicular environment; and to perform scheduled and un-scheduled maintenance on the Space Station. The differences between the two systems in the area of geometric configuration, mobility, sensor capabilities, control stations, control algorithms, handling performance, end effector dexterity, and fault tolerance are discussed