Intermarriage : its role and importance within early New Zealand shore whaling stations : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University

Early contact history in New Zealand involved many hard working rugged European men who came to our shores to work as sealers, flax and timber traders as well as whalers, and their interaction with Māori who lived in and visited the areas which they frequented. It is the last of these men, the whalers who provide the context for this thesis. School history lessons and general New Zealand history books generally discuss whaling within New Zealand waters. Some provide enough information to give their audience a general understanding of some aspects of New Zealand's whaling history, while others contain so little that one might think that whaling had no impact on New Zealand's past. However this is not true; whaling had a significant impact in New Zealand's past and this impact has continued through to our contemporary society. Whaling had many consequences within early nineteenth century New Zealand, including the introduction of new commodities to Māori, such as tobacco, clothing, European tools and muskets which would all, to some extent, begin to change their traditional way of life. Interaction between whalers and local Māori brought on cultural changes. This interaction came in many forms, often through trade, but also the relationships between Māori women and European whalers. It is these relationships which are the focus of this thesis. Relationships between Māori women and European whalers started occurring when whaling ships began calling on New Zealand shores at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Often these relationships involved only fleeting encounters, but still they were the beginning of a trend which would, within the next forty years, see many shore whalers legally marry Māori women. This thesis deals with shore whalers who began to arrive in New Zealand during the late 1820s rather than the earlier deep sea whalers who called on Kororareka in the Bay of Islands. While deep sea whalers were the first to form relationships with Māori women they were in many respects different to shore whalers. Shore whalers were required to stay on shore for months at a time as opposed to a few days like deep sea whalers this meant they required different things from Māori they interacted with. This thesis will look at the relationships and marriages between European shore whalers from various locations along New Zealand's coastline and local women from the late 1820s through to 1845, discussing their role and importance within early New Zealand whaling stations

Assessing the effectiveness of surrogates for conserving biodiversity in the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.The effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) in conserving biodiversity depends, in part, on which areas are chosen for protection and how these areas represent the true biodiversity of the planning region. Advances in acoustic technology have enabled high resolution maps of seabed habitats to create habitat maps based on depth and sea bed characteristics, which is quicker and cheaper than sampling biota over similar spatial extents. These habitat classification schemes are often used as surrogates of biodiversity for fish and benthic assemblages in the absence of biodiversity inventories, to depict spatial variation in biodiversity and support conservation planning. However, the intra-habitat variability and precision of these biodiversity surrogates is largely unknown. The aim of this thesis is to assess the effectiveness of habitat classification schemes as surrogates for biodiversity conservation in Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park (PSGLMP). Fishes were sampled with baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS) and sessile benthic assemblages were surveyed using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The results of this study indicate that habitat mapping based on depth is a suitable surrogate for biodiversity of fish assemblages in unvegetated, unconsolidated habitats. Habitat mapping based on depth only categories is not a suitable surrogate for biodiversity of rocky reef sessile benthic assemblages, nor fish assemblages in sponge-dominated reef habitat. Multiple samples of sessile benthic assemblages and fish assemblages from a range of locations subject to differing environmental influences are required to adequately conserve representative samples of biodiversity within the PSGLMP. In the context of MPA planning, sessile benthic assemblages are not a suitable surrogate for biodiversity of fish assemblages. An examination of scales of autocorrelation in sessile benthic assemblages indicates a significant positive correlation between distance and dissimilarity, meaning that assemblages become more dissimilar as distance increases. Biodiversity sampling in this habitat is required at a fine scale (25 m) for the purposes of creating habitat maps for MPA planning. The results of this study have important consequences for future MPA planning, indicating that representative samples of rocky reef fish and sessile benthic assemblages from a variety of locations within differing environmental domains are required to adequately conserve representative samples of biodiversity. More studies are required to effectively understand what additional information needs to be incorporated into habitat classification schemes so that they can act as a surrogate for biodiversity for the range of assemblages conserved within PSGLMP

Roles and regulation of membrane-associated serine proteases

Pericellular proteolytic activity affects many aspects of cellular behaviour, via mechanisms involving processing of the extracellular matrix, growth factors and receptors. The serine proteases have exquisitely sensitive regulatory mechanisms in this setting, involving both receptor-bound and transmembrane proteases. Receptor-bound proteases are exemplified by the uPA (urokinase plasminogen activator)/uPAR (uPAR receptor) plasminogen activation system. The mechanisms initiating the activity of this proteolytic system on the cell surface, a critical regulatory point, are poorly understood. We have found that the expression of the TTSP (type II transmembrane serine protease) matriptase is highly regulated in leucocytes, and correlates with the presence of active uPA on their surface. Using siRNA (small interfering RNA), we have demonstrated that matriptase specifically activates uPAR-associated pro-uPA. The uPA/uPAR system has been implicated in the activation of the plasminogen-related growth factor HGF (hepatocyte growth factor). However, we find no evidence for this, but instead that HGF can be activated by both matriptase and the related TTSP hepsin in purified systems. Hepsin is of particular interest, as the proteolytic cleavage sequence of HGF is an ‘ideal substrate’ for hepsin and membrane-associated hepsin activates HGF with high efficiency. Both of these TTSPs can be activated autocatalytically at the cell surface, an unusual mechanism among the serine proteases. Therefore these TTSPs have the capacity to be true upstream initiators of proteolytic activity with subsequent downstream effects on cell behaviour

BILATERAL TRADING AND THE CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE: AN EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS STUDY

This research investigates the impact of reporting different kinds of trade information to buyers and sellers in laboratory markets, for which exchange is made through bilateral bargaining. Results suggest that public information may improve the bargaining position of buyers relative to sellers when there is spot delivery. In some cases sellers earn less than in a no information baseline. There is evidence of a curse of knowledge for sellers in our information experiments when quantity traded for the entire market is known. The mandatory price reporting of all trades does not improve the income of sellers.International Relations/Trade,

Protecting the Confidentiality of Communications in Mediation

This article explores the justifications for protecting mediation communications from disclosure. It reviews the existing legal protections for mediated dispute settlement discussions. The major issues that seem to arise when statutory reform is considered are identified, and a recent study of the issue by the Manitoba Law Reform Commission is described and critiqued. The author argues that a distinction should be made between circumstances in which a party is required or permitted to testify about what took place in mediation, and circumstances in which the mediator may be required to do so. He suggests that mere extension to mediation of the common law privilege for settlement discussions is inadequate, particularly as a basis for determining whether the mediator should be compelled to testify

Double window viewing chamber assembly

A viewing chamber which permits observation of a sample retained therein includes a pair of double window assemblies mounted in opposed openings in the walls thereof so that a light beam can directly enter and exit from the chamber. A flexible mounting arrangement for the outer windows of the window assemblies enables the windows to be brought into proper alignment. An electrical heating arrangement prevents fogging of the outer windows whereas desiccated air in the volume between the outer and inner windows prevents fogging of the latter

How Many Templates for GW Chirp Detection? The Minimal-Match Issue Revisited

In a recent paper dealing with maximum likelihood detection of gravitational wave chirps from coalescing binaries with unknown parameters we introduced an accurate representation of the no-signal cumulative distribution of the supremum of the whole correlator bank. This result can be used to derive a refined estimate of the number of templates yielding the best tradeoff between detector's performance (in terms of lost signals among those potentially detectable) and computational burden.Comment: submitted to Class. Quantum Grav. Typing error in eq. (4.8) fixed; figure replaced in version

DNA Torsional Solitons in Presence of localized Inhomogeneities

In the present paper we investigate the influence of inhomogeneities in the dynamics and stability of DNA open states, modeled as propagating solitons in the spirit of a Generalized Yakushevish Model. It is a direct consecuence of our model that there exists a critical distance between the soliton's center of mass and the inhomogeneity at which the interaction between them can change the stability of the open state.Furtherly from this results was derived a renormalized potential funtion.Comment: RevTex, 13 pages, 3 figures, final versio