Journeys into the ancient world : classical studies in New Zealand : new directions along ancient paths : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

Irregular pagination (3-8) in AppendicesThe post-X generation, bribed by the cool of hot branding, gives its lifeblood in sacrificial tribute to the global tycoon. Its ambassadors are compulsorily released into a labyrinth engineered by a corporate Daedalus, and stalked by a minotaur machined and designed by unit-production architects. Now however the children of post-X are mapping the co-ordinates and confronting the minotaur, finding ways to manipulate the maze and get through it, coming back to the light a transformed stronger human being. But the way is fraught. In my twenty-three years as a full-time performance storyteller, I have walked the mythologic path. I tell epics, drawing members of the audience into the story to become goddesses, heroes and lovers. During that time the subject Classical Studies has undergone a phenomenal ascendancy in secondary schools and universities, amounting to a red shift : a windfall for an epic teller. Why has it become so magnetic to so many young people, when alongside is the technocyber utilitarian culture they are expected to be expert in, a culture which can exert control at the expense of individual freedoms. The ancient world is simply hot. Reasons: it offers an iconography, self-insight, big ideas. In the Odyssey, passion and empowering experience through contact with men and women of strength and creative action. But there are further and swiftly-flowing undercurrents. I argue that by treading the stones of the ancient world, the youth generation is accessing an ancient, alternative universe. The Lord of the Rings and the Matrix movies both use mythic framework. Are the eighteen year olds of 2003 seeking a way through a socio-psychological matrix-labyrinth by using keys and threads gifted from the ancient world? Philosophers and kings and daring women from those times are causing excitement and expansion of consciousness amongst the young and their mentors. That world has perhaps provided them with magic talismans, translated into thought and inscribed on thread around a spool, and as we unwind this clew we are weaving a way through demons and labyrinth, also knowing love and rapture. These thoughts form the focus of this thesis

Understanding the Heavy Tailed Dynamics in Human Behavior

The recent availability of electronic datasets containing large volumes of communication data has made it possible to study human behavior on a larger scale than ever before. From this, it has been discovered that across a diverse range of data sets, the inter-event times between consecutive communication events obey heavy tailed power law dynamics. Explaining this has proved controversial, and two distinct hypotheses have emerged. The first holds that these power laws are fundamental, and arise from the mechanisms such as priority queuing that humans use to schedule tasks. The second holds that they are a statistical artifact which only occur in aggregated data when features such as circadian rhythms and burstiness are ignored. We use a large social media data set to test these hypotheses, and find that although models that incorporate circadian rhythms and burstiness do explain part of the observed heavy tails, there is residual unexplained heavy tail behavior which suggests a more fundamental cause. Based on this, we develop a new quantitative model of human behavior which improves on existing approaches, and gives insight into the mechanisms underlying human interactions.Comment: 9 pages in Physical Review E, 201

Alcohol warning labels: are they effective?

Australia does not currently require warning labels on alcohol products, putting Australia out of step with many other countries. Given the potential persuasive power of labels, as well as the rising social costs of alcoholism in the United States (US), government - mandated warning labels were enforced and have appeared on all alcoholic beverage containers manufactured in the US since 1989. The commencement of this warning label system reportedly brought about increased awareness of the risks of excessive alcohol use among consumers in the US. As a result, other countries have followed this lead with at least 20 other countries introducing some kind of mandated warning label, including Brazil, France, India, Portugal, South Africa, Korea, Thailand, and Zimbabwe. There are several other countries considering their introduction (e.g. United Kingdom), or with voluntary labeling in place (e.g. Japan). While Australia does not currently require warning labels on alcohol products, both public health advocates and the alcohol industry are pushing for labels, although it is likely they have different motivations. Medical and advocacy organisations have been campaigning for mandatory (and government regulated) warning labels on alcohol for over a decade. Key advocacy groups include the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), Australian Medical Associa tion (AMA), Salvation Army, and national and state Cancer Councils. These groups are consistent in their calls for strong, specific and mandatory messages on warning labels such as ‘Alcohol can cause brain damage’ (Salvation Army)

First, Do Less Harm: Confronting the Inconvenient Problems of Patient Safety

[Excerpt] This book is an exploration of why patient safety is advancing at what seems to be an almost glacial pace, despite the often vast and determined efforts of health care workers and managers. A collection of essays from prominent researchers, scholars, and even patients, this book aims to identify some of the gaps in the patient safety movement, the disconnected dots that do not coalesce despite decades of hard work and billions of dollars. It also identifies concerns that have not been integrated into the patient safety discourse or agenda of more established groups

Privacy-Friendly Mobility Analytics using Aggregate Location Data

Location data can be extremely useful to study commuting patterns and disruptions, as well as to predict real-time traffic volumes. At the same time, however, the fine-grained collection of user locations raises serious privacy concerns, as this can reveal sensitive information about the users, such as, life style, political and religious inclinations, or even identities. In this paper, we study the feasibility of crowd-sourced mobility analytics over aggregate location information: users periodically report their location, using a privacy-preserving aggregation protocol, so that the server can only recover aggregates -- i.e., how many, but not which, users are in a region at a given time. We experiment with real-world mobility datasets obtained from the Transport For London authority and the San Francisco Cabs network, and present a novel methodology based on time series modeling that is geared to forecast traffic volumes in regions of interest and to detect mobility anomalies in them. In the presence of anomalies, we also make enhanced traffic volume predictions by feeding our model with additional information from correlated regions. Finally, we present and evaluate a mobile app prototype, called Mobility Data Donors (MDD), in terms of computation, communication, and energy overhead, demonstrating the real-world deployability of our techniques.Comment: Published at ACM SIGSPATIAL 201

Critical Social Marketing: Assessing the Cumulative Impact of Alcohol Marketing on Youth Drinking

ABSTRACT Alcohol related harm is one of the major public health and societal concerns in the UK. Per capita alcohol consumption has risen considerably over the last twenty years and binge drinking has increased. Alcohol related harms including crime and social disorder, lost productivity, family breakdown and health harms such as rising incidence of liver disease and increases in alcohol related hospital admissions, are considerable. Particular concern has focused upon alcohol and young people, with levels of youth binge drinking in the UK among the highest in Europe and alcohol related hospital admissions of young people increasing. Furthermore, youth drinking behaviours are strong predictors of alcohol dependence in later life and contribute to long term health harms. As a result there has been an increased focus on factors that may potentially influence youth drinking behaviours including alcohol marketing. The evidence base on the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking has developed since the topic was first examined in the early 1980s. Recent systematic reviews have suggested a causal link between alcohol marketing and youth drinking behaviour. However gaps in the evidence base remain. The research project presented in this PhD contains six publications which aim to address these gaps, being the first longitudinal consumer study on the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking in the UK. The study used a critical social marketing framework to assess the cumulative impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking, with findings intended to help upstream social marketing efforts, inform policy and regulation and targeted behaviour change interventions. The project examined the impact of alcohol marketing across a comprehensive range of communications channels including less well researched areas such as new media and sponsorship. The project involved three discrete stages of research. First, a brand website and press audit of contemporary alcohol marketing communications in the UK was conducted, supplemented by interviews with key informants from the marketing profession and regulatory bodies. Second, qualitative focus group research was conducted with young people to explore the role and meaning of alcohol in their lives and their attitudes towards alcohol marketing. Third, a two wave cohort study design featuring a questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking. The survey consisted of a two part interviewer administered and self completion questionnaire in home with 920 second year school pupils at baseline, and follow up of a cohort of 552 in fourth year. The audit revealed that alcohol marketing is ubiquitous in the UK with most brands having a dedicated website featuring sophisticated content that appeals to youth including music, sport and video games. The press audit found that alcopop brands concentrated advertising in youth magazines, and that supermarket advertising of alcohol was considerable in the printed press. Focus group research revealed a sophisticated level of awareness of and involvement in alcohol marketing among respondents across several channels. Marketing activities often featuring content with youth appeal seemed to influence young people’s well developed brand attitudes. Cross sectional regression analysis found significant associations between awareness of, and involvement with alcohol marketing and drinking status and future drinking intentions. Bivariate and multi-variate longitudinal analysis indicated that alcohol marketing was associated with youth drinking behaviour, including initiation of drinking, and increased frequency of drinking between wave one and wave two. The implications of these findings for theory, practice and public policy are discussed