State failure in the South Pacific and its implications for New Zealand security policy : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Defence Studies at Massey University

The concept of state failure is complex, encompassing many aspects of the decline in a state, from its institutional and political capacities, to its social cohesion and economic performance. In the South Pacific, the term "failing" has been used to describe the Solomon Islands before the regional assistance mission RAMSI intervened. Its continued use to describe other countries in the region, such as Papua New Guinea or Fiji is controversial, mainly because the states of the South Pacific are generally considered much more peaceful than those in other regions labelled failing. Importantly, the geographical nature of the region itself provides a vastly different strategic context to African and European failing states which are often situated in landlocked geographies. It follows on that if Pacific Island states do experience aspects of failure (as opposed to being completely collapsed or failed) then their incapacities would breed unique security implications for the South Pacific region. This thesis aims to discern what those implications are for New Zealand policy in the South Pacific region. The method used will be to assess seven countries (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu) and their degree to which they measure up against twelve indicators of state failure. These indicators have been borrowed from the Fund for Peace's annual Failed States Index (with their permission) and they provide the structure for the assessment

Conversion Efficiencies of Heteronuclear Feshbach Molecules

We study the conversion efficiency of heteronuclear Feshbach molecules in population imbalanced atomic gases formed by ramping the magnetic field adiabatically. We extend the recent work [J. E. Williams et al., New J. Phys., 8, 150 (2006)] on the theory of Feshbach molecule formations to various combinations of quantum statistics of each atomic component. A simple calculation for a harmonically trapped ideal gas is in good agreement with the recent experiment [S. B. Papp and C. E. Wieman, Phys. Rev. Lett., 97, 180404 (2006)] without any fitting parameters. We also give the conversion efficiency as an explicit function of initial peak phase space density of the majority species for population imbalanced gases. In the low-density region where Bose-Einstein condensation does not appear, the conversion efficiency is a monotonic function of the initial peak phase space density, but independent of statistics of a minority component. The quantum statistics of majority atoms has a significant effect on the conversion efficiency. In addition, Bose-Einstein condensation of an atomic component is the key element determining the maximum conversion efficiency.Comment: 46 pages, 32 figure

The FU Orionis binary system RNO 1B/1C

Observations of CS (7→6) emission reveal a ≥3M_⊙ core, 1.8×10^4 AU in size, surrounding the FU Orionis binary system RNO 1B/1C. Fractional chemical abundances, calculated from LVG and LTE codes, are mostly similar to those in the cold core TMC 1. However, values for Si0/H_2 and CH_(3)0H/H_2 are enhanced, possibly by sputtering reactions or grain-grain collisions in tile outflow associated with the young stars. Aperture syntllesis maps of tile 2.6 and 3.1 mm continuum emission at ~5" and ~9" resolution, respectively, reveal that RNO 1C is surrounded by a flattened, dusty envelope, ~5000 AU in size, with mass ≥1.1 M_⊙. High spatial resolution (~3") interferometer observations of CS (2→1) emission may trace the dense walls of ail outflow cavity comprised of two concentric arcs with dynamical ages of 4×10^3 and 1×10^4 yr. The velocity structure of lower density gas imaged in the CO (1→0) transition is consistent with the arcs being formed by two energetic FU Orionis outbursts. Each event may have imparted more than 4 M_⊙km s^(-1) to the outflow, implying outburst mass loss rates of ~10^(-4) M_⊙ yr^(-1). It appears that RNO 1C is probably the driving source for the outflow and tllat, while pre-main sequence stars are in tile FU Orionis stage, outbursts may dominate both outflow morphology and energetics

Double-averaged velocity and stress distributions for hydraulically-smooth and transitionally-rough turbulent flows

Peer reviewedPreprin

Pesticides and metabolites in groundwater: examples from two major UK aquifers

Reducing the impact of anthropogenic pollution on groundwater bodies and ameliorating any deterioration of water quality is central to key legislative drivers such as the EU Water Framework Directive and the proposed daughter Directive relating to the protection of groundwater. Pesticide pollution has a direct impact on groundwater quality and an indirect impact on the associated aquatic ecosystems supported by groundwater. There is currently no legislative requirement to monitor pesticide metabolite concentrations in groundwater. Pesticide and metabolite results from two nationally important aquifers are presented, the Trassic Sandstone and the Chalk of Southern England. Aerobic microbial degradation of diuron in the soil can lead to the formation of three compounds; dichlorophenylmethyl urea (DCPMU), dichlorophenyl urea (DCPU) and dichloroanaline (DCA).Median diuron concentrations were significantly higher than each of the metabolites with outliers exceeding the PVC on at least one occasion. At nine sites in Kent, Southern England, (60%) metabolites were more prevalent than diuron. Both aquifers are an important source of water, locally supplying up to 80% of public drinking water. The sandstone site has a predominantly arable landuse with a potential diffuse source of pesticides although soakaways are possible point sources.The chalk site has a mixture of arable and industrial/urban landuse. A significant source has been from excessive applications of diuron (“over-spray”) on a number of public amenities. Data from both aquifers show that pesticide concentrations have a high degree of temporal variability. Elevated pesticide concentrations are associated with recharge events in both aquifer systems regardless of pesticide source terms. Pesticides from amenity use and diffuse agricultural sources both pose a threat to groundwater quality. Pesticide metabolites are present in significant concentrations in groundwaters. Systematic, long-term monitoring (5-10 years) is required to understand trends in groundwater quality

The law of brevity in macaque vocal communication is not an artifact of analyzing mean call durations

Words follow the law of brevity, i.e. more frequent words tend to be shorter. From a statistical point of view, this qualitative definition of the law states that word length and word frequency are negatively correlated. Here the recent finding of patterning consistent with the law of brevity in Formosan macaque vocal communication (Semple et al., 2010) is revisited. It is shown that the negative correlation between mean duration and frequency of use in the vocalizations of Formosan macaques is not an artifact of the use of a mean duration for each call type instead of the customary 'word' length of studies of the law in human language. The key point demonstrated is that the total duration of calls of a particular type increases with the number of calls of that type. The finding of the law of brevity in the vocalizations of these macaques therefore defies a trivial explanation.Comment: Little improvements of the statistical argument

Identification and characterisation of 17 polymorphic candidate genes for response to parasitic nematode (Trichostrongylus tenuis) infection in red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica)

Acknowledgements This study was funded by a BBSRC studentship (MA Wenzel) and NERC Grants NE/H00775X/1 and NE/D000602/1 (SB Piertney). We are grateful to Jacob Hoglund for providing willow grouse samples, Mario Roder, Keliya Bai, Marianne James, Matt Oliver, Gill Murray-Dickson, Francois Mougeot and Jesus Martınez-Padilla for help with fieldwork, and all grouse estate factors, owners and keepers, most particularly Alistair Mitchell, Shaila Rao, Christopher Murphy, Richard Cooke and Fred Taylor, for providing access to estate game larders.Peer reviewedPostprin

Computation of incompressible viscous flows through artificial heart devices with moving boundaries

The extension of computational fluid dynamics techniques to artificial heart flow simulations is illustrated. Unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations written in 3-D generalized curvilinear coordinates are solved iteratively at each physical time step until the incompressibility condition is satisfied. The solution method is based on the pseudo compressibility approach and uses an implicit upwind differencing scheme together with the Gauss-Seidel line relaxation method. The efficiency and robustness of the time accurate formulation of the algorithm are tested by computing the flow through model geometries. A channel flow with a moving indentation is computed and validated with experimental measurements and other numerical solutions. In order to handle the geometric complexity and the moving boundary problems, a zonal method and an overlapping grid embedding scheme are used, respectively. Steady state solutions for the flow through a tilting disk heart valve was compared against experimental measurements. Good agreement was obtained. The flow computation during the valve opening and closing is carried out to illustrate the moving boundary capability