The New Zealand Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015 - For Better or Worse?

Adjudication has been statutorily introduced as an alternative dispute resolution method in 14 jurisdictions including New Zealand. Whilst adjudication under the New Zealand Construction Contracts Act 2002 has been hailed a success, further refinements were proposed in the Construction Contracts Amendment Bill first published in 2013. As part of the legislative process, 48 submissions were made to the Commerce Committee. There was general support for most of the amendments, but some parties expressed concerns on some of the changes. A documentary analysis of the Amendment Bills and submissions to the Commerce Committee was made to critically evaluate the changes proposed and establish if they were improvements. The findings show the major changes proposed include (i) removing most of the distinctions between the treatment of residential and commercial contracts under the Act, (ii) extending the scope of the Act to apply to contracts for certain professional services, (iii) removing the distinction between enforcement of payment determinations and of those relating to rights and obligations, and (iv) making the enforcement process more efficient. The findings also show that during a period of over two years from when the Bill was first introduced in January 2013, one other significant improvement for retentions to be held in trust was made. A few proposals to further refine the Bill such as the suggestion to mandate retentions to be kepts in a separate trust account were however not accepted. The Construction Contract Amendment Bill (Bill 97-3) was uninanimously passed during the third and final reading in Parliament on 20 October 2015 with most of the amendments coming into force on 1 December 2015, those incorporating professional services on 1 September 2016, and the retention provisions on 31 March 2017. Royal assent was given on 11 October 2015 leading to the enactment of the Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015

Prospects and Challenges of Dynamic Bilingual Education in the Light of Pakistan’s Language Policy

This research investigates challenges and prospects of the dynamic, bilingual education in the light of Pakistan’s language policy. It guides language policymakers to adopt the dynamic, bilingual policy in Pakistan’s education system. However, the researcher revealed that most of the participants willingly favored and practiced the dynamic model of bilingual instruction, but there is no formal policy guide for them. The employment of this education model is valid and feasible in both theory and practice. Besides, readers and policymakers through this research paper would come to know that the dynamic, bilingual education improves students’ socio-cognitive, linguistic performance and functional biliteracy through translanguaging and multimodalities. The issue of monoglossic separation of languages in Pakistan is yet to be solved. Furthermore, the researcher used qualitative, empirical methodology to do analysis and employed open-ended questionnaires to collect data. The researcher used purposive sampling to collect data from sixteen respondents.  Additionally, findings show that the subtractive language policy, linguistic politics, the power elite’s monolingualism, parents’ obsession with English, and students’ negative attitudes are challenges to the dynamic, bilingual education. In contrast, Pakistan’s multi-lingual reality along with translingual practices, the use of multimodalities, students’ multi-lingual repertoire, functional biliteracy, and transcultural interaction are some of the prospects of the dynamic, bilingual education policy in Pakistan. Thus, there are both challenges and prospects of the dynamic, bilingual education policy in Pakistan

Automatic Feature Set Selection for Merging Image Segmentation Results Using Fuzzy Clustering

The image segmentation performance of clustering algorithms is highly dependent on the features used and the type of objects contained in the image, which limits the generalization ability of such algorithms. As a consequence, a fuzzy image segmentation using suppressed fuzzy c-means clustering (FSSC) algorithm was proposed that merged the initially segmented regions produced by a fuzzy clustering algorithm, using two different feature sets each comprising two features from pixel location, pixel intensity and a combination of both, which considered objects with similar surface variations (SSV), the arbitrariness of fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm using pixel location and the connectedness property of objects. The feature set selection for the initial segmentation in the merging technique was however, inaccurate because it did not consider all possible feature set combinations and also manually defined the threshold used to identify objects having SSV. To overcome these limitations, a new automatic feature set selection for merging image segmentation results using fuzzy clustering (AFMSF) algorithm is proposed, which considers the best feature set selection and also calculates the threshold based upon human visual perception. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis prove the superiority of AFMSF algorithm compared with other clustering techniques including FSSC, FCM, possibilistic c-means (PCM) and SFCM, for different image types

Fuzzy Clustering for Image Segmentation Using Generic Shape Information

The performance of clustering algorithms for image segmentation are highly sensitive to the features used and types of objects in the image, which ultimately limits their generalization capability. This provides strong motivation to investigate integrating shape information into the clustering framework to improve the generality of these algorithms. Existing shape-based clustering techniques mainly focus on circular and elliptical clusters and so are unable to segment arbitrarily-shaped objects. To address this limitation, this paper presents a new shape-based algorithm called fuzzy clustering for image segmentation using generic shape information (FCGS), which exploits the B-spline representation of an object's shape in combination with the Gustafson-Kessel clustering algorithm. Qualitative and quantitative results for FCGS confirm its superior segmentation performance consistently compared to well-established shape-based clustering techniques, for a wide range of test images comprising various regular and arbitrary-shaped objects

Image segmentation using fuzzy clustering incorporating spatial information

Effective image segmentation cannot be achieved for a fuzzy clustering algorithm based on using only pixel intensity, pixel locations or a combination of the two. Often if both pixel intensity and pixel location are combined, one feature tends to minimize the effect of other, thus degrading the resulting segmentation. This paper directly addresses this problem by introducing a new algorithm called image segmentation using fuzzy clustering incorporating spatial information (FCSI), which merges the segmented results independently generated by fuzzy clustering-based on pixel intensity and the location of pixels. Qualitative results show the superiority of the FCSI algorithm compared with the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm for all three alternatives, clustering using only pixel intensity, pixel locations and a combination of the two

Fuzzy Image Segmentation using Suppressed Fuzzy C-Means Clustering

Clustering algorithms are highly dependent on the features used and the type of the objects in a particular image. By considering object similar surface variations (SSV) as well as the arbitrariness of the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm for pixellocation, a fuzzy image segmentation considering object surface similarity (FSOS) algorithm was developed, but it was unable to segment objects having SSV satisfactorily. To improve the effectiveness of FSOS in segmenting objects with SSV, thispaper introduces a new fuzzy image segmentation using suppressed fuzzy c-means clustering (FSSC) algorithm, which directly considers object SSV and incorporates the use of suppressed-FCM (SFCM) using pixel location. The algorithmalso perceptually selects the threshold within the range of human visual perception. Both qualitative and quantitative resultsconfirm the improved segmentation performance of FSSC compared with other algorithms including FSOS, FCM,possibilistic c-means (PCM) and SFCM for many different images

Afrocentric Curriculum: A Paradigm for Healing and Education

As a result of the plight of some African-American men, changes are needed to improve the US mental health system’s curriculum and practices in order to produce sustainable positive outcomes culturally-relevant therapy is key to addressing the needs of this under serviced population. Afrocentric psychotherapy provides one promising culturally relevant framework to address the needs of African-American men clinically. The purpose of this study was to explore and observe a culturally-relevant curriculum in action and, more specifically, to document perceived affects derived from using an Afrocentric curriculum with African-American men in therapy through a series of in-depth interviews and observations. The participants included eight African-American men who were active or had successfully completed Afrocentric therapy at a center in a large metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States as well as two therapists. Four concepts emerged from this study: African Consciousness or Black Consciousness, WE or Group Self-Awareness, Spirituality as a Therapeutic Process, and Ontology of Self-hatred and Internalized Racism. Therefore, the use of Afrocentric curriculum in the therapeutic setting is critical in helping African-American men to be keenly aware of self, culture, self-hatred, and the history of their oppression, which is essential for success

Fuzzy image segmentation using location and intensity information

The segmentation results of any clustering algorithm are very sensitive to the features used in the similarity measure and the object types, which reduce the generalization capability of the algorithm. The previously developed algorithm called image segmentation using fuzzy clustering incorporating spatial information (FCSI) merged the independently segmented results generated by fuzzy clustering-based on pixel intensity and pixel location. The main disadvantages of this algorithm are that a perceptually selected threshold does not consider any semantic information and also produces unpredictable segmentation results for objects (regions) covering the entire image. This paper directly addresses these issues by introducing a new algorithm called fuzzy image segmentation using location and intensity (FSLI) by modifying the original FCSI algorithm. It considers the topological feature namely, connectivity and the similarity based on pixel intensity and surface variation. Qualitative and quantitative results confirm the considerable improvements achieved using the FSLI algorithm compared with FCSI and the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm for all three alternatives, namely clustering using only pixel intensity, pixel location and a combination of the two, for a range of sample of images

The Critique of Totalitarianism in Shaikh Ayaz And Habib Jalib’s Poetry: A Comparative Study

Shaikh Ayaz and Habib Jalib are very renowned figures of Pakistani modern literature. Following the trend, their literary works tend to highlight their contemporary issues. Totalitarianism is a very internationally recognized political dogma which deals with controlling a state with one-man power. In the modern political discourse, it is named as dictatorship. Therefore, the study is concerned with locating the critique of totalitarianism in the poets’ poems. The researchers find the objective of finding the theme of totalitarianism in the comparative manner. The researchers answer the question that how the theme of totalitarianism is dealt with, by both poets comparatively. The research follows the comparative textual analysis method of research and is qualitative in design. The Researchers have examined some similarities and differences between the poets while treating the subject of Totalitarianism. The findings of the study rely on understanding Ayaz as an international totalitarian critic, and Jalib as a national critic. The study is significant to understand Pakistani political literature