The ecology and conservation of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marine Ecology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Historically, little consideration has been given to the occurrence, ecology or conservation of the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in temperate New Zealand. Located geographically at the southern boundary of the distributional range of green turtles in the southwestern Pacific, reports of this species in New Zealand are often overlooked as occasional visitors or stragglers incidentally carried by ocean currents. This convention may be reasonable when considering the temperature constrained distribution of this poikilothermic marine reptile. Despite this, green turtles have been reported in New Zealand waters for more than 100 years, yet no study has undertaken any in depth investigation as to their occurrence in this region. Therefore, this thesis investigated the presence of green turtles in New Zealand waters to test the hypothesis that their occurrence is ephemeral and incidental. Opportunistic data and samples collected between 1895 and 2013 was collated, reviewed and analysed to investigate several lines of empirical enquiry, including spatio-temporal distribution, population structure, genetic origin, diet composition and anthropogenic effects. Sighting, stranding, and incidental capture revealed a year round presence of post-pelagic immature juveniles to large sub-adult green turtles across northern New Zealand (ca. 34°-38° S). Such occurrence exists despite sea surface temperatures averaging only 14 C during austral winters. The aggregation exhibited a female:male sex ratio of 1.7:1 which is similar to that reported from proximate warm temperate foraging grounds in eastern Australia. Size frequency data indicated that green turtles recruit to neritic habitats of the North Island at ca. 40.8 cm curved carapace length. This reflects a natural postoceanic settlement pattern rather than oceanic-phase stragglers incidentally blown ashore by storm and other stochastic events. Supporting this rationale for natural recruitment, diet component data demonstrates that once green turtles settle into New Zealand’s nearshore coastal habitats, they transition to a benthic foraging strategy. Notably, green turtles in New Zealand do not ontogenetically transition from omnivory to obligate herbivory with age, but instead consume a variable diet of primarily macroalgae and benthic macro invertebrates. Overall, the confirmation of feeding in New Zealand substantially extends the southern foraging limit for green turtles in the Pacific Ocean. Genetic analyses of ~770 base pair sequences of mitochondrial (mt) DNA was conducted on 42 stranded green turtles to characterize the genetic structure of this aggregation. Results identified 15 haplotypes including one orphan haplotype from widely dispersed green turtle stocks across the western, central, and eastern Pacific Ocean. When compared to other regional nesting rookeries and foraging grounds, the New Zealand aggregation exemplified its unique composition, predominantly due to the large proportion of haplotypes from the endemic eastern Pacific clade. These results provide a genetic link to east Pacific stocks in the southwestern Pacific; identifying previously undefined regional connectivity and trans-oceanic dispersal for eastern Pacific green turtles. In order to assess potential human impacts, gross necropsies were conducted on green turtles found stranded in northern New Zealand between 2007 and 2013. Anthropogenic effects predominantly associated with the ingestion of plastic marine debris were identified as the likely cause for the majority of strandings in the North Island. Propeller strike and incidental capture in recreational fisheries were further shown to impact green turtles, particularly for turtles inhabiting neritic habitats adjacent to densely populated urban centres of northeastern New Zealand. Overall, data presented here supports the hypothesis that New Zealand northern neritic habitats provide a transitional developmental habitat for immature green turtles at the edge of their range in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Genetic analysis reveals this aggregation is unique when compared to other regional foraging grounds, exhibiting links to discrete genetic stocks from across the Pacific Ocean. In addition, the cause of the exponential increase in records observed over time remains unclear, therefore warrants further research and monitoring of this endangered marine reptile; particularly in light of climate-mediated environmental change presently experienced in the region

Book Review: Women Doing Life: Gender, Punishment and the Struggle for Identity

Lempert, L. B. Women Doing Life: Gender, Punishment and the Struggle for Identity. New York: New York University Press. (2016). $27.00 (paperback), ISBN 9781479827053

‘No hint of bulging muscles’: The surveillance of sportswomen’s bodies in British print media

Since the inception of second wave feminism, feminists have placed female bodies at the centre of the equality discourse. The female body is a contested site for feminist scholars who have identified the under and mis-representation of sportswomen’s bodies in the media. This paper investigates how surveillance techniques are employed in British Sunday newspapers as a function of hegemonic power to influence gendered notions of sport and the display of female bodies in line with normative femininity. Data stems from a semi-longitudinal study which analysed the quantitative and qualitative representation of sportswomen in British print media during January 2008-December 2009. Foucault’s analysis of the Panopticon and Mulvey’s concept of ‘gaze’ are used to interpret the data through the lens of surveillance. Findings demonstrate how the surveillance of female sporting bodies occurred in four distinct ways. The categories, which emerged from the data, include: the body as (1) trivialised, (2) secondary, (3) commercial, and (4) feminine

Measurements of the nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow of leptons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in Pb--Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV with ALICE

We present the ALICE results on the nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow of electrons and muons from open heavy-flavour hadron decays at mid-rapidity and forward rapidity in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV for different centrality intervals. The results are compared to model calculations that include interactions of heavy quarks with the medium.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Application of Semantics to Solve Problems in Life Sciences

Fecha de lectura de Tesis: 10 de diciembre de 2018La cantidad de información que se genera en la Web se ha incrementado en los últimos años. La mayor parte de esta información se encuentra accesible en texto, siendo el ser humano el principal usuario de la Web. Sin embargo, a pesar de todos los avances producidos en el área del procesamiento del lenguaje natural, los ordenadores tienen problemas para procesar esta información textual. En este cotexto, existen dominios de aplicación en los que se están publicando grandes cantidades de información disponible como datos estructurados como en el área de las Ciencias de la Vida. El análisis de estos datos es de vital importancia no sólo para el avance de la ciencia, sino para producir avances en el ámbito de la salud. Sin embargo, estos datos están localizados en diferentes repositorios y almacenados en diferentes formatos que hacen difícil su integración. En este contexto, el paradigma de los Datos Vinculados como una tecnología que incluye la aplicación de algunos estándares propuestos por la comunidad W3C tales como HTTP URIs, los estándares RDF y OWL. Haciendo uso de esta tecnología, se ha desarrollado esta tesis doctoral basada en cubrir los siguientes objetivos principales: 1) promover el uso de los datos vinculados por parte de la comunidad de usuarios del ámbito de las Ciencias de la Vida 2) facilitar el diseño de consultas SPARQL mediante el descubrimiento del modelo subyacente en los repositorios RDF 3) crear un entorno colaborativo que facilite el consumo de Datos Vinculados por usuarios finales, 4) desarrollar un algoritmo que, de forma automática, permita descubrir el modelo semántico en OWL de un repositorio RDF, 5) desarrollar una representación en OWL de ICD-10-CM llamada Dione que ofrezca una metodología automática para la clasificación de enfermedades de pacientes y su posterior validación haciendo uso de un razonador OWL