The patriot band : the school cadets from their evolution to the Great War : thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University

The writing of history consists in the complementary activities of analysis and reflection. A study of the school cadets in New Zealand from their evolution in the old established colleges till 1914, provides an opportunity for both these activities to be attempted through the medium of a relatively small but highly defined topic. As an institution, the cadets provide an interesting study in themselves, for by minutely observing the specialised activities of a large section of New Zealand society, namely its children together with those especially concerned with the cadets through education or defence, it is possible to gain a detailed understanding and insight into their beliefs and assumptions. The activities and attitudes of teachers, concerned military men, articulate members of the general public and where possible pupils, will each provide a slightly different vantage point from which to reconstruct this picture. [From Introduction

Using GIS to Explore the Technical and Social Aspects of Site Selection for Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities

This working paper reviews the current situation regarding radioactive waste disposal in the UK and questions the pursuance of a purely engineering approach to gaining public support. Past histories concerning the siting of nuclear industry facilities; power stations and latterly, waste repositories, are briefly discussed and used to demonstrate that more attention needs to be paid to the geographical and social science if current proposlas for a rock laboratory, and ultimately and operational repository, at Longlands Farm near Sellafield are to succeed. The usefulness of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and associated spatial information technologies are highlighted. Suggestions are made as to how these may be made available for public use via the Internet in adopting a more open approach to public information, consultation and participation

Fuelwood stumpage : financing renewable energy for the world's other half

In many developing countries, households rely heavily on woodfuels (firewood and charcoal) as their main source of energy for cooking and heating. The internal trade in woodfuels is often sizable. African governments now collect stumpage fees of $30 million a year for fuelwood and charcoalwood, or only about 2 % of the selling price of the finished products. By charging an adequate fee for these wood resources, the authors argue woodfuels production and consumption can be made more efficient. In addition, governments would be better able to finance the investments in their forest sector that are needed to maintain a regular fuelwood supply and to prevent long term environmental damage. The authors outline the methods energy planners can use to estimate fuelwood values and discuss several problems that arise in assessing and collecting fuelwood stumpage fees.Silviculture,Environmental Economics&Policies,Forestry,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access

Measuring Confidentiality Risks in Census Data

Two trends have been on a collision course over the recent past. The first is the increasing demand by researchers for greater detail and flexibility in outputs from the decennial Census of Population. The second is the need felt by the Census Offices to demonstrate more clearly that Census data have been explicitly protected from the risk of disclosure of information about individuals. To reconcile these competing trends the authors propose a statistical measure of risks of disclosure implicit in the release of aggregate census data. The ideas of risk measurement are first developed for microdata where there is prior experience and then modified to measure risk in tables of counts. To make sure that the theoretical ideas are fully expounded, the authors develop small worked example. The risk measure purposed here is currently being tested out with synthetic and a real Census microdata. It is hoped that this approach will both refocus the census confidentiality debate and contribute to the safe use of user defined flexible census output geographies

Measuring Confidentiality Risks in Census Data

Two trends have been on a collision course over the recent past. The first is the increasing demand by researchers for greater detail and flexibility in outputs from the decennial Census of Population. The second is the need felt by the Census Offices to demonstrate more clearly that Census data have been explicitly protected from the risk of disclosure of information about individuals. To reconcile these competing trends the authors propose a statistical measure of risks of disclosure implicit in the release of aggregate census data. The ideas of risk measurement are first developed for microdata where there is prior experience and then modified to measure risk in tables of counts. To make sure that the theoretical ideas are fully expounded, the authors develop small worked example. The risk measure purposed here is currently being tested out with synthetic and a real Census microdata. It is hoped that this approach will both refocus the census confidentiality debate and contribute to the safe use of user defined flexible census output geographies

The next steps in improving the outcomes of advanced ovarian cancer

Worldwide ovarian cancer affects over 200,000 women per year. Overall survival rates are poor due to two predominate reasons. First, the majority of patients present with advanced disease creating significant difficulty with effecting disease eradication. Second, acquisition of chemotherapy resistance results in untreatable progressive disease. Advances in treatment of advanced ovarian cancer involve a spectrum of interventions including improvements in frontline debulking surgery and combination chemotherapy. Anti-angiogenic factors have been shown to have activity in frontline and recurrent disease while novel chemotherapeutic agents and targeted treatments are in development particularly for disease that is resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy. These developments aim to improve the progression-free and overall survival of women with advanced ovarian cancer

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

RSV infection has an estimated global incidence of 33 million cases in children <5 years of age, with 10% requiring hospital admission and up to 199 000 dying of the disease. There is growing evidence that severe infantile RSV bronchiolitis, a condition characterised by an inflammatory reaction to the virus, is associated with later childhood wheeze in some vulnerable children; however, a direct causal relationship with asthma has not yet been established. RSV infection is also increasingly recognised as a cause of morbidity and mortality in those with underlying airway disease, the immunocompromised and frail elderly persons. Novel molecular-based diagnostic tools are becoming established, but treatment remains largely supportive, with palivizumab the only licensed agent currently available for passive prophylaxis of selected pre-term infants. While effective treatments remain elusive, there is optimism about the testing of novel antiviral drugs and the development of vaccines that may induce long-lasting immunity without the risk of disease augmentation

A Gene Expression Signature for RSV: Clinical Implications and Limitations

Peter Openshaw discusses the challenges in advancing respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) treatments and the implications of a study by Mejias and colleagues using a newly identified gene signature for diagnosis and prediction of RSV severity. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary

Empirical Evaluation of Route-Based Landscape Experiences

This thesis explores a method of visual analysis that aims to create a more in-depth understanding of how individuals see and visually perceive their environment. Here we explore a geospatial tool, called Visual Magnitude, to assess road-based experiences. We aimed to provide evidence of a relationship between the tool and scenic rating preferences from a survey. The content of this thesis is split between two articles. The first article, contained in Chapter 2, focuses on optimizing the selection of viewpoints along route-based envrionments. In this study we ask the question is there an optimal sampling rate of viewpoints along a route that can increase efficency in running a visual magnitude analysis and still represent accurately represent the envrionment. We found that for visually sensitive areas, a 30-meter sampling distance produced optimal results. For other landscapes a 50-meter sampling distance poduced resonable results in both sampling points and retained raster area. The second article, contained in Chapter 3, is an applied visual magnitude study where we use the optimal sampling distance of 30-meters to extract visual magnitude values for 15 different envrionments. These values are then compared to scenic rating values that we collected though a survey where participants saw videos of the same 15 envrionments and rated their scenic quailty. By doing this we were able to provide emperical evidence that the visual magnitude tool can be a way to predict best visual experiences within Utah. With the results from these studies we can make suggestions to professionals on how they can better use this GIS tool. These suggestions include sampling distances for multiple envrionments and the potential for this tool to be used as a poxy when attempting to interpret how landscapes observers feel about them. This additional infromation will help planners in understanding and making decisions more informed planning decisions along roadways and surrounding areas that have the highest potential impact on observers. By using this tool planners can assess where those areas are and the amount of impact that positive or negitive planning decisions will have on observers