Dark Matter - Dunedin Fringe Festival 2016

WINNER: Best Multi-Media or Film 2016 WINNER: Outstanding Design Nominated for BEST OF FRINGE 2016 Afterburner presents a light and performance installation pushing the boundaries of seeing. Using low level light, projection and sound, Afterburner awaken the possibilities of the unseen, imagining realms beyond sight, just on the verge of seeing. Dark Matter is a visual experience changing how we might see space and light as well as challenging the senses to enter into the experience. Afterburner comprises of longterm founder and award winning lighting designer Martyn Roberts, joined by Jeremy Mayall (sound) and dancers Katherine Kennedy and Megan Wilson. Afterburner have created installations and theatre since 2001 in Wellington, Dunedin and globally. Each project is unique with different artists coming together for each event. Dark Matter will be Afterburner's 10th project

Investigating Employee Resistance to Lean Transformation: UK Case Study

Lean is a business process transformation approach that eliminates ‘wastes’ – activities that generate no value for the customer. Lean originated from the production line but is widely implemented in the service sector. This study investigates human and social factors in a Lean transformation in a ‘knowledge worker’ environment. We identify a paradox: a successful Lean programme in the service sector develops staff who are educated and empowered and thus potential opponents to future business change. We offer five recommendations for organizations undertaking Lean transformations: (1) Build an in-house organization-wide ‘Lean Team’ to drive the programme rather than hiring external consultants; (2) Ensure participation is recognized and rewarded; (3) Replace departmental parochialism with a genuinely corporate vision; (4) Align the Lean programme with corporate information strategies; (5) Incorporate Lean thinking into the organizational culture

Environmental Change at Deep-Sea Sponge Habitats Over the Last Half Century: A Model Hindcast Study for the Age of Anthropogenic Climate Change

Deep-sea sponges inhabit multiple areas of the deep North Atlantic at depths below 250 m. Living in the deep ocean, where environmental properties below the permanent thermocline generally change slowly, they may not easily acclimatize to abrupt changes in the environment. Until now consistent monitoring timeseries of the environment at deep sea sponge habitats are missing. Therefore, long-term simulation with coupled bio-physical models can shed light on the changes in environmental conditions sponges are exposed to. To investigate the variability of North Atlantic sponge habitats for the past half century, the deep-sea conditions have been simulated with a 67-year model hindcast from 1948 to 2014. The hindcast was generated using the ocean general circulation model HYCOM, coupled to the biogeochemical model ECOSMO. The model was validated at known sponge habitats with available observations of hydrography and nutrients from the deep ocean to evaluate the biases, errors, and drift in the model. Knowing the biases and uncertainties we proceed to study the longer-term (monthly to multi-decadal) environmental variability at selected sponge habitats in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. On these timescales, these deep sponge habitats generally exhibit small variability in the water-mass properties. Three of the sponge habitats, the Flemish Cap, East Greenland Shelf and North Norwegian Shelf, had fluctuations of temperature and salinity in 4–6 year periods that indicate the dominance of different water masses during these periods. The fourth sponge habitat, the Reykjanes Ridge, showed a gradual warming of about 0.4°C over the simulation period. The flux of organic matter to the sea floor had a large interannual variability, that, compared to the 67-year mean, was larger than the variability of primary production in the surface waters. Lateral circulation is therefore likely an important control mechanism for the influx of organic material to the sponge habitats. Simulated oxygen varies interannually by less than 1.5 ml/l and none of the sponge habitats studied had oxygen concentrations below hypoxic levels. The present study establishes a baseline for the recent past deep conditions that future changes in deep sea conditions from observations and climate models can be evaluated against.publishedVersio

Signal Stability in Periodically Amplified Fiber Transmission Systems Using Multiple Quantum Well Saturable Absorbers for Regeneration

The use of multiple quantum well (MQW) saturable absorbers (SAs) for signal regeneration in periodically amplified fiber transmission systems is explored. A systematic study of signal destabilization resulting from incomplete saturation of MQW SAs used for regeneration, and of means of overcoming such destabilization, is presented. A computer model for MQW SAs, which considers the asymmetric Fabry-Perot (AFP) cavity structure commonly employed to increase the contrast of such devices, is presented. The model is used to simulate nitrogen-implanted MQW SAs with 7000 km when the two components are combined.</p