Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Artificial Intelligence-Enabled DDoS Detection for Blockchain-Based Smart Transport Systems.(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-12-22) Liu T; Sabrina F; Jang-Jaccard J; Xu W; Wei YA smart public transport system is expected to be an integral part of our human lives to improve our mobility and reduce the effect of our carbon footprint. The safety and ongoing maintenance of the smart public transport system from cyberattacks are vitally important. To provide more comprehensive protection against potential cyberattacks, we propose a novel approach that combines blockchain technology and a deep learning method that can better protect the smart public transport system. By the creation of signed and verified blockchain blocks and chaining of hashed blocks, the blockchain in our proposal can withstand unauthorized integrity attack that tries to forge sensitive transport maintenance data and transactions associated with it. A hybrid deep learning-based method, which combines autoencoder (AE) and multi-layer perceptron (MLP), in our proposal can effectively detect distributed denial of service (DDoS) attempts that can halt or block the urgent and critical exchange of transport maintenance data across the stakeholders. The experimental results of the hybrid deep learning evaluated on three different datasets (i.e., CICDDoS2019, CIC-IDS2017, and BoT-IoT) show that our deep learning model is effective to detect a wide range of DDoS attacks achieving more than 95% F1-score across all three datasets in average. The comparison of our approach with other similar methods confirms that our approach covers a more comprehensive range of security properties for the smart public transport system.Item ‘Not One More Bloody Acre’: Land Restitution and the Treaty of Waitangi Settlement Process in Aotearoa New Zealand(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2019-10-31) Wynyard MTe Tiriti o Waitangi, signed between Māori rangatira (chiefs) and the British Crown in 1840 guaranteed to Māori the ‘full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands’. In the decades that followed, Māori were systematically dispossessed of all but a fraction of their land through a variety of mechanisms, including raupatu (confiscation), the individualisation of title, excessive Crown purchasing and the compulsory acquisition of land for public works. Māori, who have deep cultural and whakapapa (genealogical) connections to the land, were left culturally, materially and spiritually impoverished. Land loss has long been a central grievance for many Māori and the return of land has been a guiding motivation for whānau (extended family), hapū (sub-tribe) and iwi (tribe) seeking redress from the Crown. Since the 1990s, many groups have entered into negotiations to settle their historical grievances with the Crown and while land loss and the deep yearning for its return are central to many Māori claims, precious little land is typically returned to Māori through the settlement process. This paper seeks to critically examine the Treaty settlement process in light of land restitution policies enacted elsewhere and argues that one of the many flaws in the process is the paucity of land returned to Māori.Item First confirmed records of white-coat pups of the Endangered Caspian seal Pusa caspica on the coast of Iran(Cambridge University Press, 2023-04-26) Shirazi ASEA; Chilvers BItem Weed Detection by Faster RCNN Model: An Enhanced Anchor Box Approach(MDPI AG, 29/06/2022) Saleem MH; Potgieter J; Arif KMTo apply weed control treatments effectively, the weeds must be accurately detected. Deep learning (DL) has been quite successful in performing the weed identification task. However, various aspects of the DL have not been explored in previous studies. This research aimed to achieve a high average precision (AP) of eight classes of weeds and a negative (non-weed) class, using the DeepWeeds dataset. In this regard, a DL-based two-step methodology has been proposed. This article is the second stage of the research, while the first stage has already been published. The former phase presented a weed detection pipeline and consisted of the evaluation of various neural networks, image resizers, and weight optimization techniques. Although a significant improvement in the mean average precision (mAP) was attained. However, the Chinee apple weed did not reach a high average precision. This result provided a solid ground for the next stage of the study. Hence, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of the Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (RCNN) with ResNet-101, the best-obtained model in the past step. The architectural details of the Faster RCNN model have been thoroughly studied to investigate each class of weeds. It was empirically found that the generation of anchor boxes affects the training and testing performance of the Faster RCNN model. An enhancement to the anchor box scales and aspect ratios has been attempted by various combinations. The final results, with the addition of 64 × 64 scale size, and aspect ratio of 1:3 and 3:1, produced the best classification and localization of all classes of weeds and a negative class. An enhancement of 24.95% AP was obtained in Chinee apple weed. Furthermore, the mAP was improved by 2.58%. The robustness of the approach has been shown by the stratified k-fold cross-validation technique and testing on an external dataset.Item Rumen Development of Artificially-Reared Lambs Exposed to Three Different Rearing Regimens.(20/12/2021) Herath HMGP; Pain SJ; Kenyon PR; Blair HT; Morel PCHThe objective of this study was to examine the effect of three different rearing regimens on rumen development in lambs reared artificially. Romney ram lambs were randomly allocated to one of three treatments: commercial milk replacer fed to 57 d of age and high fibre concentrate pellets (HFP57); commercial milk replacer, high fibre concentrate pellets, and early weaning from milk replacer at 42 d of age (HFP42); high protein milk replacer from 2-16 d of age followed by commercial milk replacer, low fibre concentrate pellets, and early weaning from milk replacer at 42 d of age (LFP42). Lambs were slaughtered at 57 d of age. Volatile fatty acid content in rumen fluid at slaughter was analysed and rumen tissue samples were collected for histological examination. The rumen n-butyric content was greater (p < 0.05) in both LFP42 and HFP42 treatment lambs compared to HFP57 lambs. The n-valeric content was greater (p < 0.05) in LFP42 lambs compared to both HFP57 and HFP42 treatment lambs. Thickness of the rumen dorsal wall determined by ultrasound scanning at 49 d was greater (p < 0.05) in both HFP42 and LFP42 lambs compared to HFP57 lambs. There was an interaction (p < 0.05) between treatment and site of rumen tissue sampling on papillae width, density, and rumen muscular layer thickness. Collectively, early weaning and the provision of a low fibre pellet leads to improved rumen function and physical development.Item Benefits of animal exposure on veterinary students’ understanding of equine behaviour and self-assessed equine handling skills(MDPI, 2019-09) Guinnefollau L; Gee E; Bolwell C; Norman E; Rogers CHorses are one of the most dangerous animals veterinarians have to work with. For many veterinary students, their first exposure to horses occurs during practical classes. To evaluate the level of knowledge students have of equine behaviour and their equine handling competency when entering the programme, 214 veterinary students (1st and 4th year) were recruited to participate in a questionnaire. Participants were asked to choose one out of 12 terms that best represented the affective state of a horse in a picture, and to self-assess their equine handling skills. Half (n = 56/115) of the first-year students correctly interpreted the horse’s behaviour. The majority had (1) a poor understanding of equine learning mechanisms and (2) poor self-rated equine handling skills. A history of pet ownership (p = 0.027) and the presence of horses on their family property (p = 0.001) were significantly associated with a correct understanding of equine behaviour. Fourth-year students were three times more likely to accurately interpret the horse’s behaviour (p = 0.01) and rated their handling skills higher than first-year students (p = 0.006). These results suggest that previous animal experience confers a considerable advantage to interpret equine behaviour and highlight the critical importance of practical training in the veterinary programme.Item Ventral dermatitis in rowi (Apteryx rowi) due to cutaneous larval migrans.(2015-04) Gartrell BD; Argilla L; Finlayson S; Gedye K; Gonzalez Argandona AK; Graham I; Howe L; Hunter S; Lenting B; Makan T; McInnes K; Michael S; Morgan KJ; Scott I; Sijbranda D; van Zyl N; Ward JMThe rowi is a critically endangered species of kiwi. Young birds on a crèche island showed loss of feathers from the ventral abdomen and a scurfy dermatitis of the abdominal skin and vent margin. Histology of skin biopsies identified cutaneous larval migrans, which was shown by molecular sequencing to be possibly from a species of Trichostrongylus as a cause of ventral dermatitis and occasional ulcerative vent dermatitis. The predisposing factors that led to this disease are suspected to be the novel exposure of the rowi to parasites from seabirds or marine mammals due to the island crèche and the limited management of roost boxes. This is the first instance of cutaneous larval migrans to be recorded in birds. Severe and fatal complications of the investigation resulted in the death of eight birds of aspergillosis and pulmonary complications associated with the use of bark as a substrate in hospital. Another bird died of renal failure during the period of hospitalisation despite oral and intravenous fluid therapy. The initiating cause of the renal failure was not determined. These complications have the potential to undermine the working relationship between wildlife veterinarians and conservation managers. This case highlights that intensive conservation management can result in increased opportunities for novel routes of cross-species pathogen transmission.Item Dialogues for wellbeing in an ecological emergency: Wellbeing-led governance frameworks and transformative Indigenous tools(SAGE Publications, 20/06/2022) Yates A; Dombroski K; Dionisio RAt a time of ecological emergency there are pressing reasons to develop more responsive wellbeing-led governance frameworks that engage with both human and more-than-human wellbeing. Attempts to incorporate wellbeing indices into wellbeing-led governance include the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the Gross National Happiness index of Bhutan, and a variety of emerging wellbeing-led governance frameworks in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Some of these frameworks have begun to include more-than-human wellbeing indices in their toolkit, but like many geographers and Indigenous scholars, we are wary of the dangers of universalising and abstractionist ‘indexology’ (Ratuva, 2016). In this paper, we review wellbeing-led governance frameworks with a view to more-than-human wellbeing and Indigenous knowledge. We outline an emerging pluriversal and prefigurative project where Indigenous scholars engage with partners in co-creation methods in place, incorporating Indigenous-Māori cultural perspectives into more situated and holistic wellbeing tools. We argue that while critique is important, so too is engaging in Indigenous-led research interventions fortransformative metrics and tools, particularlyin these times of socio-ecological crisis. As we ‘stay with’ this trouble (Haraway, 2018), we hope to contribute to a culturally specific place-based set of wellbeing indices and tools to inform wellbeing-led governance for more-than-human wellbeing.Item Changes in the welfare of an injured working farm dog assessed using the Five Domains Model(21/09/2016) Littlewood KE; Mellor DJ© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.The present structured, systematic and comprehensive welfare evaluation of an injured working farm dog using the Five Domains Model is of interest in its own right. It is also an example for others wanting to apply the Model to welfare evaluations in different species and contexts. Six stages of a fictitious scenario involving the dog are considered: (1) its on-farm circumstances before one hind leg is injured; (2) its entanglement in barbed wire, cutting it free and transporting it to a veterinary clinic; (3) the initial veterinary examination and overnight stay; (4) amputation of the limb and immediate post-operative recovery; (5) its first four weeks after rehoming to a lifestyle block; and (6) its subsequent life as an amputee and pet. Not all features of the scenario represent average-to-good practice; indeed, some have been selected to indicate poor practice. It is shown how the Model can draw attention to areas of animal welfare concern and, importantly, to how welfare enhancement may be impeded or facilitated. Also illustrated is how the welfare implications of a sequence of events can be traced and evaluated, and, in relation to specific situations, how the degrees of welfare compromise and enhancement may be graded. In addition, the choice of a companion animal, contrasting its welfare status as a working dog and pet, and considering its treatment in a veterinary clinical setting, help to highlight various welfare impacts of some practices. By focussing attention on welfare problems, the Model can guide the implementation of remedies, including ways of promoting positive welfare states. Finally, wider applications of the Five Domains Model are noted: by enabling both negative and positive welfare-relevant experiences to be graded, the Model can be applied to quality of life assessments and end-of-life decisions and, with particular regard to negativeexperiences, the Model can also help to strengthen expert witness testimony during prosecutions for serious ill treatment of animals.Item C3 and C4 grass species: who can reduce soil nitrous oxide emissions in a continental arid region?(MDPI AG, 8/09/2020) Ning J; He XZ; Hou FIn order to relieve grazing pressure, drought-tolerant grass species are widely cultivated in arid regions. However, soil N emission is largely neglected while pursuing forage yield. We carried out a randomized block study to investigate whether and how the C3 and C4 grass species differ in soil N emission in a typical salinized field with temperate continental arid climate in the northwest inland regions, China. We quantified soil N2O flux from two C3 (barley and rye) and two C4 grass species [corngrass and sorghum hybrid sudangrass (SHS)] in fields during the growing season (from May to September) by using the static box method, and then determined the relationships between soil N2O fluxes and forage yield and soil properties. Results show that soil available nitrogen, soil temperature, pH, soil organic carbon, and total nitrogen were correlated, but soil water was anti-correlated with soil N2O fluxes. In addition, N2O flux increased significantly faster with soil temperature in C4 than in C3 grass fields. Although the lower total N2O emission fluxes were detected for C3 species, the lower yield-scaled N2O was detected for C4 species. Our study provided insights into the determination of grass species and the understanding of mechanisms regulating N2O fluxes in C3 and C4 species in the continental arid regions.
