Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Simulating Demography, Monitoring, and Management Decisions to Evaluate Adaptive Management Strategies for Endangered Species
    (Wiley, 2025-04-02) Canessa S; Converse SJ; Adams L; Armstrong DP; Makan T; McCready M; Parker KA; Parlato EH; Sipe HA; Ewen JG
    Adaptive management (AM) remains underused in conservation, partly because optimization-based approaches require real-world problems to be substantially simplified. We present an approach to AM based in management strategy evaluation, a method used largely in fisheries. Managers define objectives and nominate alternative adaptive strategies, whose future performance is simulated by integrating ecological, learning and decision processes. We applied this approach to conservation of hihi (Notiomystis cincta) across Aotearoa-New Zealand. For multiple extant and prospective hihi populations, we jointly simulated demographic trends, monitoring, estimation, and decisions including translocations and supplementary feeding. Results confirmed that food supplementation assisted recovery, but was more intensive and expensive. Over 20 years, actively pursuing learning, for example by removing food from populations, provided little benefit. Recovery group members supported continuing current management or increasing priority on existing populations before reintroducing new populations. Our simulation-based approach can complement formal optimization-based approaches and improve AM uptake, particularly for programs involving many complex and coordinated decisions.
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    The communication of volcano information in New Zealand–a narrative review
    (Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2025-02-13) Das M; Becker JS; Doyle EEH; Charlton D; Clive MA; Krippner J; Vinnell LJ; Miller C; Stewart C; Gabrielsen H; Potter SH; Leonard GS; Johnston DM; Tapuke K; Fournier N; McBride SK
    Communication of volcano information is critical for effective volcanic risk management. A variety of information is communicated to inform decisions and guide actions for planning, preparedness, and response. Such information needs to be reliable, and fit-for-purpose across different stages of volcanic activity (quiescence, unrest, short or long-term eruptive stages, and the post-eruptive stage). However, an understanding of communication across these different stages of volcanic activity remains limited. We undertook a narrative review of New Zealand literature to explore what information is communicated about volcanoes, across which stages of activity and by whom. Results highlight that NZ literature only documents certain aspects of volcano information and communication, specifically regarding certain locations, stages of volcanic activity (i.e. quiescence or unrest), or hazards. Literature gaps exist regarding volcano communication during unrest and post-eruptive stages, as well as how volcano information evolves between these phases, and how decision-makers use such information. Additional work would be useful to document existing examples of volcano information for different stages of activity. Further research could help in understanding the information needs of decision-makers during each of these stages to improve information and communication.
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    Crossing disciplinary boundaries: An ethnographic exploration of academic publishing invitations.
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-10-24) Severinsen C
    Background: This autoethnographic study examines email invitations for health researchers to publish in journals outside their expertise, exploring implications for interdisciplinary research and knowledge production. Methods: Over three months, email invitations to publish outside the author’s field were documented and analysed thematically and through reflexive journaling. Results: Five main themes in publication invitations were identified: emphasising novelty, promising rapid publication, appealing to research impact, flattering language, and persistent messaging. Reflexive analysis revealed complex factors shaping responses, including publication pressures, desires for prestige, and tensions between disciplinary norms and interdisciplinary collaboration. While invitations may present opportunities for novel collaborations, they often reflect predatory publishing practices. Conclusions: Navigating this landscape requires careful discernment, commitment to academic integrity, and reflexivity about one’s positionality. The study underscores the need for researchers to critically interrogate the motivations behind such invitations. Further research could explore decision-making processes across disciplines and implications for academic publishing integrity and equity.
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    Who really decides? Feeding decisions 'made' by caregivers of children with cerebral palsy.
    (AOSIS (Pty) Ltd., 2024-03-18) Naidoo L; Pillay M; Naidoo U
    BACKGROUND:  There are no definitive guidelines for clinical decisions for children with cerebral palsy (CP) requiring enteral feeds. Traditionally, medical doctors made enteral feeding decisions, while patients were essentially treated passively within a paternalistic 'doctor knows best' approach. Although a more collaborative approach to decision-making has been promoted globally as the favoured model among healthcare professionals, little is known about how these decisions are currently made practically. OBJECTIVES:  This study aimed to identify the significant individuals, factors and views involved in the enteral feeding decision-making process for caregivers of children with CP within the South African public healthcare sector. METHOD:  A single-case research design was used in this qualitative explorative study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS:  Four primary individuals were identified by the caregivers in the decision-making process: doctors, speech therapists, caregivers' families and God. Four factors were identified as extrinsically motivating: (1) physiological factors, (2) nutritional factors, (3) financial factors and (4) environmental factors. Two views were identified as intrinsically motivating: personal beliefs regarding enteral feeding tubes, and feelings of fear and isolation. CONCLUSION:  Enteral feeding decision-making within the South African public healthcare sector is currently still dominated by a paternalistic approach, endorsed by a lack of caregiver knowledge, distinct patient-healthcare provider power imbalances and prescriptive multidisciplinary healthcare dialogues.Contribution: This study has implications for clinical practice, curriculum development at higher education training facilities, and institutional policy changes and development, thereby contributing to the current knowledge and clinical gap(s) in the area.
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    Decision-Making Framework for Construction Clients in Selecting Appropriate Procurement Route
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-12-12) Bolomope M; Amidu A-R; Ajayi S; Javed A; Settembre-Blundo D; Lopes JP
    Procurement decision-making is a crucial determinant of project success. Although several objective, stage-based models have been proposed to guide clients’ procurement choices, little emphasis has been made on the subjective nature of construction clients. Recognizing the role of clients’ experiences in justifying procurement routes, this study develops a decision-making framework that is capable of guiding construction clients in making informed procurement choices. Adopting a mixed-method approach, comprising semi-structured interviews and multi-objective optimization, relevant procurement options were appraised based on clients’ specifications and project deliverables. The lived experiences of construction clients and the importance they attach to pre-defined selection rating criteria were subsequently evaluated, using a template that enables clients to prioritize procurement methods for different project types. The resultant framework offers a holistic, practical, and collaborative procurement selection process that promotes the efficient delivery of construction projects by reducing the cost overrun and delays associated with uninformed client decisions in construction procurement.
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    Patient-provider power relations in counselling on long-acting reversible contraception: a discursive study of provider perspectives
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-05-06) Morison T
    Contraceptive providers play an essential role in shaping contraceptive decision-making and care, with the potential to constrain patients' agency. This is a particular concern given the rising hegemony of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) and growing evidence of negative patient experiences of LARC promotion and provision. Despite this evidence, little research has considered health providers' perspectives. Drawing on interviews with 22 contraceptive health providers in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper explored their professional identity construction, focusing on meaning-making in instances of conflict between providers' and patients' priorities and agendas. Guided by feminist poststructuralist theory, the discursive analysis highlights common rhetorical strategies used by participants to (1) justify the use of coercive practices to encourage LARC uptake, and (2) in turn, negotiate positive identities. Findings show how participants grapple with the reproductive politics structuring contraceptive care, including established understandings of the purpose of (long-acting) contraception and contraceptive providers' roles vis-à-vis provision and promotion. The findings point to limitations on contraceptive agency, despite the unanimous endorsement of rights-based voluntary care. Extending the critical literature on LARC and contributing to the under-researched area of contraceptive coercion and agency, the findings of this study have important implications for the delivery of contraceptive care.
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    Could mild hypoxia impair pilot decision making in emergencies?
    (IOS PRESS, 2012) Legg S; Hill S; Mundel T; Gilbey A; Schlader Z; Raman A
    The decreased pressure in the cabin of a pressurised aircraft (typically equivalent to ~8000 ft) reduces the oxygen level so that the blood oxygen saturation of all occupants falls from >97% (normoxia) at sea-level to below 92% (mild hypoxia). Although exposure to mild hypoxia does not affect well-learned cognitive and motor performance of aircrew, it has been proposed that it can affect the performance of some complex cognitive performance tasks involving multiple demands typical of emergency tasks that may have to be performed by pilots. In order to simulate some of these complex cognitive demands, 25 student volunteers participated in an experiment which assessed performance of complex logical reasoning and and multiple memory tasks before and after 2 hours of exposure to normoxia and mild hypoxia. Performance for the more difficult components of the complex reasoning task, especially involving conflict decisions, were marginally significantly degraded by mild hypoxia. Since the effects were only marginally significant future studies should investigate the effects of mild hypoxia on more subtle complex decision-making tasks.