Conference Papers

Permanent URI for this collection

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 10 of 315
  • Item
    Attitudes towards Inclusion of Sustainability Characteristics within New Zealand’s Eating and Activity Guidelines by Professionals in the Agriculture, Environment and Health Sectors
    (MDPI, 2019-03-13) Jones R; Burlingame B; Wham C; Brown, R; Mackay, S; Eyles, H
    Background: Globally, adverse health and environmental changes are occurring associated with changes in the food and nutrition system. The FAO has called for sustainable diets which are “protective of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, affordable, nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimising natural and human resources”. The inclusion of sustainability characteristics in New Zealand’s Eating and Activity Guidelines (EAGs) has become compelling. This study aimed to evaluate the agreement for inclusion of sustainability characteristics within the guidelines among sectoral professionals. Methods: Agriculture, environment and health sector professionals were invited to complete an online survey to establish agreement to sustainability characteristics using a 20 item Likert scale. Participant gender, age and education level were determined. Results: Overall, 298 (65% female) respondents completed the survey (37%, 22% and 41% from the agriculture, environment and health sectors respectively). Two thirds (66%) of respondents were over 35 years and 90% had a tertiary education. Most (76%) respondents disagreed New Zealand’s current food system is sustainable; health (77%), environment (78%) sectors had greater disagreement than agriculture (35%) (p ≤ 0.001). 73% of respondents agreed that sustainability characteristics should be included in the guidelines; health (90%) and environment (84%) sectors agreed more than agriculture (48.2%) (p ≤ 0.001). Most respondents tended to agree with the inclusion of the 15 individual sustainability characteristics in the guidelines except “Purchase and support for organic food produce” was low (35%). Agreement for nine sustainability characteristics was higher among the health and environment sectors versus the agricultural sector (p < 0.05) whereas sector agreement for “diet diversity”, “recommended serves of dairy products”, “sustainable seafood consumption”, “reduction of food waste” and “sustainable lifestyle behaviours” was unanimous (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Professionals from the agriculture, environment and health sectors largely support the inclusion of sustainability characteristics in the New Zealand’s EAGs.
  • Item
    Work-Integrated Learning New Zealand 2023 Refereed Conference Proceedings
    (2023-05-02) Hay, K; Zegwaard, K; Lucas, P; Hay, K; Fleming, J
  • Item
    Putting whanaungatanga at the heart of students’ online learning experiences.
    (ASCILITE, 2022-11-18) Brown, C; Hartnett, M; Rātima, M; Forbes, D; Datt, A; Gedera, D; Wilson, S; Arthars, N; Wardak, D; Yeoman, P; Kalman, E; Liu, DYT
    This paper explores the role of relationships in students’ experiences of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa| New Zealand. Students’ voices are foregrounded through narratives and the analysis of four discrete stories of these specific circumstances. Using a conceptual framing of whanaungatanga, a Māori view of the process of establishing and maintaining relationships, we move beyond who is involved in the relationship to explore how relationships are developed and what counts from the students’ perspectives. Sharing, an ethic of care, a sense of belonging, collaboration, scaffolding of learning, and feedback acknowledging students’ efforts were all considered important aspects of relationships between students and faculty which were enacted online. The importance of broader institutional relationships, such as those with the library and student support services, were also foregrounded.
  • Item
    Authoritarian Neoliberal Statecraft and the Political Economy of Mis/Disinformation: Resituating Western-Centric Debates in a Vietnamese Context
    (Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill., 2023-01-24) Yến-Khanh, N; Phelan, S
    Academic and popular discussions of misinformation, disinformation, and “fake news” have prioritized the concerns of Western liberal democracies. In the rather different context of Vietnam, we highlight how the interplay of authoritarian state logics, corporate interests, weak journalism, and repressed civil society culture explains the way mis/disinformation manifests in Vietnamese news media. We argue that the ongoing need to de-Westernize media and communication studies must be part of any satisfactory answer to the question of “what comes after disinformation studies.”
  • Item
    Conversations that count in online student engagement – a case study
    (2022-12-07) Jin, Y; Rowan, L
    A challenge all teachers face is how to engage students meaningfully in their learning. The impact of Covid has made online learning in higher education more prevalent. While many students and teachers have readily adjusted to these new learning environments others have found the shift difficult. To enable students’ adjustment to new ways of learning teachers and course designers should consider approaches which encourage and support positive experiences and attitudes towards online learning. Students’ participation and engagement grows when good course design and a variety of learning activities are used and conveyed to them in clear communication that guides their learning processes. This case study looks at one teacher’s intentions and actions to improve student engagement within a health science core course through collecting ‘student voice’, students’ perspectives of what helped their learning and what could be improved to enhance their learning online.
  • Item
    Acute Evening Consumption of Green Kiwifruit in Young Men Enhances Waking Alertness, Mood and Increases 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic Acid in Urine
    (Medical Sciences Forum, 2022-05-09) Kanon, AP; Giezenaar, C; Roy, NC; McNabb, WC; Henare, S; Brown, R; Mackay, S; Eyles, H; Jalili-Moghaddam, S
    Emerging evidence suggests that consuming two New Zealand green kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. Hayward) daily for four weeks may improve sleep quality. The subjective and objective acute responses and underlying physiological responses are unknown. The current study aimed to investigate the acute effects of fresh and dried green kiwifruit compared to a water control on sleep quality and mood measures, and concentration of urinary serotonin and melatonin metabolites. In a randomised, single-blind crossover study, 24 men (age: 29 ± 1 years old, body mass index (BMI): 24 ± 1 kg/m2 ) with either poor or good sleep quality were recruited. They consumed an evening standardised meal with one of three treatments; (i) two fresh green kiwifruit (without skin); (ii) 32 g dried green kiwifruit powder (including the skin; equivalent to two fresh fruit) mixed with water; or (iii) a water control, on three separate nights separated by 6–8 days. The subjective (Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire, Stanford sleepiness scale) and objective (actigraphy) sleep quality, mood (profile of mood states), and 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic acid [5-HIAA] and 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin concentrations in morning urine were determined. In poor sleepers, ease of awakening improved 24% after dried kiwifruit (p = 0.005) and trended to improve after fresh kiwifruit (p = 0.052), compared to the control. Good sleepers trended towards improved ratings of getting to sleep with fresh kiwifruit (p = 0.053) and no improvement after dried (p > 0.1) compared to control. Regardless of sleeper type, compared to control, both fresh and dried kiwifruit treatments trended (p < 0.1) toward improved esteem and total mood disturbances. Furthermore, after dried kiwifruit, ratings of morning alertness (p = 0.012), behaviour following wakening and vigour were higher (p < 0.05) compared to control. Both kiwifruit treatments increased urinary concentrations of the serotonin metabolite 5-HIAA (+1.56 ± 0.4 ng/g (fresh) p = 0.001, +1.30 ± 0.4 ng/g (dried) p = 0.004) compared to the control (4.32 ± 0.4 ng/g). This study is the first to demonstrate that a single evening intake of kiwifruit improves aspects of sleep quality and mood.
  • Item
    Development of a framework for quality assurance of off-site manufactured building components: A case study of the New Zealand housing sector
    (IOP Publishing Ltd, 2022-12-08) Lin, R; Samarasinghe, D; Rotimi, FE
    A shortage of housing is a prominent issue across the globe. Traditional on-site construction methods seem too inefficient to meet the increasing housing demand. As a solution, many countries, including the United States, Germany, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, have introduced off-site manufacturing methods to increase the housing supply. Different from the traditional way of on-site construction, off-site manufacturing is a technique that involves manufacturing building components in a controlled environment. Despite strong government support and industry attempts to increase off-site manufacturing, the current building consenting and inspection processes in New Zealand have significant quality-related issues. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the gaps in current quality assurance processes used in off-site manufacturing and recommend a framework in order to gain credibility and the acceptance of the construction market. The study collected qualitative data from industry experts (e.g., developers, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors, head contractors and council officers) who had significant experience in current quality assurance regimes in New Zealand prefabrication construction. The key themes for designing the proposed framework were generated using content analysis of the primary data collected from semi-structured interviews with industry experts. The study has found that standardisation in off-shore products regarding the New Zealand Building Code remains the biggest challenge in the consenting process. Quality assurance and inspection test plans are the developer's responsibility and are typically provided by third-party inspectors. In this post-Covid-19 world-building, consent authorities rely heavily on third-party inspection companies that apply more rigorous auditing. Essentially, the most important parts of quality assurance are to have an experienced team and to adopt a holistic approach by engaging stakeholders early in the design stage. The stakeholders should consider recommendations for mandatory after-service insurance to ensure end-customer interests are protected. The findings of this study can contribute to the early engagement of different stakeholders to ensure overseas manufacturing of building components meets New Zealand quality standards. It is expected that the new quality assurance framework would help to promote off-site manufacturing for the New Zealand housing sector.
  • Item
    Gendered objectification of weight stigma in social media: a mixed method analysis
    (2019-12-09) Wanniarachchi, VU; Mathrani, A; Susnjak, T; Scogings, C
    Rising popularity of social media platforms has led to many online exchanges on emergent topics by citizens globally. The growth in obesity rates worldwide has fuelled ongoing obesity-related discussions over social media. This study investigates the existence of weight stigma targeted towards different genders in online discussions. Using a mixed method analysis approach, we examined sentiments and word co-occurrences associated with weight stigma from the data corpus captured from Twitter and YouTube. Using the objectification theory as the underlying theory to examine the experiential consequences, our study reveals many sentiments over online discourses and reports significant gender based differences in the stigmatising content, with more intensity in negative emotions targeting female objectification than males. This study bridges data mining and social construction studies with embedded analytics to share new insights on human behaviours that can help extend our understanding of sentiments that lead to male and female objectification.