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  • ItemOpen Access
    EU-Pacific Development Relations and the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent
    (DIPLO, 2022) Doidge, Mathew
    In July 2022, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) launched its 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific Continent setting out regional priorities and inviting development partners to engage with a Pacific vision for their future. In this context, Dr Mathew Doidge reflects on the development relationship of the European Union with the Pacific Island states, and the possibility for reframing that the Blue Pacific Strategy offers. The Pacific Island states have a long history of engagement with the European Union (EU), mostly focused on the issue of development assistance. European engagement with Pacific development began as early as the 1950s: the original Articles of Association of the founding Treaty of Rome, an important precursor to a formal EU development policy, incorporated the French Pacific territories including what is now Vanuatu. But the big bang, as far as EU– Pacific relations is concerned, was the accession of the United Kingdom in 1973. The reimagining of development policy that this entailed resulted in the establishment of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping of states through the 1975 Lomé Convention, to which the Pacific states were progressively added over subsequent years. It is that EU– ACP structure that has largely inhered ever since.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The thalamic reuniens is associated with consolidation of non-spatial memory too
    (2023) Hamilton JJ; Dalrymple-Alford, John
    The nucleus reuniens (RE) is situated in the midline thalamus and provides a key link between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. This anatomical relationship positions the Re as an ideal candidate to facilitate memory consolidation. Evidence is, however, lacking whether this role extends beyond spatial memory and contextual fear memory, both of which are strongly associated with hippocampal function. We therefore trained intact male Long-Evans rats on an odour-trace-object paired-association task in which the explicit 10-second delay between paired items renders the task sensitive to hippocampal function. Neurons in the RE showed markedly increased immediate early gene (Zif268) activation when rats were re-tested for the previous non-spatial memory 25 days after acquisition training, relative to a group tested at 5-days post-acquisition, as well as a control group tested 25 days after acquisition but with a new pair of non-spatial stimuli, and home cage controls. The remote recall group also showed relatively augmented IEG expression in the superficial layers of the medial PFC (anterior cingulate cortex and prelimbic cortex). These findings support the conclusion that the RE is preferentially engaged during remote recall in this non-spatial task and thus has a role beyond spatial memory and contextual fear memory.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Kōhanga Hou
    (Te Whē - Te Hau o te Whenua, 2020) Dunn, Kirsty
  • ItemOpen Access
    European Parliament Election 2024: A Shift Right?
    (DIPLO, 2023) Doidge, Mathew
  • ItemOpen Access
    Seismic Precursors to the Whakaari 2019 Phreatic Eruption are transferable to other eruptions and volcanoes
    (2022) Ardid A; Caudron C; Cronin S; Dempsey, David
    Volcanic eruptions that occur without warning can be deadly in touristic and populated areas. Even with real-time geophysical monitoring, forecasting sudden eruptions is difficult, because their precursors are hard to recognize and can vary between volcanoes. Here, we describe a general seismic precursor signal for gas-driven eruptions, identified through correlation analysis of 18 well-recorded eruptions in New Zealand, Alaska, and Kamchatka. The precursor manifests in the displacement seismic amplitude ratio between medium (4.5–8 Hz) and high (8–16 Hz) frequency tremor bands, exhibiting a characteristic rise in the days prior to eruptions. We interpret this as formation of a hydrothermal seal that enables rapid pressurization of shallow groundwater. Applying this model to the 2019 eruption at Whakaari (New Zealand), we describe pressurization of the system in the week before the eruption, and cascading seal failure in the 16 h prior to the explosion. Real-time monitoring for this precursor may improve short-term eruption warning systems at certain volcanoes.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Te Nohonga Kaitiaki Guidelines for Genomic Research on Taonga Species
    (Te Kotahi Research Institute, 2021) Hudson M; Thompson A; Wilcox P; Mika J; Battershill C; Stott M; Brooks RT; Warbrick L
    The Te Nohonga Kaitiaki guidelines apply to genomic research involving taonga species. Despite Te Tiriti o Waitangi affirming Māori rights over taonga, the application of these rights to biological samples and data has generally been overlooked within the sciences. The ease of access to genomic technologies has resulted in widespread proliferation of research, and increasing access for the scientific community as well as tertiary and secondary educational institutions. To date there has been little guidance in place to ensure that taonga species are being approached in a manner that upholds Treaty principles, or specific guidance on how this can be done effectively.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Geothermal Stimulator: A high-temperature, high pressure device for inducing thermal fracture in rocks
    (2013) Gravley D; Cole J; Siratovich, Paul; Villeneuve, Marlene; Kennedy, Ben; Davidson, Jonathan
    Thermal cycling of rock by heating and rapid quenching in water significantly affects its physical, mechanical and elastic properties. Understanding the processes that lead to these changes is relevant to nuclear waste repositories, tunnel excavations and geothermal energy production. In this study we present a novel technique where specially designed equipment simulates the wet, cyclic thermal stimulation processes employed by the conventional geothermal industry. To enhance productivity and injectivity of geothermal wells, operators commonly inject fluids cooler than the reservoir into wells at pressures less than the natural fracture gradient. By thermally stimulating core samples in a pressure vessel capable of attaining 350°C and 24 MPa, we attempt to replicate conditions encountered at depth in geothermal reservoirs during stimulation procedures. We establish baseline physical and acoustic properties, (compressional (Vp) and shear (Vs) acoustic wave velocities), porosity and density, and dynamic elastic modulii. We compare these baseline properties to those of specimens subjected to four different heating and cooling cycles: (1) heated to 300°C and slowly cooled without quenching, (2) heated to 300°C and quenched, (3) heated to 300°C, quenched and repeated, and (4) heated to 300°C quenched and repeated for three cycles. We observed a decrease in acoustic wave velocities and elastic modulii in the thermally treated samples when compared to the baseline samples. The study has shown that microscopic fractures form as rocks are heated and rapidly quenched by water under simulated geothermal reservoir conditions, and those fractures attenuate acoustic velocities and significantly affect the dynamic and static stiffness modulii of the samples.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Technocracy will Not Save Us, but More Democracy Might
    (Wiley, 2020) Pirsoul N; Smith, Nicholas Ross