2026-07-27T07:57:09Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33090932 2026-07-25T00:00:00Z category_32816 category_32819 portal_771 item_type_6 month_year_07_2026

Transformative Literacy Practices for Active Global Citizenship Pauline Harris (3104634) Cynthia H Brock (24459359) Louise Gwenneth Phillips (20503541) Andrew Peterson (1987636) Jenny Ritchie (8510178) Eleni Giannakis (24459362) Education Curriculum and pedagogy 3901 Curriculum and Pedagogy 39 Education 4 Quality Education Education Addressing inequities and injustices is a central concern in global citizenship education and therefore, we argue, is also a concern in literacy education as an anchor for global citizenship. Responding to global and national imperatives for education to ensure young people’s capabilities for participating as global citizens, this article reports on findings of an integrative literature review of literacy practices necessary and relevant to active global citizenship (AGC). We view active global citizens as globally minded individuals engaging in networked relationships with people and planet to advance human rights and social, cultural, and ecological justice. Based on the review’s findings, this article advances a new Transformative AGC Literacy Practices Framework comprising AGC literacy practices for access, understanding, inquiry, and action. These literacy practices are oriented to specific subjects/domains, diversities and equity, local/global connections, dialogic reflexivity, and promoting and augmenting action. The framework’s unique contribution lies in showing how these literacy practices are all necessary to, and together enable, global citizenship participation for advancing human rights and social, cultural, and ecological justice. As such, these AGC literacy practices all have an essential place in citizenship and literacy education contexts, whatever form such education takes in the various education settings involved. The Transformative AGC Literacy Practices Framework offers early childhood educators, elementary and high school teachers, and leaders, policymakers, and researchers working in literacy and citizenship education a broad research-informed basis for (re)positioning literacy and citizenship practices and policies for fostering young people’s AGC literacy practices. 2026-07-25T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 10.25455/wgtn.33090932 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Transformative_Literacy_Practices_for_Active_Global_Citizenship/33090932 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

oai:figshare.com:article/33088073 2026-07-26T00:00:00Z category_37049 category_37109 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

Delineating the Concurrent and Longitudinal Relationship of Specific and Detailed Turning Point Narratives and Young People’s Depressive Symptoms Laurel Keats (10051694) Child and adolescent development Clinical psychology Youth depressive symptoms Autobiographical memory Turning point narrative Episodic detail Memory specificity School: School of Psychology 520302 Clinical psychology 520101 Child and adolescent development 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology Degree Discipline: Psychology Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy Degree Level: Doctoral Autobiographical memory (AM) - recalling personal past events – is intimately connected to identity, and thus, may offer promise for better understanding the development of youth mental health difficulties. A large body of research with adults shows that AM disruptions such as reduced access to specific (24 hour or less) past events and impoverished episodic detail (event-specific temporal, sensory, perceptual, and affective information) are implicated in depression. Yet in the first investigation with adolescents’ memory narratives, Salmon et al. (2021) found that, in contrast, greater episodic detail of a life turning point predicted concurrent and escalating depressive symptoms. Taking into account the high self-relevance of the turning point (Grysman & Hudson, 2011), and the theoretical perspective that reliving the past with greater episodic detail reflects an increased focus on the self (Tulving, 2002, Wheeler et al., 1997), heightened negative self-focus has been proposed as a possible mechanism for greater detail and escalating youth depressive symptoms. The present programme of research therefore aimed to systemically test this proposal and further delineate the conditions that moderate and strengthen the relationship of both specific and detailed turning points to the development of youth depressive symptoms. In a new sample of adolescents (N = 320, M = 16.9 years at Time 1), Study 1 first investigated whether Salmon et al.’s (2021) findings were able to be replicated, and second, examined the role of heightened self-focus utilising two analytic approaches. Specifically, Study A investigated whether the positive association between detail and depressive symptoms was unique to the highly self-relevant turning point narrative compared to a narrative of a conflict event; and Study B investigated whether heightened self-focus strengthened the association. Results were consistent with the hypotheses and showed that the positive concurrent and longitudinal relationship of detail to depressive symptoms was significant only for the turning point, and that the concurrent association between detail and depressive symptoms was exacerbated by heightened linguistic self-focus (greater I-talk and lower distancing language). These findings provided preliminary support for the proposal that, in the context of the high self-relevance of the turning point, greater self-focus plays a role in the relationship of episodic detail to depressive symptoms. Because no research has addressed whether turning point specificity and youth depressive symptoms follows the same pattern as episodic detail. Study 2 investigated, in the same longitudinal sample, whether a specific (unique, 24-hour or less) turning point narrative predicted higher depressive symptoms concurrently and across six months. In addition, drawing on previous narrative research (Lemogne et al., 2006; Moffitt et al., 1994; Salmon et al., 2021), the valence of the turning point resolution (the implication for self) was investigated with respect to the relationship between specificity and depressive symptoms. Results showed that, as expected, a specific turning point predicted greater concurrent depressive symptoms, and for a small subset (N = 68) escalation in depressive symptoms across three years. In addition, negative resolution valence independently, and in combination with specific recall, predicted youth depressive symptoms across six months. Thus, in the context of the highly self-relevant turning point narrative, specific recall may escalate youth depressive symptoms when accompanied by negative self-evaluation.Very little research has investigated the influence of experiential (self-rated) aspects of autobiographical memory recollection on the relationship between narrative features and mental health (Gehrt, 2023). To address this, Study 3 extended the research programme to emerging adults (N = 195, M = 20.5 years) and investigated whether a specific turning point and greater episodic detail would each predict depressive symptoms when rated as more vivid, emotionally intense, intrusive, negative valence for self, and recalled with greater negative emotions. Moderation results partially supported our predictions: the positive association between a specific turning point and depressive symptoms was significant only under the experiential conditions of high intrusiveness, negative valence for self and greater negative emotions during recall, whereas the positive association between detail and depressive symptoms was only significant when negative emotions during recall were heightened. These findings speak to the importance of valence and emotions in influencing associations between specific and detailed turning point recall and concurrent depressive symptoms in emerging adults.In sum, across three studies the present programme of research elucidated the relationship of specific and detailed turning point narratives to youth depressive symptoms. Findings aligned with previous research (Fozzard-Costigan et al., 2023; Salmon et al., 2021) and, importantly, supported the proposal that heightened negative and self-evaluative recollection may strengthen the positive relationship between specific and detailed recall and the escalation of youth depressive symptoms. Overall, findings highlighted the complexity and nuance of the role of AM disruptions in emerging youth depression and the need for better integration of cognitive and narrative theoretical and empirical frameworks to guide research towards the development of effective memory-based interventions with young people. 2026-07-26T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/nbkz-yr1p https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Delineating_the_Concurrent_and_Longitudinal_Relationship_of_Specific_and_Detailed_Turning_Point_Narratives_and_Young_People_s_Depressive_Symptoms/33088073 Author Retains Copyright

oai:figshare.com:article/33090254 2026-07-27T00:00:00Z category_36845 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

Machine-Learning Photometric Redshifts for Quasars: Methods and Cross-Survey Portability Jeremy Moss (9712049) Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy astronomy photometry quasars School: School of Chemical and Physical Sciences 510103 Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy 280120 Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences Degree Discipline: Physics Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy Degree Level: Doctoral Reliable photometric redshifts for quasars are essential for the next generation of wide-field astronomical surveys, where spectroscopic follow-up of every source is infeasible. Quasar redshift estimation is challenging because their broadband spectral energy distributions are shaped by strong, redshift-dependent features rather than a smooth continuum, and because quasars span a wide dynamic range in redshift.This thesis develops a uniformly crossmatched ultraviolet-to-infrared catalogue of DESI and SDSS quasars and evaluates the performance of several machine-learning methods for estimating quasar photometric redshifts with a particular focus on testing model portability between surveys. The neural network achieves the highest accuracy, substantially out-performing optical-only approaches and showing that broad wavelength coverage is the dominant driver of performance. Initial work on a radio-only model confirmed that low-frequency continuum data contain little redshift information, placing practical limits on radio-only models.A key result of this work is the demonstration that machine-learning photometric-redshift models can remain portable across heterogeneous surveys. Models trained on DESI photometry retain stable performance when applied to SDSS quasars, despite differences in depth, filter systems and photometric uncertainties. This establishes that broad wavelength coverage and consistent preprocessing enable survey-agnostic redshift prediction at scale. The resulting models are directly applicable to current and forthcoming wide-area catalogues, including DESI, SDSS, and Square Kilometre Array pathfinder surveys.Furthermore, where spectroscopy already exists—for example, in studies of associated and intervening 21-cm absorbers—photometric redshifts help determine whether absorption occurs within the quasar hosts or arises in an intervening system along the line of sight, informing population studies of active and quiescent galaxies. 2026-07-27T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/8n3c-ts6a https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Machine-Learning_Photometric_Redshifts_for_Quasars_Methods_and_Cross-Survey_Portability/33090254 CC BY-SA 4.0

oai:figshare.com:article/33090062 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z category_34124 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_01_2012

Not the Socialism We Dreamed Of: Becoming Ex-Communists in the United States and New Zealand, 1956-58 Carl William Blackmun (24458492) North American history Communism Ex-communists Communists School: School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations Unit: School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations 430321 North American history 280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology Degree Discipline: History Degree Name: Master of Arts Degree Level: Masters Historians have previously analysed the crisis that gripped Western Communist parties in 1956 in response to Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin at the Twentieth Soviet Congress and the subsequent events in Poland and Hungary within a political and institutional frame. This thesis provides a more personal analysis of those events by examining and comparing the motivations and experiences of Communists who left the Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) and the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) in the wake of the events of 1956. It uses autobiographies, memoirs, letters, oral histories, periodicals and archival sources to reveal the complex emotions and motivations which turned previously loyal Party members into ex-Communists. Through its comparative focus, the thesis also explores the different ways the CPNZ and CPUSA dealt with dissent, challenging the concept of the monolithic party and providing new insight into Communist Party organisations and the response of their leadership cadres to dissent and reformist pressures.This thesis explores the reasons why the events of 1956 resulted in a mass exodus which cost the CPNZ twenty-five percent of its membership and the CPUSA seventyfive percent of its members. It explores the responses of Communists in both parties to the revelations of Stalin’s crimes and their participation in hitherto unprecedented discussions and dissent. It examines the ways disillusioned Communists reassessed their political pasts, their present affiliations and traces their evolution into becoming ex-Communists. It then examines what ex-Communists faced in the transition to life outside the Party. In doing so, this thesis fits into an emerging scholarship that employs a more personal frame when approaching Communist history. It acknowledges the agency of individual Communists as they grappled with the consequences of de-Stalinisation, challenging narratives which portray Communists as Soviet automatons and subsume their experiences within the institutional history of the Party. The comparative focus of the thesis highlights the differences in national context and leadership responses which resulted in a much higher rate of attrition for the CPUSA than the CPNZ. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/8mg0-6n41 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Not_the_Socialism_We_Dreamed_Of_Becoming_Ex-Communists_in_the_United_States_and_New_Zealand_1956-58/33090062 Author Retains Copyright

oai:figshare.com:article/33089897 2024-06-27T00:00:00Z category_31604 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_06_2024

Evaluating Novel Kappa Opioid Receptor Agonists as Non-addictive Pain Medication Ashley Simons (24458402) Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics Kappa Chronic pain Opioid School: School of Biological Sciences 321402 Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics 200103 Human pain management Degree Discipline: Biomedical Science Degree Name: Master of Biomedical Science Degree Level: Masters Chronic pain is a growing global issue that lacks effective treatment options. In New Zealand, one in five people suffers from chronic pain, with a higher prevalence seen in Māori, elderly and lower socioeconomic groups. Mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonists including oxycodone, morphine and tramadol are commonly prescribed to treat chronic pain, however, long-term use of MOR agonists can lead to tolerance and drug dependency, as well as effects on respiratory depression which can be lethal. Overdose by opioids is the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States, with the high level of opioid-prescriptions being a major contributing factor. This exemplifies the need for alternative therapeutic options to treat chronic pain.Kappa opioid receptor (KOR) agonists are being considered as an alternative therapeutic drug target due to their anti-nociceptive properties without inducing reward or respiratory depression. However, the development of KOR agonists to date has been limited due to side effects such as sedation, aversion, and dysphoria. Evidence suggests that anti-nociceptive and anti-pruritic effects are mediated through the G-protein signalling pathway, whereas the dysphoric effects are mediated through βarrestin-2 signalling pathway. This thesis aimed to evaluate the anti-nociceptive effects of a novel KOR agonist, LDK-367.The antinociceptive effects were assess using an acute model of thermal pain. LDK-367 showed significant antinociceptive effects in the tail-withdrawal assay, with similar potency and efficacy to the traditional KOR agonist, U50,488. LDK-367 had a longer duration of action in the tail-withdrawal assay compared to U50,488 but a shorter duration of action to morphine. LDK-367 was further assessed in a model of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain. In the chronic administration of treatment over 23 days, LDK-367, U50,488 and morphine were effective in alleviating mechanical and thermal allodynia. Morphine was the most effective in alleviating mechanical and thermal allodynia, however, tolerance was produced following the chronic administration. In contrast, LDK-367 and U50,488 did not produce tolerance. Furthermore, sedative and anxiogenic-like side effects were evaluated for LDK-367. LDK367 produced sedative effects, similar to U50,488. However, LDK-367 did not show any significant anxiogenic effects.Overall, this study has identified the novel KOR agonist, LDK-367 as a moderate treatment for thermal and chronic neuropathic pain, however adverse sedative effects inhibit it from being a viable treatment option. This research shows that KOR agonists are a potential therapeutic option for the treatment of chronic pain. 2024-06-27T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/kpd1-61e5 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Evaluating_Novel_Kappa_Opioid_Receptor_Agonists_as_Non-addictive_Pain_Medication/33089897 Author Retains Copyright

oai:figshare.com:article/33088952 2026-07-26T00:00:00Z category_32720 category_36518 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

Retirement Finance: Converting Wealth into Income for an Uncertain Lifetime Darcy Harcourt (11059029) Financial economics Financial mathematics Retirement Finance Annuities Dynamic Programming Recursive Preferences Financial Mathematics School: School of Economics and Finance 490106 Financial mathematics 380107 Financial economics 280108 Expanding knowledge in economics Degree Discipline: Finance Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy Degree Level: Doctoral Recipes for financing one’s retirement are many and varied. Annuities, which guarantee income for life, are well known in the literature to dominate the alternatives under a broad range of preferences and assumptions; equally well-known is that traditional annuities are persistently underutilised by retirees. This phenomenon, known as the annuitisation puzzle, has defied attempts to provide a definitive explanation. In recent decades, insurers have found success in offering a product called a variable annuity; these offer participation in equity markets, pitched as providing protection against inflation, with the option to annuitise invested funds. Industry estimates indicate total assets held in variable annuity contracts now exceeds $2 trillion (USD). A popular rider (optional feature) for variable annuities is the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit; with this rider, policyholders may draw an annuity-like income stream from their variable annuity without formally annuitising their wealth. This maintains the liquidity of their investments, addressing one possible explanation of the annuitisation puzzle. A further modification of the basic variable annuity is the ratchet rider: this periodically increases the income stream provided by the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit if the underlying investment has performed well. This rider was introduced to realign the incentives of policyholders to avoid a behaviour called lapse-and-reentry, where policies are surrendered because the income stream is no longer commensurate to the funds held in the variable annuity. We introduce and price an alternative model for this type of rider that further improves the alignment of the operation of the ratchet to the incentives of the policyholders. We demonstrate this improvement and prove its effectiveness in preventing lapse-and-reentry using an empirically supported model of policyholder behaviour. For those unwilling to annuitise, the uncertainty of their remaining lifetimes presents them with a trade-off: consume quickly and risk outliving their money, or consume slowly and risk significantly underutilising their wealth. Under the assumption that retirees have Epstein-Zin recursive preferences, we employ dynamic programming as one method of balancing these risks; this model separates preferences around risk and consumption smoothing. In deriving the form of the optimal decumulation strategy, we discover that it may be represented as the reciprocal of an annuity value. Armed with a straightforward and widely-used numerical technique for computing annuity values, we illustrate how the optimal decumulation strategy may be implemented in a simple spreadsheet, making it accessible to a wide audience. Evaluating the utility of both the optimal strategy and selected alternatives, we quantify the cost of pursuing suboptimal strategies with a measure related to the annuity equivalent wealth. Computing the annuity equivalent wealth, we show that the annuitisation puzzle is not resolved by allowing risky investments paying a risk premium in the alternative strategy, even when a realistic loading is incorporated into the pricing of the annuity. Another alternative to annuitisation that is popular in the literature is to assume a fixed spending rate (real or nominal) and determine the likelihood of a shortfall during a retiree’s lifetime. Setting a maximum probability of being ruined while living (equivalently, a minimum probability of outliving their wealth), a maximal spending rate may be determined; the ideal portfolio balance may also be determined by finding maximal spending rates for varying asset mixes. This type of analysis is responsible for the widely cited 4% rule. We present a Monte Carlo-based simulation-search procedure for performing this analysis that provides a large improvement in efficiency over less sophisticated simulation procedures. Simulationbased approaches are criticised for their high computational costs when compared to analytic and lattice-based approaches. With our efficient procedure, we offset that cost disadvantage and allow much greater flexibility in the models that may be incorporated. Analytic methods are restricted to the problematic assumption of lognormal returns; lattice-based methods can incorporate more sophisticated models, but suffer from geometrically increasing complexity when adding state variables. Simulation-based approaches accommodate a wide array of models at negligible additional computational cost. 2026-07-26T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/jtyw-r24s https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Retirement_Finance_Converting_Wealth_into_Income_for_an_Uncertain_Lifetime/33088952 Author Retains Copyright

oai:figshare.com:article/33087971 2026-07-26T00:00:00Z category_31655 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

Waikanae & Whitebait Mark Cunningham (24457259) Architectural design Coastal architecture Whitebaiting Community identity Waikanae River estuary School: Wellington School of Architecture 330102 Architectural design 280104 Expanding knowledge in built environment and design Degree Discipline: Architecture Degree Name: Master of Architecture (Professional) Degree Level: Masters Situated at the mouth of the Waikanae River, the estuary embodies a living intersection of ecology, culture, and community, a place where shifting tides and seasonal whitebaiting have long shaped local identity. This thesis investigates how architecture can reinterpret such local practices into a spatial language that sustains inclusive and enduring community identity in coastal towns like Waikanae. As pressures from population growth and environmental change reshape the region, the research asks how built form might sustain the social and ecological relationships that have historically defined life along this edge.The design proposal, a Community Visitor’s Centre, emerges as a civic interpretation of whitebaiting culture. It translates the communal and temporal qualities of the season into a contemporary architectural framework. Traditionally, whitebaiting was not merely an act of fishing but a ritual of gathering, waiting, and belonging. Along the river’s edge, temporary communities formed through shared rhythm and repetition. These gestures of convergence become the conceptual foundation for the design, where architecture mirrors the estuary’s movement through spaces that invite gathering, observation, and retreat.The project’s architectural language draws from the whitebait net, a structure that filters, catches, and responds to flow. This principle of filtering informs both spatial organisation and experiential character: spaces are layered, semi-transparent, and responsive to shifting light, air, and sound. In this way, the building becomes a framework in motion, a mediator between landscape and inhabitants. The composition opens views toward Kāpiti Island and the river mouth, reinforcing the interdependence of human presence and natural process.Ultimately, the thesis proposes that architecture can serve as a vessel for cultural translation, expressing local practices through spatial and material means. By reinterpreting the principles of whitebaiting within civic architecture, it suggests a model for how small coastal towns might maintain identity amidst change, not by preserving the past, but by evolving it. The resulting architecture becomes a collective net of its own: one that gathers people, stories, and memories within the ongoing rhythm of place and time. 2026-07-26T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/5sq8-0fqx https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Waikanae_Whitebait/33087971 Author Retains Copyright

oai:figshare.com:article/33086219 2026-07-25T00:00:00Z category_32897 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

Leadership in Action: An Investigation in Government Primary Schools in Bangladesh Mohammad Khandker Din (9326330) Primary education Primary school leadership School improvement Community engagement Bangladesh School: School of Education 390304 Primary education Degree Discipline: Education Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy Degree Level: Doctoral Abstract This study explores leadership practices in government primary schools in rural Bangladesh. In particular, it examines the effective leadership of principals who engaged School Management Committees (SMC), parents and community in school improvement and also strengthened student outcomes while dealing with various challenges. The research asked how principals conceptualise and enact their leadership responsibilities; what leadership practices they employ; and how they involve their SMC, parents and community members in school improvement? The study aimed to present a contextually grounded model of ‘leadership in action’.Existing literature on primary school leadership in Bangladesh has mainly examined policy issues, school governance structures, and the roles of principals and SMC. However, research has paid limited attention to how principals enact daily leadership practice under different constraints, resources, and political influences. Existing studies on SMC effectiveness, gender, and political influence have often been fragmented, treating these dimensions separately rather than as interconnected forces shaping leadership. Methodologically, most studies have relied on either single case studies or broad surveys, with few approaches that combine in-depth contextual insights with broader patterns. These leave unanswered questions about how leadership actually operates, how community and political dynamics influence decision-making, and what forms of leadership can sustain school improvement in a low-resource context.This study combined a case study with three embedded units of analysis with a supporting survey. Primary data collection involved semi-structured interviews with selected principals, SMC chairpersons and Upazila Education Officers (UEOs), staff meetings, PTA members, community observations, and documentary analysis. Qualitative data were analysed thematically, and survey data were analysed with descriptive and basic inferential statistics.Findings show that effective leadership is defined not by formal authority, but by interconnected practice. This involved principals maintaining educational focus, employing scarce resources, involving parents and communities and negotiating with political leaders. SMCs have the potential to improve school effectiveness, where the role and responsibilities are clear and financial management is transparent, but often there was a lack of coordination between them and the principal or there was political influence. Principal gender was also found to be a factor, and female principals in this study faced systemic challenges. It was found that the capacity development programmes for principals were limited, and the attitude towards implementing training experiences not always positive. This study concludes that in Bangladeshi primary schools, leadership needs to involve an instructional, policy-driven approach and more context-sensitive practices that empower principals as agents of change. There is also a need for enhanced autonomy and systemic support for school leaders. The reality of functioning leadership revealed through the thesis contributes to global research on primary school leadership and provides insights for policymakers and researchers committed to the improvement of primary schools in Bangladesh. 2026-07-25T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/bhz7-s95z https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Leadership_in_Action_An_Investigation_in_Government_Primary_Schools_in_Bangladesh/33086219 CC BY-ND 4.0

oai:figshare.com:article/33085307 2026-07-25T00:00:00Z category_34472 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

Assembling Regenerative Worlds: Regenerative Agriculture and (Re)productive Webs of Life in Aotearoa New Zealand Lennox Shaw (24454865) Rural sociology Regenerative agriculture Assemblage thinking Aotearoa New Zealand School: School of Social and Cultural Studies 441003 Rural sociology 280123 Expanding knowledge in human society Degree Discipline: Sociology Degree Name: Master of Arts Degree Level: Masters This thesis explores regenerative agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand, considering the worlds that regenerative farm systems bring into being. Regenerative agriculture is a broad movement of alternative agriculture that is drawn on to increase economic, social and ecological liveliness within farm systems. I deploy a political ontology informed perspective to investigate regenerative farm worlds, considering the socio-material world-making dynamics by which liveliness emerges. I argue that regenerative farm worlds bring forth emergent (re)productive webs of life; contested realities in which agricultural production is increasingly entangled with dynamics of ecological, social, and economic reproduction. These emergent webs of life are partial, contested, and uncertain; emerging from, and often destabilised by, wider modernist worlds. This thesis deploys qualitative analysis of interview and observation data gathered onsite at regenerative farms across the North Island of New Zealand. Using an assemblage-informed analysis, I develop an account of three interrelated ‘empirical assemblages’ that brought forth (re)productive webs of life across the dataset: assembling mutual aliveness, assembling local relations, and assembling nature(s). These ‘empirical assemblages’ describe patterned socio-material entanglements of non-human ecologies, human farmers and communities, and non-material values, discourses, and ideologies that brought ecological, social, and economic reproduction into closer alignment with production. Together, they elaborate regenerative agriculture as an emergent ontological process of reorganising the conditions of life within farming systems under constraint. This thesis therefore describes regenerative agriculture as a contested world-making project in which production becomes increasingly inseparable from the reproduction of land, people, and the place-specific socio-material relations that sustain the liveliness of farming systems. 2026-07-25T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/22g4-anka https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Assembling_Regenerative_Worlds_Regenerative_Agriculture_and_Re_productive_Webs_of_Life_in_Aotearoa_New_Zealand/33085307 CC BY-SA 4.0

oai:figshare.com:article/33076280 2026-07-24T00:00:00Z category_36845 category_36854 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_07_2026

High-Frequency Radio Observations of Galaxy Cluster Minihalos Benjamin Colquhoun (24449951) Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy High energy astrophysics and galactic cosmic rays Galaxy Clusters Radio minihalos Diffuse radio emission Radio astronomy School: School of Chemical and Physical Sciences 510106 High energy astrophysics and galactic cosmic rays 510103 Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy Degree Discipline: Physics Degree Name: Master of Science Degree Level: Masters Diffuse radio sources have been detected within the cool cores of a growing number of relaxed galaxy clusters. These faint ‘minihalos’ are a result of synchrotron-emitting, highly relativistic electrons. Typically exhibiting spatial extents over several hundred kiloparsec, minihalos are far beyond the expected scale from a single source of relativistic electrons. The processes of in situ turbulent reacceleration and hadronic production have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. Spectral steepening is expected at high radio frequencies for the reacceleration scenario. However, the majority of previous studies have been performed at lower radio frequencies (144 MHz to 1.4 GHz), where this is difficult to detect. To investigate potential steepening, Very Large Array radio interferometer observations at 10 GHz of 12 clusters hosting minihalos are calibrated and imaged. This represents the first step towards a high-frequency survey of minihalos. Source-subtracted measurements of minihalo flux are performed for four clusters, enabling comparison with prior observations at lower frequencies. Steepening was not observed for three clusters, RXJ1720+2638 (𝛼 = 1.1 ± 0.05), RXCJ1115+0129 (𝛼 = 1.03 ± 0.18), and RXJ2129+0005 (𝛼 = 1.18 ± 0.09), suggesting a hadronic origin for these minihalos. One cluster, A478 (𝛼 = 2.02 ± 0.10), exhibits tentative evidence of steepening. However, more research is required to ensure this is not from instrumental effects. The remainder of the sample requires more extensive analysis. Challenges encountered during the calibration and imaging are discussed, and recommendations for future analysis of high-frequency minihalo studies are presented. 2026-07-24T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/rja1-wnsp https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/High-Frequency_Radio_Observations_of_Galaxy_Cluster_Minihalos/33076280 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 eyJtZXRhZGF0YVByZWZpeCI6ICJvYWlfZGMiLCAidmVyYiI6ICJMaXN0UmVjb3JkcyIsICJvYWlfaGFuZGxlciI6IHRydWUsICJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbl9pZCI6IDc3MSwgInBhZ2UiOiAyLCAieEN1cnNvciI6ICJJbHN4TnpnME9EWTJORFl4TURBd0xDQXpNekEzTmpJNE1GMGkua1pfd0Z4VElfYnpRQlgwc0FMaWFJOGZ6eXVnIiwgImV4cGlyYXRpb24iOiAiMjAyNi0wNy0yNyAwODo1NzowOSJ9