Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand最新文献

Māori hold unique views on the lifecourse but there has been limited Māori-led longitudinal research to date. There is a particular need for kaupapa Māori and interface longitudinal research that generates mātauranga Māori and enables Māori-initiated transformative action. In this paper, we identify key features of a Māori lifecourse framework and its application to longitudinal research at the interface of mātauranga Māori and Western science. We describe how these features are applied in the Taranaki Māori-led longitudinal research programme Te Kura Mai i Tawhiti. Māori will benefit from a regionally-focussed Māori approach to lifecourse research at the interface. This approach can be applied directly in future localised research led by Māori and other Indigenous peoples. Māori-led longitudinal research will inform effective interventions to lift Māori wellbeing and prospects throughout all stages of life and strengthen Māori contributions to wider society. Māori approaches to longitudinal research will help shape new futures for Māori and a brighter future for all peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. Glossary of Māori words: ao Māori: Māori world; Aotearoa: Māori name for New Zealand; hāngī: an earth oven or food cooked in such an oven; hapū: subtribe (also meaning to be pregnant); iwi: tribe, people; kaitiaki: guardian (also meaning teacher); kaupapa Māori: Māori paradigm; based within a Māori worldview; Māori: indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand; mātauranga Māori: Māori knowledge; mokopuna: grandchildren; ōhākī: parting wishes before death; Pākehā: primarily referring to New Zealand Europeans; reo Māori: Māori language; tamariki: children; Tangi te Kawekaweā: study title (the call of the kawekaweā, long-tailed cuckoo, heralds spring and the opportunity for growth); Taranaki: a tribal nation and region of Aotearoa New Zealand; Te Kura mai I Tawhiti: research programme title (sacred legacy of an ancient era); tauiwi: outsider, commonly referring to non-Māori; tuakiri: identity; wānanga: forum for sharing knowledge/learning; whakapapa: genealogy; whanau: extended family.

Proper management of the earth's natural resources is imperative to combat further degradation of the natural environment. However, the environmental datasets necessary for informed resource planning and conservation can be costly to collect and annotate. Consequently, there is a lack of publicly available datasets, particularly annotated image datasets relevant for environmental conservation, that can be used for the evaluation of machine learning algorithms to determine their applicability in real-world scenarios. To address this, the Time-evolving Data Science and Artificial Intelligence for Advanced Open Environmental Science (TAIAO) project in New Zealand aims to provide a collection of datasets and accompanying example notebooks for their analysis. This paper showcases three New Zealand-based annotated image datasets that form part of the collection. The first dataset contains annotated images of various predator species, mainly small invasive mammals, taken using low-light camera traps predominantly at night. The second provides aerial photography of the Waikato region in New Zealand, in which stands of Kahikatea (a native New Zealand tree) have been marked up using manual segmentation. The third is a dataset containing orthorectified high-resolution aerial photography, paired with satellite imagery taken by Sentinel-2. Additionally, the TAIAO web platform also contains a collated list of other datasets provided and licensed by our data partners that may be of interest to other researchers.

Aotearoa New Zealand's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has included the use of algorithms that could aid decision making. Te Pokapū Hātepe o Aotearoa, the New Zealand Algorithm Hub, was established to evaluate and host COVID-19 related models and algorithms, and provide a central and secure infrastructure to support the country's pandemic response. A critical aspect of the Hub was the formation of an appropriate governance group to ensure that algorithms being deployed underwent cross-disciplinary scrutiny prior to being made available for quick and safe implementation. This framework necessarily canvassed a broad range of perspectives, including from data science, clinical, Māori, consumer, ethical, public health, privacy, legal and governmental perspectives. To our knowledge, this is the first implementation of national algorithm governance of this type, building upon broad local and global discussion of guidelines in recent years. This paper describes the experiences and lessons learned through this process from the perspective of governance group members, emphasising the role of robust governance processes in building a high-trust platform that enables rapid translation of algorithms from research to practice.

Over the last 50 years Dunedin Study researchers have published more than 1400 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and reports on many aspects of human health and development. In this 50th anniversary piece we reflect on (i) our historical roots and necessary re-invention through time; (ii) the underpinning principles that have contributed to our success; (iii) some selected examples of high-impact work from the behavioural, oral health, and respiratory domains; (iv) some of the challenges we have encountered over time and how to overcome these; and (vi) review where we see the Study going in the future. We aim to present some of the 'back story', which is typically undocumented and oft lost to memory, and thus focus on 'know-how'. Our hope is to humanise our research, share insights, and to acknowledge the real heroes of the Study - the 1037 Study members, their families and their friends, who have collectively given so much, for so long, in the hope of helping others.

An emerging class of intelligent tools that we term Digital Productivity Assistants (DPAs) is designed to help workers improve their productivity and keep their work-life balance in check. Using personalised work-based analytics it raises awareness of individual collaboration behaviour and suggests improvements to work practices. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of personalised work-based analytics in the context of (improving) individual productivity and work-life balance. We present an interpretive case study based on interviews with 28 workers who face high job demands and job variety and our own observations. Our study contributes to the still ongoing sensemaking of AI, by illustrating how DPAs can co-regulate human work through technology affordances. In addition to investigating these opportunities of partnering with AI, we study the perceived barriers that impede DPAs' potential benefits as partners. These include perceived accuracy, transparency, feedback, and configurability, as well as misalignment between the DPA's categorisations of work behaviour and the categorisations used by workers in their jobs.

This case study explored how human-centred design methodologies can improve clinician experience and reduce patient treatment anxiety in the application of a new dental local anaesthetic jet-injection system. An initial embodiment of the prototype injector, dubbed the 'Kiwi' injector, was developed to better understand the user experience during dental-injection procedures. Further design development was undertaken in two distinct phases. Stage one entailed the initial non-functional Kiwi injector model being used as a design probe to explore clinician views on its aesthetics and ergonomics. The second stage explored the clinician and patient experiences of the functional Kiwi Injector while administering a local anaesthetic to the patient. Stage one findings highlighted clinician satisfaction with the aesthetics of the non-functional prototype device but expressed the desire to make the device smaller. Stage two clinical study results highlighted an issue with the functional jet injector configuration, where the participating dental clinicians speculated that a greater bend in the wand and change of trigger position would significantly improve the Kiwi injector ergonomic performance. This research has demonstrated the benefits of applying a structured and staged human-centred user experience design process to inform the design of a new dental anaesthetic delivery device.

Aotearoa New Zealand's population is ageing. Increasing life expectancy is accompanied by increases in prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and ageing-related disorders. The multicentre Dementia Prevention Research Clinic longitudinal study aims to improve understanding of AD and dementia in Aotearoa, in order to develop interventions that delay or prevent progression to dementia. Comprising research clinics in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, this multi-disciplinary study involves community participants who undergo biennial investigations informed by international protocols and best practice: clinical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging, lifestyle evaluations, APOE genotyping, blood collection and processing. A key research objective is to identify a 'biomarker signature' that predicts progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD. Candidate biomarkers include: blood proteins and microRNAs, genetic, neuroimaging and neuropsychological markers, health, cultural, lifestyle, sensory and psychosocial factors. We are examining a range of mechanisms underlying the progression of AD pathology (e.g. faulty blood-brain barrier, excess parenchymal iron, vascular dysregulation). This paper will outline key aspects of the Dementia Prevention Research Clinic's research, provide an overview of data collection, and a summary of 266 participants recruited to date. The national outreach of the clinics is a strength; the heart of the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics are its people.

Rheumatic fever is a well-recognised public health problem in Aotearoa New Zealand that is potentially preventable by addressing the social and environmental determinants of health and ensuring equitable access to primary healthcare services. We present data on the hospitalisations of children aged 0-14 years for acute rheumatic fever (ARF) during the period 2000-2020, and the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to May 2021. Persistent inequity by ethnicity and by socioeconomic deprivation was observed, particularly for Pacific children, for Māori children, and for children living in the most deprived areas (NZDep quintile 5). The government implemented a programme to prevent rheumatic fever between July 2012 and June 2017. Hospitalisation data suggest that the programme was reducing the incidence of ARF in children, but this trend was not sustained. There was minimal change to the number of hospitalisations for ARF during early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. If untreated, ARF can cause chronic rheumatic heart disease. The persistently high rates of hospitalisations and the unequal burden of disease for vulnerable groups should no longer be tolerated, since they can be effectively addressed by implementation of evidence-based strategies to prevent, treat, and control this disease.

We describe the New Zealand Parkinson's Progression Programme (NZP3), its goals, findings, and future plans. To date, 354 people with Parkinson's disease and 89 healthy older controls have participated over a 14-year period. A major focus of the programme has been the characterisation of current cognitive impairment, and the identification of biomarkers for its future emergence in people with Parkinson's. The programme has made significant contributions to the concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Parkinson's and the development and validation of standardised criteria for it. Brain imaging, both MRI and PET, has also been a focus, showing associations between increasing brain pathology and declining cognitive function. Additional biomarkers such as genetics, fluid biomarkers, eye movement, speech, and quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) are also under investigation. The programme has become a platform supporting many other avenues of research, from investigating the personal impacts of caregiver burden through to national-level epidemiology. To date, the programme has led to multiple journal publications and 17 completed and 9 ongoing PhDs, and many other postgraduate theses. It has led to the development of a skilled core of early-career through to senior researchers and clinicians. We discuss the future directions for the programme.

Unnecessary hospitalisations for preventable or treatable conditions provides an indication of the health of a country and its systems. We present data on potentially avoidable hospitalisations of Māori and non-Māori non-Pacific (NMNP) under-25-year-olds for medical conditions during the period 2000-2019, with particular focus on the magnitude of inequity by area deprivation. Potentially avoidable hospitalisation rates of under-25 years for medical conditions were consistently higher for Māori than for NMNP over the 20-year study period. The absolute difference in potentially avoidable hospitalisation rates between the most and least deprived areas were greater for Māori than for NMNP in all years of the study. Respiratory conditions and skin infections accounted for more than 60% of potentially avoidable hospitalisations of Māori under-25-year-olds. The persistent trends in deprivation-based inequities in health outcomes for Māori, on both absolute and relative scales, suggest greater attention needs to be paid to implementing effective policy focussed on reducing these deprivation-based inequities and on improving access to and quality of care.