Female reproductive strategies and mother-calf relationships of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Zoology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

This study reviewed the habitat use, social organisation and behaviour of common dolphin groups categorised by their youngest member, as well as the behaviour of common dolphin calves of different age classes. Most newborn calves were sighted over late spring and early summer, and in water temperatures warmer than for other groups. The water depths at which common dolphin groups were found did not vary according to the age class of their youngest member. However, only groups containing newborns or infants were sighted under 20 metres of water depth. A high percentage of groups encountered contained calves (82.5%). suggesting the importance of the Hauraki Gulf for common dolphins' reproduction. Groups of common dolphins containing calves were found to be of larger size than any other group type. All groups proved to be similarly involved in different behavioural states and showed comparable patterns of association with other species, although groups including newborns were significantly less likely to be seen associated with whales and birds. Groups of common dolphins as a whole did not show a differential reaction to the boat according to the age class of their youngest member. However, mothers and their young calves kept greater distances to the boat than mothers and older calves did. suggesting that the boat may be perceived as a threat during the newborn period. Most of the behaviours that characterise mother-calf relationships varied according to calf age class. The occurrence, frequency, duration and distance of separations increased with older aged calves. A similar increase was found in the time spent without the mother, in the occurrence of association with non-mother dolphins, in the time spent in 'echelon position', and in both mothers' and calves' dive time. Mothers also had longer dive times than calves. Older aged calves tend to present the lowest proportion of synchronous breaths. These changes are likely to represent a gradual increase in calves' independence. Results from this study have extended our knowledge of common dolphins' reproductive ecology, demonstrated that studies of mother-calf relationships in pelagic species of dolphins can he achieved, and allowed future research needs to he identified and management recommendations to be made

Bridging Early Educational Transitions in Learning Through Children's Agency

A longitudinal study of continuity and progression in children's early education reported the significance of the transition from preschool to elementary education for later school success. It was found that the nature of this particular transition is influential for children, parents and educators and therefore for the educational system. An ecological framework was used in order to embrace the complex nature of educational transitions. Educators in 8 preschool and 4 primary school settings, and their managers, were interviewed to explore beliefs about early education. The same educators were observed as the 28 focus children in a cohort of 150 children were tracked during their final year before school and their first year of school, and their written documentation including planning and reports were scrutinised. It was found that despite the similar language used by early educators in early years preschool and primary settings to describe their intentions and motivations for children, there can be major discontinuities between settings, relationships, pedagogy and curriculum and that consequently there are increased challenges for children and for their parents and educators. It is proposed that educators need to collaborate more and to move on from a shared use of terminology to shared meanings, in order to develop a shared conceptual framework which attends to cognitive, social and emotional aspects of children's learning in transition. Certain measurable elements of school progress were noted as part of the local authority's value-added record keeping and it has been possible to make links between educational attainment and other variables. The cohort of children is now entering the last year of primary school education and a number of focus children will now be involved in a study of their transition to secondary education

Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in Economics of Climate Change

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the context of climate change is of great importance in the scientific community, but can also play an important role in the policy context. On the one hand, the results achievable for mitigation and adaptation are influencing the policy arena, and on the other hand these instruments represent an opportunity for decision-makers to apply innovative forms of public administration based on stakeholder involvement, which can reduce the existing gap between policy-makers and citizens (Oates, 2003). The paper provides an analysis of the main ICT tools and methods used in climate change economics by means of a questionnaire-based survey and focus group discussion with specific experts in this context. The issues addressed are related with the use and relevance of ICT in the different research area of climate change, the perceived usefulness of these tools, and their importance in the scientific, economic and policy contexts. The main problems and limitations of ICT are investigated, together with their potential role in future research.Climate change, Information and Communication Technologies tools (ICT)

Superconducting order parameter of Sr2_2RuO4_4: a microscopic perspective

The character of the superconducting phase of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, is topic of a longstanding discussion. The classification of the symmetry allowed order parameters has relied on the tetragonal symmetry of the lattice and on cylindrical Fermi surfaces, usually taken to be featureless, not including the non-trivial symmetry aspects related to their orbital content. Here we show how the careful account of the orbital degree of freedom in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, leads to a much richer classification of order parameters. We analyse the stability and degeneracy of these new order parameters from the perspective of the concept of superconducting fitness and propose a new best order parameter candidate.Comment: 13 page

Some particular self-interacting diffusions: Ergodic behaviour and almost sure convergence

This paper deals with some self-interacting diffusions $(X_t,t\geq 0)$ living on $\mathbb{R}^d$. These diffusions are solutions to stochastic differential equations: $$\mathrm{d}X_t=\mathrm{d}B_t-g(t)\nabla V(X_t-\bar{\mu}_t)\,\mathrm{d}t,$$ where $\bar{\mu}_t$ is the empirical mean of the process $X$, $V$ is an asymptotically strictly convex potential and $g$ is a given function. We study the ergodic behaviour of $X$ and prove that it is strongly related to $g$. Actually, we show that $X$ is ergodic (in the limit quotient sense) if and only if $\bar{\mu}_t$ converges a.s. We also give some conditions (on $g$ and $V$) for the almost sure convergence of $X$.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/10-BEJ310 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Uniform approximation and explicit estimates for the prolate spheroidal wave functions

For fixed $c,$ Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions (PSWFs), denoted by $\psi_{n, c},$ form an orthogonal basis with remarkable properties for the space of band-limited functions with bandwith $c$. They have been largely studied and used after the seminal work of D. Slepian and his co-authors. In several applications, uniform estimates of the $\psi_{n,c}$ in $n$ and $c,$ are needed. To progress in this direction, we push forward the uniform approximation error bounds and give an explicit approximation of their values at $1$ in terms of the Legendre complete elliptic integral of the first kind. Also, we give an explicit formula for the accurate approximation the eigenvalues of the Sturm-Liouville operator associated with the PSWFs

Covert channel detection using Information Theory

This paper presents an information theory based detection framework for covert channels. We first show that the usual notion of interference does not characterize the notion of deliberate information flow of covert channels. We then show that even an enhanced notion of "iterated multivalued interference" can not capture flows with capacity lower than one bit of information per channel use. We then characterize and compute the capacity of covert channels that use control flows for a class of systems.Comment: In Proceedings SecCo 2010, arXiv:1102.516

Equality cases for the uncertainty principle in finite Abelian groups

We consider the families of finite Abelian groups \ZZ/p\ZZ\times \ZZ/p\ZZ, \ZZ/p^2\ZZ and \ZZ/p\ZZ\times \ZZ/q\ZZ for $p,q$ two distinct prime numbers. For the two first families we give a simple characterization of all functions whose support has cardinality $k$ while the size of the spectrum satisfies a minimality condition. We do it for a large number of values of $k$ in the third case. Such equality cases were previously known when $k$ divides the cardinality of the group, or for groups \ZZ/p\ZZ.Comment: Mistakes have been corrected. This paper has been accepted for publication in Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged