Tuwhera Research Repository

The Tuwhera Research Repository provides sustainable open access and archiving to a broad range of AUT produced research - theses, research outputs and datasets.

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Access status: Open Access ,
Rewriting the Narrative: Unlocking the Secrets to Lasting Change for Aotearoa’s Formerly Incarcerated
(Auckland University of Technology, 2026) Shaw, Robbie; Deckert, Antje; Tunufa'i, Laumua
Desistance research has expanded considerably, yet much of it rests on Western, male-dominated samples and examines contributors to change; employment, housing, faith, physical activity and mental health, as discrete domains. Comparatively little work has been undertaken in Aotearoa, where the disproportionate imprisonment of Māori and the ongoing effects of colonisation shape both offending and the pathways away from it. This study asked what formerly incarcerated people in Aotearoa themselves identify as the most important contributors to their desistance. Guided by an interpretivist, social constructivist orientation and informed by Kaupapa Māori principles with the guidance of a Māori expert advisor, unstructured life-story interviews were conducted with five participants of Māori, Pasifika, and Pākehā backgrounds who had been crime-free for at least four years. Accounts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes were developed: Accountability in Context, The Carceral Paradox, The Relational Foundation, Becoming Someone New, and Meaningful Work. Participants accepted responsibility for their offending while recognising the conditions that shaped it, treating agency and circumstances as complementary rather than competing. Critically, the recognised domains rarely operated independently. Their significance lay in the relationships, recognition, dignity, and opportunity they enabled, with trusted relationships emerging not as one supportive factor among many but as the mechanism through which identity change was recognised and sustained. Participants also described a criminal justice system that produced many of the barriers they subsequently had to overcome, eroding trust and leaving relational support largely to under-resourced community organisations. These findings suggest reintegration policy should prioritise relational continuity and practical enablers over programme delivery alone.
Access status: Open Access ,
Dietary Intakes of Older Retired Olympic and Commonwealth Games Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2026-09-25) Peddie, Meredith; Gale, Jennifer; Harland, Millie M; Grenfell, Sophie; Walker, Xaviour; Gerrard, David; Russell-Camp, Takiwai; Osborne, Hamish; Costa, Eduardo C; Waters, Debra L; Vlietstra, Lara
The aim of this study was to describe the dietary intakes of a sample of older retired New Zealand Olympics and/or Commonwealth Games athletes and compare intakes to the suggested dietary targets. Participants were recruited via the researchers' networks and by snowballing techniques. Dietary intake was estimated using three 24-h dietary recalls. Thirty-three adults (mean age 76 (8) years) who had represented New Zealand at an Olympic or Commonwealth Games between 1956 and 1990 participated. Men reported consuming 9499 (2646) kJ/day, while women were consuming 7404 (701) kJ/day. Both sexes consumed less carbohydrate, and more total and saturated fat, than recommended by the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges (AMDRs). All women, and 56% of men had calcium intakes below the estimated average requirement (EAR), while a substantial proportion of men were also at risk of inadequate magnesium (41%) and zinc (66%) intakes. Despite higher overall energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes than the general population of similar age, being an older retired elite athlete does not confer protection against age-related or population-wide dietary challenges. Targeted dietary interventions may be warranted to support healthy aging in this group.
Access status: Open Access ,
Seismic Performance Evaluation of Rocking Plasterboard Partition Walls Via Full-Scale Shake Table Tests
(Informa UK Limited, 2026-10-01) Shrestha, RK; Bhatta, J; Dhakal, RP; Sullivan, TJ; Tiwari, A; Liu, Y; Yan, Zhenduo; MacRae, GA; Zhang, Y; Xiang, P; Jia, L; Ramhormozian, Shahab; Clifton, GC; Quenneville, P; Rodgers, G; Zhao, X
This paper presents the seismic performance of rocking plasterboard partition walls installed on the first storey of a full-scale, three-storey steel-frame building subjected to unidirectional and bidirectional horizontal ground motions. Three configurations (planar, L-shaped, and T-shaped) of rocking partition walls with dual-slot tracks were tested to assess their response under various seismic inputs. Peak rocking displacements were measured and compared with theoretical predictions. The observed damage was classified into different damage states, which were correlated with inter-storey drift demands and non-structural performance levels defined in ASCE/SEI 41-23 (2023). The planar walls accommodated peak in-plane inter-storey drift ratios of up to 1.50% without any visible damage. In contrast, the L-shaped and T-shaped walls accommodated peak in-plane inter-storey drift ratios of up to 2.12%, sustaining moderate but easily repairable damage. The partition walls experienced out-of-plane acceleration demands higher than the corresponding peak floor accelerations, with median amplification factors ranging from 1.5 to 3.5. Additionally, dynamic characteristics of the wall system, including natural frequency and damping ratio, were derived from the experimental results. The out-of-plane natural frequencies were found to range from 9.51 Hz to 7.79 Hz for the T-shaped walls and from 13.18 Hz to 11.90 Hz for the planar walls. Both wall configurations exhibited similar damping ratios, with values falling within the 1–6% range.
Access status: Open Access ,
Identification of Activity Breaks Using Accelerometry
(MDPI AG, 2026-09-30) Peddie, Meredith; Gale, Jennifer; Tamblyn, Hannah; Haszard, Jillan
Laboratory studies show that performing ~2 min of activity every 20–30 min, known as activity breaks, is associated with improved cardiometabolic health outcomes. However, objectively identifying these activity breaks in a free-living setting remains challenging. This study aimed to develop and validate an algorithm to detect activity breaks using accelerometer data. Thirty-one healthy adults (mean (SD) age 33 (12) y, 71% female) wore three accelerometers (ActiGraphs on the wrist and hip; ActivPAL on the thigh) while completing eight activity breaks, approximately 30 min apart. Participants self-recorded activity break start and stop times. Lasso regression with an ‘activity break’ definition was used to develop an algorithm that used all three accelerometers and for each accelerometer individually, using two-thirds of participant data for development and the remaining third for testing. External validation was undertaken using an independent dataset. For the three-device algorithm, the mean difference between predicted and reported activity breaks was 0.0 (95% CI: −1.7, 1.7), while predicted break duration was, on average, 0.9 min longer than the reported duration (95% CI: 0.2, 1.6). These findings suggest the algorithm accurately estimates the frequency and duration of activity breaks and may be useful for quantifying this behaviour in free-living studies.
Access status: Open Access ,
Adoption of Proactive and Reactive Supply Chain Resilience Strategies: A Comparative Analysis of Apparel and Construction Industries in Sri Lanka
(Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), 2026-08-20) Ranawakage, Anuradha; Silva, Chathurani
With the current uncertain globalized supply chain (SC) networks, business organizations face serious resilience challenges during disruptions. To mitigate the effects of these disruptions, organizations adopt variety of resilience strategies. The degree of adoption of resilience strategies may differ across industries based on variances in the business environments and the characteristics of SCs. Considering the significance of exploring the differences, particularly, in the developing economies that have undergone frequent disruptive events due to economic and political reasons, this study assesses the degree of adoption of three proactive and three reactive SC resilience strategies in Sri Lankan apparel and construction industries. The primary data for this study were gathered using an online survey consisting of multi-itemed questions on the six resilience strategies from 162 apparel and 185 construction companies in Sri Lanka. The findings revealed that a significant difference exists between the two industries in terms of the level of implementation of five resilience strategies, namely, proactive collaboration, digital connectivity, integrated SC risk management, inventory and reserve capacity and lifeline maintenance, while reactive collaboration has no significant difference across the two industries in terms of implementation. Further analysis confirmed that the export-oriented apparel industry led in adopting SC resilience strategies, mainly the reactive strategies compared to the construction sector, which has project-based characteristics in SCs. Improving proactive strategies could be a great initiative to higher resilience performance in both apparel and construction sectors, where implementation could be challenging due to high resource and knowledge requirements of strategies including digital connectivity.