Massey Research Online
Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to the research repository at Massey University – Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa.
Find and share full text theses, dissertations, exegeses, and original open access scholarly works by our researchers and postgraduate students.
Communities in MRO
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Item
A Conceptual Framework for Enhancing Construction Safety in Sri Lanka Through Digital Technology Implementation
(MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, 2025-04) Chathuranga N; Thajdeen F; Siriwardana C; Shrestha PP
The hazardous and unpredictable nature of construction work poses substantial safety challenges. Despite the long-standing reliance on traditional safety practices, accident rates in the construction industry remain unacceptably high, highlighting the urgent need for innovative solutions. Integrating digital technologies into construction offers a promising approach to safety enhancement with diverse applications. However, successful technology implementation requires user acceptance and strategic guidance. Consequently, this study develops a conceptual framework to guide digital technology implementation efforts to improve construction safety in Sri Lanka. The framework incorporates essential aspects of technology implementation, including safety application areas, benefits, barriers, and facilitators. The research methodology combines an industry-based cross-sectional survey of 101 construction industry professionals followed by a relative importance index analysis to evaluate the perceived significance of these factors. The findings indicate that the primary barriers to technology implementation are the skills and training gap, as well as the cost and investment constraints. The optimal facilitators to overcome barriers include research and development, education and training, and the establishment of industry-wide standards and guidelines. The framework is validated through an expert survey, ensuring its reliability and applicability. Ultimately, the findings present a structured approach to enhancing construction safety standards in Sri Lanka through digital transformation.
Item
Client Perspectives of Family Therapy: A Qualitative Systematic Review
(Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 2025-07) Todd E; Pond R; Coomber K
This qualitative systematic review aimed to synthesize and discuss family members' perspectives of helpful and unhelpful factors in family therapy (FT) sessions, to benefit the application of FT interventions and training. Eleven studies met eligibility criteria and were critically appraised and thematically synthesized. Four themes resulted: therapist qualities contributing to the therapeutic alliance, practitioners' use of therapeutic techniques, intervention delivery, and family engagement with the process. Helpful factors included therapist warmth, kindness, and genuine care; therapist connecting with family in a sensitive, respectful, and nonjudgmental manner; effective use of therapeutic techniques that facilitated self-reflection, emotional expression, communication, and perspective-taking; therapy sessions conducted collaboratively with active family participation; focusing on family strengths and resources; and tailoring format to family needs. Unhelpful factors included participants sharing before ready, therapist siding with a family member, therapy process not matching family needs, and insufficient progress early on. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Item
Mpox: A case study for a one health approach to infectious disease prevention
(Elsevier B V, Amsterdam, 2025-06) Hayman DTS; Koopmans MPG; Cunningham AA; Bukachi SA; Masirika LM; Markotter W; Mettenleiter TC
Mpox has been declared a global health emergency twice by the World Health Organization due to its impacts within and beyond Africa. Enzootic in Central and West African wildlife, mpox outbreaks have resulted from zoonotic spillover, with recent events revealing increased human-to-human transmission. Factors like population growth and environmental disruption, alongside reduced smallpox immunity, increase emergence risk. In addition, the emergence in South Kivu of a distinct subclade of mpox virus points at a currently understudied aspect of mpox virus lineages and their dynamics in reservoir hosts. A One Health approach—integrating human, animal, and environmental science—is essential for reducing the risk of mpox emergence. This approach should encompass ecological studies to understand putative reservoir population dynamics and the potential for interventions, reducing activities that increase human-animal contacts, respectful community engagement to reduce spillover risk from cultural practices (such as hunting multiple species of wildlife for consumption), and socially acceptable and equitable access to medical and non-medical countermeasures to prevent or control ongoing human-to-human transmission. Politically supported collaborative efforts across disciplines with involvement of stakeholders are critical to promote and strengthen socially and environmentally sustainable practices to mitigate future outbreaks.
Item
Insights into the pathogenesis of catastrophic spontaneous humeral fractures in first-lactation dairy cows
(CSIRO Publishing, Australia, 2025-05-06) Wehrle-Martinez AS; Lawrence KE; Back PJ; Rogers CW; Gibson MJ; Dittmer KE; Eastwood C
Spontaneous humeral fractures in first-lactation dairy cows have introduced significant challenges to the dairy industry in New Zealand, impacting animal welfare, farm economics, and veterinary practices. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the pathogenesis of these fractures and identifies potential key risk factors. The majority of bones from affected first-lactation dairy cows have osteoporosis, which is associated with inadequate bone formation and increased bone resorption. In addition, low total collagen content in bones from most affected dairy cows supports the hypothesis that inadequate bone formation is an important risk factor associated with humeral fractures in these cows. Spectroscopic analyses further confirmed a significant reduction in bone quality and strength. Novel findings suggest that low liver copper concentration in many of the affected cows' results from the mobilisation of copper to the bone. Although limited, the accumulated evidence suggests that to mitigate the incidence of catastrophic fractures, adequate nutrition (especially protein-energy) should be supplied during important growth periods. While significant progress has been made in understanding the cause of these fractures, many uncertainties and areas requiring further research remain.
Item
The genetic parameters of racing success and longevity in the New Zealand Thoroughbred racing industry
(Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, New Zealand, 2025-04-23) Chin YY; Sneddon NW; Gibson MJ; Legg KA; Gee EK; Rogers CW; Handcock R
Within the Thoroughbred industry, individual success can be measured with races and prize money won. At an industry level, there is a requirement for horses to be able to race from a young age and have a sustained injury-free career. Therefore, the variance components of such traits were investigated within ASReml for 26,920 New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorses. Age at first competitive high-speed event (trial or race start) had high heritability (h2= 0.52 ± 0.02), and an inverse genetic correlation with career earnings (−0.40 ± 0.05) and number of wins (−0.35 ± 0.06). Career earnings (h2 = 0.24 ± 0.02) had positive genetic and phenotypic correlations (0.59 ± 0.004) with career length, implying that racing success could be a useful selection proxy for career length. Horses that started earlier had longer career length (−0.21 ± 0.07,–0.18 ± 0.01). The low heritability of career length (0.11 ± 0.01) reflects considerable environmental influence on this trait, reinforcing the importance of early training and exercise in increasing career length. Therefore, the optimal strategy is a selection programme focusing on racing success, which improves commercial appeal and is genetically correlated with longevity. A training and racing programme that encourage an early competitive high-speed event would optimise the phenotypic development of the musculoskeletal system and reduce injury risk.