32 research outputs found

    Sailing into the wind : new disciplines in Australian higher education

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    Much is made of the potential of lifelong learning for individuals and organisations. In this article we tend to make much less of it, certainly with respect to its use in universities to discipline academics. Nevertheless, we argue that academics now need to re-learn the positions they occupy and the stances they take in response to the marketisation of Australian universities. In particular, we suggest that the position of (pure) critique no longer commands attention in Australian contexts of higher education, although the paper does not suggest a disregard for a critical stance purely for the sake of participation. It is in understanding the interconnections between position and stance , and how they might be strategically performed during the everyday practices of academics, that a more promising way of engaging with the venalities of the market is envisaged; a strategy that could be described as \u27sailing into the wind\u27. In discussing these matters, the paper draws on semi-structured interviews with academics located in university faculties/departments/schools of education along Australia\u27s eastern seaboard

    The A622 gene in Nicotiana glauca (tree tobacco): evidence for a functional role in pyridine alkaloid synthesis

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    Nicotiana glauca (Argentinean tree tobacco) is atypical within the genus Nicotiana, accumulating predominantly anabasine rather than nicotine and/or nornicotine as the main component of its leaf pyridine alkaloid fraction. The current study examines the role of the A622 gene from N. glauca (NgA622) in alkaloid production and utilises an RNAi approach to down-regulate gene expression and diminish levels of A622 protein in transgenic tissues. Results indicate that RNAi-mediated reduction in A622 transcript levels markedly reduces the capacity of N. glauca to produce anabasine resulting in plants with scarcely any pyridine alkaloids in leaf tissues, even after damage to apical tissues. In addition, analysis of hairy roots containing the NgA622-RNAi construct shows a substantial reduction in both anabasine and nicotine levels within these tissues, even if stimulated with methyl jasmonate, indicating a role for the A622 enzyme in the synthesis of both alkaloids in roots of N. glauca. Feeding of Nicotinic Acid (NA) to hairy roots of N. glauca containing the NgA622-RNAi construct did not restore capacity for synthesis of anabasine or nicotine. Moreover, treatment of these hairy root lines with NA did not lead to an increase in anatabine levels, unlike controls. Together, these results strongly suggest that A622 is an integral component of the final enzyme complex responsible for biosynthesis of all three pyridine alkaloids in Nicotiana

    Ethiopian students’ relationship with their environment: implications for environmental and climate adaptation programmes

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    Historically the voices of young people have been excluded from research and debates about how to respond to environmental degradation and climate change. To include the perspectives of young people in the climate change and adaptation debate, we conducted a Photovoice and draw-and-write project with 29 school students in Ethiopia, through which students were given a platform to explore their social representations of the environment. Thematic analysis of our findings suggested that young people have a deep appreciation of the moral, health-related and economic importance of the environment, a commitment to preserving it and a sense of responsibility and agency in relation to contributing to this preservation. Students saw environmental degradation as reversible, through a combination of commitment by themselves, local government and the global community. We conclude by discussing ways our findings might best be taken up in school-level programmes to strengthen youths’ existing social networks for the consolidation of ‘green’ identities, action and activism
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