Aid, development and English language teaching : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The past few decades have seen the ascendancy of English as the global language of business and international interaction and as a result it has come to be viewed in the minds of many policy makers as fundamental to development. Accordingly English language instruction programmes have increasingly been integrated into development programmes both at a domestic recipient and international donor level. These programmes are frequently framed within the paradigms of empowerment and capacity building yet little readily accessible research seems to be available regarding the practical role English language aid programmes may play in these processes with most examination seeming to be centred either on discourse debate or cost/benefit analysis of programmes. This thesis endeavours to examine the perceptions of recipients and providers regarding the provision of English language instruction programmes. It finds that despite a provider focus on institutional capacity building extrinsic, primarily economic, considerations ensure that there is a strong recipient demand for these programmes. It also finds that, even with an increasing provider desire to use participatory paradigms, programme parameters are still largely determined by providers due to their control of funds. By reason of this the efficacy of English language instruction in promoting recipient empowerment and capacity building remains open to question

A revision of the genus Gymnetina Casey, 1915 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae: Gymnetini)

The genus Gymnetina Casey (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae: Gymnetini) is redescribed and revised. Three new species and one new subspecies are described: G. borealis Warner and Ratcliffe, G. grossepunctata Ratcliffe and Warner, G. howdeni Warner and Ratcliffe, and G. cretacea sundbergi Warner and Ratcliffe. Gymnetina salicis (Bates), new status, is removed from synonymy with G. cretacea (LeConte), and G. alboscripta (Janson) is transferred from Gymnetis MacLeay to Gymnetina becoming Gymnetina alboscripta (Janson), new combination. Redescriptions of previously known species, a key for identification, and illustrations of the six species are provided. A brief biogeographical analysis suggests that ancestral taxa dispersed northwards from Guatemala and Mexico to the southwestern United States

We should welcome the increased reach and influence of select committees as a sign of a rejuvenated Parliament

In this post William Brett concedes that there is certainly a case for some clearer internal regulations guiding the process of committee hearings, but offers overall support for the role of select committees. By being able to operate in the public, political space between the law and private entities, they are integral in holding power to account and ultimately act in the interest of the public

Epitope mapping using mRNA display and a unidirectional nested deletion library

In vitro selection targeting an anti-polyhistidine monoclonal antibody was performed using mRNA display with a random, unconstrained 27-mer peptide library. After six rounds of selection, epitope-like peptides were identified that contain two to five consecutive, internal histidines and are biased for arginine residues, without any other identifiable consensus. The epitope was further refined by constructing a high-complexity, unidirectional fragment library from the final selection pool. Selection by mRNA display minimized the dominant peptide from the original selection to a 15-residue functional sequence (peptide Cmin: RHDAGDHHHHHGVRQ; K-D = 38 nM). Other peptides recovered from the fragment library selection revealed a separate consensus motif (ARRXA) C-terminal to the histidine track. Kinetics measurements made by surface plasmon resonance, using purified Fab (antigen-binding fragment) to prevent avidity effects, demonstrate that the selected peptides bind with 10- to 75-fold higher affinities than a hexahistidine peptide. The highest affinity peptides (K-D approximate to 10 nM) encode both a short histidine track and the ARRXA motif, suggesting that the motif and other flanking residues make important contacts adjacent to the core polyhistidine-binding site and can contribute > 2.5 kcal/mol of binding free energy. The fragment library construction methodology described here is applicable to the development of high-complexity protein or cDNA expression libraries for the identification of protein-protein interaction domains

Zero temperature black holes in semiclassical gravity

The semiclassical Einstein equations are solved to first order in $\epsilon = \hbar/M^2$ for the case of an extreme or nearly extreme Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole perturbed by the vacuum stress-energy of quantized free fields. It is shown that, for realistic fields of spin 0, 1/2, or 1, any zero temperature black hole solution to the equations must have an event horizon at $r_h < |Q|$, with $Q$ the charge of the black hole. It is further shown that no black hole solutions with $r_h < |Q|$ can be obtained by solving the semiclassical Einstein equations perturbatively.Comment: 7 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the Ninth Marcel Grossmann Meeting, change in titl

Reclaiming Flow: A Phenomenological Study of Secondary School Counselors

Contemporary research pertaining to the experiences of flow in education is scarce and that which does exist in the literature often focused on the teacher-student relationship. The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive, phenomenological approach (IPA) study was to examine the lived experiences of secondary school counselors as related to occupational and team flow in one school district. Through the lenses of occupational and team flow, the developing rate of work-related burnout and overall job satisfaction were addressed by examining the lived experiences of five counselors across four Student Service departments. An IPA approach was implemented to approach the research questions. Data were collected via 15 in-depth phenomenological interviews along with one focus group during the fall 2023 academic semester. To reach the essence of the experience of occupational and team flow in one school district, categories of themes emerged from the research data: Occupational Flow, Team Flow, and Lived Experiences. Additionally, a new category of optimal experience related to flow, termed Meaningful Flow, emerged from the data. Meaningful flow is a state of mind where one is immersed in the fulfillment of purposeful tasks of personal and professional significance—an emotional mindset of role satisfaction. The findings have implications for secondary school counselors, administrators, and future flow research in one Rocky Mountain region school district