Developing Competency and Skills in Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust

Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust provides a large range of health, education, social, justice, economic and employment services to its predominantly West Auckland Maori constituency. It operates over a large number of sites and uses a wide range of networks, alliances and joint ventures to deliver its services. Its external environment, like many other New Zealand organisations, is characterised by rapid change and uncertainty. This paper is a preliminary analysis of some of the cultural and structural features of Waipareira and the ski/ling strategies it undertakes to survive in its environment. Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust is the fourth case study of the FRST funded "Economic Restructuring and Skills Formation" project undertaken by WEB Research

Direct comparison of processing technology in hardwood and softwood sawmills

This study compares the sawing accuracy of 273 machines in hardwood sawmills to 291 machines in softwood sawmills. Characteristics compared were kerf width, sawing variation (within-board, between-board, and total), machining wood loss per sawline, and oversizing/undersizing practices. While results varied between machine types by region, hardwood sawmills generally performed as well as, or sometimes better than, softwood sawmills for many of the machine characteristics studied

A performance evaluation of edging and trimming operations in U.S. hardwood sawmills

Edger and trimmer operators must make constant decisions in short time periods on the amount of materials to remove from boards produced in the sawmill. Their decisions directly affect the total volume, grade, and value of the boards, and they therefore directly affect the total value of lumber produced. In recent years, many softwood sawmills have installed computer controlled edgers and trimmers with scanners and optimizers to achieve higher recovery rates. Before similar, relatively expensive, technologies can be seriously evaluated for the hardwood industry, however, the current performance of edging and ·trimming operations must be known. Using a sample of 3360 boards, compiled from 37 hardwood sawmills located in 16 states, lumber grade, length, width, and dollar values obtained in edging and trimming operations were compared with values predicted by USDA Forest Service scientists for the same lumber. Significant differences between edging and trimming performance and predicted values were determined via statistical tests. A linear regression model was formulated to study the influence of overedging, overtrirnming, and grade difference on the percentage of predicted dollar value achieved. It was found that most sawmills edged a relatively low proportion of their total production. In 99% of the boards, edging and trimming operations achieved similar values for grade and length to those predicted by the USDA scientists. The value of the lumber increased significantly as the amount of overedging decreased

Translational Repression Mediated by the Genotoxic Agent Chromium (VI) Results in P-Body Formation in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Mechanisms to cope with oxidative stress are conserved across eukaryotes. For instance, exposure to oxidation can result in lipid and nucleic acid damage and elicit a stress response. The genotoxic agent, sodium dichromate oxidizes guanines resulting in OxoG bases, induces double strand breaks, or generates abasic sites. Therefore, an oxidative stress response is crucial to maintain proper cellular function. In response to stress, cells control gene expression by repressing translation. Repressed mRNA may localize to P-bodies or stress granules; cytoplasmic structures where non-translating mRNA are found. While P-bodies contain mRNA degradation factors, stress granules contain translation initiation factors, allowing for storage of mRNA until removal of the stress. Exposure of yeast to sodium dichromate caused an increase in P-bodies, whereas stress granules failed to form. The response occurs within 10 min. of exposure and is dependent on translational repression. Interestingly, use of the antioxidant, quercetin, abrogated the increase in P-body formation during co-treatment with sodium dichromate. Our data suggests a model in which damaged mRNA or mRNA transcribed from damaged genes are degraded rather than stored. We suspect oxidative damage may halt translating ribosomes on these mRNA, activating the no-go decay pathway

Developing Competency and Skills in Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust

Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust provides a large range of health, education, social, justice, economic and employment services to its predominantly West Auckland Maori constituency. It operates over a large number of sites and uses a wide range of networks, alliances and joint ventures to deliver its services. Its external environment, like many other New Zealand organisations, is characterised by rapid change and uncertainty. This paper is a preliminary analysis of some of the cultural and structural features of Waipareira and the ski/ling strategies it undertakes to survive in its environment. Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust is the fourth case study of the FRST funded "Economic Restructuring and Skills Formation" project undertaken by WEB Research

New Zealand Research on Skills Formation and the 'Learning Organisation': Critical Analysis of the Case Study Methodology

In recent years there has been continuing debate about what skills are needed for New Zealand's competitive business environment. Many commentators talk of a skills crisis, while some academics argue that the skills crisis is a myth. Recent research on workplace reform in seven 'leading edge' New Zealand companies highlights six crucial limitations of the debate. These are a focus on: i) individual skills rather than organisational culture, work design and employment relationships; ii) formal training rather than work-based learning; iii) the skills of school leavers rather than those of managers, supervisors and workers; and iv) technical, rather than organisational and team, skills. The debate also pays inadequate attention to v) how people learn in teams; and vi) the complexity of the current business and policy environment. In November 1993, N7JSR &D commenced a FRST -funded, three-year project on 'Economic Restructuring and Skills Formation' to address these limitations. Based on jive case studies in a range of sectors, the project examines characteristics of enterprises seeking sustainable competitive advantage by operating as a 'learning organisation'; one where the organisational structure itself is an environment for continuing education. Case study analysis is also used to understand the relationship between the company's corporate strategy and skilling process; the core skills required by managers, supervisors and workers, and how these are formed. The purpose of this paper is to outline the project's case study design, explain why this methodology has been selected and examine debates about its validity and utility

New Zealand Research on Skills Formation and the 'Learning Organisation': Critical Analysis of the Case Study Methodology

In recent years there has been continuing debate about what skills are needed for New Zealand's competitive business environment. Many commentators talk of a skills crisis, while some academics argue that the skills crisis is a myth. Recent research on workplace reform in seven 'leading edge' New Zealand companies highlights six crucial limitations of the debate. These are a focus on: i) individual skills rather than organisational culture, work design and employment relationships; ii) formal training rather than work-based learning; iii) the skills of school leavers rather than those of managers, supervisors and workers; and iv) technical, rather than organisational and team, skills. The debate also pays inadequate attention to v) how people learn in teams; and vi) the complexity of the current business and policy environment. In November 1993, N7JSR &D commenced a FRST -funded, three-year project on 'Economic Restructuring and Skills Formation' to address these limitations. Based on jive case studies in a range of sectors, the project examines characteristics of enterprises seeking sustainable competitive advantage by operating as a 'learning organisation'; one where the organisational structure itself is an environment for continuing education. Case study analysis is also used to understand the relationship between the company's corporate strategy and skilling process; the core skills required by managers, supervisors and workers, and how these are formed. The purpose of this paper is to outline the project's case study design, explain why this methodology has been selected and examine debates about its validity and utility

The ABC130 barrel module prototyping programme for the ATLAS strip tracker

For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS Detector, its Inner Detector, consisting of silicon pixel, silicon strip and transition radiation sub-detectors, will be replaced with an all new 100 % silicon tracker, composed of a pixel tracker at inner radii and a strip tracker at outer radii. The future ATLAS strip tracker will include 11,000 silicon sensor modules in the central region (barrel) and 7,000 modules in the forward region (end-caps), which are foreseen to be constructed over a period of 3.5 years. The construction of each module consists of a series of assembly and quality control steps, which were engineered to be identical for all production sites. In order to develop the tooling and procedures for assembly and testing of these modules, two series of major prototyping programs were conducted: an early program using readout chips designed using a 250 nm fabrication process (ABCN-25) and a subsequent program using a follow-up chip set made using 130 nm processing (ABC130 and HCC130 chips). This second generation of readout chips was used for an extensive prototyping program that produced around 100 barrel-type modules and contributed significantly to the development of the final module layout. This paper gives an overview of the components used in ABC130 barrel modules, their assembly procedure and findings resulting from their tests.Comment: 82 pages, 66 figure