Ecological restoration in Hamilton City, North Island, New Zealand

Hamilton City (New Zealand) has less than 20 hectares of high-quality, indigenous species dominated ecosystems, and only 1.6% of the original indigenous vegetation remains within the ecological district. A gradual recognition of the magnitude of landscape transformation has gathered momentum to the stage that there is now a concerted public and private effort to retrofit the City by restoring and reconstructing indigenous ecosystems. The initial focus was on rehabilitating existing key sites, but has shifted to restoring parts of the distinctive gully landform that occupies some 750 ha or 8% of the City. A new initiative at Waiwhakareke (Horseshoe Lake) will involve reconstruction from scratch of a range of ecosystems characteristic of the ecological district over an area of 60 ha. This address will examine a vision for ecological restoration in Hamilton City within the context of policy, education, and community dimensions that have triggered a shift from traditional parks and gardens management to ecosystem management

Rich environments for active learning: a definition

Rich Environments for Active Learning, or REALs, are comprehensive instructional systems that evolve from and are consistent with constructivist philosophies and theories. To embody a constructivist view of learning, REALs: promote study and investigation within authentic contexts; encourage the growth of student responsibility, initiative, decision making, and intentional learning; cultivate collaboration among students and teachers; utilize dynamic, interdisciplinary, generative learning activities that promote higher-order thinking processes to help students develop rich and complex knowledge structures; and assess student progress in content and learning-to-learn within authentic contexts using realistic tasks and performances. REALs provide learning activities that engage students in a continuous collaborative process of building and reshaping understanding as a natural consequence of their experiences and interactions within learning environments that authentically reflect the world around them. In this way, REALs are a response to educational practices that promote the development of inert knowledge, such as conventional teacher-to-student knowledge-transfer activities. In this article, we describe and organize the shared elements of REALs, including the theoretical foundations and instructional strategies to provide a common ground for discussion. We compare existing assumptions underlying education with new assumptions that promote problem-solving and higher-level thinking. Next, we examine the theoretical foundation that supports these new assumptions. Finally, we describe how REALs promote these new assumptions within a constructivist framework, defining each REAL attribute and providing supporting examples of REAL strategies in action

Young children learning in Gaelic: Investigating children's learning experiences in Gaelic-medium pre-school. Research Briefing 6E. Stirling

Gaelic-medium (GM) education is an important part of current efforts to re-vitalise the language in Scotland. Beginning Gaelic-medium education in preschool is seen as a crucial entry point, enhancing the numbers entering GM primary education and facilitating transition to the school learning environment. However, it is essential that GM preschool is of high quality. Government-funded provision is expected to offer children the same learning opportunities as their peers who attend English-medium settings. Meeting these expectations is challenging because most children enter Gaelic-medium preschool from English-speaking homes so that the nursery or playgroup is their only exposure to Gaelic. Our earlier study mapped the range and extent of Gaelic-medium early education and childcare provision but in the research reported here our focus was on what happens within settings, the children’s activities in the playroom and the ways in which practitioners help them to learn Gaelic, as well as ensuring that national expectations about curriculum and learning outcomes are met

Spacelike boundaries from the c=1 Matrix Model

We find classical solutions of two dimensional noncritical string theory which give rise to geometries with spacelike boundaries, similar to spacetimes with cosmological event horizons. In the c=1 matrix model, these solutions have a representation as simple time dependent configurations. We obtain the causal structure of the resulting spacetimes. Using the macroscopic loop transform, we probe the form of the tachyon condensate in the asymptotic regions.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, v2: reference added, v3: minor correction

Understanding the role of chromatin remodeling in the regulation of circadian transcription in Drosophila.

Circadian clocks enable organisms to anticipate daily changes in the environment and coordinate temporal rhythms in physiology and behavior with the 24-h day-night cycle. The robust cycling of circadian gene expression is critical for proper timekeeping, and is regulated by transcription factor binding, RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) recruitment and elongation, and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Recently, it has become clear that dynamic alterations in chromatin landscape at the level of histone posttranslational modification and nucleosome density facilitate rhythms in transcription factor recruitment and RNAPII activity, and are essential for progression through activating and repressive phases of circadian transcription. Here, we discuss the characterization of the BRAHMA (BRM) chromatin-remodeling protein in Drosophila in the context of circadian clock regulation. By dissecting its catalytic vs. non-catalytic activities, we propose a model in which the non-catalytic activity of BRM functions to recruit repressive factors to limit the transcriptional output of CLOCK (CLK) during the active phase of circadian transcription, while the primary function of the ATP-dependent catalytic activity is to tune and prevent over-recruitment of negative regulators by increasing nucleosome density. Finally, we divulge ongoing efforts and investigative directions toward a deeper mechanistic understanding of transcriptional regulation of circadian gene expression at the chromatin level