Infectious rhythms

A commentary on the 1st Auckland Triennial, the chapter engages with the work of artists John Lyall, Mariele Neudecker, Michael Parekowhai and Bill Hammond in order to explore the biological and cultural dimensions of inhabiting an island. It links together processes of biological species introduction (and bio-invasion) with cultural transmission, suggesting that there are similar dynamics at work in the biological and cultural realms. As a site of `infectious rhythms' of invasion, catastrophe and creativity, the material experience of island life, it is suggested, is far from that of the tranquillity and timelessness often imagined by distant metropolitan centres

Defining ethnicity in a cultural and socio-legal context : the case of Scottish gypsy-travellers

Scottish Gypsy/Travellers are 'to be regarded' as an ethnic group in Scotland by both the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive until a test case in a court of law clarifies matters. Since 2000-01 this fact has not been contested in any meaningful way and it is now the case that Gypsy/Traveller children, if they choose, can tick their own box in school Census counts. It logically follows from this that they can, in principle, experience racial discrimination. As it stands Scottish Gypsy/Travellers are undoubtedly as much an 'ethnic group' as any other which is currently protected by the Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended 2000) despite the fact that at the moment they generally lack the substantive protection of the Act in the Scottish context. It follows that Scottish Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland or Britain can experience racial discrimination which is not dissimilar to that experienced by all the minority ethnic groups currently protected by race relations legislation, including English Gypsies and Irish Travellers. Whether they do experience racism is, of course, a matter for the police and courts to address in the individual cases that occur rather than any academic analysis. The next stage of the process will, eventually, see a test case come before the Scottish courts and complete its journey through the legal system. Only when this happens will the socio-legal status of Scottish Gypsy/Traveller ethnicity be firmly decided

Fostering Creative Thinking and Reflexive Evaluation in Searching: Instructional Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development in Information Literacy Acquisition

Searching for information, which is not as easy as many students believe, requires creativity, formative evaluation, and persistence. Cultivating proficient and expert searches requires more than the vicarious and enactive experiences described by Bandura1 that are frequently employed in traditional library instruction: students need to be supported and coached in working in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which stimulates learning.

Time management.

This manual provides guidance on the most effective use of managers' time in complex and pressured situations, particularly in the tourism sector

Discontinuity of Lyapunov Exponents Near Fiber Bunched Cocycles

We give examples of locally constant $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$-cocycles over a Bernoulli shift which are discontinuity points for Lyapunov exponents in the H\"older topology and are arbitrarily close to satisfying the fiber bunching inequality. Backes, Brown, and the author have shown that the Lyapunov exponents vary continuously when restricted to the space of fiber bunched H\"older continuous cocycles. Our examples give evidence that this theorem is optimal within certain families of H\"older cocycles.Comment: 16 pages. v2: Modified the abstract. Improved exposition in the introduction. v3: Final arXiv version. Variance calculation at the end has been corrected. Many typos corrected. To appear in Ergodic Theory and Dynamical System

An evaluation of a methadone treatment programme : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University

The evaluation of a methadone treatment programme was the main focus of this study. A posttest-only design, with a nonequivalent comparison group was used to evaluate both summative and formative aspects of the programme. Participants were 21 opiate abusers (methadone group) and 22 alcohol and polydrug abusers (alcohol and polydrug group) who completed a questionnaire designed to assess demographic and treatment variables, alcohol and drug usage, employment, criminal activity, health, and interpersonal relationships, in the before, during, and after treatment periods. The outcome measures revealed that the methadone programme was effective in reducing opiate, nonopiate analgesic, tranquillizer and stimulant use; decreasing high alcohol consumption to a level considered nonabusive, and decreasing the number of marijuana related criminal convictions. Unanticipated findings were a deterioration in rating of health and no change in the number of days spent sick in bed, friendship satisfaction, or number of friends out of the drug scene. No predictors of treatment outcomes were established, and there were no major differences between the methadone group, and the alcohol and polydrug group in terms of treatment effects. Recommendations for the methadone programme included detailed and procedural steps of how to cope when withdrawing from methadone treatment; health and nutrition education; and social skills and assertiveness training. These are considered essential if the philosophy and goals of the programme are to be attained