Back to the future: Team‐centred, resource‐based learning as the antecedent of computer‐based learning

In this paper, I argue that gains can be made in both staff efficiency and educational value by replacing the traditional lecture/practical format of higher‐education courses with a new format involving team‐centred, resource‐based learning (RBL). Under the new format, students are deployed in independent teams to tackle a series of tasks supported by various resources, including documentation, email access to a tutor and, of course, the team itself. The new format also fosters personal transferable skills (teamwork, time management), which are not directly addressed by the traditional lecture/practical format. I further argue that whereas computer‐based learning applications typically have a minor role as an adjunct to the traditional lecture format, they provide a natural medium for the delivery of resources in the RBL format. I illustrate my contention by reference to Bio. 1001, a course in fundamental science skills for first‐year undergraduates. The results of student evaluations exemplify the success of the RBL format in Bio. 1001. Moreover, the new course returned substantial increases in staff efficiency. I describe the potential for computers to play a greater part in the course in future. In conclusion, I speculate that the team‐based, RBL format can be usefully generalized to any course that can be converted to continuous assessment by serial, group tasks

A mechanistic model of pollinator-mediated gene flow in agricultural safflower

publication-status: PublishedCopyright © 2010 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Basic and Applied Ecology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Basic and Applied Ecology, 2010, 11 (5), pp. 415–421 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2009.12.006In many species of crop plant, gene flow by cross-pollination is possible between spatially separate fields. To preserve a crop's varietal purity or to restrict ingress into conventional varieties of genetically modified (GM) genes, a quantitative understanding of gene flow is useful. Previous measurements of gene flow in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), a crop with GM varieties, were made in plots of less than 1 ha. Here, I evaluate a mathematical model of field-to-field gene flow due to insect pollination using parameter values appropriate to a large agricultural field of safflower. The model was solved based on laboratory pollination experiments and observations made on a large (40 ha) safflower field in Lethbridge, Canada that was pollinated by honey bees (Apis mellifera) and bumble bees (Bombus spp.). The model estimated the maximum feasible level of bee-mediated, field-to-field gene flow to range between 0.05% and 0.005% of seed set (95% upper confidence intervals of 0.23% and 0.023%), depending on the composition of the bee fauna. These relatively low values emerged for two reasons: safflower has a high capacity for automatic self-fertilization; and bees undertook long foraging bouts in the field, which made between-field pollinations relatively rare. A strategy for minimizing GM gene flow should utilize a conventional safflower variety that has a high capacity for automatic self-fertilization and should allow the conventional plants to grow in large stands to encourage long foraging bouts by bees

Disengagement, Pedagogical Eros and (the undoing of?) Dialogic pedagogy

Dialogic pedagogy is an approach to education influenced by Bakhtin, Freire, and others. It is an approach that is critical of conventional education, which tends to be didactic and alienating to students. Student engagement is made central as dialogue takes priority over standardization and core cannons of content. Dialogic pedagogy also emphasizes the importance of communities of learners where teachers are co-learners along with students as all parties work on problems together. I seek to raise challenges to Dialogic Pedagogy and these come from scholars working on the “conduct of everyday life” and from Charles Taylor’s notion of “strong evaluations”. The conduct of everyday life involves a focus on first-person subjectivities with an eye to their constitution in social and power relations. Strong evaluations enhance this discussion by addressing how people can engage in decisions that involve weighing options about the qualitative kind of person one is. I outline how education involves a conduct of everyday life where strong evaluations are promoted. Taking such an approach to education grounds two challenges to dialogic pedagogy. One challenge is that students are reticent to engage in strong evaluations and the modern identity is one disposed to disengagement. The converse challenge is that student engagement entails pedagogical eros, which is easily converted into power and abuse by a pedagogue

Rediscovery of the Florida Scorpionfly, Panorpa floridana Byers (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)

We describe the rediscovery of the Florida scorpionfly, Panorpa floridana Byers (Mecoptera: Panorpidae), at Gold Head Branch State Park, Clay County, Florida, based upon a single, living, adult specimen photographed on 4 November 2010. The hardcopy photographic prints and electronic digital images of this panorpid are the first vouchers for P. floridana in 28 years, the only observation of a living specimen, and the sixth individual known of this seemingly rare Florida endemic

Western airborne electronic warfare from Vietnam to the Gulf War : a revolution or rediscovery of fundamental principles and practices? : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for a degree of Master of Arts in Defence and Strategic Studies at Massey University

The purpose of this thesis is to study electronic warfare to determine whether experiences and practices from the Vietnam War to the Gulf War represent a revolution in electronic warfare or a rediscovery of fundamental doctrine. This is a contemporary question because the idea of a revolution in military affairs and an associated information revolution is pervasive in contemporary military literature. Military revolutions 'are generally understood to be changes in military technology, concepts of operation, and military organisations which, over the course of perhaps two or three decades, transform the conduct of war and make possible order-of-magnitude gains in military effectiveness. 1 Keith Thomas, The Revolution in Military Affairs Warfare in the Information Age Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Center 1997,p.3. Another definition is that a military revolution 'occurs when technological change ... combined with organisational and operational change, result in a transformation in the conduct of warfare. 2 Thomas, p.28. This thesis questions whether a revolution in military affairs extends to a revolution in electronic warfare (EW). Have new ideas and new technology been applied in the last 40 years to produce a new form of electronic warfare operations? This thesis will study the development of airborne electronic warfare after the introduction and development of integrated air defence systems that include surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). It will ascertain and evaluate changes in officially sanctioned beliefs and the collective body of thought on the best way to employ airborne electronic warfare practices, equipment and theory. Practical experience will be considered to highlight a number of consistent themes that arise and indicate continuities. These include problems with doctrine, problems with planning, and a reluctance to fully utilize EW. Inconsistent application of EW practices and equipment, a consistent lack of electronic protection below 10,000 feet, incremental development of EW equipment and practices, and recurrent system failures also arise as themes. These themes do not represent quantum improvements or order of magnitude changes that would be consistent with an EW revolution

1.2 Three cardinal numbers to safeguard bees against pesticide exposure: LD50 , NOEC (revised) and the Haber exponent.

Regulators often employ cardinal indicators to justify measures to protect the health of farmland bees from pesticides used in crop protection. Previously, in evaluating the likely hazard of a compound, they have made extensive use of its LD50 (‘lethal dose to 50% of exposed subjects’), and NOEC (‘no observable effect concentration’). Here, I argue that regulators should also use a third indicator, namely the Haber exponent. The Haber exponent qualifies the meaning of the LD50 by revealing the relative hazard of environmentally relevant exposures longer than that used to determine the LD50 originally. Additionally, I show how the experimental protocol used to determine the Haber exponent will also produce a well-founded, parametric value of the NOEC. Taken together, these three numbers establish a strong foundation on which to evaluate the potential impact of an agrochemical on bees.Regulators often employ cardinal indicators to justify measures to protect the health of farmland bees from pesticides used in crop protection. Previously, in evaluating the likely hazard of a compound, they have made extensive use of its LD50 (‘lethal dose to 50% of exposed subjects’), and NOEC (‘no observable effect concentration’). Here, I argue that regulators should also use a third indicator, namely the Haber exponent. The Haber exponent qualifies the meaning of the LD50 by revealing the relative hazard of environmentally relevant exposures longer than that used to determine the LD50 originally. Additionally, I show how the experimental protocol used to determine the Haber exponent will also produce a well-founded, parametric value of the NOEC. Taken together, these three numbers establish a strong foundation on which to evaluate the potential impact of an agrochemical on bees

Repression and recuperation of brood production in Bombus terrestris bumble bees exposed to a pulse of the neonicotinoid pesticide Imidacloprid

Currently, there is concern about declining bee populations and some blame the residues of neonicotinoid pesticides in the nectar and pollen of treated crops. Bumble bees are important wild pollinators that are widely exposed to dietary neonicotinoids by foraging in agricultural environments. In the laboratory, we tested the effect of a pulsed exposure (14 days ‘on dose’ followed by 14 days ‘off dose’) to a common neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, on the amount of brood (number of eggs and larvae) produced by Bombus terrestris L. bumble bees in small, standardised experimental colonies (a queen and four adult workers). During the initial ‘on dose’ period we observed a dose-dependent repression of brood production in colonies, with productivity decreasing as dosage increased up to 98 mg kg-1 dietary imidacloprid. During the following ‘off dose’ period, colonies showed a dose-dependent recuperation such that total brood production during the 28-day pulsed exposure was not correlated with imidacloprid up to 98 mg kg-1. Our findings raise further concern about the threat to wild bumble bees from neonicotinoids, but they also indicate some resilience to a pulsed exposure, such as that arising from the transient bloom of a treated mass-flowering crop.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

"There are too many, but never enough": qualitative case study investigating routine coding of clinical information in depression.

We sought to understand how clinical information relating to the management of depression is routinely coded in different clinical settings and the perspectives of and implications for different stakeholders with a view to understanding how these may be aligned

Promoting Dialogic Pedagogy through Restricting Technologies

This commentary responds to claims Eugene Matusov makes about a student's right to the use of certain technologies in his or her education. We argue that the use, in particular, of adaptive technologies actually has the potential to inhibit a student's free choice (rather than facilitate it) and that through restricting certain technologies, genuine dialogic pedagogy may more successfully be promoted. We also engage Matusov's concept of the radical freedom necessary for education