Development of an in vitro assay to screen Agathis australis (kauri) for resistance to Phytophthora agathidicida : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

The iconic Agathis australis (kauri) of New Zealand, is under serious threat from kauri dieback disease caused by the soil-borne pathogen Phytophthora agathidicida. Infected kauri express symptoms of root and collar rot, bleeding resins at the base of the trunk, yellowing of foliage, canopy thinning, and tree mortality. Phytophthora agathidicida was first associated with kauri decline in 1972, where it was initially identified as P. heveae however, there was some uncertainty about its significance and taxonomy. The pathogen was officially identified as a new organism in 2008 and was called Phytophthora taxon Agathis until its formal description as Phytophthora agathidicida in 2015. This pathogen is easily vectored through root to root contact and mobile zoospores. Management and research has focused on mapping pathogen distribution, reducing spread, improving detection, ex situ conservation and clonal production using tissue culture techniques. In order to gain better understanding of the disease epidemiology and to develop better breeding programmes, a reliable in vitro resistance screening assay is required. This research focused on the development of a screening assay using detached leaves from tissue culture material as a means of accelerating screening assays compared to the more labour-intensive root inoculation assays. Foliar inoculations and assessment techniques were initially optimised on kauri leaves from tissue culture lines. The most successful inoculation method involved placing P. agathidicida-colonised agar plugs on wounded detached leaves. The assay was further tested on 2 year old kauri seedlings. Variation in susceptibility across kauri genotypes and leaf age, and variation in virulence among P. agathidicida isolates was observed. To further investigate the impact of leaf age on lesion extension, an assay was conducted on detached leaves from six rooted kauri saplings over 5 years of age, across three leaf age groups with P. agathidicida, P. multivora, and P. cinnamomi. Variation in virulence among these Phytophthora species was observed. Leaf necrosis was most severe with young tissue and susceptibility tended to decrease with increasing leaf age. Preliminary studies with 50 kauri clones identified different levels of susceptibility and tolerance across the different genotypes to P. agathidicida. The methods developed within this study have increased our understanding of the overall response of kauri to P. agathidicida foliar inoculations. This study demonstrated variation in the susceptability of kauri foliage to Phytophthora inoculation, although no complete resistance was observed. Further work is required to determine if there is a relationship between root and leaf responses which will help establish if in vitro genotypic variation can accurately predict natural genotypic variation seen within kauri forests

Ethical dilemmas are not simply black and white

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Ethics and Social Practice on 1 July 2008, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496530801948838.This article aims to highlight some of the ethical issues that arise when social work educators plan to involve service users and carers from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in the teaching of social work students. Between 2005 and 2007, the authors carried out a two-part project that involved working with service users and carers from BME communities in the area around Liverpool in Britain. The article first discusses the background for this two-part project, highlighting two themes relating to the ethical dilemmas we experienced. The first of these themes concerned conducting a project in a political context based on short and intermittent funding and intransigent bureaucracy. Our second theme concerned how to reconcile bringing together a group of people because they were recognized as having a shared experience while at the same time there were a myriad differences within the group. We then discuss these issues in light of the ethical approach we adopted, based on being open and honest, flexible in a respectful and meaningful way, and on anti-oppressive ethics and shared responsibility.Peer reviewe

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Applications

Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, University of Bangka Belitung has been using SPSS application in the implementation of teaching management subjects, to improve productivity of lecturers work by automating work in the form of SPSS applications. SPSS application aims to provide convenience and acceleration in the process of completion research. This study aims to find out how the user\u27s perception of usefulness and ease of use of SPSS applications. Respondents in this study amounted to 100 students majoring in management. Method of collecting data using electronic questionnaire (google form), measuring tool with 5-point Likert scale, in the validity and reliability test as well analyzed using descriptive analysis by finding the mean value of each item statement. The research model uses Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with two the main constants are perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The results of the discussion show the user perception of the benefits of SPSS application on average overall get the value of Mean with a score of 4.08 and the ease of use SPSS application on average the overall value of Mean score 4.10, so it can be concluded that the respondents get good benefits in using SPSS applications.Cite this articl

Inter-regional Trade Mapping in Stock Management, Transport, Infrastructure and Distribution of Strategic Food Commodities Toward Province of Bangka Belitung Island, Indonesia

This study has the primary purpose of mapping examine inter-regional trade on stock management, transportation, infrastructure and distribution of strategic food commodities. Descriptive analysis approach to stock management, transportation, infrastructure and distribution to the survey results emphasized the traders, especially Regional Wholesaler because of the previous research in Pangkalpinang market structure is an oligopoly. In the quantitative analysis oriented, Nearest Neighbor Analysis to explain the distribution pattern of the merchants on the island of Bangka Belitung Province. These studies draw on the field survey conducted by the survey team of students who are competent to carry out the task. The field survey of nearly 200 respondents which include Regional Wholesaler, Local Wholesaler, Main Market Retailers, Traditional Market Retailers and Modern Market Retailers spread across 6 districts and 1 municipality. The study also focused on several commodities including Rice, Sugar and Cooking Oil which not only as the primary needs of Bangka Belitung Islands but also its impact on inflation and general economic welfare. The analysis above is expected to contribute to the literature review which is concerned in the field of economics and policymakers in Province of Bangka Belitung Islands.Cite this articl

Christ - The Community - and You

It is All a Matter of Heart (This is the Lecture that was delivered by Brother G. P. Holt in a Race Forum in the deep South, Atlanta, Ga., June 26, 1986.) This contains the flier and The Christian Echo article

Dancing to the Partisan Beat: A First Analysis of Political Communication on TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service, whose popularity is increasing rapidly. It was the world's second-most downloaded app in 2019. Although the platform is known for having users posting videos of themselves dancing, lip-syncing, or showcasing other talents, user-videos expressing political views have seen a recent spurt. This study aims to perform a primary evaluation of political communication on TikTok. We collect a set of US partisan Republican and Democratic videos to investigate how users communicated with each other about political issues. With the help of computer vision, natural language processing, and statistical tools, we illustrate that political communication on TikTok is much more interactive in comparison to other social media platforms, with users combining multiple information channels to spread their messages. We show that political communication takes place in the form of communication trees since users generate branches of responses to existing content. In terms of user demographics, we find that users belonging to both the US parties are young and behave similarly on the platform. However, Republican users generated more political content and their videos received more responses; on the other hand, Democratic users engaged significantly more in cross-partisan discussions.Comment: Accepted as a full paper at the 12th International ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci 2020). Please cite the WebSci version; Second version includes corrected typo

Sequoyah v. TVA, 6th Circuit, Docket No. 79-1633: Appellants Reply Brief

Appellants reply brief brought by Native American groups in their suit to stop the Tennessee Valley Authority\u27s Tellico Project

Assignment By R-Banding Of X-Inactivation Status For A Patient With A Sex Chromosome Abnormality

An R-banding protocol was developed in order to study the X-inactivation pattern of a patient with a duplicated X chromosome. R-banding was used because it results in the differential banding of the active and inactive X chromosome due to differing replication patterns with the active X being early replicating and the inactive X being late replicating. The results demonstrate that the patient’s normal X chromosome was early replicating as well as the duplicated region of the abnormal X chromosome. This suggests that the observed phenotype is a result of incomplete inactivation of the duplicated X chromosome