The Potential for Ontogenetic Vertical Migration by Larvae of Bathyal Echinoderms

Planktotrophy is a relatively common developmental mode among bathyal and abyssal echinoderms, but the sources of food used by deep-sea planktotrophic larvae remain generally unknown. Very few deep-sea echinoderm larvae have been collected in plankton samples, so we do not know whether larvae migrate to the euphotic zone to feed or if they rely on bacteria or detritus at greater depths. We approached this question indirectly by investigating whether larvae of bathyal echinoids can tolerate the temperatures they would encounter in the euphotic zone and whether they possess sufficient energy stores to migrate to the euphotic zone without feeding. Twenty-four hour survival at 20 and 24 °C was always much lower than survival at colder temperatures, but there were species-specific and stage-specific differences in temperature tolerances. A numerical model of the energy consumed by migrating larvae predicted that larvae should be able to reach adequate phytoplankton concentrations before exhausting parental reserves, unless they swim very slowly and have very high metabolic rates. These results suggest that long vertical migrations are more likely to be limited by physiological tolerances than by energy stores

Student-focused teaching approach development in a higher education training course for teaching assistants

Conference Theme: Rethinking Assessments for Student Engagement and LearningPostgraduate students are increasingly recruited to teach in higher education (HE) as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), with similar increase in GTA training courses to provide relevant training. Constraints on training resources can limit their depth and length and, thus, their effectiveness is a recurring concern. Based on literature that the approach adopted in teaching influences learning effectiveness in students, we discuss a mandatory training course for GTAs where changes to their teaching approach were analysed. We utilize the concepts of student-focused (SF) or teacher-focused (TF) teaching approaches and report on results of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) ...postprin

Unconsented dissemination of manipulated human images under New Zealand law.

A person’s visual image can be captured in either photographic or video form. There are many instances of such visual images being manipulated and disseminated without the consent of the human subject featured in the image. Such instances will become even more frequent with technological advances. This thesis focuses on New Zealand legal liability for the unconsented initial dissemination of manipulated visual images of humans. It examines the extent to which existing New Zealand laws protect against such unconsented dissemination, and identifies limitations in the current New Zealand legal framework and ways in which identified limitations could be addressed. I begin this thesis by identifying different actors who have interests in relation to unconsented manipulated images. Next, I offer a new taxonomy of manipulated human images based on clarity of manipulation and perceived subject consent. Applying these taxonomic categories, I then go on to analyse a range of existing New Zealand laws and to evaluate the extent to which they afford protection against unconsented initial dissemination of manipulated human images. To this end, initially addressed are laws uncertain in their applicability to manipulated images or only useful in limited contexts. I then analyse New Zealand laws with broader potential. These laws are applied to image-manipulation scenarios to illustrate contexts where they can and cannot provide protection. From this analysis, I develop a summative evaluation of these laws and their limitations. This summative evaluation reveals that while the existing New Zealand legal framework is appropriate for many image-manipulation scenarios, certain limitations still exist that could benefit from law reform. Accordingly, I propose recommendations for law reform and future legal research, drawing on relevant laws from other jurisdictions. Two reforms to existing New Zealand laws are proposed, both of which could afford protection to subjects’ interests with respect to manipulated images while accounting for interests of other actors identified at the start of the thesis

Tidal micro-growth bands in intertidal gastropod shells with an evaluation of band-dating techniques.

Four methods were used in dating micro-growth bands in the intertidal gastropods Littorina littorea, Patella vulgata and Nucella lapillus. The most reliable method for dating the bands without appreciably interrupting subsequent shell deposition was to remove mechanically a thin layer from the outer lip of the shell or to keep the animals in sea water with ample food for 36 h to produce an abnormally wide shell increment. The number of bands from the check band to the growing edge were counted in peels of sectioned and etched shells, and agreed within 1% with the number of low waters that the animals had experienced. -from Authorslink_to_subscribed_fulltex

Creating paradigm shifts in teaching and assessing law

Conference Theme: Higher Education in a Globalized WorldIncreasing calls on universities to show greater accountability and development of student skills have made universities rethink educational practices, including adopting outcomes-based and authentic learning approaches. While some disciplines find it less difficult to adopt change in their teaching-learning-assessing methodologies, disciplines having longer-established teaching-practice traditions, such as case-based teaching in law, find changing methods challenging and requiring substantially more persuasive lobbying. Changeover in paradigms then needs to overcome both student and staff resistance. Students need to transit from secondary education practices specially in learning and assessment, and teachers from stubbornly-held, long teaching traditions. We showcase questionnaire-survey and interview data from University of Hong Kong students in a tort law course with radically changed teaching and assessment methods, to show that paradigm shifts in learning and assessment became agreeable, even to first year students following large classes (n >100), when teaching and assessment changes occurred in a clearly enunciated, prior-announced, transparent ways and with real-time feedback, that showcased to students the professional long-term skill benefits of changed practices. We also showcase learning and assessment changes that were radical from both student and law teaching viewpoints. For students at entry level, this was their first learning and assessment experiences in the use of self-discovered authentic incidents to independently apply and build analytical legal-reasoning and writing skills at higher cognitive levels on the taxonomies of SOLO and Perry's intellectual development (at relational and relativist levels, respectively). For law teaching, the methods deviated radically from traditional case-based didactic teaching and unseen summative assessment.link_to_OA_fulltex

A geometric analysis of growth in gastropod shells, with particular reference to turbinate forms.

Dogwhelk Nucella lapillus and periwinkle Littorina littorea afford examples of turbinately coiled shells with no space between the columella and the inner face of the whorls. Three constants are sufficient to determine the form of such shells. The conical shell of the limpet Patella vulgata is geometrically a much simpler system. -from Authorsdogwhelk Nucella lapillus periwinkle Littorina littorea limpet Patella vulgatalink_to_subscribed_fulltex

The relationships between the gametogenetic status of triploids or diploids of Manila clams, Tapes philippinarum, and their oxygen uptake and gill particle transport

Prior to sexual maturity, diploids and triploids of the Manila clam, Tapes philippinarum, showed no significant difference in weight-specific oxygen uptake rates. After sexual maturity, however, oxygen uptake in triploids became significantly higher than in diploid clams. The oxygen uptake studies on isolated gill tissues of Manila clams revealed the degree of metabolic cost enhancement associated with gametogenesis in diploids and triploids. Diploids, in which gametogenesis proceeds normally, showed the highest increase in gill tissue respiration rates with sexual maturity, recording a 49% increase over immature diploid gill tissue. Gametogenesis is usually impaired in triploids. In triploid Manila clams, sexual maturity elicited increased gill respiration rates only in females, showing a 39% increase over triploid immature gills. Although the gill respiration rate of sexually mature triploid males was not significantly different from that of immature triploids, it exceeded that of immature diploids by 27%. Gills of mature triploid females respired at a faster rate than did mature triploid male gills or mature diploid gills. Dry body weights of mature clams showed diploid females to be heavier than triploid females or diploid males, whereas diploid males were not significantly heavier than triploid males. Significant differences were not observed between gill particle transport rates of diploid and triploid clams. © 1993.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Student-Focused Teaching and Deep Learning Conceptions in a Short Mandatory Graduate Teaching Assistant Training Course

Paper Session: Understanding the Experiences and Socialization of Teaching AssistantsDeep approaches to learning in higher education have been linked to student-focused teaching approaches. The current study investigates the impact of a mandatory short graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training course on conceptions and approaches to teaching and learning at a large Asian university. GTAs (n=137) completed the study process questionnaire (SPQ) and the approaches to teaching inventory (ATI) before and after the course. Student-focused teaching and deep learning scores increased with small-moderate effect, and correlated with large effect. Pretest deep learning scores moderately predicted posttest student-focused scores. Exploratory factor analysis of SPQ and ATI questionnaire items reasonably explained the variance with two factors: 1) teacher-focused teaching and surface learning, 2) student-focused teaching and deep learning. Implications are discussed

Ecology and population structure of the Artemia parthenogenetica population inhabiting a major saltern in Sri Lanka

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