An Investigation of Sites, Uses and Practices For Literacy in the Lives of Pasifika Students

An investigation of sites, uses and practices for literacy in the lives of Pasifika students Lower test scores on school measures of literacy for Pasifika students than for the majority of students in New Zealand are a cause for concern. As part of a wider attempt to address this problem the Ministry of Education has argued that teachers need to be better informed of out-of-school literacy practices. This thesis considers what can be learned when this guidance is followed and it investigates students' social and cultural uses of literacy in family and community settings. It explores the argument that knowledge of these out-of-school literacies will inform teachers and through incorporation (McNaughton, 2002) teachers may be able to make effective connections for students to school literacy. A sociocultural perspective is used to investigate the social and cultural practices of the students while the study also uses Cremin's (1976) concept of configurations of sites to consider how learning is mediated for students in different settings. Rogoff's (1995) three planes of analysis provide a tool to examine students' practices at the community, interpersonal, and personal levels. The investigation sought the students' own perspective of how they appropriate knowledge about literacy as they collected information with cameras and journals on their own practices. The participants were 14 Pasifika students aged 11 and 12 years (mostly Samoan) as well as three adult Samoan church representatives and teachers from the students' school. Students' photos were used to elicit rich description in semi-structured interviews and interview schedules were also used with students and adult participants. The findings illustrate how the students were socialised into particular practices that are contextualised in the sites of family, church and neighbourhood. They reveal that for the students there was both overlapping of values and conflict between their sites of literacy practice. The complementarities occurred most strongly between family and church and a valued feature of the students' practice was the use of Samoan language. The most common conflicts were those related to popular culture and they occurred between the sites of family, church and school on the one hand and neighbourhood sites on the other as well as within family sites. The thesis argues that awareness of the complementary and conflicting features is essential for teachers in understanding the complexity the students face in choosing their paths among two cultures. This knowledge enables teachers to incorporate aspects of out-of-school literacy into school practice and to draw on those in the students' backgrounds who may facilitate students' literacy acquisition

Promoting Value Practice in Museums Creates Impact

This article examines how museological value discussion can offer a tool for museum professionals to engage themselves in the current discourse regarding building sustainable futures. The focus of the article is on collection care and collection development. It describes the latest interview and workshop results regarding museum values in the field of collection development among Finnish museum professionals and students. In addition, it emphasizes the integration of theoretical knowledge and its practical application. Promoting and creating opportunities for value discussion among museum professionals increases the ability of these professionals to further engage in such value-related discourse with various stakeholders. Eventually, the benefits of this kind of value-based discussions are to be seen in the more coherent and focused ones regarding museological values between and among various parties, be they museum professionals, politicians, students or museum visitors. The initial idea for the interviews, and subsequently the workshops as well, emerged from a collection development survey conducted in 2012 among Finnish art museums, which was published in 2016 by the author. Based on the material analyzed at that time, it became clear that the issue of active values in Finnish museums would need further study.Peer reviewe

Partial report is the wrong paradigm

Is consciousness independent of the general-purpose information processes known as ‘cognitive access’? The dominantmethodology for supporting this independence hypothesis appeals to partial report experiments as evidence for perceptual consciousness in the absence of cognitive access. Using a standard model of evidential support, and reviewing recent elaborations of the partial report paradigm, this article argues that the paradigm has the wrong structure to support the independence hypothesis. Like reports in general, a subject’s partial report is evidence that she is conscious of information only where that information is cognitively accessed. So partial report experiments could dissociate consciousness from cognitive access only if there were uncontroversial evidence forconsciousness which did not imply reportability. There is no such evidence. An alternative, broadly Marrian methodology for supporting the independence hypothesis is suggested, and some challenges to it outlined. This methodology does not require experimental evidence for consciousness in the absence of cognitive access. Instead it focuses on a function of perceptual consciousness when a stimulus is cognitively accessed. If the processes best suited to implement this function exclude cognitive access, the independence hypothesis will be supported. One relevant function of consciousness may be reflected in reason-based psychological explanations of a subject’s behaviour

Neuropeptide Y concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid are unchanged in obesity

Neuropeptide Y (NPy) is a potent centrally acting appetite-stimulating peptide implicated in the regulation of energy balance. It induces hyperphagia and obesity when injected into the rat hypothalamus. Hypothalamic NPY and NPY mRNA levels are increased in spontaneously obese rats, suggesting that it may be involved in causing obesity in rodents. It is not known whether NPY has a role in the pathogenesis of obesity in man. NPY is found in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and we have therefore compared CSF NPY levels in normal obese and non-obese individuals to determine whether NPY concentrations might be increased in obesity. We studied 25 clinically normal subjects (age 67 ± 5 years. male 11. female 14) undergoing spinal anaesthesia. None had any significant illness. Samples of 1 ml were freeze-dried and reconstituted to 100 ul and 35ul aliquots were assayed for NPY using an in-house RIA. CSF NPY levels were not correlated with body mass index (BMI) (r=O.088. p=O.673) and there were no differences in NPY concentrations between groups of subjects stratified for BMI: BMI 25 (n=ll), 702 ± 55 fmol/ml (differences between all groups. p>0l). CSF NPY levels are therefore not increased in human obesity. NPY is found in many brain regions outside the hypothalamic appetite-regulating nuclei, which could contribute to CSF levels. This negative observation does not therefore exclude a role of the peptide, acting specifically in the hypothalamus, in contributing to human obesity

How Sensory Experiences of Children With and Without Autism Affect Family Occupations

We used a grounded theory approach to data analysis to discover what effect, if any, children's sensory experiences have on family occupations. We chose this approach because the existing literature does not provide a theory to account for the effect of children's sensory experiences on family occupations. Parents of six children who were typically developing and six children who had autism were interviewed. We analyzed the data using open, axial, and selective coding techniques. Children's sensory experiences affect family occupations in three ways: (1) what a family chooses to do or not do; (2) how the family prepares; and (3) the extent to which experiences, meaning, and feelings are shared

Characterising a human endogenous retrovirus(HERV)-derived tumour-associated antigen: enriched RNA-Seq analysis of HERV-K(HML-2) in mantle cell lymphoma cell lines.

BACKGROUND: The cell-surface attachment protein (Env) of the HERV-K(HML-2) lineage of endogenous retroviruses is a potentially attractive tumour-associated antigen for anti-cancer immunotherapy. The human genome contains around 100 integrated copies (called proviruses or loci) of the HERV-K(HML-2) virus and we argue that it is important for therapy development to know which and how many of these contribute to protein expression, and how this varies across tissues. We measured relative provirus expression in HERV-K(HML-2), using enriched RNA-Seq analysis with both short- and long-read sequencing, in three Mantle Cell Lymphoma cell lines (JVM2, Granta519 and REC1). We also confirmed expression of the Env protein in two of our cell lines using Western blotting, and analysed provirus expression data from all other relevant published studies. RESULTS: Firstly, in both our and other reanalysed studies, approximately 10% of the transcripts mapping to HERV-K(HML-2) came from Env-encoding proviruses. Secondly, in one cell line the majority of the protein expression appears to come from one provirus (12q14.1). Thirdly, we find a strong tissue-specific pattern of provirus expression. CONCLUSIONS: A possible dependency of Env expression on a single provirus, combined with the earlier observation that this provirus is not present in all individuals and a general pattern of tissue-specific expression among proviruses, has serious implications for future HERV-K(HML-2)-targeted immunotherapy. Further research into HERV-K(HML-2) as a possible tumour-associated antigen in blood cancers requires a more targeted, proteome-based, screening protocol that will consider these polymorphisms within HERV-K(HML-2). We include a plan (and necessary alignments) for such work

Reducing drug related deaths : a pre-implementation assessment of knowledge,barriers and enablers for naloxone distribution through general practice

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

First cryo-scanning electron microscopy images and X-ray microanalyses of mucoromycotinian fine root endophytes in vascular plants

Aims. Arbuscule-producing fine root endophytes (FRE) (previously incorrectly Glomus tenue) were recently placed within subphylum Mucoromycotina; the first report of arbuscules outside subphylum Glomeromycotina. Here, we aimed to estimate nutrient concentrations in plant and fungal structures of FRE and to test the utility of cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryoSEM) for studying these fungi. Methods. To do so, we used replicated cryoSEM and X-ray microanalysis of heavily colonized roots of Trifolium subterraneum. Results. Intercellular hyphae and hyphae in developed arbuscules were consistently very thin; 1.35 ± 0.03 µm and 0.99 ± 0.03 µm in diameter, respectively (mean ± SE). Several intercellular hyphae were often adjacent to each other forming ‘hyphal ropes’. Developed arbuscules showed higher phosphorus concentrations than senesced arbuscules and non-colonized structures. Senesced arbuscules showed greatly elevated concentrations of calcium and magnesium. Conclusions. While uniformly thin hyphae and hyphal ropes are distinct features of FRE, the morphology of fully developed arbuscules, elevated phosphorus in fungal structures, and accumulation of calcium with loss of structural integrity in senesced arbuscules are similar to glomeromycotinian fungi. Thus, we provide evidence that FRE may respond to similar host-plant signals or that the host plant may employ a similar mechanism of association with FRE and AMF