How Can We Predict Performance in Tertiary Level Economics?

The New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA) started to introduce a new qualification; the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in 2002. NCEA level 3 replaced the University Bursary Examinations in 2004. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the number and quality of credits gained at NCEA level 3 by students and their academic performance in a first year economics course - Business Economics and the New Zealand Economy at Waikato University. Other factors that could affect student performance are also investigated. Our analysis suggests that several factors can have an impact on student's performance in ECON100. These factors include nationality, semester, total number of NCEA level 3 credits and the quality of credits at level 3 in NCEA economics and mathematics.Qualification, Education, Testing, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

On a universal ultrametric space

AbstractFor every cardinal τ we construct a universal ultrametric space LWτ such that any ultrametric space of weight ≤τ can be embedded isometrically in LWτ. The weight of LWτ is τℵ0 and we show that for all cardinals τ≤c and for a wide class of cardinals >c the weight of a universal ultrametric space can not be smalle

Primary school band programs: Attitudes of students, parents and music staff

This study aimed to discover how primary school band programs are organised and for what reasons these instrumental ensembles are constructed as extra-curricular, curricular, or co-curricular activities. It explores what motivates students to participate in the school band, parents to enrol their students in the school band program and the pedagogical rationales of band program stakeholders, being parents and school music staff. It also explores the relationship between these perceptions of the role and value of band, and the pedagogical rationale that forms the structure of the band program. This thesis took the form of a multiple case research project where data was collected from two government primary schools in Northern Sydney. Surveys and interviews were used to investigate the differing perceptions of the role and value of the school band program and how these affect the level of integration the band has with classroom music. A case study of the extra-curricular band program in one of the participating schools is the focus of this thesis. In addition, this research project looks at the educational implications of extra-curricular band programs, prompting research into the primary school band system

"To Know or Not to Know?": The Privacy Law Implications of The 1996 Paedophile and Sex Offender Index

This article reflects on the privacy and public interest issues raised by the publication of an index of paedophiles and sex offenders. The legislation and caselaw of other jurisdictions is investigated to assess the relevance of that experience to any reform of the law in New Zealand. The article uses Deborah Coddington The 1996 Paedophile and Sex Offender Index (Alister Taylor Publishers Pty Ltd, Auckland, 1996) as a starting point to explore the balancing of the public's right to know about an individual with that individual's right to privacy. The author first outlines the information in Coddington's book and the responses it has received. The article then discusses whether the information could be regarded as private at all; special emphasis is placed on the issues arising from a claim under the tort of privacy. The author then examines the persuasiveness of the public interests involved in publication and whether they could be considered strong enough to outweigh privacy concerns. Finally, the article describes some notification schemes overseas and how they attempt to protect the community while minimising infringements on privacy. This article suggests that a balancing exercise between the interests of sex offenders and the interests of the community results in a need to take greater care before general dissemination of information of this nature.&nbsp

Assessing productivity gains for cattle grazing “Redlands” (R12) leucaena in northern Queensland

Productive leucaena based grazing systems can double annual live-weight gains and increase carrying capacity for beef enterprises. However, there has been very little adoption of leucaena in northern Queensland. One major reason for this is the reduction in productivity from attacks by psyllid insects. ‘Redlands’ is a psyllid resistant leucaena arising from a breeding program undertaken by the University of Queensland and supported by Meat and Livestock Australia. It has potential to open up large areas for leucaena based beef grazing systems in northern Australia but its performance under commercial scale grazing conditions has not been tested. This project established a large-scale grazing trial in north Queensland to evaluate the liveweight gain performance of Redlands relative to the existing commercial Wondergraze variety. A 62 ha site initially selected at ‘St Ronans’ was prepared and planted over the 2015-16 northern wet season. Unfortunately, establishment was unsuccessful, due to heavy rain after planting and soil drainage issues. An alternative, 61 ha site was selected at nearby ‘Pinnarendi’ and developed for the trial during 2016. Leucaena planting at the site occurred during January and February 2017. The leucaena was successfully established at Pinnarendi over the following 18 months. The first cattle were introduced to the trial in April 2018 at a low and cautionary stocking rate using Brahman-cross steers from the commercial herd on the property. Some of these animals were replaced in June 2018 with Droughtmaster steers from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries ‘Spyglass’ Beef Research Facility. The average entry weight was 228 kg and individual liveweight of all animals was monitored on three occasions to November 2018, coinciding with rotation of animals between trial paddocks (within the same treatments). Liveweight gains averaged 0.33 kg/day over this period. Data from the ongoing grazing trial will assess any relative productivity advantage from using Redlands and help confirm the economics of leucaena in north Queensland. The site will also improve industry understanding of leucaena establishment and management in northern environments. A productive and psyllid resistant leucaena variety would improve profitability and sustainability of northern beef businesses through increased feedbase productivity and enabling access to premium slaughter markets

The unfolded protein response and HLA-B27 misfolding: implications for ankylosing spondylitis

The unfolded protein response (UPR) detects the presence of misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and subsequently relieves ER stress by increasing the folding capacity of the ER. The secretory pathway substrate HLA-B27 is highly associated with the chronic inflammatory disease ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and has a tendency to misfold in the ER. Here, we show that overexpression of HLA-B27 and non-disease associated HLA-B7 in immortalised cell lines leads to heavy chain misoxidation, which is accompanied by upregulation of BiP and splicing of XBP1, a key step in the IRE1 pathway of the UPR which is increasingly being linked with intestinal inflammation. We also demonstrate that different cell lines respond to different ER stress stimuli in distinct ways. We establish that HT1080 cells inefficiently induce a UPR in response to tunicamycin and that this has consequences for cell survival. However, inefficient activation of the UPR in HT1080 cells can be overcome by secondary signals, since co-administration of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein leads to activation of XBP1. Furthermore, we show that genistein can inhibit UPR induction of BiP in response to a range of ER stresses indicating that the cancer drug genistein can inhibit or activate the UPR depending on the environment and cell type. This has implications for inflammatory disease since regulation of the UPR is important in determining a cell’s tendency towards apoptosis

Characterisation of the oxidoreductase Erol-Lß and the misfolding of the secretory pathway substrate HLA-B27

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the site of oxidative folding for proteins entering the secretory pathway. Here, nascent polypeptides acquire disulfide bonds, which confer both stability and functionality on secretory and ER-resident proteins. In eukaryotes, this process is catalysed by the disulfide oxidoreductase protein disulfide isomerase (PDI). Many mammalian homologs of PDI have been described including the pancreas-specific homolog PDIp. PDI is 'recharged' by the disulfide oxidoreductase Его. Accepted electrons are then passed to molecular oxygen via an Ero-bound flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) molecule. We provide data showing that human Erol-Lß protein is able to form disulfide-dependent homodimers in vivo. We also provide evidence that the yeast G252S and H254Y FAD- binding mutants exhibit reduced affinity for PDI. Since the Erol-La C391A mutant can rescue the erol-l temperature-sensitive mutant, Ero-PDI association and Ero-Ero dimensation may be significant in maintaining the oxidative protein folding pathway in the ER. Homodimerisation was not affected by FAD-binding mutants, suggesting that the erol-1 and erol-2 phenotypes cannot be accredited to the failure of Erol p to homodimerise. We also make the first steps towards characterising the interactions of PDIp with the human Erol-La and Erol-Lß proteins. In order to observe protein-protein interactions, we characterise a polyclonal anti֊Erol֊Lß antibody for intended use in immunoprecipitations and immunoblotting. Quality control measures are in place to ensure that only natively folded proteins are permitted to exit the secretory pathway. Chaperone molecules such as immunoglobulin- binding protein (BiP) retain unfolded or misfolded proteins in the ER， which are eventually retrotranslocated out of the ER and degraded. When misfolded proteins accumulate in the ER， however, the folding capacity of the ER may be exceeded. This triggers a cellular response pathway called the unfolded protein response, aimed at restoring homeostasis in the ER via transcription regulation and translational attenuation. We provide evidence that misfolding/misoxidation of the major histocompatability complex (MHC) class I heavy chain HLA-B27 in HeLa cells causes the UPR to be triggered. Possession of the HLA-B27 allele in lymphoblastoid cell lines results in some UPR signalling. Interestingly, analysis of IREI-mediated XBPl splicing shows a distinct difference in sensitivity of the UPR to induction by the pharmacological agents dithiothreitol (DTT) and tunicamycin. Since possession of HLA-B27 is highly associated with development of the chronic inflammatory disease ankylosing spondylitis, induction of the UPR as a consequence of HLA-B27 misfolding may have implications in disease pathogenesis

Proof of the deadlock-freeness of ALD routing algorithm

This is the appendix to the paper Load-Balanced Adaptive Routing for Torus Networks to provide a detailed, formal proof of the deadlock-freeness of the routing algorithm proposed in the paper. The paper is submitted to Electronics Letters, and the abstract of which is as follows: A new routing algorithm for torus interconnection networks to achieve high throughput on various traffic patterns, Adaptive Load-balanced routing with cycle Detection (ALD), is presented. Instead of the -channels scheme adopted in a few recently proposed algorithms of the same category, a cycle detection scheme is employed in ALD to handle deadlock, which leads to higher routing adaptability. Simulation results demonstrate that ALD achieves higher throughput than the recently proposed algorithms on both benign and adversarial traffic patterns