Digital or Diligent? Web 2.0's challenge to formal schooling

This paper explores the tensions that arise for young people as both 'digital kids' and 'diligent students'. It does so by drawing on a study conducted in an elite private school, where the tensions between 'going digital' and 'being diligent' are exacerbated by the high value the school places on academic achievement, and on learning through digital innovation. At the school under study, high levels of intellectual and technological resourcing bring with them an equally high level of expectation to excel in traditional academic tasks and high-stakes assessment. The students, under constant pressure to perform well in standardised tests, need to make decisions about the extent to which they take up school-sanctioned digitally enhanced learning opportunities that do not explicitly address academic performance. The paper examines this conundrum by investigating student preparedness to engage with a new learning innovation – a student-led media centre – in the context of the traditional pedagogical culture that is relatively untouched by such digital innovation. The paper presents an analysis of findings from a survey of 481 students in the school. The survey results were subjected to quantitative regression tree modelling to flesh out how different student learning dispositions, social and technological factors influence the extent to which students engage with a specific digital learning opportunity in the form of the Web 2.0 Student Media Centre (SMC) designed to engage the senior school community in flexible digital-networked learning. What emerges from the study is that peer support, perceived ease of use and usefulness, learning goals and cognitive playfulness are significant predictors of the choices that students make to negotiate the fundamental tensions of being digital and/or diligent. In scrutinising the tensions around a digital or a diligent student identity in this way, the paper contributes new empirical evidence to understanding the problematic relationship between student-led learning using new digital media tools and formal schooling

Life Satisfaction of Neurotypical Women in Intimate Relationship With a Partner Who Has Asperger’s Syndrome: An Exploratory Study

Asperger’s syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by an average or above average IQ, impairments in social interactions, communication and empathy, restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and sensory sensitivities. Numerous published empirical studies focus on individuals with AS within a number of contexts (e.g., education, health, workplace) and the impact the core characteristics of AS have upon the individual with AS within these contexts. Although there is general consensus among researchers, clinicians and other persons with interest in this field of study that adults with AS do enter into successful careers, marry and have children, there is a paucity of empirical data on the impact that AS characteristics may have upon a non-Asperger’s or neurotypical (NT) spouse or intimate partner. Stage 1 of this study conducted a systematic review of the published peer-reviewed literature and found that there were no empirical data focused on the impact of AS characteristics upon an NT partner within the context of an intimate relationship. Stage 2 of this project was an exploratory study focused on the subjective wellbeing (SWB/life satisfaction) of NT women within this context, with a secondary focus on empathy characteristics. An online survey collected quantitative data on SWB and empathy using the Personal Wellbeing Index – Adult (PWI-A) and the Cambridge Behaviour Scale (EQ). An open-ended question was used to collect qualitative data. Relevant demographic data was also sourced. Survey data from 500 NT women and 53 controls comprised the final data set. The study found that NT women experienced a statistically significant lower SWB than controls and the PWI-A normative sample for Australian women; and NT women had a statistically significantly higher EQ than the controls and the normative sample. Implications of these findings, limitations of the study and recommendations for further research are discussed

Diet of rainbow trout in Lake Rotoiti: an energetic perspective

We characterised seasonal and ontogenetic changes in diet and prey energy density of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Lake Rotoiti, New Zealand, to better understand the prey requirements of trout in central North Island lakes. Common smelt (Retropinna retropinna) was the dominant prey item of rainbow trout larger than 200 mm (77.8% of diet by weight), followed by kōura (freshwater crayfish Paranephrops planifrons; 6.3%), common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus; 5.5%), and kōaro (Galaxias brevipinnis; 3.4%). Juvenile rainbow trout (<200 mm) consumed amphipods, aquatic and terrestrial insects, oligochaetes, tanaid shrimps, and smelt. Trout consumed kōaro only in autumn and winter; consumption of other species did not vary seasonally. The maximum size of smelt consumed increased with increasing trout size, but trout continued to consume small smelt even as large adults. Consumption of larger prey items (kōaro and kōura) also increased with increasing trout size. This study indicates the importance of smelt for sustaining rainbow trout populations, as predation on other species was relatively low. These findings provide a basis for bioenergetic modelling of rainbow trout populations in lakes of the central North Island of New Zealand

Architecture for Disparate Communities in Transitional China: Urban Housing Stitch for Chinese Migrant Workers and City Dwellers in Rapidly Urbanizing Cities

Problem: Two housing types in China’s urban cities serve two specific demographics, the city dweller and the migrant worker. The high-rise and the urban village reside on the same block of land but cannot coexist. In order to save the urban villages from being demolished and to keep the migrant worker population within the city, there needs to be a more appropriate and aggressive housing concept to address China’s “changing contemporary social reality” between the two demographic. Methodology: The first step is to understand the two typologies of housing. Through the study of migrant housing typologies in different major cities of China through time, I have diagrammed, analyzed and articulated this evolving typology and how that could adapt in the modern context. Next, understand the two demographics. Through a research of surveys and essays and personal interviews of the inhabitants, I have analyzed the situation and needs of the inhabitants of these two housing types. Third, understand the city and context. Shenzhen, China is a city very different from the western world. I have personally visited and documented the city. I have also researched and interviewed people regarding the city’s history, growth, architecture, land use, program, and socio-economic and political issues. Lastly, I have researched precedents of social housing in other cities and contexts and analyzed strategies and techniques of how to design this infrastructure. Argument: This thesis contends that an urban architectural intervention between the high-rise apartment type and the urban village housing type could formally integrate and stitch the two disparate communities in a fabric of residential, retail, and cultural programs connected through a network of common circulatory sequences. Conclusion: This new typology of mixed-use housing, retail, and cultural program is a prototype. This prototype serves to ease the tension in the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. It is an attempt to address the problem of China’s fragmented cities--the spatial, social, cultural segregation of the two demographic. The design is flexible in that the idea could be adapted and implemented on any site within China

Urban Stitch: Reinventing Housing in the Globalized Urban Realm for Chinese Migrant Workers

This thesis contends that architecture can reclaim individual and community expression within the globalized urban realm through the integration of unique programs in a live/work community environment

Inequality in health care persists at the state level, especially in red states with diverse populations

In March 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which marked the most comprehensive reform of the American health care system since the Johnson Administration. This federal legislation makes the American states key political stakeholders for achieving major goals of the reform, one of which is to make health insurance coverage more inclusive and equal. Focusing on the state-level picture, Ling Zhu and Jennifer H. Clark examine how partisan politics produce far-reaching distributional consequences in health care. They show that inequality in health insurance coverage persists at the state level, especially in conservative states with diverse populations

Preparation Of Primary Mixed Glial Cultures From Adult Mouse Spinal Cord Tissue

It has been well-accepted that spinal cord glial responses contribute significantly to the development of neuropathic pain. Tremendous information regarding glial activities at the cellular and molecular levels has been obtained through in vitro cell culture systems. The in vitro systems utilized, mainly include primary glia derived from neonatal brain cortical tissue and immortalized cell lines. However, these systems may not reflect the characteristics of spinal cord glial cells in vivo. In order to further investigate the roles of spinal cord glial cells in the development of peripheral nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain using a culture system that better reflects the in vivo condition, our laboratory has developed a method to establish primary spinal cord mixed glial cultures from adult mice. Briefly, spinal cords are collected from adult mice and processed through papain digestion followed by myelin removal with a density-gradient medium. Single cell suspensions are cultured in complete Dulbecco\u27s modified Eagle media (cDMEM) supplemented with 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) at 35.9° C. These culture conditions were optimized specifically for the growth of mixed glial cells. Under these conditions, cells are ready to be used for experimentation between 12 - 14 d (cells are usually in log phase during this time) after the establishment of the culture (D 0) and can be kept in culture conditions up to D 21. This culture system can be used to investigate the responses of spinal cord glial cells upon stimulation with various substances and agents. Besides neuropathic pain, this system can be used to study glial responses in other diseases that involve pathological changes of spinal cord glial cells

Urban Stitch: Reinventing Housing in the Globalized Urban Realm for Chinese Migrant Workers

This thesis contends that architecture can reclaim individual and community expression within the globalized urban realm through the integration of unique programs in a live/work community environment

Non-enzymatic roles of human RAD51 at stalled replication forks

The central recombination enzyme RAD51 has been implicated in replication fork processing and restart in response to replication stress. Here, we use a separation-of-function allele of RAD51 that retains DNA binding, but not D-loop activity, to reveal mechanistic aspects of RAD51’s roles in the response to replication stress. Here, we find that cells lacking RAD51’s enzymatic activity protect replication forks from MRE11-dependent degradation, as expected from previous studies. Unexpectedly, we find that RAD51’s strand exchange activity is not required to convert stalled forks to a form that can be degraded by DNA2. Such conversion was shown previously to require replication fork regression, supporting a model in which fork regression depends on a non-enzymatic function of RAD51. We also show RAD51 promotes replication restart by both strand exchange-dependent and strand exchange-independent mechanisms