Information technology in pre-service teacher education within a New Zealand College of Education : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University

This thesis examines the use of Information Technology (IT) by lecturers and pre-service student teachers at the Auckland College of Education to provide a basis for future development of policy and programmes. The concept of IT is examined and the term defined in terms of a broad range of artefacts, knowledge and skills which includes the use of computers, but also other technologies for handling and storing information. Information skills are also identified as being an important component of IT. The development of IT use in pre-service teacher education is examined in New Zealand, and for comparison in the United Kingdom, the U.S.A. and Australia. The survey demonstrates that the place of IT in pre-service teacher education was originally ignored by education authorities in those countries in favour of in-service teacher education, but in recent years has has become the subject of official concern and, overseas, action. The establishment of goals and standards for pre-service IT teacher education is one reflection of this concern in a number of countries. The literature indicates a number of issues that need to be addressed if pre-service teacher education institutions are to successfully prepare teachers to work in IT- enhanced schools. These include the development of teacher education programmes which integrate IT and emphasise its pedagogical use, the. provision of adequate IT teaching experience for student teachers, the provision of resources and staff development for teacher educators. A survey of lecturers, first and final year primary student teachers, and graduating secondary student teachers indicates that, while all groups have a high degree of access to computers and many have basis skills in using software, the use of computers and other information technologies within the College curriculum is limited. All groups believe that skills in using IT are important for beginning teachers but most lecturers do not model its use or teach its use in schools. Students have limited experience in using IT during practicum sessions, and lecturers, themselves, have limited practical experience of IT in education. The importance of strategies indicated by the literature for improving this aspect of pre-service teacher education is supported by the findings of the research. The various factors identified as influencing pre-service teacher education are summarised in a model which draws attention to the different sites in which students develop a range of skills, knowledge and attitudes, all of which affect their understanding and capacity to use IT in their teaching roles. In the light of these findings, and the absence of any previous New Zealand research in this area, the study identifies areas where there is a need for further research. It is argued that such research is urgently needed in view of growing concern at the ineffectiveness of pre-service teacher education in this area

A study of the effects of constitutive c-myc expression in Epstein-Barr virus immortalised B cell lines

Imperial Users onl

Commercial property loan valuations in the UK : the changing landscape of practice and liability

This paper is the first of two which aim to examine the major legal liability implications of changes to the commercial property loan valuation process caused by the recession in the UK property market and to make recommendations to valuers and their professional institutions to improve the quality of the process and the result. This paper identifies the market background to commercial property lending and discusses the implications of the falls in value for lenders and valuers. These include two major strands; first, the outcome of discussions between the representative bodies of these two groups and, second, the increasing litigation caused by lenders suing valuers for professional negligence. The discussions between representative groups have driven a debate on the valuation process leading to a number of reports and guidance notes. This paper discusses the outcomes paying particular attention to the basis of valuation for loan purposes and the provision of additional information in valuation reports. This paper also reviews the legal framework which influences the relationship between the lenders and valuers and discusses the duty of care. The role of instructions in the valuation process, the significance of the identity of the person to be advised and the possibility of a conflict of interest arising are all considered. The paper also addresses the issue of the standards required of a commercial loan valuer, including how this is interpreted by the courts and the legal status of professional guidance notes. The paper concludes by identifying potential areas for dispute within the loan valuation process and raising a number of research questions concerning the operation of this process which are addressed in a following paper

Contributory negligence involving overseas European banks in property valuation negligence cases in the UK

This paper examines the phenomenon of cross-border property lending and examines a number of issues regarding lending procedures and decision making processes in the context of the relationship between lender and professional advisor. It commences by placing these procedures and processes in the context of the development of cross border European property investment and finance. The UK has been a popular destination for overseas investors and lenders over the last decade and is therefore used as a case study to examine the additional institutional risk that overseas lenders may face when operating outside of their own country and obtaining advice from home professionals. The UK market was the subject of a boom period during the late 1980s, followed by a recession in the early 1990s. The losses triggered a number of professional negligence actions by lenders against valuers. These include a number of overseas lenders mainly from Europe and these cases have been examined for any particular features which, coupled with other data gained from overseas lenders as part of an interview survey, could be used to isolate any significant problems for European lenders in overseas markets. The research identified a lack of clarity in roles and relationships between lender and advisor, difficulties in communications both internally and between overseas branches and headquarters and failures in provision and interpretation of advice. The paper concludes by identifying the issues which may need to be addressed generally by lenders and their advisors, when the lenders are operating in overseas markets

Commercial property loan valuations in the UK : implications of current trends in practice and liability

This paper is the second of two papers which aim to examine the major legal liability implications of changes to the commercial property loan valuation process caused by the recession in the UK property market and to make recommendations to valuers and their professional institutions to improve the quality of the process and the result. The objectives of this paper are to address a number of the practical implications of changes to the loan valuation process within the context of legal liability. The results of an interview survey of lenders and valuers are reported and analysed. The survey examined the loan valuation process including the selection and instruction of valuers, bases of valuation and valuation reporting. In the selection and instruction process, the findings of the survey reveal two potential problems within the valuer/lender relationship. First, valuers still occasionally accept instructions from borrowers and this could lead to a conflict of interest as lenders may rely on the survey. Second, the occasional lack of formal instructions prior to the delivery of reports casts doubt on the valuer’s ability to correctly identify the needs of clients. Regarding the basis of valuation, it was found that valuers are providing valuations on bases which they do not think are appropriate. Valuers may be legally liable if they do not inform clients of their reservations and this situation must be urgently addressed. The survey also confirms previous research that valuation reports are considered to be light on contextual information concerning markets. The paper concludes by making a number of specific recommendations concerning possible improvements to the commercial property loan valuation process

A comparison of the performance of humans and computational models in the classification of facial expression

Recognizing expressions are a key part of human social interaction, and processing of facial expression information is largely automatic for humans, but it is a non-trivial task for a computational system. In the first part of the experiment, we develop computational models capable of differentiating between two human facial expressions. We perform pre-processing by Gabor filters and dimensionality reduction using the methods: Principal Component Analysis, and Curvilinear Component Analysis. Subsequently the faces are classified using a Support Vector Machines. We also asked human subjects to classify these images and then we compared the performance of the humans and the computational models. The main result is that for the Gabor pre-processed model, the probability that an individual face was classified in the given class by the computational model is inversely proportional to the reaction time for the human subjects

Quantitative Analysis of Saliency Models

Previous saliency detection research required the reader to evaluate performance qualitatively, based on renderings of saliency maps on a few shapes. This qualitative approach meant it was unclear which saliency models were better, or how well they compared to human perception. This paper provides a quantitative evaluation framework that addresses this issue. In the first quantitative analysis of 3D computational saliency models, we evaluate four computational saliency models and two baseline models against ground-truth saliency collected in previous work.Comment: 10 page

The Effect of NAG–thiazoline on Morphology and Surface Hydrophobicity of Escherichia Coli

The β-hexosaminidase inhibitor and structural analog of the putative oxazolium reaction intermediate of lytic transglycosylases, N-acetylglucosamine thiazoline (NAG–thiazoline), was synthesized in 46% overall yield and tested as an inhibitor of Escherichia coli growth. NAG–thiazoline, at concentrations up to 1 mg/ml, was not found to affect the viability of E. coli DH5α

Crime control through housing management

Over the last decade the management of social housing in England and Wales has extended to the formal control of bad behaviour. This thesis charts the political development of this increasingly important function and the legal infrastructure within which it operates. Part one explores the development of the crime control function of social landlords over the last decade within its political, social and economic context. Part two then provides a critique of the resultant emphasis upon public protection within housing policy by identifying the conflicts and tensions this has created with the competing discourses of legal due process and welfarism