Highly skilled South African immigrants in New Zealand : a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

This exploratory research represents a first step into investigating the acculturation strategies employed by highly skilled South African immigrants to New Zealand. It answers the call for information to be added to the body of knowledge, in this emergent research area for New Zealand, on this specific immigrant group. The report examines the match between the South African and New Zealand acculturation strategies in the workplace, and highlights the relationships expected as a result. It also identifies factors helping and hindering the acculturation of South African immigrants. Limiting factors such as time constrained the report; however, results add new information to the body of knowledge in the fields of immigration to New Zealand, emigration from South Africa, and acculturation in New Zealand. The research used convenience and snowball techniques to identify participants, and structured interviews with open ended questions were used to elicit their migration experiences. Data analysis was qualitative, and consisted of identification of themes that could be used to classify participant groups. The research concluded that highly skilled South African immigrants to New Zealand pursue either an integrative or assimilative acculturation strategy. Those pursuing an integrative strategy are likely to have consensual relationships with New Zealanders in the workplace, given the New Zealand expectation that immigrants should integrate into the host culture. However, those pursuing an assimilation strategy may experience more problematic relationships in the New Zealand workplace. The main factors helping the integration group to acculturate were developing shared understanding and acceptance between different cultural groups. The factors helping the assimilation group were their ability to be flexible and adapt to change. The main factor hindering the acculturation of the integration group was that their expectations of New Zealand workplaces were not met. For the assimilation group the main hindering factor was suffering from acculturative stress. A major implication of the research for New Zealand workplaces is developing a better understanding of highly skilled South African employees, which in particular will affect selection and retention practices for this group. By developing shared understanding, a better fit between the person and their environment can be achieved. This can help ensure the skills of this immigrant group are utilised in New Zealand's growing knowledge economy

Arachne, self-care and ‘power-nets’ on women’s self-development programmes

Our article employs a feminist perspective to interpret ethnographic data on soft skills programmes (SSPs) for female staff in Higher Education (HE). We use the story of Arachne as a metaphor for how, under neoliberalism, women are instructed to create local ‘nets of power,’ only to find themselves tangled in a web of conflicting expectations. Our method was informed by Institutional Ethnography (IE). Data incorporated autoethnography, participant observation, in-depth interviews with female SSP participants from academia and corporate services, as well as document study. SSPs emerged as social spaces promoting self-care and entrepreneurial practices to predominantly female audiences. An entrepreneurial self was promoted on SSPs, ostensibly to inoculate women against stress and exploitation, but arguably to perpetuate a ‘super-woman’ work ethic. SSPs exemplify how women are kept busy with attending to their personal ‘metamorphoses’ as opposed to ‘meddling’ in the politics of institutions, distracted from feminist agendas that might address structural gender inequalities in HE

Identifying Bisphosphonate Protein Biomarkers in Equine Sera Using Mass Spectrometry Methods

Bone resorptive diseases affect humans and horses, alike. Examples of these diseases include osteoporosis, Paget’s disease, and osteogenesis imperfecta in humans, and navicular disease in the horse (Mitchell et al., 2019; Suva et al., 2021). Bisphosphonates are used to treat these diseases, and may remain in the bone for several years after administration, demonstrating the need for newer drug testing methods. The purpose of the discovery phase of this study was to use blood samples of in-training horses which had been given an initial administration of the bisphosphonate tiludronate and identify protein biomarkers that changed in response to this class of drugs. In the targeted phase, the objective was to validate the previously identified protein biomarkers that can be added into a biomarker library. This library is meant to be referenced when drug testing racehorses and can lengthen the detection window of prohibited or restricted substances. Fractionation, digestion, and de-salting were performed on sera samples from 19 equine subjects in-training. These samples were injected in an Orbitrap™ Exploris 480d coupled with an Ultimate 3000 RSLCnanoj. Label-free quantitation of proteins was performed in both phases. Four key protein biomarkers were identified in the discovery phase and validated in the targeted phase

Establishing a robust two-step cloning strategy for the generation of cell lines with a high probability of monoclonality

A regulatory requirement for the production of therapeutic proteins from mammalian cells is that the production cell line is clonal, that is, derived from a single progenitor cell. It is therefore standard procedure to include at least one cloning step during the development of a recombinant cell line for therapeutic protein production. Numerous techniques can be employed for cloning cell lines, but regardless of the cloning method used there should be appropriate evidence to support that the method is fit for purpose. A point highlighted by the increasing interest from regulatory bodies regarding the cloning method used and the probability of monoclonality (P(monoclonality)) achieved during cell line development (CLD). FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies have thoroughly considered the cloning approach used during CLD: A two-step cloning strategy employed which combines the ClonePix™ as a cloning and screening tool followed by a second cloning step using the industrially accepted method of limiting dilution cloning will be discussed. A collaboration with statisticians led to the development of a method to estimate the resulting P(monoclonality) of cell lines generated using the ClonePix™ and experimental data to support this statistical method was generated, thereby ensuring that the ClonePix™ cloning step is robust. We will highlight the challenges of using the ClonePix™ for a single round of cloning and the advantages of combining it with a second cloning step. We will demonstrate how we achieve a minimum probability of monoclonality of ≥99.78% and typically achieve a P(monoclonality) of 99.9% using a two-step cloning strategy

Patient Perspectives on the Acceptability of Emergency Admission Risk Prediction: A Focus Group Study

Background: Emergency admission risk stratification (EARS) tools predict admission risk for a general practice patient population. Policy has encouraged targeting higher risk patients with proactive care approaches, in partnership with patients. Previously published stakeholder views on the acceptability and use of EARS tools have been limited to professionals. Objective: Our objective was to explore the views of patients on acceptability, benefits, challenges and risks of communicating emergency admission risk scores to patients. Design, setting and participants: We undertook an in-person focus group with a geographically diverse group of patient and public members in Wales, UK. Participants brought experience of multiple health providers. All had chronic conditions and/or recent experience of emergency admission to hospital. We coded and thematically analyzed the transcript. Results: Participants supported the use of EARS where it was underpinned by communication of risk scores and direct involvement of patients. Participants expressed a desire to receive their own risk scores. They felt EARS use was well suited to holistic approaches to care, and as a stimulus to self-management. They recognized capacity and cost challenges related to general practitioner use but saw potential for other primary and community staff to be involved. The security and integrity of EARS data was deemed important. Conclusions: This study provides a rare insight from a stakeholder group that has largely been excluded from debates around EARS use. These findings identify issues that are deserving of further exploration to improve our understanding of the potential role and effectiveness of EARS and other risk approaches in healthcare. Patient or public contribution: This study was conceived following discussion with public contributors to a trial of emergency admission risk stratification (PRISMATIC) [1], and a subsequent informal workshop with eight members of a patient, carer and public member group aligned to research around chronic conditions management in Wales, UK [2]. This preliminary work emphasized the importance of patient involvement in debates around EARS and contributed to the study reported here and to the information sheet and topic guide. JD, a public contributor, was a co-applicant on PRISMATIC, took part in a preliminary workshop, and is a co-author of this paper

Qualitative research within trials: developing a standard operating procedure for a clinical trials unit

BackgroundQualitative research methods are increasingly used within clinical trials to address broader research questions than can be addressed by quantitative methods alone. These methods enable health professionals, service users, and other stakeholders to contribute their views and experiences to evaluation of healthcare treatments, interventions, or policies, and influence the design of trials. Qualitative data often contribute information that is better able to reform policy or influence design.MethodsHealth services researchers, including trialists, clinicians, and qualitative researchers, worked collaboratively to develop a comprehensive portfolio of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the West Wales Organisation for Rigorous Trials in Health (WWORTH), a clinical trials unit (CTU) at Swansea University, which has recently achieved registration with the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC). Although the UKCRC requires a total of 25 SOPs from registered CTUs, WWORTH chose to add an additional qualitative-methods SOP (QM-SOP).ResultsThe qualitative methods SOP (QM-SOP) defines good practice in designing and implementing qualitative components of trials, while allowing flexibility of approach and method. Its basic principles are that: qualitative researchers should be contributors from the start of trials with qualitative potential; the qualitative component should have clear aims; and the main study publication should report on the qualitative component.ConclusionsWe recommend that CTUs consider developing a QM-SOP to enhance the conduct of quantitative trials by adding qualitative data and analysis. We judge that this improves the value of quantitative trials, and contributes to the future development of multi-method trial