Progress or paradox? : NZQA, the genesis of a radical reconstruction of qualifications policy in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration at Massey University

This thesis investigates the origins of, and influences on, the policy developments that preceded the establishment of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). It is a case study of qualifications policy and draws heavily on material gathered from interviews with key-players and an analysis of a range of reports and other documents. The report traces the policy origins from developments in early New Zealand educational history. An essential ingredient to the policy mix that produced NZQA is its frequently paradoxical nature. This study investigates the extent of this paradox and seeks to describe it explain it. It does this by a description of events and developments, and relating them, where appropriate, to relevant theory. The chapter on centralisation and control focuses on the contradiction of what appears to be a centralising development amidst a sea of devolutionary rhetoric is examined. The period of more detailed examination coincides with the tenure of the Labour Government from 1984 to 1990. The role of legitimation is discussed in explaining the paradox apparent in the policy mix that produced NZQA. The impact of the new structure and its associated framework on curriculum, particularly that of secondary schools, is analysed. Here the problematic nature of the split between curriculum and assessment is discussed. This section reinforces the discussion on centralisation, as it unveils the potentially centralist and controlling nature of the new curriculum structure. Concern is voiced over the National Curriculum and Achievement Initiative and how they may combine with the qualifications framework to provide a greater measure of centralised curriculum extending from primary school level and up. The impacts of a modular, or units-of-learning, approach to increasing motivation, flexibility, and efficiency is also scrutinised. Concern is voiced again about controlling influences and the impact of managerialist ideologies. While the potential advantages of modularisation are acknowledged, a critical account is given of its short-coming and dangers as a means of legitimating essentially controlling mechanisms. All three aspects of the policy, curriculum, centralisation and modularisation are shown to be instruments capable of moving the locus of control ever closer to the centre. This inherent susceptibility is in turn related to the prevailing ideologies, and in particular those associated with managerialism and neo-Friedmanite economics. Specific attention is paid to debunking the pejorative association of conspiracy theories with the searches for explanations for policy developments, and care is taken to explain that despite the existence of ideological pressures, much policy occurs in a rather arbitrary, even ad hoc manner. A range of factors that aided the shaping of this particular policy are described and explained. The thesis concludes that explanations of policy developments need to consider a whole raft of factors that shape a particular policy. Furthermore the thesis also demonstrates that there are several inherent tensions and contradictions that remain unresolved in the policy example it examines

Responses of floodplain birds to high-amplitude precipitation fluctuations over two decades

Globally, high-amplitude variation in weather (e.g. precipitation) is increasing in frequency and magnitude. This appears to be so for the southern Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, where droughts of unprecedented (in the instrumental record, extending back to the mid-1800s) depth and duration (1997–first half of 2010; second half of 2012–) are being punctuated by extreme wet periods, albeit of shorter duration (‘Big Wet’, second half of 2010–first half of 2012). We have previously reported on the responses of floodplain-forest birds to the cessation of the longest recorded drought (‘Big Dry’, 1997–first half of 2010), but we found little evidence of a rebound, at least shortly after the Big Wet. However, we reasoned that there may have been insufficient time for the birds to have responded in that short time, so we repeated the survey program 5 years after the end of the Big Wet (2017). Bird occurrences, reproductive activity and success were substantially greater compared with late in the Big Dry (2009) than they had been soon after the Big Wet (2013). However, bird occurrences still fell well below measurements in the early-Big Dry (1998), so that the avifauna appears to be in decline, most probably because the length of drought periods far exceeds that of wet periods giving the birds too little time to recover fully. © 2022 The Authors. Austral Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Ecological Society of Australia

A longitudinal observational study of home-based conversations for detecting early dementia:protocol for the CUBOId TV task

INTRODUCTION: Limitations in effective dementia therapies mean that early diagnosis and monitoring are critical for disease management, but current clinical tools are impractical and/or unreliable, and disregard short-term symptom variability. Behavioural biomarkers of cognitive decline, such as speech, sleep and activity patterns, can manifest prodromal pathological changes. They can be continuously measured at home with smart sensing technologies, and permit leveraging of interpersonal interactions for optimising diagnostic and prognostic performance. Here we describe the ContinUous behavioural Biomarkers Of cognitive Impairment (CUBOId) study, which explores the feasibility of multimodal data fusion for in-home monitoring of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The report focuses on a subset of CUBOId participants who perform a novel speech task, the ‘TV task’, designed to track changes in ecologically valid conversations with disease progression. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: CUBOId is a longitudinal observational study. Participants have diagnoses of MCI or AD, and controls are their live-in partners with no such diagnosis. Multimodal activity data were passively acquired from wearables and in-home fixed sensors over timespans of 8–25 months. At two time points participants completed the TV task over 5 days by recording audio of their conversations as they watched a favourite TV programme, with further testing to be completed after removal of the sensor installations. Behavioural testing is supported by neuropsychological assessment for deriving ground truths on cognitive status. Deep learning will be used to generate fused multimodal activity-speech embeddings for optimisation of diagnostic and predictive performance from speech alone. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: CUBOId was approved by an NHS Research Ethics Committee (Wales REC; ref: 18/WA/0158) and is sponsored by University of Bristol. It is supported by the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network West of England. Results will be reported at conferences and in peer-reviewed scientific journals

Segmentation of Exercise Repetitions Enabling Real-Time Patient Analysis and Feedback Using a Single Exemplar

We present a segmentation algorithm capable of segmenting exercise repetitions in real-time. This approach uses subsequence dynamic time warping and requires only a single exemplar repetition of an exercise to correctly segment repetitions from other subjects, including those with limited mobility. This approach is invariant to low range of motion, instability in movements and sensor noise while remaining selective to different exercises. This algorithm enables responsive feedback for technology-assisted physical rehabilitation systems. We evaluated the algorithm against a publicly available dataset (CMU) and against a healthy population and stroke patient population performing rehabilitation exercises captured on a consumer-level depth sensor. We show the algorithm can consistently achieve correct segmentation in real-time

Forelimb-Hindlimb Developmental Timing Changes across Tetrapod Phylogeny

Background: Tetrapods exhibit great diversity in limb structures among species and also between forelimbs and hindlimbs within species, diversity which frequently correlates with locomotor modes and life history. We aim to examine the potential relation of changes in developmental timing (heterochrony) to the origin of limb morphological diversity in an explicit comparative and quantitative framework. In particular, we studied the relative time sequence of development of the forelimbs versus the hindlimbs in 138 embryos of 14 tetrapod species spanning a diverse taxonomic, ecomorphological and life-history breadth. Whole-mounts and histological sections were used to code the appearance of 10 developmental events comprising landmarks of development from the early bud stage to late chondrogenesis in the forelimb and the corresponding serial homologues in the hindlimb. Results: An overall pattern of change across tetrapods can be discerned and appears to be relatively clade-specific. In the primitive condition, as seen in Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes, the forelimb/pectoral fin develops earlier than the hindlimb/pelvic fin. This pattern is either retained or re-evolved in eulipotyphlan insectivores (= shrews, moles, hedgehogs, and solenodons) and taken to its extreme in marsupials. Although exceptions are known, the two anurans we examined reversed the pattern and displayed a significant advance in hindlimb development. All other species examined, including a bat with its greatly enlarged forelimbs modified as wings in the adult, showed near synchrony in the development of the fore and hindlimbs. Conclusion: Major heterochronic changes in early limb development and chondrogenesis were absent within major clades except Lissamphibia, and their presence across vertebrate phylogeny are not easily correlated with adaptive phenomena related to morphological differences in the adult fore- and hindlimbs. The apparently conservative nature of this trait means that changes in chondrogenetic patterns may serve as useful phylogenetic characters at higher taxonomic levels in tetrapods. Our results highlight the more important role generally played by allometric heterochrony in this instance to shape adult morphology.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Assessing the oxidation states and structural stability of the Ce analogue of brannerite

NSERCThe Ce‐containing analogue of brannerite (ie, UTi2O6) was previously considered to be stoichio- metric (ie, CeTi2O6); however, it has recently been determined that the material is O deficient. This oxygen‐deficient material has been suggested to be charged balanced by the presence of a minor concentration of Ce3+ or by the A‐site being cation deficient with the Ce oxidation state being 4+. A variety of Ti‐containing oxides (including brannerite) have been investigated as potential nuclear wasteforms, and it is necessary to understand the electronic structure of a proposed nuclear wasteform material as well as how the structure responds to radiation from incorporated waste elements. The radiation resistance of a material can be simulated by ion implantation. The objective of this study was to confirm the Ce oxidation state in the cation‐ and oxygen‐deficient material (ie, Ce0.94Ti2O6 − δ) and to determine how radiation damage affects this material. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X‐ray absorption near‐edge spectros- copy were used to study Ce0.94Ti2O6 − δ before and after being implanted with 2 MeV Au− ions. Analysis of the Ce 3d XPS spectra from the as‐synthesized samples by using a previously developed fitting method has unequivocally shown that Ce adopts both 4+ (major) and 3+ (minor) oxidation states, which was confirmed by examination of magnetic susceptibility data. Analysis of XPS and X‐ray absorption near‐edge spectroscopy spectra from ion‐implanted materials showed that both Ce and Ti were reduced because of radiation damage and that the local coordination environments of the cations are greatly affected by radiation damage

Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Neuropilin-1 Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A) Interaction†

We report the molecular design and synthesis of EG00229, 2, the first small molecule ligand for the VEGF-A receptor neuropilin 1 (NRP1) and the structural characterization of NRP1-ligand complexes by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Mutagenesis studies localized VEGF-A binding in the NRP1 b1 domain and a peptide fragment of VEGF-A was shown to bind at the same site by NMR, providing the basis for small molecule design. Compound 2 demonstrated inhibition of VEGF-A binding to NRP1 and attenuated VEGFR2 phosphorylation in endothelial cells. Inhibition of migration of endothelial cells was also observed. The viability of A549 lung carcinoma cells was reduced by 2, and it increased the potency of the cytotoxic agents paclitaxel and 5-fluorouracil when given in combination. These studies provide the basis for design of specific small molecule inhibitors of ligand binding to NRP1