Roles of Fiscal Policy in New Zealand

Economic growth is one of the objectives of the current government. Fiscal policy, encompassing government expenditure and taxation decisions, can significantly impact on economic growth. This paper proposes a framework which views fiscal policy through three lenses and applies this approach to consider how fiscal policy affects economic growth. The three lenses are: fiscal sustainability, fiscal structure and fiscal stabilisation. The paper reviews international literature pertaining to these three lenses and discusses the extent to which these lenses are incorporated into New Zealand’s current fiscal framework. Contemporary New Zealand fiscal challenges are discussed and, in light of these challenges, the paper concludes with consideration of areas to investigate which may yield improvements to the New Zealand fiscal framework.Fiscal policy, sustainability, stability, structure, taxation, government spending, economic growth

Analyzing The Impact Of The 2012 Ford Focus Target Hunt: Can Student Managed Projects Accomplish Both Academic And Corporate Objectives?

Student-managed business projects offer students the opportunity to garner valuable real world experience while businesses can fulfill corporate responsibilities utilizing relatively inexpensive manpower. This paper describes an event marketing/social media marketing project completed in conjunction with Jackson-Dawson Communications, representing the Ford Motor Company, and a Midwestern University chapter of the American Marketing Association. Through the successful implementation of the AIDA-IMC promotion model, a committed AMA Chapter, and a number of very cooperative business partnerships, a host of corporate and academic objectives were accomplished while participants gained valuable insight into event marketing principles

Targeted EDV™ Nanocells carrying small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules to overcome drug resistance in Non-small cell lung cancer

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.. Over two million people worldwide suffer from lung cancer, the main sub-type (85%) being NSCLC and despite many chemotherapeutics approved for NSCLC, only 2% of patients with NSCLC metastatic disease survive 5 years post diagnosis with multidrug resistance being the major cause of mortality in NSCLC patients. . The overall aim of this project was to evaluate targeted EnGeneIC Dream Vector™ (EDV™) nanocells for loading and delivering small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules, Polo like kinase-1 (PLK1), Ribonucleoside reductase subunit M1 (RRM1) & Kinesin Spindle Protein (KSP), in order to silence proteins essential to tumour cell survival and proliferation, and to evaluate their therapeutic potential in overcoming the hitherto intractable multiple drug resistance in non- small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). . The expression of cell cycle genes PLK1, RRM1 & KSP in NSCLC cell lines was measured using RT-qPCR and Western Blot. Efficacy of siRNAs targeting PLK1 (siPLK1), RRM1 (siRRM1) & KSP (siKSP) transfected into NSCLC cell lines was measured by the MTS proliferation assay and Western Blot. Flow cytometric analysis was used to measure apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in NSCLC cell lines transfected with the siRNAs targeting PLK1, RRM1 and KSP. EDV™ nanocells were targeted to the epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the copy number of siRNAs loaded into the nanocells was measured by staining with an RNA specific dye and measured on a fluorometer compared to known standards. EDV™-siRNAs were used to treat NSCLC cells lines grown as 3D spheroids using the hanging drop plates (Perfecta3D®:HDP1096) and cell proliferation inhibition was assessed using trypan blue cell viability assay. The EDV™s-siRNAs were then tested in vivo using the A549-Dox-R a xenograft mouse model, tumours were excised and assessed for gene knockdown by RT-qPCR. . In this study we show that in vitro and in vivo, EDV™s can effectively deliver targeted-cell cycle-siRNAs to hanging drop 3D spheroids and into a mouse xenograft model to inhibit cell and tumour growth, and that EDV™s can encapsulate and deliver a significant siRNA payload directly inside the tumour cells without affecting non-target tissue. Overall, this study highlights the exciting possibility that siRNAs against mitotic regulators loaded into EDV™s will be safe alone or in combination with drug-loaded EDV™s, and may overcome drug resistance in NSCLC patients. This project has true translational potential for both delivering hitherto “undeliverable” functional nucleic acids, and for potentially addressing drug-resistance mechanisms in lung cancer

Missing Data Treatments at the Second Level of Hierarchical Linear Models

The current study evaluated the performance of traditional versus modern MDTs in the estimation of fixed-effects and variance components for data missing at the second level of an hierarchical linear model (HLM) model across 24 different study conditions. Variables manipulated in the analysis included, (a) number of Level-2 variables with missing data, (b) percentage of missing data, and (c) Level-2 sample size. Listwise deletion outperformed all other methods across all study conditions in the estimation of both fixed-effects and variance components. The model-based procedures evaluated, EM and MI, outperformed the other traditional MDTs, mean and group mean substitution, in the estimation of the variance components, outperforming mean substitution in the estimation of the fixed-effects as well. Group mean substitution performed well in the estimation of the fixed-effects, but poorly in the estimation of the variance components. Data in the current study were modeled as missing completely at random (MCAR). Further research is suggested to compare the performance of model-based versus traditional MDTs, specifically listwise deletion, when data are missing at random (MAR), a condition that is more likely to occur in practical research settings

Along-strike structure of the Costa Rican convergent margin from seismic a refraction/reflection survey : evidence for underplating beneath the inner forearc

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 17 (2016): 501–520, doi:10.1002/2015GC006029.The convergent margin offshore Costa Rica shows evidence of subsidence due to subduction erosion along the outer forearc and relatively high rates of uplift (∼3–6 mm/yr) along the coast. Recently erupted arc lavas exhibit a low 10Be signal, suggesting that although nearly the entire package of incoming sediments enters the subduction zone, very little of that material is carried directly with the downgoing Cocos plate to the magma generating depths of the mantle wedge. One mechanism that would explain both the low 10Be and the coastal uplift is the underplating of sediments, tectonically eroded material, and seamounts beneath the inner forearc. We present results of a 320 km long, trench-parallel seismic reflection and refraction study of the Costa Rican forearc. The primary observations are (1) margin perpendicular faulting of the basement, (2) thickening of the Cocos plate to the northwest, and (3) two weak bands of reflections in the multichannel seismic (MCS) reflection image with travel times similar to the top of the subducting Cocos plate. The modeled depths to these reflections are consistent with an ∼40 km long, 1–3 km thick region of underplated material ∼15 km beneath some of the highest observed coastal uplift rates in Costa Rica.This work was funded by the U. S. National Science Foundation MARGINS program under grants OCE 0405556, OCE 0405654, and OCE 0625178.2016-08-2

The GFCAT: a catalog of ultraviolet variables observed by GALEX with sub-minute resolution

We have performed the first systematic search of the full GALEX data archive for astrophysical variability on timescales of seconds to minutes by rebinning data across the whole mission to 30-second time resolution. The result is the GALEX Flare Catalog (GFCAT) which describes 1426 ultraviolet variable sources, including stellar flares, eclipsing binaries, $\delta$ Scuti and RR Lyrae variables, and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Many of these sources have never previously been identified as variable. We have also assembled a table of observations of ultraviolet flares and accompanying statistics and measurements, including energies, and of candidate eclipsing stars. This effort was enabled by a significantly-enhanced version of the gPhoton software for analyzing time-domain GALEX data; this gPhoton2 package is available to support follow-on efforts.Comment: accepted in ApJS; data available as a MAST High Level Science Product via https://dx.doi.org/10.17909/8d57-169

GENETIC MAPPING OF GENE EXPRESSION LEVELS: EXPRESSION LEVEL POLYMORPHISM ANALYSIS FOR DISSECTING REGULATORY NETWORKS OF PLANT DISEASE RESISTANCE

The genetic basis of inherited traits has been studied through di erent approaches in many areas of science. Examples include quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and mutant analysis in genetics, genome sequencing and gene expression analysis in genomics. Each of these approaches is used for the investigation of complex traits, such as disease resistance, but also provides knowledge on components of complex biological systems. We introduce a novel functional genomics approach that integrates two areas, genetics and genomics, by applying QTL analysis to quantitative di erences in the mRNA abundance of trait-related genes. This approach allows comprehensive dissection of regulatory networks for complex traits at a systems biology level. We also address statistical issues, and suggest guidelines for future experiments in this new framework