Portfolio pointers: Preparing and presenting high quality teaching portfolios

This goal of this project was to develop a set of guidelines for creating teaching portfolios for the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards or for other purposes. It includes key pointers to “getting started”, collecting evidence, interrogating practice, editing, and protecting the unique “voice” of the nominee and their student body. The guidelines consist of general principles and practical examples from both successful academic developers and award recipients and some examples from award-winning portfolios to illustrate good practice

Ecological values of Hamilton urban streams (North Island, New Zealand): constraints and opportunities for restoration

Urban streams globally are characterised by degraded habitat conditions and low aquatic biodiversity, but are increasingly becoming the focus of restoration activities. We investigated habitat quality, ecological function, and fish and macroinvertebrate community composition of gully streams in Hamilton City, New Zealand, and compared these with a selection of periurban sites surrounded by rural land. A similar complement of fish species was found at urban and periurban sites, including two threatened species, with only one introduced fish widespread (Gambusia affinis). Stream macroinvertebrate community metrics indicated low ecological condition at most urban and periurban sites, but highlighted the presence of one high value urban site with a fauna dominated by sensitive taxa. Light-trapping around seepages in city gullies revealed the presence of several caddisfly species normally associated with native forest, suggesting that seepage habitats can provide important refugia for some aquatic insects in urban environments. Qualitative measures of stream habitat were not significantly different between urban and periurban sites, but urban streams had significantly lower hydraulic function and higher biogeochemical function than periurban streams. These functional differences are thought to reflect, respectively, (1) the combined effects of channel modification and stormwater hydrology, and (2) the influence of riparian vegetation providing shade and enhancing habitat in streams. Significant relationships between some macroinvertebrate community metrics and riparian vegetation buffering and bank protection suggest that riparian enhancement may have beneficial ecological outcomes in some urban streams. Other actions that may contribute to urban stream restoration goals include an integrated catchment approach to resolving fish passage issues, active reintroduction of wood to streams to enhance cover and habitat heterogeneity, and seeding of depauperate streams with native migratory fish to help initiate natural recolonisation

Induction of CYP2E1 activity in liver transplant patients as measured by chlorzoxazone 6-hydroxylation

Objective: To examine the phenotypic expression of CYP2E1 in liver transplant patients, as measured by the in vivo probe chlorzoxazone, and to evaluate CYP2E1 activity over me after transplantation. Methods: Thirty-three stable liver transplant: patients were given 250 mg chlorzoxazone within 1 year after transplantation as part of a multiprobe CYP cocktail; urine and blood were collected for 8 hours. Chlorzoxazone and 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone concentrations were determined by HPLC. Twenty-eight healthy control subjects, eight patients with moderate to severe liver disease, and four patients who had not received liver transplants were also studied for comparison. The chlorzoxazone metabolic ratio, calculated as the plasma concentration of 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone/chlorzoxazone at 4 hours after chlorzoxazone administration, was used as the phenotypic, index. In a subgroup of patients and control subjects, additional blood samples were obtained to allow for the calculation of chlorzoxazone pharmacokinetic parameters by noncompartmental methods. Results: The chlorzoxazone metabolic ratio for the liver transplant patients in the first month after transplantation (mean ± SD, 6.4 ± 5.1) was significantlp higher than that after 1 month after surgery (2.1 ± 2.0), when the chlorzoxazone metabolic ratio was not different from control subjects (0.8 ± 0.5). The chlorzoxazone metabolic ratios in the patients who had not received liver transplants (1.1 ± 0.7) were equivalent to those of healthy control subjects. The maximum observed 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone plasma concentration was 3046 ± 1848 ng/ml in seven liver transplant patients in the first month after surgery compared with 1618 ± 320 ng/ml in 16 healthy control subjects (p < 0.05). The maximum observed concentration of chlorzoxazone, the chlorzoxazone apparent oral clearance, and the formation clearance of 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone were also significantly different between the groups. Conclusions: We conclude that significant induction of CYP2E1, as indicated by the chlorzoxazone metabolic, ratio, occurs in the first month after surgery in liver transplant patients and that drugs that are substrates for CYP2E1 may require dosage alteration during that period. Contrary to expectations, drug metabolism is not uniformly depressed after liver transplantation

FIC/FEM formulation with matrix stabilizing terms for incompressible flows at low and high Reynolds numbers

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00466-006-0060-yWe present a general formulation for incompressible fluid flow analysis using the finite element method. The necessary stabilization for dealing with convective effects and the incompressibility condition are introduced via the Finite Calculus method using a matrix form of the stabilization parameters. This allows to model a wide range of fluid flow problems for low and high Reynolds numbers flows without introducing a turbulence model. Examples of application to the analysis of incompressible flows with moderate and large Reynolds numbers are presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Relative Throughput of the Near-IR Science Instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope as Measured During Ground Testing the Integrated Science Instrument Module

Data were obtained for the purpose of measuring the relative throughput of the Near-IR Science Instruments (SIs) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the second and third cryogenic-vacuum tests (CV2CV3) of the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) conducted at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in 2014 and 20152016, at the beginning and end of the environmental test program, respectively. This Poster focuses on data obtained as part of the Initial Optical Baseline and as part of the Final Performance test -- two epochs that roughly bracket the CV3 test. The purpose of the test is to trend relative throughput to monitor for any potential changes from gross problems such as contamination or degradation of an optical element. Point source data were taken at a variety of wavelengths for NIRCam Module A and Module B, NIRSpec, NIRISS, Guider 1 and Guider 2 using the Laser Diode (LD) 1.06 micron, LD 1.55 micron, 2.1 micron LED and 3.5 micron LED, as well as for NIRCam Mod A and B and NIRISS using a tungsten source and the F277W, and F480M filters. Spectra were taken using the G140M, G235M, and G395M gratings for NIRSpec, the GRISMR grism for NIRCam Mod A and B and the GR150C grism for NIRISS. The results of these measurements are compared to what would be expected given the efficiency of each of the optical elements in each SI. Although these data were taken as a check against gross problems, they can also be used to provide the first relative throughput estimate for each SI through the various filters source wavelengths measured in their flight-like configurations