Alone Together: the heightened risks of loneliness following Covid-19

Even prior to Covid-19, loneliness posed a significant public policy challenge. Loneliness intersects with other wellbeing factors, so prioritising wellbeing requires policies that allow social interaction to thrive. Prolonged loneliness also creates significant public health risks. Covid-19 thrust loneliness into greater prominence with enforced social isolation compounded by considerable employment and income loss. The level 4 lockdown contributed to an increase in self-reported loneliness, especially among those already at risk. Future analysis will determine the full impact of Covid-19 on loneliness; in the meantime, policy to enable social interactions to thrive will be an important part of the recovery

Resilience through Relocation in Older Adulthood: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Resilience, the process and outcome of successful adaptation to a stressor, is important to maintain wellbeing through stressors such as relocation. Relocation is a common experience in late adulthood which can cause significant stress. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of resilience and its relationship to strengths and resources following relocation in older adulthood. The research questions regarded participants’ description of experiencing resilience after relocation and strengths and resources that contributed to that experience. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with a criterion sample of six adults aged 65 and older who had relocated within the last three years. The collected data was analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis, and five group experiential themes emerged. One of the key findings of this study was that the process of resilience (successful adjustment) through relocation in older adulthood takes time and that feeling safe and at home in the new house were signs that the outcome of successful adjustment had been achieved. Further, analysis revealed a heavy emphasis on positive social connections supporting resilience. Several strengths were found to support resilience as well, including a positive focus, spirituality and faith, various personality traits, and hobbies. This study extended the current body of knowledge on resilience by exploring an understudied population, older adults, and by examining the phenomenon of resilience in relocation to independent living situations, an understudied context. Findings from this study contribute to empirical knowledge regarding resilience and could inform supportive interventions and self-help knowledge for older adults facing relocation

The Effects of Fluency-Building Strategies on the Oral Reading Rates of First-Grade Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of explicit fluency-building strategies on the oral reading rates of first-grade students. According to the National Reading Panel (2000) there are five essential components of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. All components are needed to achieve the complex skill of reading. Due to the reciprocal nature of these skills pertaining to reading, a deficit in any reading component can cause difficulties in learning to read (O\u27Connor, 2007). Therefore, reading fluency is critical to proficiency in reading. Specifically, this study investigated whether explicit instruction in fluency-building strategies significantly increased the oral reading rates of first-grade students. The experimental group participated in explicit instruction of fluency strategies for 15-30 minutes a day, five days a week, for sixteen weeks. This treatment occurred within the hours of the regular school day. The target population of this study involved 56 first- grade students from three multicultural elementary schools in a suburban-rural school district. The measure of the dependent variable, oral reading rate, was the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). The Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) measure was administered twice during the course of this study: pre and post treatment. The scores of the DIBELS ORF were analyzed to determine the effect of explicit fluency-building strategies on the reading rates of first-grade students. The results of this research study did not indicate a significant increase in the oral reading rates of the first-grade students who participated in explicit fluency-building instruction. Students in both the experimental and control groups experienced increases in their oral reading rates as measured on by the Oral Reading Fluency measure of the DIBELS. The results of this study generated no empirical evidence to support the implementation of explicit research-based fluency strategies. Therefore, the null hypothesis was retained. In summary, the purpose for this dissertation topic was to investigate how fluency building strategies can be systematically implemented into reading instruction to increase the oral reading achievement rates of first-grade students. Further, this study provided opportunities for students to practice and assimilate fluency strategies

Pākehā (body in between) identity : an offering to decolonial discourse, through embodied performance in the landscape : an exegesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of the post graduate degree of Master of Fine Arts, Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

Figures are re-used with permission.My thesis project moves through discussions of my Pākehā identity and relationship to whiteness and the whenua in the context of Aotearoa. Both my thesis writing and performance are presented as an autobiographical practice. This work is a personal exploration of being Pākehā with a critical acknowledgement of the relationship and separation from Māori and mātauranga. My mahi explores revisiting my lived experiences as a way to self-reflect and better situate my body in the political, cultural, and social context of being Pākehā. This embodied method in my interrelated performance, video, and literary practices has allowed me to better understand multiplicities and nuances of identity. This project is of my body and therapeutic for my body, therefore I have used a storytelling literary style, as this reflects the personal context of my work. My performance work shares my identity as a white body, Pākehā body, Tangata Tiriti, and a woman, in contrast and in conversation with the landscape, exploring narratives of ‘location’ ‘disconnection’ ‘unsettling’ ‘fitting in’ and ‘belonging’. I use the subjectivity of my body in both my performance and literary practice, as a way to lay a foundation to host investigation into the seemingly invisible systemic network that is whiteness. This exegesis feels to me to be a living performative document of its own, learning as I am doing and moving through research. This year the work I have made, and the kōrero I have had with my whānau, has been the most important in relation to situating my Pākehā identity, to then help other Pākehā understand their own through my disseminated work. I remember the beginning of this process; I was so uptight and worried about appropriating from Māori in my initial experiments involving ecofeminism and paganism that I didn’t acknowledge indigeneity in the landscape. This work kept leading to my unavoidable relationship to te ao Māori in the context of Aotearoa and the whenua on which I was making my performance work. In the process of my journey to locate myself in the land, the understanding of being Pākehā became more than a small acknowledgement but central to having a performative practice that works in the landscape of Aotearoa and politics of New Zealand. Researching my Pākehā identity isn't just a place I will visit, but a place where I can belong. I believe sharing these stories, performance works and learnings of my life before now ‘from my well’ are intrinsic to how I have navigated a Pākehā experience, and to understanding how I can contribute to undoing systems older and more powerful than the blind ignorance of a large part of Pākehā culture. Alongside this, actively listening to the experiences of Māori has been fundamental for enriching my understanding of the realities of Aotearoa, my reality included. As Alison Jones articulates: “If Pākehā people exist in terms of our relationship with Māori, then we have to be able to think with a Māori-informed point of view.” (Jones.190) I have the honour of sharing with my friends their kōrero about their own journeys of decolonisation. This is why an autobiographical way of writing is important as it continues the language of storytelling, listening and sharing of stories with my whānau. In my experience, stories can travel further and become more accessible in the way they expose concepts like white supremacy or privilege. Storytelling through lived experience intertwines the theory with an embodied reality. I am not claiming that my lived reality is the only reality or a right or wrong one, but I hope that it can be a starting point for more dialogue, critique, and broader shared realities. Storytelling is an indigenous way of sharing knowledge through generations and the way that knowledge has survived and resisted colonial erasure. Kōrero pūrākau and indigenous auto-ethnography connects people to history and places them in reality. Linda Tuhiwai Smith writes that: For many indigenous writers stories are ways of passing down the beliefs and values of a culture in the hope that the new generations will treasure them and pass the story down further. The story and the storyteller both serve to connect the past with the future, one generation with the other, the land with the people and the people with the story. (Smith,144-145) As a Pākehā, I have seen my connection between past and future, generational knowledge, and stories to be dishonest, harmful, or intentionally absent from Pākehā culture. Alison Jones explains that “Pākehā insistence on ‘forgetting the past’ becomes possible only if we believe the past is lost behind us, out of sight and gone.” (Jones.170) This sense of absence has shaped a large part of my journey through my art practice, research, and identity. Thankfully in our whare Jayden and Tūī keep reminding me of the whakatauki ‘ka mua ka muri’, ‘walking backwards into the future’. This humbles me enough to see that I am not as alone as I may feel, there is history and stories waiting to be made visible as I move forward with my art practice and understanding my identity, it will just take time. I have started this journey, both looking back from my past, and into the present to where I am now, in my body

The roles of phytohormones in floral arrest and carpic dominance

The number of reproductive organs, and their positioning in both space and time (‘reproductive architecture’) are vital factors for the production of offspring in plants. We do not yet fully understand the mechanisms by which plants ‘decide’ how many reproductive organs to make, and where to make them, although elements are known to be controlled by long-distance hormonal signalling. Here, we have examined the control of reproductive architecture in Arabidopsis and the wider Brassicaceae; focusing on the control of inflorescence production, the quantity and positioning of fruits, and the mechanisms underlying floral arrest. We have shown that early signals control the number of inflorescences produced, and that these strongly predict the number of fruits that the plant will make. Fruit are distributed across these inflorescences in a highly predictable manner, with ~50% being supported by the secondary inflorescences, likely as a consequence of the timing of inflorescence arrest. Our examination of inflorescence arrest shows that arrest is a two-stage process, beginning with inflorescence meristem arrest, and followed by floral arrest. We clarify previous misconceptions around floral arrest, showing that it is in fact a local process, and is not regulated globally. Our data highlight the importance of both cytokinin and auxin in inflorescence arrest, with auxin export from developing fruits being required for normal arrest. In support of recent work, we have shown that cytokinin is a key promoter of inflorescence meristem activity, and that increasing cytokinin signalling can delay both inflorescence meristem and floral arrest. Development of this work highlights how the cytokinin signalling receptors ARABIDOPSIS HISTIDINE KINASE2 (AHK2) and AHK3 are differentially involved in the regulation of meristem activity in the inflorescence meristem and flowers respectively. Overall, this work provides a basis on which to develop future crop research; manipulation of cytokinin signalling and/or sensitivity shows excellent promise for yield increases without the need for increased inputs

Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia.

Many major corporations and countries have made commitments to purchase or produce only "sustainable" palm oil, a commodity responsible for substantial tropical forest loss. Sustainability certification is the tool most used to fulfill these procurement policies, and around 20% of global palm oil production was certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2017. However, the effect of certification on deforestation in oil palm plantations remains unclear. Here, we use a comprehensive dataset of RSPO-certified and noncertified oil palm plantations (∼188,000 km2) in Indonesia, the leading producer of palm oil, as well as annual remotely sensed metrics of tree cover loss and fire occurrence, to evaluate the impact of certification on deforestation and fire from 2001 to 2015. While forest loss and fire continued after RSPO certification, certified palm oil was associated with reduced deforestation. Certification lowered deforestation by 33% from a counterfactual of 9.8 to 6.6% y-1 Nevertheless, most plantations contained little residual forest when they received certification. As a result, by 2015, certified areas held less than 1% of forests remaining within Indonesian oil palm plantations. Moreover, certification had no causal impact on forest loss in peatlands or active fire detection rates. Broader adoption of certification in forested regions, strict requirements to avoid all peat, and routine monitoring of clearly defined forest cover loss in certified and RSPO member-held plantations appear necessary if the RSPO is to yield conservation and climate benefits from reductions in tropical deforestation

Morbidities Among Older Workers And Work Exit : The Heaf Cohort

Funding: The HEAF study is funded by grant awards from Versus Arthritis (formerly Arthritis Research UK) (19817 and 20665) and the Medical Research Council programme grant (MC_UU_12011/5); and the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council jointly (ES/L002663/1); the study is coordinated by the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Southampton. GN and CHL receive financial support from the MRC Versus Arthritis Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work. Acknowledgements: We wish to thank Professor Keith Palmer for his work incepting the HEAF cohort and Dr Stephen Duffield for his contribution to the coding of the CPRD data. Also, we are grateful to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and the 24 general practices that supported data collection, the staff of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit who provided data entry and computing support (notably Vanessa Cox). Finally, we thank the HEAF participants for giving their time so generously to participate in the study.Peer reviewedPostprin

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