Climbing the high road: strategic design and management of New Zealand's human capital and economic transformation

‘Ui mai koe ki ahau he aha te mea nui o te ao, Maku e ki atu he tangata, he tangata he tangata’* ‘Ask me what is the greatest thing in the world, I will reply: It is people, it is people, it is people!’ The strategic design and management of New Zealand’s economic transformation is a sophisticated and long-term process. Economic transformation is not merely a re-branding exercise, although a forward-thinking national brand strategy could provide the catalyst for promoting the repositioning strategy. New Zealand’s economics performance has always been affected by global events, socio-cultural factors and physical constraints – small population size and distance from key global markets. Therefore, New Zealand cannot compete in ‘low road’ strategies by simply opening the economy to international trade, investment and technology flow, or by providing cheap labour. New Zealand’s economic future will be transformed by significant human capital developments to enable the workforce and businesses to become design-savvy and capable of harnessing and commercialising new technologies, networking globally and adding value to everything we produce that is significantly more innovative and better than that of our competitors. Managing such a ‘high road’ economic transformation strategy is both complex and challenging. Systems and process must be put in place to enable the government, corporations, businesses and universities to work in partnerships and clusters for exploiting creativity, innovation and technology to sustain global advantage. Capability development in creativity, innovation and the judicious use of technologies are the greatest assets for New Zealand’s economic transformation. A rich pool of creative human capital will enable the nation to integrate its products and services into global value chains – thus adding value, forging new competencies, developing niches, and establishing a high profile, national identity, brands, jobs and wealth for the nation. This paper will discuss these forces in details, and highlights the agencies to strategically manage the transformation processes along with the Government’s Growth and Innovation Framework, Sector Taskforces, Country Branding, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and the bold New Zealand Design Policy to transform an agriculture economy into a design-savvy, high wage and high value globally competitive economy

Appraising the Market Overt Exception

Under what circumstances can a sale of goods by a person, who is not the owner ofthe goods, nonetheless confer good title on the purchaser? The common law rule “nemo dat quodnon habet†embodies the principle that the transferee of goods cannot get better title than that of thetransferor. In other words, if goods are sold by a person who does not have title to the goods (forexample, because he had obtained the goods by theft), then he would be unable to pass title to asubsequent purchaser since he did not have title to begin with. The nemo dat rule thus protects thetrue or original owner of goods. One of the exceptions to this rule under the Hong Kong Sale ofGoods Ordinance is the market overt exception, which seeks to protect innocent purchasers. Thisarticle first considers the meanings of and rationales behind the nemo dat rule and the market overtexception respectively. Problems with the existing market overt exception will next be discussed. Asuggestion will then be made that the market overt exception be replaced with a rule that protectsinnocent buyers who deal as consumers and who have purchased goods from shops or markets inHong Kong

Technological modernization in irrigated agriculture: factors for sustainability in developing countries

Presented during the Third international conference on irrigation and drainage held March 30 - April 2, 2005 in San Diego, California. The theme of the conference was "Water district management and governance."Includes bibliographical references.Technology has much to offer to irrigated agriculture in developing countries. Many technological advances have been introduced into practice in these countries. National governments have often played an important role in this process by investing in modern equipment needed by their irrigation districts. Computers, meteorological monitoring stations, and GIS, to mention just a few examples, are used in transferred irrigation districts ranging from large to small, in different climatological and hydrological settings, and by users of varying degrees of education. At first glance, all this would appear to signal success, particularly at the end of a project. In some countries, such as Chile and Mexico, modernization efforts have helped the agricultural sector become more competitive in the global market. However, in other countries, modernization efforts and investments have failed to achieve their goals of improving agricultural production at a competitive level. Thus, there have been considerable successes, but there have also been gaps in this transfer of technology. This paper examines this troubling situation from first-hand experience, and it looks at lessons learned from experience gained in introducing technology along with water users organization in developing countries. Factors that help ensure sustainability of technological modernization in irrigated agriculture in developing countries are discussed, and suggestions are given to make investments in this modernization process more effective in the long term.Sponsored by USCID; co-sponsored by Association of California Water Agencies and International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management

Cycling Rho for tissue contraction

Cell contractility, driven by the RhoA GTPase, is a fundamental determinant of tissue morphogenesis. In this issue, Mason et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201603077) reveal that cyclic inactivation of RhoA, mediated by its antagonist, C-GAP, is essential for effective contractility to occur

Combinatorial complexity of signed discs

AbstractLet C+ and C− be two collections of topological discs. The collection of discs is ‘topological’ in the sense that their boundaries are Jordan curves and each pair of Jordan curves intersect at most twice. We prove that the region ∪C+ − ∪C− has combinatorial complexity at most 10n − 30 where p = |C+|, q = |C−| and n = p + q ≥ 5. Moreover, this bound is achievable. We also show less precise bounds that are stated as functions of p and q

Authentication of traditional Chinese medicine using infrared spectroscopy: Distinguishing between ginseng and its morphological fakes

10.1007/s11373-006-9133-3Journal of Biomedical Science142265-273JBCI

Role of CD56 in Normal Kidney Development and Wilms Tumorigenesis

The cell-surface glycoprotein CD56 has three major isoforms that play important roles in cell adhesion and signaling, which may promote cell proliferation, differentiation, survival, or migration. It is an important molecule in normal kidney development and acts as a key marker in Wilms tumor stem and progenitor cells. Here, we review the structural and genetic features of the CD56 glycoprotein, and summarize its roles in the normal versus diseased metanephric blastema. We discuss areas of CD56-related research that may complement or improve existing Wilms tumor treatment strategies, including the antibody-drug conjugate lorvotuzumab mertansine that binds to CD56