The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Policy Innovations and Impacts. Bertelsmann GED Focus Paper

Why did the member states in what eventually became the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agree to create the most transformational free trade agreement (FTA) in decades? Equally puzzling, why did all the member states—from the most to the least developed economies in the group—agree to the same, high level of ambition? The answer is simple: CPTPP members wanted to craft an agreement better suited to the global economy of today and tomorrow and were willing to take on board high quality, high ambition commitments to get there

Stress and support in the New Zealand construction industry : a study of project supervisors and managers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Business Studies (MBS) at Massey University, Distance, New Zealand

The impact that stress has in the lives of individuals is considerable. Although it is a common concept, it is often misunderstood by many individuals. Stress is the way in which an individual responds to a range of environmental stressors. Thus, interventions for stress have received an increasing amount of attention in management literature. A portion of this field that has received a considerably less amount of attention is the role of support as an intervention for stress in the construction industry. This study seeks to explore the impacts of support on stress in construction managers. The first phase of the study utilised a social cross-sectional questionnaire approach and the second half used a semi-structured interview. Participants were sought from the four different sectors within the industry, the quantitative study had 47 respondents and the qualitative study had 11 participants. It is important to note that although a quantitative approach was the original intention of this study, it is the qualitative findings that have contributed the most to the overall findings. The findings of this study, developed using thematic analysis methodology, are conveyed through a matrix which explores the different types of support at different levels during stressful events. The study has concluded that support at a team level is made up of all four types of support: emotional, tangible, informational and companionship. However, as the provider of the support becomes further removed from the individual, the type of support experienced moved towards an informational support focus

The 3DMA Middleware for Mobile Applications

Mobile devices have received much research interest in re- cent years. Mobility raises new issues such as more dynamic context, limited computing resources, and frequent disconnections. To handle these issues, we propose a middleware, called 3DMA, which introduces three requirements, 1) distribution, 2) decoupling and 3) decomposition. 3DMA uses a space based middleware approach combined with a set of workers which are able to act on the users behalf either to reduce load on the mobile device, or to support disconnected behavior. In order to demonstrate aspects of the middleware architecture we consider the development of a commonly used mobile application

Rethinking board composition: Balancing competence and compatibility in director selection

Board composition is critical to board effectiveness. Shaping an effective board begins with the selection of directors. While much attention has been paid to the skills and qualifications directors require, there has been less focus on the necessity for board members to interact and work well together. This exploratory study offers insights into what qualities directors look for when selecting new members and the approach adopted to identify and select them. The findings of 10 in-depth interviews with Australian directors suggest new members are selected both on competencies and compatibility. Yet not all selection approaches adequately assess candidates for these two criteria. As a result many appointments fail to realise the selection criteria reducing capacity to reach its full potential

Identity and Positioning in Algerian and Franco-Algerian Contemporary Art

Identity and belonging increasingly feature as themes in the work of contemporary artists, a focus that seems particularly felt by those artists who either personally or through their families have experienced dispersal and migration. The thesis explores how fourteen Algerian and Franco-Algerian artists position themselves and are positioned by others to identity and community. The difficult intertwined histories of Algeria and France fraught with the consequences of colonisation, the impact of migration, and, in Algeria, civil war, provides a rich terrain for the exploration of identity formation. Positionality theory is used to analyse the process of identity formation in the artists and how this developed over the course of their careers and in their art. An important part of the analysis is concerned with how the artists positioned themselves consciously or inadvertently to fixed or fluid conceptions of identity and how this was reflected in their artworks. The thesis examines the complex politics of identity and belonging that extends beyond nationality and diaspora and implicates a range of other identifications including that of class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and career choice. The research addresses a gap in contemporary art scholarship by targeting a specific group of artists and their work and examining how they negotiate, in an increasingly globalised world, their relationship to identity including nationality and diaspora. The thesis foregrounds the ways in which this negotiation interacts with their careers, their art and the art market. The thesis begins with an outline of the methodological approach. Positioning to identity is then examined in the background, education, professional development and art of three international artists, Kader Attia, Adel Abdessemed and Saâdane Afif. Analysis then focuses on the artwork of the eleven remaining artists through the themes of history and memory, journey and narrative and gendered space

The role of religiosity in academic success a qualitative study

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between religiosity and academic success in first-year college students. The study employed qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to accomplish this purpose. A purposeful sample of ten first-year college students was selected as participants, five from a community college in eastern Washington state, and five from a major research university. They were asked to describe, from their own experiences, the connection between religion and academic success. As the study proceeded four major themes emerged from the data. The first theme had to do with the perceived expectations placed upon the students by parents, religion and God. The second theme was concerned with the idea that adherence to religious values and behaviors allowed the students to focus their attention on academic pursuits and not on academic distractions such as partying, sex, drugs, or alcohol consumption. The third theme had to do with their perception that individual religiosity acted as a support system during school. That is, God was always there to assist them to accomplish their school work. The final theme related to the belief that religion allowed them to see the big picture and how educational success fit into the overall scheme of things. This study is significant in that it contributes substantive knowledge of the role religiosity plays in academic success. Conclusions and implications resulting from this study may be useful to both college and high school professionals as well as religious leaders

Potential oxidative stress due to Pb exposure

Digitized from print original stored in HDR. Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references: leaves 15-18.Program year: 1997/1998The hazards of Pb exposure has been a topic of concern for many years. This research was developed to investigate the possibility of Pb induced oxidative stress. The research objectives were to observe Pb induced lipid peroxidation and Pb induced increases in oxidation of glutathione in K562 myelogenous leukemia cells at low Pb levels. The approach consisted of incubating K562 cells in solutions of 0, 300, and 700 ppb Pb dissolved in RPMI cell medium for a total of 96 hours. After this period of incubation, aliquots of cells were taken, placed in clean medium, and incubated for 96 hours. Samples were taken at 24 and 96 hours of Pb exposure, and at 96 hours after cessation of Pb exposure, then subsequently assayed for lipid peroxidation and glutathione levels. Lipid peroxidation was determined by the detection of malondialdehyde (MDA) spectrophotometrically at 535nm by the Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) assay, while oxidized and reduced glutathione levels were determined spectrophotometrically at 412 nm. Results showed no change in MDA levels in treated cells as compared to the control. The GSH: GSSG ratios were significantly greater for treated cells at 96 hours of exposure as compared to the controls, indicating a possible compensatory response