From Silos to Seamlessness: Towards a Cross-sectoral Funding Model for Post-compulsory Education and Training

educational finance, postcompulsory education, vocational education, higher education, adult education, recurrent education

Evaluation of the Hamilton City Council plants for Gullies programme

This evaluation found that the Hamilton City Council Plants for Gullies programme is successfully facilitating the restoration and enhancement of Hamilton City gullies by private gully owners. The mean number of native species in surveyed gullies was 2.1 in non-restored sites and 18.4 in restored sites. While the mean number of invasive species was 4.1 in non-restored sites to 2.6 in restored sites. This quantitative measure is a valuable indication of the ecosystem gains for Hamilton City. Hamilton gully owners are very satisfied with the Plants for Gullies programme; the mean satisfaction rating was 8.9 out of 10. These residents dedicate significant time and energy to restoring their gully sections; the mean time contribution of survey participants was 10.3 hours per month. Gully owners were found to be utilising knowledge acquired through participation in the programme to add valuable diversity to their gully ecosystems. This was repeatedly demonstrated by programme participants not only reintroducing the native plants supplied by the programme but also adding large quantities of privately-sourced plants. This investigation found that the Plants for Gullies and Gully Restoration programmes are effective in communicating key ecological restoration concepts. This was reflected by gully owner prioritisation of eco-sourcing, biodiversity and weed control as considerations in their restoration projects. The Gully Restoration Guide was found to be the most valuable component of the programme’s educational tools. However, it is recommended that this resource is updated to support the many gully owners who require information for advanced stages of ecological restoration. In summary, the Plants for Gullies programme is successfully delivering gully restoration assistance and advice to gully owners, which is resulting in significant improvements to Hamilton City’s gully systems. The programme is valued by all who are involved and could be recommended to other New Zealand cities as an effective model for environmental restoration and community engagement

High turnover in electro-oxidation of alcohols and ethers with a glassy carbon-supported phenanthroimidazole mediator.

Glassy carbon electrodes covalently modified with a phenanthroimidazole mediator promote electrochemical alcohol and ether oxidation: three orders of magnitude increase in TON, to ∼15 000 in each case, was observed compared with homogeneous mediated reactions. We propose the deactivation pathways in homogeneous solution are prevented by the immobilization: modified electrode reversibility is increased for a one-electron oxidation reaction. The modified electrodes were used to catalytically oxidize p-anisyl alcohol and 1-((benzyloxy)methyl)-4-methoxybenzene, selectively, to the corresponding benzaldehyde and benzyl ester, respectively

You've got to know who controls the land and trees people use: gender, tenure and the environment

A CASS research study on gender, tenure and the environment.For the purposes of this paper it is helpful to group policies and projects to protect and enhance the environment into two general categories: those intended to stop or reduce the effect of environmentally detrimental actions and those intended to restore or enhance the environment. In the context of rural Africa, Asia and Latin America, the first generally involves exclusion of people from specific wildland areas or the prohibition of specific activities such as hunting, tree felling or riverain cultivation. The second tends to involve the encouragement of environmentally beneficial activities in agricultural production areas such as the construction of contours,tree planting or the practice of agroforestry in homesteads, on farm fields and on the commons. The failure to consider tenure generally and the gender dimensions of tenure specifically in the design and implementation of exclusionary and enhancing policies (each discussed separately below) can have three unfortunate consequences in respect to women. First, each mainly adversely affect women. Second, they may simply fail to benefit women. And third, tenurial considerations may prevent women, who constitute a major proportion of the agricultural work force, from participating and thus reduce the effectiveness of the environmental effort

Visual Evoked Potentials: Analysis of the Fovea and Perifovea

Visual evoked potentials (VEP) were used to measure how stimulus properties (pattern VEP check sizes/spatial frequency) and retinal eccentricity (fovea versus perifovea) interact to give rise to the final VEP response. The purposes of this study were to investigate how stimulus check size (spatial frequencies) and retinal eccentricity affect the VEP response, re-examine whether the cortical magnification factor is applicable to VEP measures, and to determine optimal sized VEP checks for foveal and perifoveal stimuli. In this study, we used a foveal target that was a two degree circle with a diameter of 3.6 cm; a perifoveal target that was a circular ten degree annulus with an inner diameter of 3.6 cm and an outer diameter of 17.5 cm; and a full field target that was a ten degree circle with a diameter of 17.5 cm. These stimuli were chosen because they stimulate approximately the same amount of cortical area. VEPs were performed on ten healthy adult subjects monocularly through the dominant eye. Measurements of the implicit time (N1 and P1) and amplitude (N1-P1) were taken using four different VEP check sizes, 0.23, 0.52, 0.83, and 1.78 degrees). The findings of this study indicate that differences exist in sensitivity to specific check sizes (spatial frequencies) depending on the type of VEP measure used (implicit time or amplitude) and area of retina stimulated. These results are not consistent with a single stimulus being optimal for all measures and that there is a complex interaction between visual targets and responses

La movilidad laboral como parte de la solución

Mientras las familias refugiadas no tienen acceso al trabajo y luchan por sobrevivir, en todo el mundo hacen falta destrezas que podrían suplirse con los talentos de los refugiados. El desarrollo de un sistema para que pudieran competir por puestos de trabajo en otros países con empresas multinacionales supondría para muchos un camino hacia la migración legal

Changes in population characteristics and their implication on public health research

Population estimates are generally drawn from one point in time to study disease trends over time; changes in population characteristics over time are usually not assessed and included in the study design. We evaluated whether population characteristics remained static and assessed the degree of population shifts over time. The analysis was based on the New York State 1990 and 2000 census data with adjustments for changes in geographic boundaries. Differences in census tract information were quantified by calculating the mean, median, standard deviation, and the percent of change for each population characteristic. Between 1990 and 2000, positive and negative fluctuations in population size created a U-shaped bimodal pattern of population change which increased the disparities in demographics and socioeconomic status for many census tracts. While 268 (10%) census tracts contracted by 10%, twice as many census tracts (21%, N = 557) grew at least 10%. Notably, the non-Hispanic African-American population grew 10% or more in 152 tracts. Although there were overall reductions in working class and undereducated populations and gains in incomes, most census tracts experienced growing income inequalities and an increased poverty rate. These changes were most pronounced in urban census tracts. Differences in population characteristics in a decade showed growing disparities in demographics and socioeconomic status. This study elucidates that important population shifts should be taken into account when conducting longitudinal research