Re-reengineering the dream: agility as competitive adaptability

Organizational adaptation and transformative change management in technology-based organizations is explored in the context of collaborative alliances. A Re-reengineering approach is outlined in which a new Competitive Adaptability Five-Influences Analysis approach under conditions of collaborative alliance, is described as an alternative to Porter’s Five-Forces Competitive Rivalry Analysis model. Whilst continuous change in technology and the associated effects of technology shock (Dedola & Neri, 2006; Christiano, Eichenbaum & Vigfusson, 2003) are not new constructs, the reality of the industrial age was and is a continuing reduction in timeline for relevance and lifetime for a specific technology and the related skills and expertise base required for its effective implementation. This, combined with increasing pressures for innovation (Tidd & Bessant, 2013) and at times severe impacts from both local and global economic environments (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2011) raises serious challenges for contemporary management teams seeking to strategically position a company and its technology base advantageously, relative to its suppliers, competitors and customers, as well as in predictive readiness for future technological change and opportunistic adaptation. In effect, the life-cycle of a technology has become typically one of disruptive change and rapid adjustment, followed by a plateau as a particular technology or process captures and holds its position against minor challenges, eventually to be displaced by yet another alternative (Bower & Christensen, 1995)

Defining and identifying the knowledge economy in Scotland: a regional perspective on a global phenomenon

The development and growth of a knowledge economy has become a key policy aim forgovernments in all advanced economies. This is based on recognition that technologicalchange, the swift growth of global communications, and the ease of mobility of capital across national borders has dramatically changed the patterns of international trade and investment. The economic fate of individual nations is now inseparably integrated into the ebb and flow of the global economy. When companies can quickly move capital to those geographical locations which offer the best return, a country's long term prosperity is now heavily dependent on its abilityto retain the essential factors of production that are least mobile. This has led to apremium being placed on the knowledge and skills embodied in a country's labourforce, as it has become a widely accepted view that a country which possesses a high level of knowledge and skills in its workforce will have a competitive advantage overothers with a lower domestic skill base. Knowledge and skills are thought to be thebasis for the development of a knowledge economy

The use of adjoint models for determining the sensitivity of integral quantities in an eddy resolving Oean General Circulation Model

Adjoint models calculate the exact sensitivity of an output function of a model to infinitesimal perturbations in the forcing or initial conditions. In eddy resolving ocean models the presence of chaotic eddies is expected to lead to sensitivities to infinitesimal perturbations that are very different from the sensitivity to large perturbations and that no longer contain useful information. Previous studies disagree as to whether adjoint models can be used with eddy resolving ocean models on timescales longer than a few months.Here the MIT ocean general circulation model and its adjoint are used to look at the sensitivity of the time mean heat content, kinetic energy, available potential energy and thermocline depth to the sea surface temperature, zonal wind stress, and vertical diffusivity in an eddy resolving model of a zonally reentrant channel. Using the tangent linear model the non linear timescale of the eddy resolving model is estimated at around 200 days. The adjoint model is integrated over 278 days and 690 days to see whether useful information remains in the sensitivities calculated by the adjoint model for longer than the non linear timescale of the system. The usefulness of the information in the sensitivities calculated by the adjoint model is assessed by comparison with integrations of the full non linear forward model with large spatial scale perturbations to the forcing, finite difference gradient checks, and sensitivities calculated by an adjoint model in a non eddy resolving channel where the adjoint method is known to provide useful information.Finite difference gradients are found to be unsuitable for calculating sensitivities of time averaged climate quantities in an eddy resolving ocean model as they are also affected by chaos. Comparison of the sensitivities calculated by the adjoint model in the eddy and non eddy resolving models shows that information remains in the spatial structure of the adjoint model results in the eddy resolving model on a time scale of 278 days.In the non eddy resolving case the adjoint model results agree well with the perturbed forward model experiments, and are clearly climatically relevant on a timescale of 690 days. Use of a parameterisation scheme that reduces the eddy kinetic energy gives adjoint sensitivities that agree with well the perturbed forward model experiments after 690 days, although there are areas of extremely high adjoint sensitivity that may not be physically realistic. Without this parameterisation scheme, adjoint sensitivities involving dynamic variables grow exponentially with time as expected in a chaotic system, but at the end of the integration time of 690 days there is some agreement between the adjoint and forward model results for sensitivities involving thermodynamic variables only.These results show that even in the presence of chaotic eddies some useful information is retained in the adjoint model solution beyond the nonlinear timescale of the system

Developing the parameters of scholarship in postgraduate coursework studies

Scholarship parameters, in relation to postgraduate coursework studies, are developed against the expectations of the Boyer classifications of scholarship (Boyer, 1990) with particular emphasis on the role of minor thesis development. An example is presented in which postgraduate coursework students are required to undertake a three semester minor thesis sequence in which students engage in self directed, individual analysis and thesis preparation based on the findings of an investigative project, under the guidance of an academic supervisor. It is argued that the approach is a viable example of combined pedagogical and research oriented scholarship that addresses Boyer's tetradic framework of scholarship and provides an effective environment for developing both discipline focussed scholarship and practical experience in research activity

From Wollstonecraft to Mill: Varied Positions and Influences of the European and American Women\u27s Rights Movements

This article discusses the women\u27s rights movements that started in Europe and later moved to the USA. It focuses on the variety of different positions and beliefs held by women\u27s rights advocates

Judge Ian Borrin: Remembering a Friend of the Law Review

This article is a tribute to Judge Ian Borrin, who passed away in March 2016. Judge Borrin was a major contributor to the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review ('VUWLR') and the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law. He has given financial and personal support to VUWLR, the New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law, various symposia run under their aegis, and later his more general support through the establishment of the Ian Borrin Fellowship

UV-B priming for disease resistance : the use of UV-B light to reduce susceptibility of lettuce plants to downy mildew disease : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Pathology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

These Figures were removed for copyright reasons: 1.1 (=Bent & Mackey, 2007 Fig 1a ), 1.4 (=Camagna & Takemoto, 2018 Fig 3) & 1.7 (=Redovnikovic et al., 2008 Fig 4).Biotrophic disease is one of the largest causes of decreased yield in horticulture. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) systems are required to control disease in a manner which is effective and sustainable, yet there are still a limited number of new approaches available. Pretreatments of UV-B light (280-320 nm) have been previously observed to reduce plant susceptibility to disease, and may be a potential disease control tool to use as part of an IPM approach. Here, I characterised the capability of UV-B LED technology to reduce susceptibility of a range of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) cultivars to downy mildew disease caused by the obligate biotroph Bremia lactucae. Reductions in disease susceptibility of UV-B-pretreated plants was observed as: delayed disease incidence, reduced visual disease rating and lower B. lactucae conidia count. UV-B-induced reductions to conidia counts were sufficient to reduce the infectivity of the diseased plant. Secondary infections caused by UV-B-pretreated plants exhibited yet further reduced disease severity. UV-B light has been observed to induce a similar gene expression profile to that of disease defence in plants. To determine the mechanism of a UV-B-induced disease defence, similarities between UV-B and disease defence pathways were identified. Analysis of previously published gene expression data revealed similarities in flavonoid-related gene expression between exposure to UV-B light in Arabidopsis thaliana, and resistance to downy mildew (Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis). The specific role of flavonoids in UV-induced defence was further investigated, with B. lactucae conidia counts of lettuce plants negatively correlated with flavonoid level in a UV-B-dependent manner. LC-MS was used to identify metabolic features which contribute to this correlation, and of these, quercetin 3-O-(6″-O-malonyl)-β-D-glucoside had the strongest negative correlation with B. lactucae conidia count. The direct effect of quercetin 3-O-(6″-O-malonyl)-β-D-glucoside was tested through infiltration into lettuce leaves followed by subsequent downy mildew infection. Decreased B. lactucae conidia count was observed in two lettuce cultivars infiltrated with quercetin 3-O-(6″-O-malonyl)-β-D-glucoside concentrations similar to those induced by a UV-B-treatment. It was concluded that UV-B-pretreatments can decrease disease susceptibility to downy mildew in lettuce, and that this defence is underpinned in part by UV-B-induced phenolics. These findings highlight the opportunity for UV-B morphogenesis to be exploited in the development of next-generation, sustainable disease control tools

Beading practice among the Samburu and its impact on girls sexual and reproductive health: A critical overview of the literature

Gender inequalities stemming from deeply rooted cultural practices negatively affect the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of East-African women and girls, particularly in the extremely patriarchal Kenyan pastoralist community of Samburu. This report describes secondary research and existing literature review with a focus on the cultural practice known as beading. The practice of beading in the Samburu community remains one of the worst silent contemporary forms of sexual exploitation. It can be briefly described as a community-sanctioned, non-marital sexual relationship between men in the warrior age group, and prepubescent girls who are not yet eligible to be married. This research explores perceptions, implications and impacts of beading concerning gender equity and SRH in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs while examining channels that have been used to assist and support beaded girls and Samburu women to determine how effective they have been in creating cultural change. Existing prevention and intervention strategies currently in place are few and require considerable scaling. This study suggests cultural and gender-sensitive responses to bring increased awareness to and stop harmful sexual and reproductive practices. Areas for further research are discussed, including the scantly documented and rarely discussed psychological trauma experienced by beaded Samburu women and girls as well as the need for more rigorous community-driven, multi-pronged approaches to address transforming retrogressive cultural practices and, consequently, the SRH of Samburu women and girls

The Removal of Justice Edwards and the Struggle Between the "Legal" and the "Constitutional" in Late Nineteenth-Century New Zealand

This article examines an extraordinary episode in New Zealand's constitutional history: the 1892 removal of Justice Worley Bassett Edwards as a Supreme Court judge after having been invalidly appointed by the previous government. Edwards' case is important as the only time a New Zealand government has formally sought to remove a sitting judge of the Supreme or (as it is now) High Court. But the article argues that the Edwards controversy is also an example of how New Zealand politicians and lawyers thought about judges within the developing New Zealand state, and even more profoundly about what was constitutional, as opposed to just legal, within that state

Toward a History of New Zealand Legal Education

This article briefly discusses the history of New Zealand Legal Education, with a focus on Victoria University of Wellington. The first part of this paper introduces the American and English models of legal education, discussing the different tensions and contexts of each jurisdiction. The second part of the paper introduces the history of legal education in New Zealand. The author discusses New Zealand's departure from the English model (where a degree was not necessary to practise), academics' tradition of writing textbooks in New Zealand, and the influence of the American legal education system. The third part of the paper discusses the impact of Professor John Salmond and Sir Robert Stout at Victoria University of Wellington.&nbsp