The development of L2 Arab writers' proficiency : autonomy, online self-access centres, and advisement : a dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctorate of Education at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Autonomy has been identified as a contributing factor to language development and may affect the use and effectiveness of self-access centres (SACs). Numerous universities in non-English speaking countries have adopted English as the language of instruction with Western academic writing being a main form for assessment. SACs have been funded in many tertiary institutes to promote language proficiency through autonomous learning. The general purpose of writing SACs is to make a wide portfolio of resources available to aid L2 writers with the place of advisors an emerging field. The use of technology at SACs has been extended with some going completely online. This action research study involved the development of an online SAC for second language (L2) academic writers at a university in Qatar. The SAC provided volunteer students with out-of-class help in the form of multiple resources and tools. Additional help could also be accessed in the form of advisement both synchronously and asynchronously. The purpose of this study was to investigate the form of the L2 students’ individual autonomy to determine how this might be fostered and implemented online to develop their academic writing proficiency. The online research SAC was designed to offer aid with grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills and to be responsive to the needs and demands of the students. Interactions between participants and the researcher were available via email, chats, revisable assignments, and forums. Diverse data sources were integrated and analyzed, including questionnaires and interactive dialogues, to understand deeply the cultural dimension and situated perspective of the participating Arab students. The findings revealed that, contrary to expectations, the Arab participants manifested multi-dimensional autonomy. Most preferred to receive help with their writing via 1-1 advisory sessions together with some use of the online resources. Advisory sessions evolved into multiple dialogues whereby reactive autonomy could gradually become proactive. The addition of a structured component to the advisory sessions enhanced autonomy and writing development. The success of the SAC depended on various factors, such as aiding students’ language development and academic writing in a way that capitalized on the participants’ desires and perspectives without imposing Western ideologies. This study contributed to the body of research on developing academic writing proficiency in an under-researched context of Arab learners and with a special emphasis on autonomy, online SACs, and advisement. In doing so it broadened existing paradigms of constructivism and critical theory in the arena of education, and challenged the use of established concepts in the setting of the Arab world

Early and late radiation reactions in mouse feet.

The relationship between early and late radiation damage has been analysed by comparing the early skin reaction (desquamation in the first month) with the late foot deformity seen at 6 months, for mice from a wide variety of different fractionation experiments. A close correlation was observed between the early and late reactions in each experiment and the relationship was the same for all the experiments except for 17-64 fractions given over a short time. The fractionation schemes included single doses and 2-64 fractions, and the overall times ranged from 1 day to 6 months. This close correlation for such a wide variety of treatments suggests that the two end points are not necessarily independent responses of different tissues and that late damage in the mouse foot can result secondarily from depletion of the basal layer of the epidermis. Late foot deformity is therefore not a reliable model for the response of a slowly proliferating tissue

Endothelial proliferation in tumours and normal tissues: continuous labelling studies.

The proliferation rate of vascular endothelium has been studied using repeated administrations of tritiated thymidine, given every 8 h for 1 week. Five experimental mouse tumours have been investigated and compared with placenta and with normal tissues. The large difference in labelling indices between tumour and normal endothelium that has previously been detected with single injections of ([3H]dT) is confirmed by these continuous labelling studies. The potential doubling time of the tumour endothelium is estimated to be between 2.4 and 13 days for the five tumours. Tpot for the placenta is at least as short. The turnover time of the normal tissue endothelium is estimated to be 20-2000 times longer (47-23,000 days) and does not seem to differ in slow turnover tissues e.g. lung and liver from that in tissues where the parenchymal cells are rapidly turning over e.g. jejunum or skin

Endothelial-cell proliferation in experimental tumours.

The proliferation characteristics of vascular endothelium have been studied in 131 individual experimental tumours, representing 18 transplanted tumour lines. The labelling index (LI) is high in most tumours, with a mean value of 0.9%, regardless of the growth rate of the tumours, or whether different tumour types are considered or individual tumours from within one line are studied in detail. A similar high LI value has been found by others for a human tumour. These high LI values may even underestimate the proliferation in new capillary buds. The high proliferative index of tumour endothelium is in marked contrast with the previously reported low 3HTdR uptake into normal tissue blood vessels. It seems likely that it is the type of new vessels formed that will influence tumour growth rates more than the simple rate of endothelial-cell proliferation. The large difference between the proliferation characteristics of tumour endothelium and normal tissue endothelium, recently identified as a possible approach for tumour therapy, has now been confirmed for a range of animal tumours and a human tumour

Productie en kostprijs van pootvis (WP 4)

De cyclus van een marktwaardige consumptievis binnen de aquacultuur bestaat uit twee fases. De hatcheryfase, waar ouderdieren tot paaien worden gebracht en de nakomelingen tot pootvis worden gekweekt. En de doorgroeifase waar de pootvis wordt opgegroeid tot consumptievis. De prijs van deze consumptievis wordt mede bepaald door de kosten van de in eerste instantie ingekochte of voorgekweekte pootvis wat vaak een significant aandeel heeft in de kostprijsopbouw. De kostprijs van pootvis is opgebouwd uit verschillende soorten kosten. Alle factoren die van invloed zijn op de kweek van pootvis zijn in twee kostenposten te verdelen: lopende kosten en vaste kosten. Al deze kosten worden bepaald door biologische en technische invloeden vanuit het proces (mortaliteit, groeisnelheid, temperatuur etc.). Van een aantal vissoorten (zeebaars, Afrikaanse meerval) is de kostprijs en de kostprijsopbouw van pootvis bekend. Bij noorzee tong (Solea solea) is dit nog niet in kaart gebracht. Eerste pogingen gaan terug op berekeningen in de jaren 200 en 2001. Maar deze zijn niet publiek. Het is dus noodzakelijk om de kostprijs van tong pootvis te berekenen, om de haalbaarheid van tong kweek te onderbouwen

Interaction of radiosensitizers and WR-2721. I. Modification of skin radioprotection.

We have studied the radiomodifying action in mouse skin of WR-2721 and misonidazole (MISO) when used alone or in combination. The radioprotection with WR-2721 was drug-dose dependent and highly influenced by the O2 concentration at the time of irradiation. Significant sensitizaton was observed with MISO, especially in air-breathing mice. The combination of WR-2721 and MISO produced a radiation response intermediate between the resistant and sensitive responses to either drug alone. The precise degree of sensitivity was dependent on the relative doses of protector and sensitizer. We have also studied the interaction of both drugs in terms of drug-induced lethality, which showed a clear toxic interaction. The WR-2721 LD50 was reduced by a factor of 1.4 with only 200 mg/kg of MISO. We conclude that the combination of WR-2721 and MISO shows an interaction in terms of drug toxicity and radiation response, such that the radioprotection of skin is reduced or even abolished with low doses of MISO

Hyperthermia Treatment of Experimental Tumors

The therapeutic advantage of combining hyperthermia with x-irradiation to treat tumors depends on whether or not it is possible to achieve greater thermal sensitization of tumors than of normal tissues. To determine such therapeutic gain factors (TGE), we assessed the response of mouse skin and seven transplantable mouse tumors to graded x-ray doses given alone or combined with moderate heat (42.5°C for 60 minutes). We constructed dose response curves for the average early skin reaction and for the induced delay in tumor regrowth to an arbitrarily chosen size. We studied the following areas: 1) the therapeutic gain of combining heat with x-irradiation; 2) irradiation and heat sequencing; 3) vascular occlusion; 4) temperature uniformity; 5) hyperthermia and metastatic spread; 6) fractionated treatment; and 7) thermal tolerance. Our results are not as promising as those of other published studies. We have shown that the time interval between heat and irradiation is important, and we believe that the separate cytotoxic action of heat and x-irradiation is likely to be more beneficial than the synergistic effect of combining the two in close sequence. We have also demonstrated the deficiencies of using hot water to achieve uniform heating, and the possible artefacts of vascular occlusion. We observed no significant effect on the spread of metastases when heat is used adjunctively with x-rays. We also induced thermal tolerance in a mouse tumor, which may account for the loss of therapeutic advantage seen with fractionated treatments