School performance and reference group orientation to achievement : a pilot study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University

Page 137 is missing from original copy.The main purpose of the study was to test the thesis that a relationship exists between a pupil's performance at school and the orientation towards achievement obtaining from his 'reference group'. This concept was understood principally in terms of social psychology, although conceptual strands from sociology were woven into the theoretical considerations. The study examined the interrelationships of the main variables with socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, class s tream, pupil teacher affect and ses of proposed occupation. An (untestable) causal logic was implicit in the design, namely that a reference group orientation to achievement served as a mediator between the independent variables of (1) SES, Ethnic Origin, IQ, Class Stream and previous grades and (2) the dependent variables of Teacher-pupil affect, Pupil-teacher affect, SES of proposed occupation and present grades. The report contains a justification of the thesis, an account of the pilot study conducted with eighty four fourth form pupils from three streamed classes of a co-educational secondary school, the findings and a discussion of the implications of the study. The empirical phase called for the gathering of data by interview, questionnaire and a search of school records. As well it entailed the development of an index to measure reference group orientation to achievement. The subsequent statistical analysis relied principally on cross tabulation and step-wise multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that reference group orientation to achievement did not appear to mediate between independent and dependent variables but rather that it acted independently intervening to yield a higher correlation with present grades and SES of proposed occupation than any of the variables tested. Further, Reference Group Orientation to achievement emerged as a partial function of SES and ethnic origin, also correlating positively with a simple measure of pupil definition of the school situation and with pupil sociometricrejection

Review of Richard Healey, Gauging What's Real.

Review of Richard Healey's 2008 book. To appear in MIND

Interactions of AtRGL1, a negative regulator of gibberellic acid signalling : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biochemistry, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Arabidopsis thaliana AtRGL1 (repressor of ga1-3 like-1) is a negative regulator of the signal transduction pathway of the plant hormone gibberellin. AtRGL1 belongs to the DELLA subfamily within the GRAS family of plant regulatory proteins. There are four other DELLA proteins, including AtRGA (repressor of ga1-3) and AtRGL2, encoded by the A. thaliana genome. Previous studies provided evidence that the DELLA proteins are nuclear localised and are functionally divided into N- and C- terminal domains. The N-terminal domain perceives the gibberellin signal, while the C-terminal domain functions as a negative regulator of transcription and also as a possible dimerisation domain. Previous studies have also shown that AtRGA, AtRGL1, and AtRGL2 function together in the regulation of the development of the inflorescence and that AtRGL1 is primarily expressed in this tissue. To investigate how DELLA proteins function in gibberellin signalling. I sought plant proteins that interact with AtRGL1. Two proteins. p24 (24 kDa) and p64 (64 kDa), were isolated from wild-type plant nuclear extracts by affinity to the N-tenninal 121 amino acid residues of AtRGL1. The identity of these two proteins remains to be established. To investigate the interactions of the C-terminal domain of AtRGL1 an anti-AtRGL1 polyclonal antiserum was developed for co-immunoprecipitation experiments. However, AtRGL1 was not detectable in plant nuclear extracts from the inflorescence of wild-type plants, precluding this approach. The possibility of DELLA protein dimerisation was also investigated using AtRGA, AtRGL1, and AtRGL2 in yeast 2-hybrid experiments. Yeast 2-hybrid protein interaction results suggest that AtRGA, AtRGL1, and AtRGL2 do not form homo- or hetero-dimers. Complexities encountered with this approach could make these results invalid, so these interactions require further investigation

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Do research assessment exercises raise the returns to publication quality? Evidence from the New Zealand market for academic economists

Many countries have introduced research assessment exercises to help measure and raise the quality of research in their university sector. But there is little empirical evidence on how these exercises, such as the Quality Evaluation of the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) in New Zealand and the recently aborted Research Quality Framework (RQF) in Australia, affect the signals that researchers observe in the academic labour market. Since these assessments aim to raise research quality, individual academics should perceive rising returns to publication quality at the expense of the returns to quantity. Data we collected on the rank and publication records of New Zealand academic economists prior to the introduction of the PBRF and just after the second assessment round are used to estimate the changing returns to the quantity and quality of journal articles