16168 research outputs found
Sort by
Diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand picturebooks published between 2021 and 2022
No full textIt is widely accepted that diversity in the literature read by and with children is of great importance, both for ensuring all children see themselves in the stories they share and in ensuring children are aware of lives and experiences outside their own. There is a growing body of international literature critically exploring the diversity present in English-language children’s literature, but to date very little analysing diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand. This study examines 90 picturebooks published between 2021 and 2022 in terms of representations of ethnicity, skin colour, gender, disability, family structures, and language use. Findings indicate similar representations of gender, disability, and family structure to those found internationally but higher representation in relation to the ethnicity and skin colour of primary and secondary characters. New findings in relation to language use are presented. Future research concerning the details of representation in picturebooks and other formats of children’s literature in Aotearoa New Zealand is called for
Optimisation of bovine embryonic stem cell-like line derivation and candidate gene expression analysis
No full textThe successful derivation of bovine embryonic stem cells (bESCs) has been an area of interest for livestock scientists over the years. These cells possess significant potential for revolutionising livestock breeding by enabling accelerated genetic gain within a single generation. Although robust derivation methods exist for mouse and human ESCs (mESC, hESC), this is not the case for livestock species. Its derivation remains challenging due to the lack of understanding of signalling pathways that maintain pluripotency and regulate early embryo development in livestock species, along with the failure of direct application of mESC and hESC culture conditions. In recent years, studies have reported the development of culture conditions that support bESC derivation, which were adapted in this thesis. This study aims to optimise bESC culture conditions, as well as optimise quantitative PCR methods for gene expression analysis to assess pluripotency. Using cell enrichment treatments, differential plating, colony picking and cell straining, three bESC-like cell lines were derived, which included a wild-type cell line (17), a red fluorescent reporter cell line (R23), and a transgenic β-κ-casein cell line (B2). Although these cell lines were found to express pluripotency markers, both gene and protein expression analysis revealed that the cell lines comprised of a mixed population. Further validation is required to confirm the identity of the derived cells, including using single cell RNA sequencing, karyotyping, in vitro and in vivo differentiation, whole animal generation, and germline contribution assessment
Exploring shifts in teaching practice through the use of digital technology in the mathematics classroom: A qualitative study
No full textAbstract
Recent debates have highlighted the declining academic performance of New Zealand students in mathematics. This study explored the innovative use of digital technology in teaching practices to potentially enhance student performance. The aim of this study was to better understand year 7-10 mathematics teachers perceptions of the aspects that influence their use or not of digital technology.
Using a qualitative methodology, specifically Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the research allowed for open-ended exploration, providing narrative accounts that support teacher reflection and offer in-depth insights into their perspectives.
Discussions focused on the influences affecting digital technology use and its actual and desired roles in teaching. Professional learning and development were considered to illustrate the dynamic nature of digital approaches in mathematics classrooms and how teacher perceptions have evolved. The study identified a fluid nature in teaching practices, reflecting educators’ commitment to meeting professional standards.
Literature debates the optimal use of digital technology for achieving educational outcomes, with some advocating for a one-size-fits-all student-centric approach. However, this study found that in secondary mathematics, out-of-field teaching is common, raising the profile of digital technology as a support tool, depending on the software used. This highlighted issues such as mathematics anxiety among teachers and a lack of content knowledge. Collective efficacy emerged as a strength in schools that maximised dedicated mathematics software to enhance student outcomes. The use of a qualitative methodology like IPA has allowed for the research undertaken to be open ended, where outcomes cannot be predicted or controlled. This approach provided the narrative account to support teacher reflective capacity and equally allowed the researcher to interpret teacher perspectives and develop indepth insights.
Discussion was undertaken reflecting the influences at play, and the actual and desired role of digital technology at the time of the research. Consideration of professional learning and development helped to illustrate the dynamic nature of a digital approach within the mathematics classroom, and subsequently how teacher perception of what is desirable has changed. These factors suggested the fluid nature of teaching practice as changes were undertaken that reflect the commitment made by educators as they addressed the requisite standards of the teaching profession.
Debate exists within literature about the use of digital technology and the role played in achieving the optimal outcomes, perhaps considered, but yet to be achieved. The delivery of quality instruction is now thought of as inclusive of the use of digital technology. Theory suggests a one-size-fits-all adoption of student-centric practice will enable the transformative potential of digital technology use to be optimised. Debate exists within literature of this one-size-fits-all approach.
In a secondary mathematics environment, it is not unusual for teachers to teach out-of-field, raising the profile of the use of digital technology in teaching practice, as a possible support, depending on the software. This highlighted the issue of mathematics anxiety faced by teachers and discussed within this study. Both considerations related to a lack of knowledge content by teachers within the mathematics classroom. Collective efficacy became a strength developed over time within two of the schools of this study as they maximised the potential of the dedicated mathematics software available to enhance student outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic, occurring during the study, emphasised the impact of immersive online teaching models, adding depth to the dialogue on digital technology use.
The conclusions support the need for teacher participation in decisions regarding digital platform resourcing and usage. Collaborative decision-making between leadership and teachers can alleviate anxiety related to transforming teaching practices. Teacher resilience, identity and agency were significant in the transformative use of digital technology. The study identified multiple influences on teaching practices and teachers’ choices regarding digital technology, suggesting that teachers are hybrid practitioners, employing both teacher and student-centric practices to achieve desire student outcomes
To report or not to report? Understanding the impacts of reporting decisions for family and sexual violence in Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textMost victims of family violence (FV) and sexual violence (SV) do not report their criminal victimisation to police, but instead their experiences remain part of the ‘dark figure of crime’, or the proportion of actual crimes committed that remain officially unrecorded. The gap between victimisation and reported victimisation has a number of broad consequences for the policies and practices of government.
In this report we combine New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) and other Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) data to consider two broad questions. First, what individual, community and offence-related factors predict non-reporting of FV and SV offences to Police (RQ1)? Second, is reporting or not associated with differences in wellbeing outcomes (RQ2)? Our analyses help to contextualise research and policy that relies on reported crime, and to identify areas where, as a result, reporting-associated policy responses may have potential shortcomings
Problematic reasoning under the guise of anti-Māori talk: A case study of the Three Waters tweets
No full textDrawing from a subset of Twitter/X quotes (or tweets) on the politically controversial Three Waters Reform, this study identified forms of anti-Māori discourse through a deductive analysis. A complementary analysis was conducted to unpack how problematic reasoning fueled racism against Māori. Our results revealed distinct and interconnected themes—“resources,” “culture,” “stirrer,” “privilege,” and “one people”—that portrayed Māori as undeserving, lacking expertise, threatening, and unworthy of equitable treatment, as New Zealand citizens are entitled to enjoy liberal democratic values. Anti-Māori speakers employed problematic reasoning tactics to obstruct the public from understanding the truth or to encourage others to form ill-informed opinions through emotions, supposed authority, and conspiracy. Exemplar tweets were provided to illustrate the myriad instances of false information related to patterns of anti-Māori discourse. Evidence from this study makes the case for addressing racism on social media and creating interventions to expand media literacy amongst the public to discern problematic reasonings
Reproductive competition in the context of a superorganism
No full textPopulation density is a fundamental ecological factor that shapes the intensity of competition within a species. Increased density often intensifies competition for resources and mates, driving the evolution of diverse adaptive responses in behaviour, morphology and physiology. A key area where density-mediated competition manifests is in sperm competition. This occurs when sperm from multiple males compete to fertilise the ova of a female. Species facing intense competition exhibit a range of adaptations, including adjustments in sperm production, ejaculate characteristics, and mating strategies. Elevated population density is a major factor that can exacerbate sperm competition, further amplifying these evolutionary pressures. Within this context, this thesis investigates the effects of apiary density on reproductive strategies and drone physiology in the honey bee (Apis mellifera), a highly social insect that exhibits a complex interplay between individual and colony- level responses. Apiary density, characterised by the number of colonies within a defined area, was manipulated across three treatments: low (8 colonies), medium (60-68 colonies), and high (120 colonies). Drone brood production and comb allocation (both drone and worker) were measured monthly to assess colony-level investment in reproduction versus worker production. Total sperm count and the proportion of viable sperm were assessed in drones collected from each density treatment to evaluate sperm competition dynamics. Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP70) levels, a biomarker of cellular stress, were quantified in drones from each treatment using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Colonies in high-density apiaries exhibited significantly increased drone brood production and higher total sperm counts compared to those in low-density apiaries. However, worker comb production was significantly reduced in high-density apiaries, suggesting a trade-off between resource allocation towards reproduction and colony maintenance. Sperm viability varied across densities and seasons, with low-density treatments having a higher proportion of viable sperm in early summer and medium-density treatments showing higher viability in late summer. This suggests that while high-density may favour increased sperm quantity, lower densities might facilitate greater investment in sperm quality. Apiary density significantly predicted HSP70 concentration in drones, with drones from high-density apiaries displaying significantly elevated levels, indicating increased physiological stress. These findings suggest that colonies in high-density environments experience intensified sperm competition, responding by increasing drone and sperm production. However, the observed variation in sperm viability and reduced worker comb production implies that this augmented reproductive investment may compromise overall colony function. The elevated HSP70 levels further corroborate that drones in high-density apiaries are subjected to greater physiological stress. Crucially, this study provides a unique perspective by demonstrating that apiary density, a factor often controlled in beekeeping, acts as a significant driver of reproductive strategies and physiological stress at both the colony and individual drone level within a superorganism. This highlights the profound impact of a managed environmental parameter on the evolutionary dynamics of a highly social species, offering critical insights for sustainable apicultural practices
Reinforcement learning for optimisation of a cascade river system
No full textGetting the most out of renewable power stations has financial benefits and the environmental benefits of displacing electricity generation from fossil fuels. This thesis considers how to reduce losses in the Waikato Hydro Scheme that are due to inefficient operation while ensuring no operating constraints are breached. The hydroelectric dams are currently centrally run by a human "hydro controller" who makes decisions on how much generation to assign to each station at any given time. The hydro controller ensures no operating constraints are breached, but it may be possible to improve the running efficiency of the hydro stations. Currently, hydro controllers only have basic tools to assist them when deciding which action to take. The aim of this thesis is to create live recommendations to help them make decisions. To this end, historical data is used to train a model using reinforcement learning that can be used to provide such live recommendations on how much generation to assign to each station. The Waikato River hydro control problem is formulated as a Markov decision process and several variations on the Monte Carlo control algorithm for reinforcement learning are proposed and compared empirically. The Waikato River hydro control problem has a large action space with billions of distinct ways to assign generation to stations. The K-medoids algorithm is used to cluster actions so that
learning becomes practical. Furthermore, once a model has been learned, a hill-climbing approach is used to improve the quality of the selected actions. Combining these techniques gave better running efficiency than historical human performance in 18% of scenarios without breaching any operating constraints. 34% of scenarios did breach constraints so possible improvements to address this are also discussed
Decoding injury risk: Exploring the impact of asymptomatic hypermobility on lower limb injury risk factors in young female volleyball players
No full textGeneralized hypermobility is associated with higher rates of musculoskeletal injuries, a trend also observed in volleyball. We aimed to investigate how asymptomatic hypermobility affects other suggested lower limb injury risk factors. Fifty female volleyball players (22 hypermobile, 28 non-hypermobile) were assessed using Beighton scores (BS) and lower limb injury risk factors based on the Landing Error Scoring System, single-leg dynamic balance, and Limb Symmetry Index (LSI) for single-leg hop and triple hop for distance. Spearman’s correlations assessed relationships between BS and the risk factors, and t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests compared risk factors between non-hypermobile and asymptomatic hypermobile groups. No significant associations were found between BS and most risk factors, except for a negative correlation with the centre of pressure range of motion in the medio-lateral direction during dynamic balance on the non-dominant leg (ρ = -0.332; p = 0.015). The only significant group difference was in the LSI for single-leg hop distance, where the hypermobile group showed greater symmetry (r = 0.28, p = 0.041). The association between BS and dynamic balance was weak, with no clear difference in injury risk factors were observed between groups, suggesting hypermobile players may not need specialized training programs
Exploring the role of binding surface in enzymatic ligation of modified and synthetic substrates
No full textDeoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) ligases are essential enzymes that catalyze the formation of phosphodiester bonds to repair nicks in DNA during replication and repair processes. Their ability to ligate synthetic non-canonical nucleic acids (NCNAs), such as unnatural base pairs (UBPs) and backbone-modified DNA/RNA, has significant implications for synthetic biology, biotechnology, and therapeutic applications. This study aimed to evaluate the activity of various DNA ligases on UBP and backbone-modified DNA/RNA substrates, optimize ligation conditions, and explore the relationship between ligase structure and substrate preference.
The study focused on three main objectives: (1) establishing baseline ligation activity for UBP and backbone-modified substrates across multiple ligases, (2) investigating the impact of ligase binding domain size on substrate preference, and (3) optimizing ligation conditions to enhance enzyme activity. A panel of ligases, including Human DNA ligase I, Escherichia coli ligase A, Neisseria gonorrhoeae ligase A, and several ATP-dependent ligases (Lig 3, Lig 4, Lig 5, Lig 12, Lig 15), were tested on substrates containing UBPs (P-Z and S-B systems) and backbone modifications (phosphorothioate (PPT) and 2’-Methoxyethoxy (MOE) RNA).
Results revealed that ligases exhibited varying levels of activity depending on the substrate type and modification position. H-Lig I and Lig 4 demonstrated the highest ligation activity on UBP substrates, particularly those with modifications at the 5’ end of the nick. In contrast, substrates with UBPs on both ends of the nick were poorly tolerated. Gel shift assays confirmed that low ligation activity was not due to binding failure but rather steric hindrance during the adenyl group transfer step. For backbone-modified substrates, Lig 3 and Lig 5 emerged as the most effective, with PPT modifications being better tolerated than MOE modifications. The addition of 10% polyethylene glycol (PEG) 3350 as a crowding agent significantly improved ligation efficiency, particularly for MOE substrates, but inhibited the activity of larger ligases like Lig 12 and H-Lig I.
In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the activity of DNA ligases on non-canonical substrates, highlighting the importance of ligase structure and reaction conditions in determining ligation efficiency. The findings contribute to the growing toolbox of synthetic biology and pave the way for further exploration of ligase-substrate interactions, enzyme engineering, and the development of novel biotechnological applications
Why standardised assessment doesn’t measure up?
No full textPanel discussion with Dr Marta Estellés, Dr Jade Wrathall, and Lynda Stuart about the moves the Government is making to bring in standardised testing in schools.
The Ministry of Education has issued a tender to purchase a standardised assessment tool for children between Year 3 and 10. We discuss why this policy introduced by stealth is so concerning. Drawing on national and international evidence, we will reflect on the implications of standardised assessment. You will learn why this new policy doesn’t measure up and it is no more than a reboot of National Standards