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Taumafaina o le ‘ava Samoa, a’afiaga o le mafaufau, ma le ave taavale (Traditional kava-drinking, cognition and driver fitness [Samoan])
No full text‘Ava, po'o se 'La’au mai le Atua o le Lagi', ua fa’aigoaina ai e nisi. Ua fa’atupulaia lona ola lauusiusi i so’o se vaega o le Pasefika (Moananuiakea). Ua fa’aaogaina foi mo vaila’au ma togafitiga fa’afoma’i fa’ale-aganu’u, ma o ona a'a foi ua fa’aaoga e tu'itu'i fa’amalu, ona palu fa’atasi lea i se suavai ma tatau fa’amama, ona inu lea e malolo i ai pe fa’amalolo ai foi le tino. O le ava e maoa'e tele lona taua ma lona fa’aaogaina i le aganu’u, ae talu ai ona ua inuina e tagata se suavai ava tele mo se taimi umi foi, ua fa’aleoina ai ni lagona popole ma atugaluga o le toatele ona o ni a'afiaga e ono alia'e ma tutupu mai ai, e a'afia ai le saogalemu o le aveina o se ta’avale. O le ali’i su'es'ue mai le Iunivesite o Waikato i Niu Sila o Dr Apo Aporosa, ua ia su'esu'eina ni a'afiaga po'o ni fa’afitauli e ono alia'e mai, pe afai o le a e aveina se ta’avale ae sa e taumafa/inu ava. E aofia ai aafiaga i le mafaufau lelei ma le ave taavale saogalemū. O lo’o su'esu'eina e le ali’i su'esu'e ia Dr Apo Aporosa ni a'afiaga ma se malamalama’aga fa'ale-mafaufau, po'o ni fa’alavelave e ono tutupu foi, pe afai e te aveina se ta’avale, ae sa e taumafa pe inuina foi se ava. (Kava, or ‘the plant of the gods’, grows widely across tropical Moananuiākea (the Pacific). Used in traditional medicine, its roots are also pounded and strained through water to make a drink with relaxant effects. Kava has deep cultural significance, but because it is drunk in large quantities over several hours, concerns have been raised about its effects on driver safety. Dr ‘Apo’ Aporosa, a Research Fellow at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, has studied the impact of traditional kava use on cognition and its implications for driver fitness. The findings of that research are presented here in the Samoan language.
Kingdom Animalia, phylum Rotifera: wheel animals
No full textLittle is known of Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine rotifer fauna, with only 17 taxa recorded thus far, three of which are new records since 2000, from Waituna Lagoon, Southland: Notholca cf. marina/labis Focke, 1961, Notholca salina Focke, 1961, and Synchaeta vorax Rousselet, 1902 (Duggan & White 2010) (Table 12.1; Fig. 12.1). A total of 480 rotifer taxa were recorded from New Zealand and its outlying islands by Shiel et al. (2009), but the majority of these were freshwater taxa (Shiel et al. 2009: tables on p. 138 and checklist on p. 153). Most of the 17 marine taxa recorded are widespread planktonic species, with only one endemic taxon recognised: Notholca pacifica (Russell, 1962). Benthic species, which are diverse and abundant elsewhere, are under-represented. Rotifer sampling from New Zealand marine environments has been spatially and temporally restricted, and mesh sizes used in marine zooplankton studies have been too coarse to collect most species. A checklist of extant New Zealand marine Rotifera is provided
Subject(s) matter: a grounded theory of technology teachers’ conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology
No full textTechnology education internationally has for some time struggled to achieve continuity between what is depicted in policy and curricular documents and the reality of day-to-day practices. With its focus often articulated through the nature of activity students are to engage with, technology teachers are recognised as having significant autonomy in the design and implementation of their practices. From this, it is important to understand teachers’ beliefs about technology education, as their conceptions of the subject will inform practice. As such, this study sought to investigate teachers’ conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology through reflection on their enacted practices. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was employed for the design of the study and analysis of data. According to our analysis, despite similarities between the nature of student activity that teachers designed and implemented, teachers represented the purpose of the subject in different ways. Three different conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology were identified; obtaining knowledge and skills for application, ability to act in a technological way, and ability to think in a technological way. Central to the three conceptions were contentions in the representations of what constituted subject matter knowledge in the subject, and the role that different application cases played in teaching technology. Without consideration and explicit articulation of the purposes for teaching technology, this lack of clarity and differences in rationale for teaching technology are likely to continue
Online reading lists: a mixed-method analysis of the academic perspective
Get PDFReading list systems are widely used in tertiary education as a pedagogical tool and for tracking copyrighted material. This article explores the make-up of reading lists across a whole university. We investigated the experience of academics and librarians when creating reading lists. A mixed-method approach was employed in which we performed a transaction log analysis on reading lists at a single university, from 2016 to 2020. A questionnaire was then answered by both academics and academic liaison librarians about their experience with reading lists. The results of our analysis found that uptake of reading lists varies widely between different academic disciplines. Academic engagement with reading lists was found to show only incremental growth over time, and overall satisfaction by academics with the reading list system was low. We explore implications for reading lists implemented through digital Libraries and recommend developing discipline-specific support to increase reading list numbers and to integrate pedagogical features to increase academic buy-in
Implications for COVID-19 vaccine uptake: A systematic review
Get PDFAbstract
Background
Globally, increasing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination coverage remains a major public health concern in the face of high rates of COVID-19 hesitancy among the general population. We must understand the impact of the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake when designing national vaccination programmes. We aimed to synthesise nationwide evidence regarding COVID-19 infodemics and the demographic, psychological, and social predictors of COVID-19 vaccination uptake.
Methods
We systematically searched seven databases between July 2021 and March 2022 to retrieve relevant articles published since COVID-19 was first reported on 31 December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Of the 12,502 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from the databases, 57 met the selection criteria and were included in this systematic review. We explored COVID-19 vaccine uptake determinants before and after the first COVID-19 vaccine roll-out by the Food and Drug Authority (FDA).
Results
Increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates were associated with decreased hesitancy. Concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety, negative side effects, rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine, and uncertainty about vaccine effectiveness were associated with reluctance to be vaccinated. After the US FDA approval of COVID-19 vaccines, phobia of medical procedures such as vaccine injection and inadequate information about vaccines were the main determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
Conclusion
Addressing effectiveness and safety concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines, as well as providing adequate information about vaccines and the impacts of pandemics, should be considered before implementation of any vaccination programme. Reassuring people about the safety of medical vaccination and using alternative procedures such as needle-free vaccination may help further increase vaccination uptake
Mechanisms of host manipulation by Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Get PDFNeisseria gonorrhoeae (also known as gonococcus) has been causing gonorrhoea in humans since ancient Egyptian times. Today, global gonorrhoea infections are rising at an alarming rate, in concert with an increasing number of antimicrobial-resistant strains. The gonococcus has concurrently evolved several intricate mechanisms that promote pathogenesis by evading both host immunity and defeating common therapeutic interventions. Central to these adaptations is the ability of the gonococcus to manipulate various host microenvironments upon infection. For example, the gonococcus can survive within neutrophils through direct regulation of both the oxidative burst response and maturation of the phagosome; a concerning trait given the important role neutrophils have in defending against invading pathogens. Hence, a detailed understanding of how N. gonorrhoeae exploits the human host to establish and maintain infection is crucial for combating this pathogen. This review summarizes the mechanisms behind host manipulation, with a central focus on the exploitation of host epithelial cell signaling to promote colonization and invasion of the epithelial lining, the modulation of the host immune response to evade both innate and adaptive defenses, and the manipulation of host cell death pathways to both assist colonization and combat antimicrobial activities of innate immune cells. Collectively, these pathways act in concert to enable N. gonorrhoeae to colonize and invade a wide array of host tissues, both establishing and disseminating gonococcal infection
Responses of zooplankton assemblages to spatio-temporal variability in environmental conditions of brackish coastal ponds, Auckland, New Zealand
Get PDFBrackish waters, including estuaries, lagoons and coastal ponds, all experience fluctuations in their physicochemical properties, particularly their salt concentrations, due to the mixing of marine and freshwater inflows. Brackish water ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to a number of threats, including sea-level rise projections, salinization and biological invasions. Most of the research pertaining to brackish waters is skewed towards lagoons and estuaries, while relatively little information exists on coastal ponds. Based on their intermediate trophic position and sensitivity to the environment, zooplankton are widely accepted as the ideal model group for aquatic research. Consequently, the aim of this study was to examine changes in zooplankton community composition and species richness relative to environmental conditions in brackish coastal ponds, Auckland, New Zealand. To achieve this, eight coastal stormwater ponds, four freshwater ponds, and four marine sites, all with varying salt concentrations, were selected to represent a wide salinity gradient. Zooplankton and environmental variables, including salinity, chlorophyll-a, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and seasonal change in salinity, were sampled in winter (22 July 2021) and summer (14 January 2022).
The coastal ponds displayed marked spatio-temporal variability in environmental conditions. Species richness was generally lower in brackish coastal ponds than in the freshwater and marine sites, providing some support for the predictions of Remane (1934). A canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated that salinity explained the greatest proportion of variation in zooplankton community composition in summer (18.8 %, p = 0.002) and in winter (18.6 %, p = 0.002). In the winter ordination, seasonal change in salinity explained a large proportion of variation in zooplankton community composition (11.5 %, p = 0.024), independent of the variation explained by salinity. Temperature also explained a small proportion of variation in the winter ordination (10.4 %, p = 0.040). A community shift in dominance was recorded along the sampled salinity gradient. At the lower extreme of the gradient, the zooplankton assemblages of the freshwater sites were dominated by freshwater cladocerans, such as Chydorus sp. and Alona sp., and small rotifer species, including Lecane closterocerca, Lecane luna, Trichocerca stylata and Trichocerca porcellus. In sites characterised by intermediate salinities, euryhaline copepods, such as Sulcanus conflictus and Gladioferens pectinatus, and bdelloid rotifers dominated the assemblages. The zooplankton assemblages of marine sites and highly saline ponds were dominated by marine copepods, including Paracalnus parvus and Oithona similis, and the marine cladoceran Penilia avirostris, and crustacean larvae. Four non-indigenous zooplankton species were identified in this study, with only two species (Daphnia galaeta and Sulcanus conflictus) present in brackish coastal ponds. One cryptogenic species (Notholca cf. salina) was recorded in two brackish coastal ponds.
This study demonstrates that coastal ponds display high levels of spatio-temporal environmental variability and low species richness. Further, my findings suggest that salinity is the most important factor driving zooplankton community composition in coastal ponds, as widely reported in estuaries and lagoons. Changes in salinity may lead to the disappearance of species that are less tolerant to such changes and the appearance of euryhaline species. Overall, my study has provided insights into these overlooked ecosystems and their unique characteristics. I recommend that this study should be expanded to brackish coastal ponds outside of the Auckland region with the inclusion of further potential explanatory variables, such as fish and macroinvertebrate sampling. Future research should also be conducted to understand the effects of salinity on cryptic speciation in brackish waters
Politics of the Huntly Power Project
Get PDFThe political activity associated with the Huntly Power Project was examined in relation to a number of case studies using a Symbolic Interactionist approach to illustrate processes of power.
A broad view of the politics of energy use in New Zealand provided the setting to understand why there was continued Government Support for the project.
An analysis of the case studies and their relationship to the Huntly Power Project Planning Forum permitted an appraisal of the influence of the Forum on Political interaction.
It was confirmed that political activity was characterised by negotiation through the processes of symbolic manipulation and control of information.
The influence of the Forum for discussion primarily benefitted Government Departments for in conflict situations it promoted compromises which supported the overall goal to complete the project. It provided an opportunity to accommodate local interest group concerns and problems.
The Forum was largely successful as a device for the amelioration and mediation of conflict among groups which voiced reservation, about the effects of the project on the local area, when it was proposed and in its initial stages of development
"I forget I have a disability": Understanding young peoples’ experiences in disability sport and active recreation in Aotearoa New Zealand
Get PDFIn Aotearoa NZ, although 1 in 4 people identify as disabled, participation rates of young people with impairments (YPwI) in sport and active recreation is lower than their non-disabled peers. Over the last 85 years, the Aotearoa NZ Government has been aware of this disparity and has attempted through policy intervention to increase participation. However, the Aotearoa NZ sport system is inherently ableist and these policies have been ineffectual. Fortunately, opportunities for YPwI to participate in sport and active recreation do exist especially at the local club level.
Drawing on the social relational model of disability, I give agency to the voices of four YPwI, their parents and coaches/leaders. Through their lived experiences in sport and active recreation, these participants present unique narratives on how participating with non-disabled young people have shaped the YPwI’s experiences. From their experiences, I sought to understand how sport organisations can improve opportunities for YPwI’s participation within a sport system dominated by ableism and where discrimination through disablism goes unchallenged.
The sport system, as a reflection of society, has a responsibility to address the inherent ableism endemic within sport and active recreation and reposition disability as a priority. Building on previous research focused on personal and societal barriers and constraints to participation, I challenge the dominance of activity adaptation and modification as a means for systemic change. To achieve an anti-ableist sport system, what is needed is more fundamental – an improved understanding of disability, flexibility around prescriptive ableist standards and rules, and increased accessibility to opportunities where YPwI can exhibit their capabilities. Integral to providing quality opportunities for YPwI, change in how the sport system considers and represents YPwI, from policy through to practice. I caution organisations to avoid enlightened ableism – where what is said and what is done are misaligned.
I present an anti-ableist framework, co-created with the YPwI, as a way of improving disability sport provision in Aotearoa NZ that enables the social relational model to be actualised within a sport and active recreation context. The framework presented encapsulates three levels – individual, organisation and system – premised on enhancing the knowledge and understanding of disability, creating more flexibility around what participation means to YPwI and how deliverers of sport and active recreation, regardless of size or capacity, can work individually and/or collaboratively to provide more opportunities for YPwI
Rapid response data-driven reconstructions for storm surge around New Zealand
No full textIn conjunction with tides, storm surge is one major driver of coastal flooding associated with storm events. Because local inundation is strongly modulated by the local shape of the coastline and the bathymetric slope, accurate storm surge predictions using traditional numerical models require the use of very fine grids and are hence resource intensive. Therefore, the performance of a live prediction system based on such methods will likely be subject to a trade-off between prediction accuracy, prediction speed and cost. This study explores the use of data driven methods as an alternative to numerical models to reconstruct the daily storm surge maximum levels along the entire coast of New Zealand. Firstly, several atmospheric predictors are utilized that incorporate different variables, time lags and spatial domains, using 3 statistical models, in a selected number of locations in New Zealand, to find the combination that optimizes the reconstruction. Finally, the storm surge daily maxima are reconstructed with the different statistical models along the entire coast, using the best performing predictor. Results show very good performance for the best atmospheric predictor and statistical model, providing average values of 0.88 for the Pearson correlation coefficient and 4.3 cm for the root mean squared error metric (RMSE) (the average value for the RMSE in the 99% percentile is 8.2 cm). For the Kling–Gupta Efficiency (KGE; incorporating 3 sub-metrics: correlation, bias term and variability term), which is the metric used to rank the models, the average value is 0.82. Our results highlight the suitability of data driven models to simulate storm surge maximum levels, and prove the methodology is appropriate for finding a well performing atmospheric predictor that is able for reconstruct these values. Moreover, this methodology can be also applied to new variables, regions and problems, as there are no physical restrictions on the used predictors nor predictands