New Zealand Industry Training Policy in the 2008-2010 Environment

This study is broadly concerned with the changing nature of industry training policy in New Zealand between the mid-1980s and mid-2010. It sets the two-year period subsequent to the 2008 election against this broader background. Using key elements of the process of change within industry training policy – ideology and prevailing perceptions of skills and their contribution to economic and social goals – this research sought to investigate the extent to which the National-led Government’s policy approach and practices demonstrate ideological and policy change from the previous two decades. This study used a qualitative approach involving in-depth interviews with representatives of key organisations in industry training. These organisations include the Department of Labour, Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education Commission, Business NZ, Council of Trade Unions and the Industry Training Federation. Thematic analysis of interview data was combined with a review of existing literature in order to argue that the National-led Government’s claims of pragmatic orientation were not substantiated. Rather, it is argued here that the Government’s industry training policies aligned more closely with the neo-liberal policies of the 1990s, than with the Third Way of 1999-2008. For example, there was a deliberate retrenchment of government funding for industry training in some respects, and a significantly lessened role of the non-governmental key organisations in policy development. In addition, it is argued here that the National-led Government has demonstrated a narrow focus on skill development that contradicts wider advice and trends in favour of a multi-faceted view of skill that prioritises skill utilisation as well. Overall, it is argued that the National-led Government’s policy approach and practices are likely to be ineffective at addressing enduring issues in industry training as well as new issues

Care of the Self and the Will to Freedom: Michel Foucault, Critique and Ethics

Care of the Self and the Will to Freedom Stephanie Batters Faculty Sponsor: Stephen Barber, English What do subjectivity, power and ethics have in common? For French philosopher Michel Foucault, each of these concepts inherently resides within the others. His works, spanning from the mid-1950s to his death in 1984, offer a profound theoretical approach to the complex questions that obtain between the individual and society. Foucault’s works present careful and intricate theories about the relationships of the past with the present, the individual with society, and power with truth. Many of his writings explore how the individual is made subject to dynamics of power and truth, and they consider as well the possibility for the individual to escape a self-identity seemingly dictated by social, political and economic discourses. According to Foucault, one may escape dominant constraints of subjectivity through an ancient practice called “care of the self”. Although his focus remains fully grounded in the present, Foucault often turns to ancient Greek and Roman philosophies as a critical framework for his theories on ethics, individuality, and freedom. Care of the self constitutes a lifelong practice of self-formation and ethical exercises as a means of creating what Foucault calls an “art of life”. It is a way of examining and freeing oneself not by socially-constructed norms and standards, but according to one’s own ethical code. Foucault deems this practice as an essential element of maintaining freedom from oppressive power dynamics. As such, his ethics evolves not to a withdrawal from the world but instead into an intensified relation to its politics. What might constitute subjectivity in the twenty-first century? What are the limits of this subjectivity, and how might care of the self, despite the concept’s age, still provide us with a means of escaping subjectification? With recourse to Foucault’s work and other supplemental articles, I explore some possible answers to these rather weighty questions. I contend that freedom, subjectivity and ethics are often overlooked and even criticized by most academic and professional fields, and that Foucault’s work provides a crucial and timely critical framework with which to examine the individual’s relationship with and identification within our social structure

A new monotypic family for the enigmatic crustose red alga Plagiospora gracilis.

Plagiospora gracilis, a mucilaginous crustose red alga growing on subtidal pebbles on both coasts of the North Atlantic Ocean, forms distinctive tetrasporangia (red algal meiotic structures that release haploid tetraspores) but gametophytes have never been reported. In the absence of gametangia, the taxonomic position of this monotypic genus has always been uncertain; it is currently placed provisionally in the Gloiosiphoniaceae (Gigartinales) by comparison with sporophytes of Gloiosiphonia obtained in culture. Dioecious gametophytic crusts of P. gracilis are now reported for the first time, forming gametangia in inconspicuous superficial sori. There is no evidence that fertilization ever occurs in the field although fertile males and female were collected together. In culture, tetraspores grew into tetrasporophytes for three successive generations, by presumed apomictic sporophyte recycling. The life history of P. gracilis may represent a late stage in the loss of sexual reproduction leading to tetraspore-to-tetrasporophyte life histories such as that in Hildenbrandia. Phylogenetic analysis of sequences of the rbcL, LSU (28S) rDNA and coxI (COI-5P) genes for P. gracilis with other Gigartinales resolved P. gracilis as a distinct lineage in a well-supported clade of the families Sphaerococcaceae, Gloiosiphoniaceae, Endocladiaceae, Nizymeniaceae and Phacelocarpaceae. We here propose the monotypic Plagiosporaceae fam. nov. to accommodate P. gracilis

Neoliberalism in the University Faculty-Administrator Relationship

University Faculty and administrators often find themselves in a battle of us versus them. Thinking more specifically about faculty’s relationship with professional administrators, we use duoethnography to explore the experiences of a faculty member who once worked as an administrator and a professional administrator who is currently a doctoral student. As we explored our experiences of the faculty-administrator divide, we delved deeper into neoliberalism’s role in today’s universities. Inviting the reader to examine their understanding of neoliberalism in the university, we contemplate “What is a university?” From this question, we offer ideas on ways that faculty and administrators may unite to help define the role of today’s university in a neoliberal world

The MYO6 interactome: selective motor-cargo complexes for diverse cellular processes

Myosins of class VI (MYO6) are unique actin-based motor proteins that move cargo towards the minus ends of actin filaments. As the sole myosin with this directionality, it is critically important in a number of biological processes. Indeed, loss or overexpression of MYO6 in humans is linked to a variety of pathologies including deafness, cardiomyopathy, neurodegenerative diseases as well as cancer. This myosin interacts with a wide variety of direct binding partners such as the selective autophagy receptors optineurin, TAX1BP1 and NDP52 and also Dab2, GIPC, TOM1 and LMTK2, which mediate distinct functions of different MYO6 isoforms along the endocytic pathway. Functional proteomics has recently been used to identify the wider MYO6 interactome including several large functionally-distinct multi-protein complexes, which highlight the importance of this myosin in regulating the actin and septin cytoskeleton. Interestingly, adaptor-binding not only triggers cargo attachment, but also controls the inactive folded conformation of MYO6. Thus, the C-terminal tail domain mediates cargo recognition and binding, but is also crucial for modulating motor activity and regulating cytoskeletal track dynamics.This work was funded by grants from the BBSRC (BB/R001316/1) and Medical Research Council (MR/N000048/1 and MR/S007776/1) to F.B. and a PhD studentship to J.J. de J. from the CIMR departmental funds

The impact of invasive thistle species on dynamics of Cercopidae in the Stikine-Skeena region of northern British Columbia

During the Summer of 2019 I worked on suppressing invasive species spread in the Stikine-Skeena region of Northern British Columbia. I frequently observed invasive thistle species of the genus Cirsium hosting abundant individuals of the introduced meadow spittlebug, Philaneus spumarius, more so than other surrounding native flora. My own observations, as well as the scientific literature, point to the meadow spittlebug potentially preferring invasive thistle species due to reasons such as nymph development synchronization. Interpreting information provided by a number of sources, it is shown that invasive thistle species will continue to spread throughout the Stikine-Skeena from factors such as climate change, increased human development in the north, and the general invasive nature of thistle species. This paper suggests that this invasive thistle spread could benefit the population and ranges of P. spumarius as well. Assessing the destructive impacts of meadow spittlebugs on a vast number of crop species and native flora points to their additive spread only amplifying the severity of damage that comes with the spread of invasive thistle species like Cirsium arvense. This potential synergistic relationship may hold significant impacts on the economy and environment of the Stikine-Skeena region as climate change and human expansion continue to unfold

To understand muscle you must take it apartle

Striated muscle is an elegant system for study at many levels. Much has been learned about the mechanism of contraction from studying the mechanical properties of intact and permeabilized (or skinned) muscle fibers. Structural studies using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction or spectroscopic probes attached to various contractile proteins were possible because of the highly ordered sarcomeric arrangement of actin and myosin. However, to understand the mechanism of force generation at a molecular level, it is necessary to take the system apart and study the interaction of myosin with actin using in vitro assays. This reductionist approach has lead to many fundamental insights into how myosin powers muscle contraction. In addition, nature has provided scientists with an array of muscles with different mechanical properties and with a superfamily of myosin molecules. Taking advantage of this diversity in myosin structure and function has lead to additional insights into common properties of force generation. This review will highlight the development of the major assays and methods that have allowed this combined reductionist and comparative approach to be so fruitful. This review highlights the history of biochemical and biophysical studies of myosin and demonstrates how a broad comparative approach combined with reductionist studies have led to a detailed understanding of how myosin interacts with actin and uses chemical energy to generate force and movement in muscle contraction and motility in general

Visualisation of PCNA Monoubiquitination In Vivo by Single Pass Spectral Imaging FRET Microscopy

Monoubiquitination of the DNA sliding clamp, PCNA, plays a central role in the control of damage bypass during replication. By combining a widely-spaced FRET donor/acceptor pair (CFP and mRFP) with spectral imaging, we have developed a simple method for the visualisation of PCNA monoubiquitination in both fixed and live cells with a single imaging pass. We validate the method with genetic controls in the avian cell line DT40 and use it to examine the intracellular dynamics of PCNA ubiquitination following subnuclear UV irradiation. This general approach is likely to be of utility for live imaging of post-translational modifications of a wide range of substrates in vivo

Structure of a transcribing Pol II-DSIF-SPT6-U1 snRNP complex

In eukaryotic cells, splicing occurs predominantly co-transcriptionally, enhancing splicing efficiency and fidelity while introducing an additional layer of regulation over gene expression. RNA polymerase II (Pol II) facilitates co-transcriptional splicing by recruiting the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle (U1 snRNP) to the nascent transcripts. Here, we report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of a transcribing Pol II-U1 snRNP complex with elongation factors DSIF and SPT6. In addition, our biochemical analysis reveals that the phosphorylated Pol II carboxyl-terminal domain and SPT6 interact directly with U1 snRNP proteins, facilitating its recruitment to the elongation complex. This multivalent interaction between U1 snRNP and the transcription elongation complex may both allow efficient spliceosome assembly and ensure transcription processivity