The Sourcerer's Apprentice

This assignment considers the use of the apprenticeship model of teaching in academic subject areas. This has been investigated by various authors since 1989. I will consider the various flavors of the techniques presented and some of the practical implications of these. I will draw from our experience running several courses where students undertake business like projects within a protective environment

Letter from Kashmir

Colonel S.W. “Syd” Thomson, D.S.O., M.C., CD. Joined the Rocky Mountain Rangers in the 1930s transferring to the Seqforth Highlanders at the outbreak of war. Wounded in Sicily, he returned to serve as Company Commander, Second-in-Command and Commanding Officer of the Battalion. In October 1944 he was promoted to Acting Colonel and sent to England to command an infantry training unit at Aldershot. In April 1945 he reverted to Lieut.-Colonel to take command of the Black Watch. Colonel Thomson volunteered for the Pacific Force and remained in the Army until 1946. He rejoined the forces to serve with the United Nations Military Observers Group in Pakistan. This letter to “Big” Jim Stone (Lieut.-Colonel Jim Stone D.S.O., M.C., CD.) is one of several colourful accounts of his service in Kashmir. Colonel Thomson’s letters will be a regular feature in CMH

Crying poor? The affordability of defence expenditure

The May budget saw deep cuts made to Australia\u27s defence budget over the next few years. It will be up to next year\u27s Defence White Paper to decide what happens after that. It has been argued that the long-term cost of health and ageing will place further pressures on government finances and constrain defence spending in the decades ahead. But while social spending will undoubtedly rise, so too will Australia\u27s prosperity and capacity to pay. This paper considers fiscal and economic arguments and concludes that spurious arguments about the \u27affordability\u27 of defence spending should not be allowed to skew the long-term plans for Australia\u27s defence. It would be a false economy to slash defence spending and then pay a higher strategic price in the future.&nbsp

Felis catus papillomavirus type 2 infection and skin cancer in domestic cats : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Veterinary Science at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Felis catus papillomavirus type 2 (FcaPV-2) is a virus which commonly infects the skin of domestic cats. While most infections are asymptomatic, there is growing evidence that FcaPV-2 may play a role in the development of a subset of feline cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). In the first part of this thesis, the natural history of FcaPV-2 infection was investigated with the aim of determining when cats become infected with the virus. A real-time PCR assay was developed to quantify FcaPV-2 DNA in feline skin swabs. This assay was then used to measure the FcaPV-2 DNA load in serial samples from two populations of cats. Results from these studies showed that most kittens are exposed to FcaPV-2 in the first few days of life. Additionally, the primary source of exposure is likely to be direct contact with other cats in the household, particularly their queen, as some of the queens appeared to be shedding large amounts of virus. FcaPV-2 mRNA was also detected in some of the kittens, confirming that they had become infected with FcaPV-2 soon after birth. The aim of the second part of this thesis was to determine the quantity and transcriptional activity of the FcaPV-2 DNA present in feline cutaneous SCCs in order to determine if the virus was involved in cancer development or just present as an innocent bystander. Real-time PCR assays were developed to measure FcaPV-2 gene expression in SCCs and the results clearly distinguished two subsets of feline cutaneous SCCs. The majority of the SCCs had low copy numbers of FcaPV-2 DNA and no FcaPV-2 gene expression, suggesting the virus was an incidental finding. In contrast, around a third of the SCCs had detectable FcaPV-2 gene expression and high copy numbers of FcaPV-2 DNA, similar to that found in the FcaPV-2-induced premalignant lesions. There was also a significant association between FcaPV-2 gene expression and alterations in a host cell cycle regulatory protein (p16). Taken together, these results strongly suggest that FcaPV-2 played a role in the development of around a third of the feline cutaneous SCCs. The results from the studies reported in this thesis support a causative role of FcaPV-2 in a proportion of feline cutaneous SCCs. However, as infection of cats is common and appears to occur early in life, there may be little opportunity to prevent SCC development by preventing FcaPV-2 infection