title: Aesthetics of the beautiful: Ideologic tensions in contemporary assessment

authors: White, Elizabeth Jayne

subjects: Education

abstract: Pedagogy is an uncertain art. Yet by its very nature, contemporary teaching and learning practice typically suggests that the expert teacher must come to know their student well enough to plan and predict for educational challenges that will expand and extend their thinking. In many countries, this process is underpinned by bureaucratic ideology that has persuasively developed an agenda for assessment as accountability for pedagogy. As a result assessment practice in these educational institutions is very public, highly accountable and heavily prescribed through curriculum documents that claim to encompass societal agendas. In some cases, such practices are even legislated. Assessment practice is now seen as integral to the pedagogical process since it is through assessment that the teacher purportedly comes to understand the learner; thus providing a rationale for the teaching approaches and strategies that are applied in order to progress learning. In this chronotopic location I suggest there is little room for uncertainty, since the quest to capture the "essence" of the learner and mould them towards societal goals is as much a political agenda of accountability as it is pedagogical.

text: Aesthetics of the beautiful: Ideologic tensions in contemporary assessment Pedagogy is an uncertain art. Yet by its very nature, contemporary teaching and learning practice typically suggests that the expert teacher must come to know their student well enough to plan and predict for educational challenges that will expand and extend their thinking. In many countries, this process is underpinned by bureaucratic ideology that has persuasively developed an agenda for assessment as accountability for pedagogy. As a result assessment practice in these educational institutions is very public, highly accountable and heavily prescribed through curriculum documents that claim to encompass societal agendas. In some cases, such practices are even legislated. Assessment practice is now seen as integral to the pedagogical process since it is through assessment that the teacher purportedly comes to understand the learner; thus providing a rationale for the teaching approaches and strategies that are applied in order to progress learning. In this chronotopic location I suggest there is little room for uncertainty, since the quest to capture the "essence" of the learner and mould them towards societal goals is as much a political agenda of accountability as it is pedagogical.

year: 2011

title: Mechanism of RNA cleavage by VapC from Pyrobaculum aerophilum

authors: Duyvestyn, Johanna Maria

subjects: VapBC

abstract: Proteins belonging to the PIN-domain family are widespread across bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. PIN-domain structures are well characterised and contain three highly conserved acidic residues that are orientated to form the active site of the enzyme. VapC is the toxic component of a toxin-antitoxin (TA) complex, and contains a PIN-domain. The VapBC TAs are the largest TA family, and are found in expanded copy numbers in a variety of unrelated organism including the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is proposed that TAs play a role in metabolic regulation, under conditions of stress. VapCs are metal dependent endoribonucleases that target specific sequences in single stranded RNA and inhibit translation by degrading mRNA transcripts. The mechanism by which VapC cleaves RNA and achieves this specificity is unknown.
 
In this thesis, VapC 2754 from Pyrobaculum aerophilum (VapCPAE2754) is analysed, and a mechanism for catalysis of RNA cleavage by PIN-domains is proposed. Mutations were made to conserved residues in the putative active site to test the hypothesized mechanism. A fluorometric kinetic assay was designed to allow differences in activity to be accurately determined, so that conclusions about the effect of the mutations could be drawn. Mutations made to the conserved acidic amino acids eliminated RNase activity, confirming that these residues are essential to catalysis. A structure for the wild-type VapCPAE2754 was determined, containing cadmium ions and an acetate bound into the active site.

Knowledge of the enzymatic mechanism of PIN domains will enable a greater understanding of this important protein family, and serve as the basis for future drug design by transition state analogue inhibiters. This is especially important in VapC enzymes due to their proposed role in the pathology of M. tuberculosis.

text: Mechanism of RNA cleavage by VapC from Pyrobaculum aerophilum Proteins belonging to the PIN-domain family are widespread across bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. PIN-domain structures are well characterised and contain three highly conserved acidic residues that are orientated to form the active site of the enzyme. VapC is the toxic component of a toxin-antitoxin (TA) complex, and contains a PIN-domain. The VapBC TAs are the largest TA family, and are found in expanded copy numbers in a variety of unrelated organism including the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is proposed that TAs play a role in metabolic regulation, under conditions of stress. VapCs are metal dependent endoribonucleases that target specific sequences in single stranded RNA and inhibit translation by degrading mRNA transcripts. The mechanism by which VapC cleaves RNA and achieves this specificity is unknown.
 
In this thesis, VapC 2754 from Pyrobaculum aerophilum (VapCPAE2754) is analysed, and a mechanism for catalysis of RNA cleavage by PIN-domains is proposed. Mutations were made to conserved residues in the putative active site to test the hypothesized mechanism. A fluorometric kinetic assay was designed to allow differences in activity to be accurately determined, so that conclusions about the effect of the mutations could be drawn. Mutations made to the conserved acidic amino acids eliminated RNase activity, confirming that these residues are essential to catalysis. A structure for the wild-type VapCPAE2754 was determined, containing cadmium ions and an acetate bound into the active site.

Knowledge of the enzymatic mechanism of PIN domains will enable a greater understanding of this important protein family, and serve as the basis for future drug design by transition state analogue inhibiters. This is especially important in VapC enzymes due to their proposed role in the pathology of M. tuberculosis.

year: 2012

title: Utuhina Stream 2006-2020: In-stream alum dosing effects on fish and aquatic invertebrates

authors: Ling, Nicholas

abstract: This report presents the results of an on-going assessment of the fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the Utuhina Stream, Lake Rotorua, from 2006 to 2020, and an assessment of the bioavailability of aluminium in fish and kōura to satisfy Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s annual resource consent conditions 9.6, 9.8 and 9.7, respectively, for consent 65321 for the discharge of alum to the Utuhina Stream. Macroinvertebrates, fish and kōura (freshwater crayfish) were sampled from one control and two treatment reaches of the Utuhina Stream annually. Common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) is the dominant species in the fish community of the Utuhina Stream. Kōura (Paranephrops planifrons) and juvenile trout were always present at all sites but variable in abundance. Differences in species abundance from year to year are most likely due to flood-related disturbances to stream bank morphology and in-stream vegetative cover or physical displacement of fish. No obvious effects of alum dosing on stream fish or macroinvertebrate communities were observed between the upstream control site and sites downstream of the alum discharge. Several other fish species were occasionally captured during sampling and the regular occurrence of juvenile koaro from 2016 to 2019 is possible evidence of this taonga species becoming established in the Utuhina. Analysis of stream macroinvertebrates also showed no consistent differences between the upstream control site and the sites downstream of the alum dosing. Overall, all sites were characterised as fair to good quality for a soft-bottomed stream. Some evidence of aluminium bioaccumulation was seen in some tissues of common bully (gills and liver) in some years, resulting from continuous alum dosing of the Utuhina Stream, but there was no evidence of bioaccumulation of aluminium in the tissues of kōura. Alum exposure in these species does not appear to affect their health or abundance in the stream.   iii Overall, continuous alum discharge does not appear to negatively impact the ecology of the lower Utuhina and improvements in the ecological condition of the Utuhina Stream will be achieved by ongoing riparian restoration and mitigation of the impacts of flood flows.

text: Utuhina Stream 2006-2020: In-stream alum dosing effects on fish and aquatic invertebrates This report presents the results of an on-going assessment of the fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the Utuhina Stream, Lake Rotorua, from 2006 to 2020, and an assessment of the bioavailability of aluminium in fish and kōura to satisfy Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s annual resource consent conditions 9.6, 9.8 and 9.7, respectively, for consent 65321 for the discharge of alum to the Utuhina Stream. Macroinvertebrates, fish and kōura (freshwater crayfish) were sampled from one control and two treatment reaches of the Utuhina Stream annually. Common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) is the dominant species in the fish community of the Utuhina Stream. Kōura (Paranephrops planifrons) and juvenile trout were always present at all sites but variable in abundance. Differences in species abundance from year to year are most likely due to flood-related disturbances to stream bank morphology and in-stream vegetative cover or physical displacement of fish. No obvious effects of alum dosing on stream fish or macroinvertebrate communities were observed between the upstream control site and sites downstream of the alum discharge. Several other fish species were occasionally captured during sampling and the regular occurrence of juvenile koaro from 2016 to 2019 is possible evidence of this taonga species becoming established in the Utuhina. Analysis of stream macroinvertebrates also showed no consistent differences between the upstream control site and the sites downstream of the alum dosing. Overall, all sites were characterised as fair to good quality for a soft-bottomed stream. Some evidence of aluminium bioaccumulation was seen in some tissues of common bully (gills and liver) in some years, resulting from continuous alum dosing of the Utuhina Stream, but there was no evidence of bioaccumulation of aluminium in the tissues of kōura. Alum exposure in these species does not appear to affect their health or abundance in the stream.   iii Overall, continuous alum discharge does not appear to negatively impact the ecology of the lower Utuhina and improvements in the ecological condition of the Utuhina Stream will be achieved by ongoing riparian restoration and mitigation of the impacts of flood flows.

year: 2021-06