title: Identification of threshold concepts involved in early electronics: Some new methods and results

authors: Scott, Jonathan B.

subjects: threshold concepts

abstract: This manuscript reports the threshold concepts identified over a two-year study in early circuits and electronics courses. Some novel methods have been used to improve confidence in the identification process. We also identify some concepts, potentially threshold, that ought to have been mastered in high-school physics courses but that are often absent from student repertoires. Weak understanding of these underlying concepts may be a confusing factor for researchers in their search for threshold concepts as well as an additional source of trouble for students of electronics.

text: Identification of threshold concepts involved in early electronics: Some new methods and results This manuscript reports the threshold concepts identified over a two-year study in early circuits and electronics courses. Some novel methods have been used to improve confidence in the identification process. We also identify some concepts, potentially threshold, that ought to have been mastered in high-school physics courses but that are often absent from student repertoires. Weak understanding of these underlying concepts may be a confusing factor for researchers in their search for threshold concepts as well as an additional source of trouble for students of electronics.

year: 2012

title: The marginal willingness-to-pay for attributes of a hypothetical HIV vaccine

authors: Cameron, Michael Patrick

subjects: HIV vaccine

abstract: This paper estimates the marginal willingness-to-pay for attributes of a hypothetical HIV vaccine using discrete choice modeling. We use primary data from 326 respondents from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2008-2009, selected using purposive, venue-based sampling across two strata. Participants completed a structured questionnaire and full rank discrete choice modelling task administered using computer-assisted personal interviewing. The choice experiment was used to rank eight hypothetical HIV vaccine scenarios, with each scenario comprising seven attributes (including cost) each of which had two levels. The data were analyzed in two alternative specifications: (1) best-worst; and (2) full-rank, using logit likelihood functions estimated with custom routines in Gauss matrix programming language. Knowledge of the relative importance of determinants of HIV vaccine acceptability is important to ensure the success of future vaccination programs. Future acceptability studies of hypothetical HIV vaccines should use more finely-grained biomedical attributes, and could also improve the external validity of results by including more levels of the cost attribute.

text: The marginal willingness-to-pay for attributes of a hypothetical HIV vaccine This paper estimates the marginal willingness-to-pay for attributes of a hypothetical HIV vaccine using discrete choice modeling. We use primary data from 326 respondents from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2008-2009, selected using purposive, venue-based sampling across two strata. Participants completed a structured questionnaire and full rank discrete choice modelling task administered using computer-assisted personal interviewing. The choice experiment was used to rank eight hypothetical HIV vaccine scenarios, with each scenario comprising seven attributes (including cost) each of which had two levels. The data were analyzed in two alternative specifications: (1) best-worst; and (2) full-rank, using logit likelihood functions estimated with custom routines in Gauss matrix programming language. Knowledge of the relative importance of determinants of HIV vaccine acceptability is important to ensure the success of future vaccination programs. Future acceptability studies of hypothetical HIV vaccines should use more finely-grained biomedical attributes, and could also improve the external validity of results by including more levels of the cost attribute.

year: 2012-09

title: Maori and mining in New Zealand and beyond

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori had known of the existence of gold but did not mine it and had no understanding of its value. Once mining commenced in California in 1849 and Australia in the early 1850s, many Maori participated on several fields, especially in Victoria. When gold was first discovered in New Zealand, at Coromandel in 1852, Maori were keen to learn prospecting skills, and soon found gold in several parts of both the North and South Islands. Some alluvial claims were worked communally, even some women participating. From the start, Maori were determined to protect their rights against Pakeha when they were rivals for the same ground.  
On the Hauraki Peninsula, which had no alluvial gold, Maori were prospectors rather than miners. Some were successful, often going against the wishes of rangatira who, fearing that opening goldfields would result in their losing their land, refused access to prospectors, particularly in Ohinemuri. At Thames, Maori prospectors succeeded where Pakeha ones had failed, finding the gold that led to the 1867 rush; a rush encouraged by one rangatira in particular, Wirope Hoterene Taipari, who understood how a successful field would benefit him financially (including obtaining a reward for discovering a payable goldfield). After the opening of this field, some Maori prospected throughout the peninsula and elsewhere for the remainder of the century, with varying success but with some good finds, particularly at Kuaotunu. A few even participated in the Klondike rush. By the twentieth century, Maori were overcoming their reluctance to mine underground, notably in the coalmines of the Waikato, but until then almost none had seen mining as a full-time career. 
Indigenous inhabitants throughout the world successfully prospected for precious metals, but their achievements were commonly written out of history, as for example in Australia, where Aboriginal involvement is only now being uncovered. In New Zealand also, Maori achievements, although well known to contemporaries, have largely been forgotten. At the time, Maori prospector’s successes were praised and many became owners of claims, and in some cases benefited financially from their involvement in mining.

text: Maori and mining in New Zealand and beyond Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori had known of the existence of gold but did not mine it and had no understanding of its value. Once mining commenced in California in 1849 and Australia in the early 1850s, many Maori participated on several fields, especially in Victoria. When gold was first discovered in New Zealand, at Coromandel in 1852, Maori were keen to learn prospecting skills, and soon found gold in several parts of both the North and South Islands. Some alluvial claims were worked communally, even some women participating. From the start, Maori were determined to protect their rights against Pakeha when they were rivals for the same ground.  
On the Hauraki Peninsula, which had no alluvial gold, Maori were prospectors rather than miners. Some were successful, often going against the wishes of rangatira who, fearing that opening goldfields would result in their losing their land, refused access to prospectors, particularly in Ohinemuri. At Thames, Maori prospectors succeeded where Pakeha ones had failed, finding the gold that led to the 1867 rush; a rush encouraged by one rangatira in particular, Wirope Hoterene Taipari, who understood how a successful field would benefit him financially (including obtaining a reward for discovering a payable goldfield). After the opening of this field, some Maori prospected throughout the peninsula and elsewhere for the remainder of the century, with varying success but with some good finds, particularly at Kuaotunu. A few even participated in the Klondike rush. By the twentieth century, Maori were overcoming their reluctance to mine underground, notably in the coalmines of the Waikato, but until then almost none had seen mining as a full-time career. 
Indigenous inhabitants throughout the world successfully prospected for precious metals, but their achievements were commonly written out of history, as for example in Australia, where Aboriginal involvement is only now being uncovered. In New Zealand also, Maori achievements, although well known to contemporaries, have largely been forgotten. At the time, Maori prospector’s successes were praised and many became owners of claims, and in some cases benefited financially from their involvement in mining.

year: 2016