title: Moving towards normalising CALL: A case study from Timor-Leste

authors: Field, Jennifer

subjects: Timor-Leste

abstract: It is now widely understood that teachers are the main decision makers in the classroom, so when an innovation is introduced into a teaching and learning setting it seems that teachers‟ beliefs and attitudes may be a major determinant in the success or otherwise of that investment.

This case study examines the process of a Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) application being introduced into a university setting. Bax (2003) posited that a new technology is „normalised‟ when it is invisible and fully integrated, just as pens and books have been, into everyday classroom use. To gain further insights into the process of an innovatory CALL application moving „towards normalisation‟ (Chambers & Bax 2006), the present study solicited university teachers‟ opinions and impressions towards the innovation over a period of five months.
       The innovation is a software application developed in the Computer Science Department at the University of Waikato (http://flax.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax). The Flexible Language Acquisition Device (FLAX) uses digitalised libraries to provide language learning tasks for students, both texts and tasks being written by teachers or more able students. The English Department at the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL) was the setting selected for the study, as the researcher had spent fourteen months there as a volunteer teacher in 2005-6. The case study is framed within a wider (2006-2011) collaborative curriculum project between UNTL and the University of Waikato.
       It was decided to collect oral, rather than written, data in order to align with the oral traditions of Timor-Leste. Thus, oral reflective journals captured participants‟ perceptions in audio-recorded discussions with a peer over three occasions. Focus groups of participants reflected on key issues at entry and exit points, and the researcher wrote her own daily reflective journal.
       The findings showed that the participants moved from a position of excitement tinged with concern to a position of confidence and readiness to implement FLAX during the reseacher‟s visit, indicating a positive move towards normalisation. A powerful insight gained by the researcher was that teachers were able to co-construct a range of ways of using the programme with their students in terms of autonomous learning, peer scaffolding and the importance of the affective domain in language learning. These findings reinforced the notion that the introduction of technologies is a social construct, not just a technological one (Bax, 2011). A further lens of investigation of the innovation was provided by Activity Theory, (Engeström 1987), which showed that the process of curricular normalisation is influenced by activity outside the classrom, and may strengthen or reduce the object of activity, in this case improved learning outcomes.
       The implications of the case study may have resonance in relatable settings. It seems that encouraging a collaborative approach may enable teachers to envision and ideate new ways to teach and learn, and incorporate new technologies into their own settings. This study may also have implications for external change agents as they contemplate assisting learning communities to normalise curriculum innovation.

text: Moving towards normalising CALL: A case study from Timor-Leste It is now widely understood that teachers are the main decision makers in the classroom, so when an innovation is introduced into a teaching and learning setting it seems that teachers‟ beliefs and attitudes may be a major determinant in the success or otherwise of that investment.

This case study examines the process of a Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) application being introduced into a university setting. Bax (2003) posited that a new technology is „normalised‟ when it is invisible and fully integrated, just as pens and books have been, into everyday classroom use. To gain further insights into the process of an innovatory CALL application moving „towards normalisation‟ (Chambers & Bax 2006), the present study solicited university teachers‟ opinions and impressions towards the innovation over a period of five months.
       The innovation is a software application developed in the Computer Science Department at the University of Waikato (http://flax.nzdl.org/greenstone3/flax). The Flexible Language Acquisition Device (FLAX) uses digitalised libraries to provide language learning tasks for students, both texts and tasks being written by teachers or more able students. The English Department at the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL) was the setting selected for the study, as the researcher had spent fourteen months there as a volunteer teacher in 2005-6. The case study is framed within a wider (2006-2011) collaborative curriculum project between UNTL and the University of Waikato.
       It was decided to collect oral, rather than written, data in order to align with the oral traditions of Timor-Leste. Thus, oral reflective journals captured participants‟ perceptions in audio-recorded discussions with a peer over three occasions. Focus groups of participants reflected on key issues at entry and exit points, and the researcher wrote her own daily reflective journal.
       The findings showed that the participants moved from a position of excitement tinged with concern to a position of confidence and readiness to implement FLAX during the reseacher‟s visit, indicating a positive move towards normalisation. A powerful insight gained by the researcher was that teachers were able to co-construct a range of ways of using the programme with their students in terms of autonomous learning, peer scaffolding and the importance of the affective domain in language learning. These findings reinforced the notion that the introduction of technologies is a social construct, not just a technological one (Bax, 2011). A further lens of investigation of the innovation was provided by Activity Theory, (Engeström 1987), which showed that the process of curricular normalisation is influenced by activity outside the classrom, and may strengthen or reduce the object of activity, in this case improved learning outcomes.
       The implications of the case study may have resonance in relatable settings. It seems that encouraging a collaborative approach may enable teachers to envision and ideate new ways to teach and learn, and incorporate new technologies into their own settings. This study may also have implications for external change agents as they contemplate assisting learning communities to normalise curriculum innovation.

year: 2012

title: Single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the human electroencephalogram during desflurane anaesthesia

authors: Mulholland, Claire Vignette

subjects: single nucleotide polymorphism

abstract: General anaesthesia is an induced state that enables a person to endure surgical procedures without pain or recollection. There is substantial individual variability in the response to anaesthesia and in order to avoid adverse effects caused by either under- or over-sedation, anaesthetic drug administration must be tailored to suit the individual patient. This requires a means to monitor the depth of general anaesthesia. The electroencephalogram (EEG) records the electrical activity of the brain and enables effects of anaesthetic drugs on brain functioning to be monitored. Quantitative EEG monitors, such as the Bispectral (BIS) index monitor, process the raw EEG and provide a numerical output that is often used to measure the depth of general anaesthesia during surgery. Due to a number of factors including clinical conditions and genetic variability in the EEG, the BIS value can at times be misleading. 

To identify genetic variations associated with EEG phenotypes relevant to anaesthesia monitoring, an association analysis was performed for 34 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a sample of 125 surgical patients undergoing general, gynaecological or orthopaedic surgery. During surgery, patients were anaesthetised with the volatile anaesthetic agent desflurane, the depth of anaesthesia was measured using BIS monitoring and the raw was also EEG recorded. SNP genotyping was performed for 13 SNPs in five candidate genes; SGIP1, GABRA2, CACNA1G, HCN1 and HCN2, using the polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. An additional 21 SNPs in 15 genes involved in various inflammatory and other immune-related pathways were genotyped by Sequenom MassARRAY at the Australian Genome Research Facility.
Six SNPs in five different genes were found to be associated with spindle amplitude (SGIP1, GABRA2, HCN1, IL1B and MYD88), and a further five SNPs were associated with either delta frequency (IL10), or end tidal desflurane concentration (ETDC) (CACNA1G, CRP, MYD88 and TGFB1). The strongest associations were identified for a single SNP located in the 3' UTR of MYD88 (rs6853). The rs6853 A/G genotype was associated with higher median spindle amplitude (p = 0.0040) and spindle amplitude relative to ETDC (p = 0.0006), and lower EDTC (p = 0.0095) than the A/A genotype. No rs6853 G/G homozygotes were identified in the study sample.
MYD88 acts as an adaptor protein in the interleukin-1 receptor and toll-like receptor signalling pathways. Within the brain, cytokines are thought to act as neuronal modulators and influence neurotransmitter signalling and ion channel activity. The association of MYD88 with spindle amplitude, in conjunction with IL1B, suggests that cytokines may influence the EEG during general anaesthesia. Thus cytokine mediated regulation of neuronal activity is speculated to underlie the reported associations. All reported effect sizes were small (0.77- to 1.55-fold) and associated genes had four distinct types of function; ion channels, neurotransmitter signalling, endocytosis, and cytokine signalling. This suggests that numerous genes in different pathways, each with a small, possibly additive effect, are involved in regulating the EEG during general anaesthesia.

text: Single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the human electroencephalogram during desflurane anaesthesia General anaesthesia is an induced state that enables a person to endure surgical procedures without pain or recollection. There is substantial individual variability in the response to anaesthesia and in order to avoid adverse effects caused by either under- or over-sedation, anaesthetic drug administration must be tailored to suit the individual patient. This requires a means to monitor the depth of general anaesthesia. The electroencephalogram (EEG) records the electrical activity of the brain and enables effects of anaesthetic drugs on brain functioning to be monitored. Quantitative EEG monitors, such as the Bispectral (BIS) index monitor, process the raw EEG and provide a numerical output that is often used to measure the depth of general anaesthesia during surgery. Due to a number of factors including clinical conditions and genetic variability in the EEG, the BIS value can at times be misleading. 

To identify genetic variations associated with EEG phenotypes relevant to anaesthesia monitoring, an association analysis was performed for 34 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a sample of 125 surgical patients undergoing general, gynaecological or orthopaedic surgery. During surgery, patients were anaesthetised with the volatile anaesthetic agent desflurane, the depth of anaesthesia was measured using BIS monitoring and the raw was also EEG recorded. SNP genotyping was performed for 13 SNPs in five candidate genes; SGIP1, GABRA2, CACNA1G, HCN1 and HCN2, using the polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. An additional 21 SNPs in 15 genes involved in various inflammatory and other immune-related pathways were genotyped by Sequenom MassARRAY at the Australian Genome Research Facility.
Six SNPs in five different genes were found to be associated with spindle amplitude (SGIP1, GABRA2, HCN1, IL1B and MYD88), and a further five SNPs were associated with either delta frequency (IL10), or end tidal desflurane concentration (ETDC) (CACNA1G, CRP, MYD88 and TGFB1). The strongest associations were identified for a single SNP located in the 3' UTR of MYD88 (rs6853). The rs6853 A/G genotype was associated with higher median spindle amplitude (p = 0.0040) and spindle amplitude relative to ETDC (p = 0.0006), and lower EDTC (p = 0.0095) than the A/A genotype. No rs6853 G/G homozygotes were identified in the study sample.
MYD88 acts as an adaptor protein in the interleukin-1 receptor and toll-like receptor signalling pathways. Within the brain, cytokines are thought to act as neuronal modulators and influence neurotransmitter signalling and ion channel activity. The association of MYD88 with spindle amplitude, in conjunction with IL1B, suggests that cytokines may influence the EEG during general anaesthesia. Thus cytokine mediated regulation of neuronal activity is speculated to underlie the reported associations. All reported effect sizes were small (0.77- to 1.55-fold) and associated genes had four distinct types of function; ion channels, neurotransmitter signalling, endocytosis, and cytokine signalling. This suggests that numerous genes in different pathways, each with a small, possibly additive effect, are involved in regulating the EEG during general anaesthesia.

year: 2012

title: Defence not defiance: The shaping of New Zealand’s volunteer force

authors: Clayton, Garry James

subjects: New Zealand Army history

abstract: In the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth New Zealand's land defences were primarily the responsibility of its Volunteer Force. This Force over a period of fifty-two years evolved from ill-considered vigilante bands to a well organised and disciplined Army. This thesis examines the evolution of this Volunteer Army in chronological sequence concentrating on the factors which shaped and developed it.
The preface provides a brief outline of this study on New Zealand's Volunteer Force. The thesis then presents the history of the Force in eight chapters. These chapters are in four basic divisions. The first section, of three chapters. examines the origins of the Force, its role in the New Zealand Wars and its subsequent development in the period of tenuous peace during the 1870's . The second section, comprising of two chapters only, examines the transformation of the Volunteers from a military body which primarily looked inward. into a Force which concentrated on protecting the nation's main ports. The third section , also comprising two chapters , then views the development of this coastal protection Force into a Colonial Army, able and willing to provide for the nation's own security as well as expeditionary units to· serve with the British Imperial Forces ·. The last Section, of one Chapter only, concentrates on the demise of Volunteering and the moves to compulsory military training. The conclusion then draws together the analytical threads of the thesis. 
As the thesis is extensive in its coverage of time, it is only possible to outline the very nature of Volunteering. It will be for Regimental Historians to show the uniqueness of each of the 658 different units that comprised the New Zealand Volunteer Force over its fifty-two years of existence. What this broad survey does do, however, is provide a unique window for the examination of the development of an embryonic Colonial Army in the context of a developing nation.

text: Defence not defiance: The shaping of New Zealand’s volunteer force In the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth New Zealand's land defences were primarily the responsibility of its Volunteer Force. This Force over a period of fifty-two years evolved from ill-considered vigilante bands to a well organised and disciplined Army. This thesis examines the evolution of this Volunteer Army in chronological sequence concentrating on the factors which shaped and developed it.
The preface provides a brief outline of this study on New Zealand's Volunteer Force. The thesis then presents the history of the Force in eight chapters. These chapters are in four basic divisions. The first section, of three chapters. examines the origins of the Force, its role in the New Zealand Wars and its subsequent development in the period of tenuous peace during the 1870's . The second section, comprising of two chapters only, examines the transformation of the Volunteers from a military body which primarily looked inward. into a Force which concentrated on protecting the nation's main ports. The third section , also comprising two chapters , then views the development of this coastal protection Force into a Colonial Army, able and willing to provide for the nation's own security as well as expeditionary units to· serve with the British Imperial Forces ·. The last Section, of one Chapter only, concentrates on the demise of Volunteering and the moves to compulsory military training. The conclusion then draws together the analytical threads of the thesis. 
As the thesis is extensive in its coverage of time, it is only possible to outline the very nature of Volunteering. It will be for Regimental Historians to show the uniqueness of each of the 658 different units that comprised the New Zealand Volunteer Force over its fifty-two years of existence. What this broad survey does do, however, is provide a unique window for the examination of the development of an embryonic Colonial Army in the context of a developing nation.

year: 1990