title: Identification of quantitative trait loci for dynamic and steady-state photosynthetic traits in a barley mapping population

authors: Salter, William T.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Enhancing the photosynthetic induction response to fluctuating light has been suggested as a key target for improvement in crop breeding programmes, with the potential to substantially increase whole-canopy carbon assimilation and contribute to crop yield potential. Rubisco activation may be the main physiological process that will allow us to achieve such a goal. In this study, we assessed the phenotype of Rubisco activation rate in a doubled haploid (DH) barley mapping population [131 lines from a Yerong/Franklin (Y/F) cross] after a switch from moderate to saturating light. Rates of Rubisco activation were found to be highly variable across the mapping population, with a median activation rate of 0.1 min−1 in the slowest genotype and 0.74 min−1 in the fastest genotype. A unique quantitative trait locus (QTL) for Rubisco activation rate was identified on chromosome 7H. This is the first report on the identification of a QTL for Rubisco activation rate in planta and the discovery opens the door to marker-assisted breeding to improve whole-canopy photosynthesis of barley. This also suggests that genetic factors other than the previously characterized Rubisco activase (RCA) isoforms on chromosome 4H control Rubisco activity. Further strength is given to this finding as this QTL co-localized with QTLs identified for steady-state photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. Several other distinct QTLs were identified for these steady-state traits, with a common overlapping QTL on chromosome 2H, and distinct QTLs for photosynthesis and stomatal conductance identified on chromosomes 4H and 5H, respectively. Future work should aim to validate these QTLs under field conditions so that they can be used to aid plant breeding efforts.

text: Identification of quantitative trait loci for dynamic and steady-state photosynthetic traits in a barley mapping population Enhancing the photosynthetic induction response to fluctuating light has been suggested as a key target for improvement in crop breeding programmes, with the potential to substantially increase whole-canopy carbon assimilation and contribute to crop yield potential. Rubisco activation may be the main physiological process that will allow us to achieve such a goal. In this study, we assessed the phenotype of Rubisco activation rate in a doubled haploid (DH) barley mapping population [131 lines from a Yerong/Franklin (Y/F) cross] after a switch from moderate to saturating light. Rates of Rubisco activation were found to be highly variable across the mapping population, with a median activation rate of 0.1 min−1 in the slowest genotype and 0.74 min−1 in the fastest genotype. A unique quantitative trait locus (QTL) for Rubisco activation rate was identified on chromosome 7H. This is the first report on the identification of a QTL for Rubisco activation rate in planta and the discovery opens the door to marker-assisted breeding to improve whole-canopy photosynthesis of barley. This also suggests that genetic factors other than the previously characterized Rubisco activase (RCA) isoforms on chromosome 4H control Rubisco activity. Further strength is given to this finding as this QTL co-localized with QTLs identified for steady-state photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. Several other distinct QTLs were identified for these steady-state traits, with a common overlapping QTL on chromosome 2H, and distinct QTLs for photosynthesis and stomatal conductance identified on chromosomes 4H and 5H, respectively. Future work should aim to validate these QTLs under field conditions so that they can be used to aid plant breeding efforts.

year: 2020

title: Harnessing the private sector for rural development, poverty alleviation and HIV/AIDS prevention

authors: Lim, Steven

subjects: rural development

abstract: In resource-constrained developing countries, mobilizing resources from outside sources may assist in overcoming many development challenges. This paper examines the Thai Business Initiative in Rural Development (TBIRD), an NGO-sponsored program that brings together the comparative advantages and self-interest of rural villages, private sector firms and a facilitating NGO, to improve social and community health outcomes in rural areas. We analyze key issues in the program with data from Northeast Thailand. We find that the TBIRD program appears to improve the income earning and other prospects of the TBIRD factory workers. Further, TBIRD factory employment exhibits a pro-poor bias. A key impact is to provide jobs for people who might otherwise be at increased risk of HIV infection through poverty-induced decisions to migrate to urban centres and participate in the commercial sex industry. This program adds another important tool for development planners in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

text: Harnessing the private sector for rural development, poverty alleviation and HIV/AIDS prevention In resource-constrained developing countries, mobilizing resources from outside sources may assist in overcoming many development challenges. This paper examines the Thai Business Initiative in Rural Development (TBIRD), an NGO-sponsored program that brings together the comparative advantages and self-interest of rural villages, private sector firms and a facilitating NGO, to improve social and community health outcomes in rural areas. We analyze key issues in the program with data from Northeast Thailand. We find that the TBIRD program appears to improve the income earning and other prospects of the TBIRD factory workers. Further, TBIRD factory employment exhibits a pro-poor bias. A key impact is to provide jobs for people who might otherwise be at increased risk of HIV infection through poverty-induced decisions to migrate to urban centres and participate in the commercial sex industry. This program adds another important tool for development planners in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

year: 2007-01

title: Aro mai aro atu: Raising Māori-medium students' academic oral language proficiency

authors: Shandley, Rosina Mary

subjects: Māori-medium

abstract: From the early 1860s, colonial governments worked systematically to eradicate the language and culture of the indigenous people of Aotearoa / New Zealand, and, by the late 1960s, the death of the Māori language was being predicted by leading linguists. Māori leaders responded in the 1980s with language regeneration initiatives that included the birth of Māori-medium education. Today, this uniquely indigenous education system is a significant site of language learning for new generations of Māori children. In Māori-medium education, children are nurtured, educated, and loved as Māori, and they are more likely to attain educational qualifications than their Māori peers who attend English-medium schools. 

The success of Māori-medium education is achieved in the face of a raft of ongoing challenges that teachers and students confront on a daily basis. Years of language marginalisation, including the disruption to intergenerational transfer, mean Māori-medium students are required to learn the curriculum through their second and less-developed language. They have limited opportunities to hear or use the Māori language outside of the school, and this places huge pressure on teachers who are often their most significant language models. The challenge is compounded by the limited education that has been made available to teachers in relation to second-language pedagogies specifically designed for Māori-medium classrooms. The resulting situation is that Māori-medium teachers are often left struggling to find ways that they can develop students’ Māori language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement so that one is not sacrificed for the other. 

This study designed and trialled pedagogies to support Māori-medium students to develop their academic oral language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement. It was a mixed methods study grounded in a kaupapa Māori approach, and involved three teachers and 24 students across three separate Māori-medium schools. An Anga Putanga Ako (Curriculum Outcomes Matrix) was developed to support the students to understand what they needed to learn to progress through the writing curriculum. Teachers then learnt to share explicit learning outcomes from the Anga Putanga Ako with students before lessons and to allow them time to discuss their achievement of those outcomes in pairs at the conclusion of those lessons. Linguistic scaffolds were developed to support students’ learning conversations, including the self and peer assessment of the learning outcomes, and decisions about their curriculum achievement levels and next learning steps.

The quantitative and qualitative results of the study revealed that the confluence of the self and peer assessment practices, supported by the Anga Putanga Ako and linguistic scaffolds, improved the students’ academic oral language and accelerated their reading and writing achievement significantly beyond what is usually expected in a Māori-medium classroom in 14 weeks. The study also found that, through implementing the self and peer assessment pedagogies, teachers were able to identify ways they could develop their students’ academic language and curriculum achievement simultaneously and how these approaches could be applied across the curriculum.

It was clear from the research results that pedagogies that support second-language development and curriculum learning, such as the self and peer assessment pedagogies demonstrated in this study, need to be explicitly taught with consistency across initial and in-service teacher education programmes. This development is necessary to help ensure Māori-medium students are supported with the thinking and linguistic skills needed to contribute to the creation of new knowledge, to support or challenge the current social order as they see fit, and to continue to transfer the Māori language to new generations of mokopuna.

text: Aro mai aro atu: Raising Māori-medium students' academic oral language proficiency From the early 1860s, colonial governments worked systematically to eradicate the language and culture of the indigenous people of Aotearoa / New Zealand, and, by the late 1960s, the death of the Māori language was being predicted by leading linguists. Māori leaders responded in the 1980s with language regeneration initiatives that included the birth of Māori-medium education. Today, this uniquely indigenous education system is a significant site of language learning for new generations of Māori children. In Māori-medium education, children are nurtured, educated, and loved as Māori, and they are more likely to attain educational qualifications than their Māori peers who attend English-medium schools. 

The success of Māori-medium education is achieved in the face of a raft of ongoing challenges that teachers and students confront on a daily basis. Years of language marginalisation, including the disruption to intergenerational transfer, mean Māori-medium students are required to learn the curriculum through their second and less-developed language. They have limited opportunities to hear or use the Māori language outside of the school, and this places huge pressure on teachers who are often their most significant language models. The challenge is compounded by the limited education that has been made available to teachers in relation to second-language pedagogies specifically designed for Māori-medium classrooms. The resulting situation is that Māori-medium teachers are often left struggling to find ways that they can develop students’ Māori language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement so that one is not sacrificed for the other. 

This study designed and trialled pedagogies to support Māori-medium students to develop their academic oral language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement. It was a mixed methods study grounded in a kaupapa Māori approach, and involved three teachers and 24 students across three separate Māori-medium schools. An Anga Putanga Ako (Curriculum Outcomes Matrix) was developed to support the students to understand what they needed to learn to progress through the writing curriculum. Teachers then learnt to share explicit learning outcomes from the Anga Putanga Ako with students before lessons and to allow them time to discuss their achievement of those outcomes in pairs at the conclusion of those lessons. Linguistic scaffolds were developed to support students’ learning conversations, including the self and peer assessment of the learning outcomes, and decisions about their curriculum achievement levels and next learning steps.

The quantitative and qualitative results of the study revealed that the confluence of the self and peer assessment practices, supported by the Anga Putanga Ako and linguistic scaffolds, improved the students’ academic oral language and accelerated their reading and writing achievement significantly beyond what is usually expected in a Māori-medium classroom in 14 weeks. The study also found that, through implementing the self and peer assessment pedagogies, teachers were able to identify ways they could develop their students’ academic language and curriculum achievement simultaneously and how these approaches could be applied across the curriculum.

It was clear from the research results that pedagogies that support second-language development and curriculum learning, such as the self and peer assessment pedagogies demonstrated in this study, need to be explicitly taught with consistency across initial and in-service teacher education programmes. This development is necessary to help ensure Māori-medium students are supported with the thinking and linguistic skills needed to contribute to the creation of new knowledge, to support or challenge the current social order as they see fit, and to continue to transfer the Māori language to new generations of mokopuna.

year: 2022