title: Short Communication: Effects of temperature and chemical formulation on the acute toxicity of pentachlorophenol to Simocephalus vetulus (Schoedler, 1858) (Crustacea: Cladocera)

authors: Willis, Kate J.

subjects: cladoceran

abstract: The influence of temperature on the acute toxicity of a technical formulation (86%) and pure formulation (99%) of pentachlorophenol (PCP) to less than 24-h-old Simocephalus vetulus neonates was determined with 48-h static toxicity tests. The technical grade PCP was significantly more toxic to S. vetulus than the pure PCP (P < 0.05). Sensitivity of S. vetulus to technical PCP also significantly increased with temperature (P < 0.05), but a significant temperature effect was not found with the pure PCP. The mean 48-h LC50 values for neonates exposed to technical PCP were 140 and 199 ug l⁻¹ at 22deg.C and 16deg.C, respectively, and for those exposed to pure PCP were 262 and 304 ug l⁻¹, respectively.

text: Short Communication: Effects of temperature and chemical formulation on the acute toxicity of pentachlorophenol to Simocephalus vetulus (Schoedler, 1858) (Crustacea: Cladocera) The influence of temperature on the acute toxicity of a technical formulation (86%) and pure formulation (99%) of pentachlorophenol (PCP) to less than 24-h-old Simocephalus vetulus neonates was determined with 48-h static toxicity tests. The technical grade PCP was significantly more toxic to S. vetulus than the pure PCP (P < 0.05). Sensitivity of S. vetulus to technical PCP also significantly increased with temperature (P < 0.05), but a significant temperature effect was not found with the pure PCP. The mean 48-h LC50 values for neonates exposed to technical PCP were 140 and 199 ug l⁻¹ at 22deg.C and 16deg.C, respectively, and for those exposed to pure PCP were 262 and 304 ug l⁻¹, respectively.

year: 1995

title: Ethical relationships between science and society: Understanding the social responsibility of scientists

authors: Small, Bruce Harris

subjects: Ethics

abstract: The wider social responsibility of scientists has received theoretical discussion but little previous empirical research. To elucidate the construct, this thesis investigated scientists’ attitudes, values and beliefs about social responsibility, with a focus on Promethean gene technologies. The thesis articulates a framework for the construct domain and develops and validates a set of new measures related to scientific social responsibility. Five technology fuelled, social and ecological, existential threats to Earth are identified, establishing the need for an increased ethic of social responsibility for the scientific endeavour and scientists in an age of Promethean technologies. The power of developing gene technologies and their social and moral implications are examined, followed by a discussion of relevant normative, meta-ethical and applied ethics theories. Next, Kohlberg’s (1969) cognitive moral development theory, Rest’s (1979) theory of moral behaviour, and Schwartz’s (1992) theory of personal value orientation are discussed as a psychological context for scientific social responsibility. The few empirical studies addressing the issue are reviewed. Original empirical contributions are presented in two studies. Study 1 is an explorative, qualitative research project using face-to-face, in-depth, unstructured interviews to investigate a purposive sample of scientists’ (N = 22) beliefs about the social role of science, and scientists, in research and technology development. The participants all worked in the field of genetic engineering, or studied its social or ecological impacts. From a data-driven, manifest, thematic analysis, three themes emerged, each with several sub-themes: doing public good (sub-themes: benefit/harm, knowledge, technologies, and foresight); engagement (sub-themes: informing society, becoming informed, and integrity) and; compliance (sub-themes: scientific norms, business norms, laws and regulations, societal mores, and personal values). A theoretically-driven, latent, thematic analysis, examined the normative and meta-ethical reasoning underlying participants’ manifest positions. Evidence was found for normative ethical reasoning (i.e., deontological, teleological and virtue ethics) and a range of meta-ethical approaches (i.e., ethical relativism, conventionalism, objectivism, moral absolutism, subjectivism, emotivism, and cultural relativism). From Study 1 items were proposed for two measures of social responsibility based on the first two stages of Rest’s model of moral behaviour. Study 2, a quantitative survey of scientists from six New Zealand Crown Research Institutes (N = 733, 40.9% female), used a nomological network of 39 hypothesised directional relationships (correlations) to help infer construct validity to five new instruments related to social responsibility: moral awareness, moral judgement regarding personal behaviour, technological optimism, attitude to the commercialisation of science, and attitude to the democratisation of science. Five existing instruments also comprised the nomological network: the four Schwartz higher-order value dimensions and a concurrent criterion, general attitude to genetic engineering. Exploratory factor analysis was used to select items for single factor instruments and confirmatory factor analysis to purify the instruments’ dimensionality, followed by reliability analyses. Four new instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties. Twenty-seven of 39 hypothesised correlations were significant in the right direction (at the Bonferroni adjusted p < .001 level), providing initial support for the new instruments’ construct validities and study results regarding participants’ attitudes, beliefs and values towards conducting socially responsible Promethean science.

text: Ethical relationships between science and society: Understanding the social responsibility of scientists The wider social responsibility of scientists has received theoretical discussion but little previous empirical research. To elucidate the construct, this thesis investigated scientists’ attitudes, values and beliefs about social responsibility, with a focus on Promethean gene technologies. The thesis articulates a framework for the construct domain and develops and validates a set of new measures related to scientific social responsibility. Five technology fuelled, social and ecological, existential threats to Earth are identified, establishing the need for an increased ethic of social responsibility for the scientific endeavour and scientists in an age of Promethean technologies. The power of developing gene technologies and their social and moral implications are examined, followed by a discussion of relevant normative, meta-ethical and applied ethics theories. Next, Kohlberg’s (1969) cognitive moral development theory, Rest’s (1979) theory of moral behaviour, and Schwartz’s (1992) theory of personal value orientation are discussed as a psychological context for scientific social responsibility. The few empirical studies addressing the issue are reviewed. Original empirical contributions are presented in two studies. Study 1 is an explorative, qualitative research project using face-to-face, in-depth, unstructured interviews to investigate a purposive sample of scientists’ (N = 22) beliefs about the social role of science, and scientists, in research and technology development. The participants all worked in the field of genetic engineering, or studied its social or ecological impacts. From a data-driven, manifest, thematic analysis, three themes emerged, each with several sub-themes: doing public good (sub-themes: benefit/harm, knowledge, technologies, and foresight); engagement (sub-themes: informing society, becoming informed, and integrity) and; compliance (sub-themes: scientific norms, business norms, laws and regulations, societal mores, and personal values). A theoretically-driven, latent, thematic analysis, examined the normative and meta-ethical reasoning underlying participants’ manifest positions. Evidence was found for normative ethical reasoning (i.e., deontological, teleological and virtue ethics) and a range of meta-ethical approaches (i.e., ethical relativism, conventionalism, objectivism, moral absolutism, subjectivism, emotivism, and cultural relativism). From Study 1 items were proposed for two measures of social responsibility based on the first two stages of Rest’s model of moral behaviour. Study 2, a quantitative survey of scientists from six New Zealand Crown Research Institutes (N = 733, 40.9% female), used a nomological network of 39 hypothesised directional relationships (correlations) to help infer construct validity to five new instruments related to social responsibility: moral awareness, moral judgement regarding personal behaviour, technological optimism, attitude to the commercialisation of science, and attitude to the democratisation of science. Five existing instruments also comprised the nomological network: the four Schwartz higher-order value dimensions and a concurrent criterion, general attitude to genetic engineering. Exploratory factor analysis was used to select items for single factor instruments and confirmatory factor analysis to purify the instruments’ dimensionality, followed by reliability analyses. Four new instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties. Twenty-seven of 39 hypothesised correlations were significant in the right direction (at the Bonferroni adjusted p < .001 level), providing initial support for the new instruments’ construct validities and study results regarding participants’ attitudes, beliefs and values towards conducting socially responsible Promethean science.

year: 2011

title: Kua Tupu Te Pā Harakeke: Developing Healthy Whānau Relationships

authors: Pihama, Leonie

abstract: We have opened this chapter with our ‘pēpeha’. Pēpeha are ways through which our people introduce ourselves. These vary from tribe to tribe. The essence of pēpeha is that they link us to our tribes and all associated with that. Our mountains, our rivers, our canoes, our ancestral lines. It links us to each other. It places us, as Māori, within a wider collective consciousness and relationships. It is important to highlight that the term ‘Māori’ is a term that brings us as tribal peoples together. It is a term that our people have chosen to use as a means of unifying ourselves in the wake of the arrival of our colonizers. Prior to colonization all identification was done through our whānau (extended family structure), hapū (subtribes) or iwi (tribes). The term Māori means to be ‘normal’ or ‘pure’, as such it is a fitting term for an Indigenous People. We have, however, also been active in maintaining our hapū and iwi identities and it is through pēpeha that we can culturally share that identity with each other. Our people have been doing this for generations. And in spite of colonization seeking to undermine our cultural identity, many of us continue to do this.

text: Kua Tupu Te Pā Harakeke: Developing Healthy Whānau Relationships We have opened this chapter with our ‘pēpeha’. Pēpeha are ways through which our people introduce ourselves. These vary from tribe to tribe. The essence of pēpeha is that they link us to our tribes and all associated with that. Our mountains, our rivers, our canoes, our ancestral lines. It links us to each other. It places us, as Māori, within a wider collective consciousness and relationships. It is important to highlight that the term ‘Māori’ is a term that brings us as tribal peoples together. It is a term that our people have chosen to use as a means of unifying ourselves in the wake of the arrival of our colonizers. Prior to colonization all identification was done through our whānau (extended family structure), hapū (subtribes) or iwi (tribes). The term Māori means to be ‘normal’ or ‘pure’, as such it is a fitting term for an Indigenous People. We have, however, also been active in maintaining our hapū and iwi identities and it is through pēpeha that we can culturally share that identity with each other. Our people have been doing this for generations. And in spite of colonization seeking to undermine our cultural identity, many of us continue to do this.

year: 2012