Developing a rural and regional science challenge to utilise community and industry-based partnerships

Interest and participation in science in schools has been declining for many years and there is a genuine need to rejuvenate interest in science at the high school level. One possible solution is the completion of challenging science projects which fulfill an authentic purpose in the community. This paper discusses the results of ongoing research into the establishment of a rural and regional Science Challenge which makes use of partnerships with local industries and community groups to encourage the development of authentic science projects. In the development of the Science Challenge, many issues are emerging in relation to teachers' work, resources, administration and school cultures. This paper reports on the preliminary findings and indicates directions for the future.

Developing a science challenge to support partnerships and pedagogy in rural and regional science

In 2007 the researchers decided to investigate the development of a “science challenge” as a means of engaging students in science. They wanted to ensure that whatever was developed was sustainable, addressed the needs of students and provided some answers for the dilemma of equitable education in regional and rural areas. A literature search indicated that whilst science competitions were not new, one which was based on schoolcommunity partnerships and involved students in the solving of real problems, was quite different. This paper will report on the development of the science challenge with reference to the viewpoints of teachers, community and industry participants.

Beyond the analogon; the "transfer of the referent" : the relationship between the external world experienced through culturally generated perceptual models constructed in the human mind, and the transfer of these images, via visual language, onto referen

Within 20th. Century art, the concept of the ‘normative’ image, as an attribute of things, has been challenged. As a consequence, paintings must now picture the ‘real’ world in other ways, incorporating knowledge and meaning beyond the analogon. Such descriptive representations were revealed as paradigmatic, rather than incontrovertible fact. Dependent on pre-conceived notions of stereotypicality, these descriptive images relied on surface illumination. My thesis explores images of things in the world as culturally inspired and information based. I examine paintings and sculptures of other cultures, such as black African, and other historical periods such as the Medieval, which reveal metonymously the basis for variations in representations of the ‘real’ world. The new enhanced representations which Modern artists created in their work were denigrated as deviant from the absolute ‘normative’ or regarded as distortions for purely mannerist and stylistic reasons. Postmodern research has reassessed them as multiple or extended imagings in whose facture new knowledge and human responses can be incorporated. These new forms of representation can be regarded as theoretical constructs rather than stylised depictions of appearance. In this way referents are transferred through the mind onto objects and vistas in the real world to align with our developed view of the physical world and better our understanding of humanity’s symbiotic relationship with nature.

Temporal causality and the dynamics of exports, human capital and real income in China

This article employs cointegration and error-correction modelling to test the causal relationship between real income, exports and human capital stock using data for China over the period 1960 to 1999. We find that real exports, human capital and real income are cointegrated when real exports is the dependent variable, but are not cointegrated when human capital or real income are the dependent variable. In the short-run we find evidence of bi-directional Granger causality between human capital and real exports, unidirectional Granger causality running from real income to human capital and neutrality between real exports and real income.

Temporal causality between human capital and real income in cointegrated VAR processes : empirical evidence from China, 1960-1999

This article examines the causal relationship between human capital and real income using data for China from 1960 to 1999. In the long run there is unidirectional Granger causality running from human capital to real income, while in the short run there is unidirectional Granger causality running from real income to human capital

Media pressures and corporate disclosure of social responsibility performance : a case study of two global clothing and sports retail companies

This paper investigates the social and environmental disclosure practices of two large multi-national companies, specifically Nike and Hennes and Mauritz. Utilising a joint consideration of legitimacy theory and media agenda setting theory, we investigate the linkage between negative media attention, and positive corporate social and environmental disclosures. Our results generally support a view that for those issues attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention, corporations react by providing positive social and environmental disclosures. The results were particularly significant in relation to labour practices in developing countries – the issue attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention for the companies in question.

The relationship between human beings and technological systems

By combining the ontological approaches to technology of Dessauer, Ortega y Gasset and Heidegger, with the psychology of Jung, the integrated and psycho-constructivist approach to technology demonstrates that the relationship between human beings and technological systems is a symptomatic, symbiotic and synchronistic factor of human well-being and adaption.

Media pressures and corporate disclosure of social responsibility performance information : a study of two global clothing and sports retail companies

This paper investigates the social and environmental disclosure practices of two large multinational companies, specifically Nike and Hennés & Mauritz. Utilising a joint consideration of legitimacy theory and media agenda setting theory, we investigate the linkage between negative media attention, and positive corporate social and environmental disclosures. Our results generally support a view that for those industry-related social and environmental issues attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention, these corporations react by providing positive social and environmental disclosures. The results were particularly significant in relation to labour practices in developing countries - the issue attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention for the companies in question.

MicroRNA in human cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are the non-coding RNAs that act as post-translational regulators to their complimentary messenger RNAs (mRNA). Due to their specific gene silencing property, miRNAs have been implicated in a number of cellular and developmental processes. Also, it has been proposed that a particular set of miRNA spectrum is expressed only in a particular type of tissue. Many interesting findings related to the differential expression of miRNAs in various human diseases including several types of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and metabolic diseases have been reported. Deregulation of miRNA expression in different types of human diseases and the roles various miRNAs play as tumour suppressors as well as oncogenes, suggest their contribution to cancer and/or in other disease development. These findings have possible implications in the development of diagnostics and/or therapeutics in human malignancies. In this review, we discuss various miRNAs that are differentially expressed in human chronic inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and the further prospective development of miRNA based diagnostics and therapeutics.

Human rights and the right to development : insights into the Myanmar government's response to rights allegations

Myanmar is ruled by a military government that is strongly condemned for human rights abuses. In responding to these allegations, the Myanmar government repeatedly adopt the language of Right to Development as a counter perspective and counter allegation. The Right to Development is not well reflected in the Western human rights discourse, and both its development and Myanmar's position in the Right to Development dialogue are considered. This paper looks at the differing perspective that an understanding of the official public Myanmar response to rights allegations brings to the human rights debate surrounding Myanmar, highlighting contested ideas concerning the identity of rights duty-bearers, conceptions of those duties, and allegations of double standards. While the Myanmar position that sanctions violate the Right to Development is rejected, it is suggested that this difference in perspective is a contributor to the impasse and communication gap between the West and the Myanmar regime over human rights.