Pacific Journal Research Articles

Corruption in the Pacific - a threat to cultural identity

This is an edited transcript of a panel discussion at a Pacific preconference of the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) congress in Auckland in July 2016 that relates to fundamentally crucial issues about development in the region. As the world comes more intensely interested in what is going on in the Pacific. Numerous international treaties have been signed with interest in the Pacific from the European Union, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank in partnership with the South Pacific Forum as well as massive interest from foreign donors. How these resources are being deployed is actually crucial to successful development and many news media are trying to trace where the money goes. This is probably one of the biggest challenges, aside from global climate change and the depleting fishery resources, facing the Pacific and is a threat to cultural identity. ‘Corruption is much like cancer: it’s got to be treated early, otherwise there’s going to be massive expensive interventions, as we see in Africa, as we see in Asia, and as we see in South America,’ says panel convenor Fuimaono Tuiasau of Transparency International New Zealand. Panellists were: Dr Shailendra Singh, coordinator of the University of the South Pacific journalism programme, Alexander Rheeney, editor-in-chief of the PNG Post-Courier, and Kalafi Moala, owner, publisher and editor of Taimi ‘o Tonga.

Pacific Journalism Monographs: Conflict, Custom & Conscience

A group of Melanesian women march behind an anti-mining "NO BCL, NO MINING" banner, across a small field in the now-autonomous region of Bougainville. Their protest is ostensibly unseen by the rest of the world. Their protest efforts are local, gender-specific, indigenous, and part of a wider movement to stop any production on the Panguna copper mine. This conflict claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in the 1990s civil war. This photograph is one of the many that we have selected to mark the 10th anniversary of the Pacific Media Centre in Auckland University of Technology's School of Communication Studies. Fifteen photojournalists and photographers who have worked with the Pacific Media Centre for the past decade have donated their images for this book project. Although the book is not actually for sale, it has been produced as a limited edition for those who have contributed to the PMC. It will also be available in libraries

EDITORIAL: Pacific media advocacy

IN SAMOA during July 2015, a new Pacific journalism education and training advocacy era was born with the establishment of the Media Educators Pacific (MEP) after a talkfest had gone on for years about the need for such a body. A draft constitution had even been floated at a journalism education conference hosted at the University of the South Pacific in 2012. The initiative created unity of sorts between the Technical, Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) media institutes from Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and the regional University of the South Pacific journalism programme. Founding president Misa Vicky Lepou of the National University of Samoa pledged at the time to produce a vision with a difference:

SOME DEFINABLE GALOIS THEORY AND EXAMPLES

AbstractWe make explicit certain results around the Galois correspondence in the context of definable automorphism groups, and point out the relation to some recent papers dealing with the Galois theory of algebraic differential equations when the constants are not “closed” in suitable senses. We also improve the definitions and results on generalized strongly normal extensions from [Pillay, “Differential Galois theory I”, Illinois Journal of Mathematics, 42(4), 1998], using this to give a restatement of a conjecture on almost semiabelian δ-groups from [Bertrand and Pillay, “Galois theory, functional Lindemann–Weierstrass, and Manin maps”, Pacific Journal of Mathematics, 281(1), 2016].

Econometrics Illustrated, with Applications from Insurance-Research Awards

Abstract The linear regression model is the dominant tool employed in applied risk and insurance research. Based on my 2016 APRIA lecture at Chengdu, China, I illustrate the simple geometry of the linear regression model, as well as some standard results from it: omitted variable bias (OVB), classical measurement error (CME), simultaneous equation models (SEM), and instrumental variable estimation. Instrumental variable estimation solves OVB, CME, and SEM problems by constructing similar triangles to retrieve consistent estimates. I apply these tools by estimating the determinants of the Witt and Mehr awards given annually for Journal of Risk and Insurance articles, as two examples. The Witt vs. Mehr awards also contrasts short-term scholarly recognition (Witt) versus long-term scholarly recognition (Mehr). The comments made here apply to other paper awards, such as those presented by the Asian Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance. I also present a simple index function based on the classical Gini index (hence, this new index is denoted as the regression gini index, RGI) useful for comparing two regression models, and apply this to explain the empirical difference between the determinants of the Witt and Mehr awards.

Pacific Journalism Monographs No. 6: Watching Our Words: Perceptions of self-censorship and media freedom in Fiji

Ricardo Morris, a journalist and Thomson Reuters fellow from Fiji, has studied the perceptions and practice of self-censorship among journalists from his country in the years following the military coup in December 2006. He focused particularly on the period after the 2014 general election that returned Fiji to democratic rule. In this research monograph, Morris examines how willing Fiji’s media workers are to self-censor, how self-censorship works in newsrooms, and what factors are influential on journalists’ work. The research monograph was first published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and has been published by the Pacific Journalism Monograph series at the Pacific Media Centre by arrangement with the author and institute. Morris is the founder, publisher and editor of independent media company Republika Media Limited in Fiji, which publishes the magazine Repúblika.

Preface to the Second Issue of Indian Pacific Journal of Accounting and Finance

Preface to the Second Issue of Indian Pacific Journal of Accounting and Finance

Impact of total quality services on financial performance: role of service profit chain

Total quality service (TQS) has a great potential to address quality problems in a wide range of industries and improve organisational performance. The principles of total service quality allow the effective management of service organisations [Ooi, K. B., Cheah, W. C., Lin, B., & Teh, P. L. (2012). Total quality management practices and knowledge sharing: An empirical study of Malaysia’s manufacturing organisations. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29(1), 59–78] and are one of the most important factors in attaining business excellence [Dahlgaard-Park, S. M. (2011). The quality movement: Where are you going? Total Quality Management, 22(5), 493–516]. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of TQSs on internal service quality (ISQ) and its impact on employee satisfaction. Further, the study examined the effect of employee satisfaction on external service quality (ESQ) through employee loyalty and employee commitment. In addition, the impact of ESQ on customer satisfaction and the effect of customer satisfaction on financial performance have also been examined. Data were collected from the automobile showrooms/service stations. A total of 85 executives, 380 employees and 289 customers were contacted from Jammu Province (J&K, North India). Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling techniques have been used to study the proposed relationships. The findings revealed a positive and significant impact on the direct and indirect structural relationship between TQS, ISQ, employee satisfaction, employee commitment, employee loyalty, ESQ, customer satisfaction and financial performance. Implications and limitations of the study have also been discussed.

Remote and invisible: the voices of female Indigenous educational leaders in Northern Territory remote community schools in Australia

ABSTRACTWhile the literature on women and educational leadership has been addressed in substantive ways in recent years, the experiences that reflect female Australian educational leaders are rare. This article reports findings from a study of five female Indigenous principals in the Northern Territory utilising biographic narratives and foregrounds their experiences as female educational leaders in Indigenous communities. I share the views of Ribbins, P. and Gronn, P. (2013. Researching principals: context and culture in the study of leadership in schools. Asia Pacific journal of education, 20 (2), 34–45) and Dimmock, C. and Walker, A. (2005. Educational leadership: culture and diversity. London: Sage) that research and theory into educational leadership must move towards the inclusion of localised unique cultural contexts since the practice of leadership is a socially bounded process. The study reveals the daily complex roles and challenges of being a female Indigenous principal in communities that are grounded in broader Indigenous epistemologies, beliefs, and value systems yet to be fully embraced by mainstream educational leadership perspectives.

The Inauguration of Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Care

On behalf of the Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention (APOCP) and its subsidiary (the West Asia Organization for Cancer Prevention- WAOCP), it is a great honor to present the inaugural issue of Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Care (APJCC, ISSN ).APJCC is branching out from Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention to become the journal of choice for the large community researchers in the Asian and Pacific region who work on the care cancer patients. Its goal is to become leading online forum to disseminate the work of Asia and Pacific Regions’ cancer clinicians to the global audience.APJCC inherits its inception from the backbone of 17 years of successful publication of the Asian Pacific Cancer Prevention (APJCP) and considers itself as a sister publication of the APJCP.

Sport and body cultures in east and south-east Asia

Welcome to the first issue of Volume 6 of the Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Sciences. It has been an interesting few months for the journal as we are now accepting submissions via Editor...

Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention and Challenges Facing in its 18th Year of Publishing

Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention and Challenges Facing in its 18th Year of Publishing

Retracted: Resveratrol inhibits oesophageal adenocarcinoma cell proliferation via AMP-activated protein kinase signaling

Retraction: Retracted:Resveratrol inhibits oesophageal adenocarcinoma cell proliferation via AMP-activated protein kinase signaling Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention (APJCP) has retracted the article titled “Resveratrol Inhibits Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma Cell Proliferation via AMP-activated Protein Kinase Signaling”(1) for reason of having duplicated contents brought to the attention of APJCP’s editorial office by the following email content: “Dear Editors of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, Clinical and Experimental Hypertension, I write to you from the editorial office of PLOS ONE to inform you of concerns related to duplicated content in articles published by your journals. We have been following up on concerns of overlapping text and duplicate Western blots within the following PLOS ONE article: [1] Berberine Improves Kidney Function in Diabetic Mice via AMPK Activation https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113398 Received: June 9, 2014; Accepted: October 23, 2014; Published: November 19, 2014 It was initially brought to our attention that there is duplication of Western blot images between the PLOS ONE article and the following published papers: [2] Brain Injury (Received 28 Oct 2013, Accepted 4 Jan 2015, Published online 20 Mar 2015) doi: 10.3109/02699052.2015.1004746: Figure 6b GAPDH is similar to Figure 2A AMPK in [1] [3] Exp Mol Pathol (Received 24 Feb 2014, Accepted 10 Sep 2014, Available online 16 Sep 2014) doi:10.1016/j.yexmp.2014.09.006: Figure 5B GAPDH is similar to Figure 2A AMPK in [1]; Figure 5C Occludin is similar to Figure 2A LKB1 in [1] [4] Korean J Physiol Pharmacol, (Received 7 Nov 2013, Accepted 3 Jan 2016) doi: 10.4196/kjpp.2016.20.4.325 RETRACTED: Figure 6B GAPDH is similar to Figure 2A AMPK [1] Please note that the KJPP paper has been retracted as a result of the content duplication issues. During the course of our follow up, we have discovered additional instances of possible duplication as follows: [5] Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Accepted 6 Aug 2014, Accepted ms online 28 Aug 2014, Published 23 Feb 2015) doi:10.1111/jgh.12723: Figure 1d AMPK is similar to Figure 2A AMPK in [1], Figure 3a iNOS is similar to Figure 2A LKB1 in [1] [6] Acta Pharmacologica Sinica (Received 4 Mar 2014, Accepted 28 July 2014, Published 17 Nov 2014) doi: 10.1038/aps.2014.88: Figure 1 A and B bar charts are similar to Figure 1 A and B bar charts in [1], Figure 1E AMPK is similar to Figure 2A AMPK in [1], Figure 1E p-AMPK is similar to Figure 2A P-AMPK in [1], Figure 1E bar chart is similar to the Figure 2A bar chart in [1] [7] Asian Pac J Cancer Prev (Published Jan 2014) doi: 10.7314/APJCP.2014.15.2.677: Figure 3A GAPDH is similar to Figure 2A AMPK in [1] and p27 kip1 is similar to Figure 2A P-AMPK in [1] [8] Clinical and Experimental Hypertension (Received 15 Sep 2015, Accepted 24 Nov 2015, Published 5 May 2016) doi: 10.3109/10641963.2015.1131288: Figure 2A LKB1 and P-AMPK are similar to Figure 2A LKB1 and P-AMPK in [1], Figure 2B P-AMPK and AMPK are similar to Figure 2B P-AMPK and AMPK in [1], Figure 2A and B bar charts appear similar in both articles. Figures 1A, B and C including Western blots and charts appear similar in both articles. Figure 6C AMPK is similar to Figure 2A AMPK in [1] (note that authors Min Hu and Bo Liu may be the same as authors on the retracted KJPP paper above) Articles [5], [6], [7], and [8] contain various amounts of duplicated text in the Results sections when compared to the PLOS ONE article. Note that there may be other instances of duplicated data and/or text between the above articles aside from those affecting the PLOS ONE article. For at least some of the duplicated text, it appears that some of the manuscripts were under consideration at overlapping times. We have been informed that an external biotechnology company conducted the Western blot experiments and provided the raw blots to the authors for the PLOS ONE paper. How the duplications in text and figures arose remains unresolved. Although our correspondence with the authors about this matter is ongoing, we have determined that it is appropriate to issue a retraction of the PLOS ONE article, and the retraction notice will provide details of the similarities in content with the above-listed articles. We will also report this matter to the PLOS ONE authors’ institution. I hope that the information provided above is helpful. If you have any questions in the course of any follow up on this matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Best wishes,

Retracted: Silencing of the COPS3 Gene by siRNA Reduces Proliferation of Lung Cancer Cells Most Likely via Induction of Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis

Retraction: Retracted: Silencing of the COPS3 Gene by siRNA Reduces Proliferation of Lung Cancer Cells Most Likely via Induction of Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention has retracted the article titled “Silencing of the COPS3 Gene by siRNA Reduces Proliferation of Lung Cancer Cells Most Likely via Induction of Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis”(1) for reason of similarity with a series of articles identified by Byrne and Labbé (2). Xue-Mei Wang, Jiu-Wei Cui1&, Wei Li , Lu Cai, Wei Song , Guan-Jun Wang 1. Xue-Mei Wang, Jiu-Wei Cui1&, Wei Li , Lu Cai, Wei Song , Guan-Jun Wang. Silencing of the COPS3 Gene by siRNA Reduces Proliferation of Lung Cancer Cells Most Likely via Induction of Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012;13(5):1823-7. 2. J. A. Byrne and C. Labbé, “Striking similarities between publications from China describing single gene knockdown experiments in human cancer cell lines,” Scientometrics, vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 1471–1493, 2017. Authors did not respond to request for comment.

Preface to the First Issue of Indian Pacific Journal of Accounting and Finance

Preface to the First Issue of Indian Pacific Journal of Accounting and Finance

Editorial

The South Pacific Journal of Natural Science (SPJNS) is published online by CSIRO PUBLISHING on behalf of the Faculty of Science and Technology, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji. The normal focus of the journal is to disseminate scientific research work carried out in the Pacific.

Retracted: siRNA Mediated Silencing of NIN1/RPN12 Binding Protein 1 Homolog Inhibits Proliferation and Growth of Breast Cancer Cells

Retraction: Retracted: siRNA mediated silencing of NIN1/RPN12 binding protein 1 homolog inhibits proliferation and growth of breast cancer cells Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention has retracted the article titled “siRNA mediated silencing of NIN1/RPN12 binding protein 1 homolog inhibits proliferation and growth of breast cancer cells”(1) for reason of similarity with a series of articles identified by Byrne and Labbé (2). 1. Huang WY1, Chen DH, Ning L, Wang LW. siRNA mediated silencing of NIN1/RPN12 binding protein 1 homolog inhibits proliferation and growth of breast cancer cells. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012;13(5):1823-7. 2. J. A. Byrne and C. Labbé, “Striking similarities between publications from China describing single gene knockdown experiments in human cancer cell lines,” Scientometrics, vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 1471–1493, 2017. Authors did not respond to request for comment.

Social stigmatisation, cultural coercion, and peer-pressure faced by Pacific student reporters: A Wansolwara student press case study in problem-based learning

This set of three case studies, with elements of problem-based learning, examines how the University of the South Pacific (USP) journalism students deal with social pressure applied by their peers, and the impact on learning. This is becoming an urgent and increasing concern due to the new, global realities of trolling and cyber bullying. This article is part of ongoing research into applied learning and teaching through the USP journalism student training newspaper, Wansolwara. The first case study deals with social stigmatisation, the second with intimidation, and the third with assault and cyber bullying. This article argues that social pressures are both a threat and an opportunity. As unpleasant as the hostile reactions are, they are a reality of practising journalism. Student reporters’ exposure to such confronting situations provides an early taste of real world journalism. The learning outcomes show that the experience toughens students’ resolve. For those bearing the brunt of the vitriol, coping mechanisms such as guidance by lecturers, support from the fellow journalism students, family encouragement, and due recognition of their journalistic work, are critical. This article contends that unlike physical harm, psychological harm to student journalists is overlooked. This trend is risky, especially in the digital media age, and needs to be addressed.

A final word: Pasifika solutions for Pacific problems

The issues that challenge the stewardship of Pasifika’s peoples are as complex and diverse as the Pacific itself. We have our own conceptual tools that help us understand these complex issues. Our problem has been that we have a hard time using the tools of others and we end up with somewhat distorted understanding of our own issues. No wonder we have problems sometimes in communicating our issues to the people we serve. Telling our own stories, in our own language, with our own conceptual tools, so that we can construct meaning and bring understanding is the aim of Pacific journalism.

EDITORIAL: Finding the Pacific voice

Good journalism remains central to the needs of the Pacific and her people. Good journalism education is central to this issue of Pacific Journalism Review, which features a selection of papers on journalism education in the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Drawn mostly from the papers presented to the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC16), and the preconference organised by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Pacific Media Centre with the Media Educators Pacific (MeP) at the Auckland University of Technology in July, they all reflect the importance of good journalism and good journalism education. Speaking at the opening of the preconference, University of Auckland Associate Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa said the profession was vital for bringing the Pacific community together. Dr Salesa, director of the newly founded New Zealand Institute for Pacific Research, which sponsored five Pacific media educators to attend the conferences, said journalism helped people engage in the public sphere.