Suchergebnisse

There has been very little research on the second-generation Irish in England. This lack of attention is largely due to an assumption that the children of Irish immigrants easily assimilate into the host culture. Explores the notion of the 'plastic Paddy', a derogatory term denoting the perceived inauthenticity of this generation's identification with Irishness. Concludes by suggesting that future studies of the second-generation might more usefully conceive of this section of the Irish Diaspora beyond the narrow frames of either assimilation or inauthenticity, positing the notion of a hybrid Irish-Englishness as a possible route forward. (Original abstract - amended)

THIS ARTICLE EXPANDS ON CHUNG-IN-MOON'S RESEARCH BY EXAMINING WHICH OF HIS TWO INDIRECT LOBBYING STRATEGIES--GRASS-ROOTS MOBILIZATION OR COALITION-BUILDING--IS MORE EFFECIVE, AND WHICH FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EACH APPROACH. IT CONCLUDES THAT GRASS-ROOTS LOBBYNG TENDS TO BE TRUMPED BY COALITION LOBBYING.

Background: A series of government initatives in the UK have included strategies to improve the quality of services received by patients, including fundholding, the development of National Service Frameworks, clinical governance, and Personal Medical Services (PMS). PMS represents a new contractual arrangement between government and general practitioners (GPs) which provides new investment in return for more detailed specification of processes and outcomes of care.

Context Worldwide, invasive fauna species present one of the most intractable problems for agriculture and natural systems. Our ability to improve control techniques to combat the global invasive species predicament is constrained within the bounds of both economic and ethical considerations. In south-eastern Australia, the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is an established invasive avian pest that is now making incursions into areas of Western Australia (WA) that are currently free of this species. The most cost-effective and widely implemented starling control tool is trapping with live-lure birds. In recent years, the use of live-lure birds has been questioned on both economic and ethical grounds, and consequently alternative lure methods need investigating. Aims To evaluate the effectiveness of different trap and lure combinations for the capture of starlings in western South Australia (SA). Methods Modified Australian Crow (MAC) traps, used traditionally in WA to trap starlings, and Myna traps, originally designed for trapping common mynas (Sturnus tristis), were set during the peaks in starling flocking activity (Austral summer, 2007) using three different lure types: (1) live lure (live starlings); (2) moving water; and (3) acoustic lures. A trapping grid consisting of a single Myna trap with live lure and three MAC traps, each with one type of lure (live, water or acoustic) was established at five sites on the Eyre Peninsula in SA and monitored twice daily for 28 days. Key results Live lures were significantly more effective at attracting starlings into traps compared with both water and sound lures. We also trapped at an additional three sites and showed that Myna traps caught ~1.5 times more starlings than MAC traps when both traps were fitted with live-lure birds. Conclusions Neither moving water nor acoustic play-back lures proved suitable replacements for the use of live-lure birds to capture starlings. The efficacy of alternative lure types may depend on several factors and may include neophobic response(s) to novel signals and also the length of time that an invasive population has been established. Implications We recommend that use of live lures is continued in ongoing starling control programs, and that MAC traps currently in use be modified to capitalise on known starling behaviour. Further research and development of traps that do not contain live lures will improve the welfare of invasive species control programs.

AbstractPhytoremediation is an emerging technique that can be used to economically remediate sites contaminated with
trace elements and/or man‐made organic contaminants. This technique was used on Pearl Harbor (Oahu,
Hawaii) dredged material (PHDM) containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and
some heavy metals. The dredged material was first amended with a high‐calcium soil (Waialua
Mollisol) and a biosolids‐based compost at different proportions to yield varying salinity levels. A
mixture that yielded an electrical conductivity (EC, a measure of salinity) of the saturated paste
extract of 15 to 20 dS/m was identified and used to evaluate the salt tolerance of five plant species. Relative
germination and one‐month‐old biomass indicated that common bermuda grass (Cynodon
dactylon), seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum), beach pea
(Vigna marina), and cow pea (Vigna unguiculata) can produce
at least 40 percent of biomass of the control at an EC of approximately 18 dS/m, suggesting the four plants are
relatively salt tolerant. In contrast, Desmodium intortum either did not germinate or died within
two weeks after germination at the same salinity level. A subsequent greenhouse experiment, using mixtures of the
PHDM (0 or 25 percent dry weight), organic amendments (10 percent leucaena green manure or
biosolids‐based compost), and a Mollisol (65 or 90 percent dry weight) in 6‐liter pots
containing 4 kilograms of material yielded the following results: (1) a combination of transplanted
seashore paspalum, seeded bermuda grass, and seeded beach pea was effective in taking up sodium (Na),
thereby reducing salinity and making the medium more amenable to diversified microbes and plants, which may be
effective PAH degraders; (2) total PAH concentration was reduced by about 30 percent after three
months of active plant growth, but degradation of individual PAH members varied significantly, however;
(3) leguminous green manure, as a soil amendment, was more effective than compost for use in bio‐
and/or phyto‐remediations; and (4) soil amendments, when applicable, could supplement
living plants in reducing organic contaminants, such as PAHs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Reprinted from
Remediation Volume 12, Number 4.

This is the final version. Available on open access from BMJ Publishing Group via the DOI in this record ; Data sharing: Technical appendix and statistical code available from the corresponding author (tim.doran@manchester.ac.uk). The dataset was derived from the General Practice Research Database and is not available from the authors, but it can be derived on application to GPRD. ; OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the incentive scheme for UK general practitioners led them to neglect activities not included in the scheme. DESIGN: Longitudinal analysis of achievement rates for 42 activities (23 included in incentive scheme, 19 not included) selected from 428 identified indicators of quality of care. SETTING: 148 general practices in England (653 500 patients). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Achievement rates projected from trends in the pre-incentive period (2000-1 to 2002-3) and actual rates in the first three years of the scheme (2004-5 to 2006-7). RESULTS: Achievement rates improved for most indicators in the pre-incentive period. There were significant increases in the rate of improvement in the first year of the incentive scheme (2004-5) for 22 of the 23 incentivised indicators. Achievement for these indicators reached a plateau after 2004-5, but quality of care in 2006-7 remained higher than that predicted by pre-incentive trends for 14 incentivised indicators. There was no overall effect on the rate of improvement for non-incentivised indicators in the first year of the scheme, but by 2006-7 achievement rates were significantly below those predicted by pre-incentive trends. CONCLUSIONS: There were substantial improvements in quality for all indicators between 2001 and 2007. Improvements associated with financial incentives seem to have been achieved at the expense of small detrimental effects on aspects of care that were not incentivised. ; There was no direct funding for this study, but the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre receives core funding from the UK Department of Health.