Mapping of Stakeholders Engaged in Public Works Programmes (PWPs)

Public works programmes (PWPs) have received increasing attention as a social protection intervention due to their perceived benefits of tackling poverty by addressing basic consumption needs whilst improving public goods and community infrastructure. This helpdesk report maps organisational and individual actors engaged in PWPs in development and humanitarian contexts from a policy, implementation and influencing perspective. The multilateral agencies appear to dominate influence of PWPs usage within the sector with the World Bank Group supplying the majority of programmatic funding through multi-donor funds and the UN agencies adopting these practices in a number of international initiatives to achieve sector objectives within developing countries. Bilateral agencies also utilised PWPs with USAID adopting these practices in its food assistance programme, DFAT through its social protection strategy in the Indo Pacific region and GIZ in programmes focussed on refugee communities in humanitarian contexts. The report begins with a brief review of the methodology used for literature searching and an overview of PWP funding/implementation models. This is followed by a brief review of political considerations associated with stakeholder engagement before the mapping key stakeholders across multilateral agencies, donors, and academic/research institutes

Against Joyce: Ulysses, Authorship, and the Authority of the Reader

This thesis considers James Joyce’s Ulysses as a text that plays with its own relationships to the author and the reader. It draws out the complexities and contradictions of a Joycean – and Barthesian – sense of ‘play’, by exploring the activity of reading prompted by the novel’s intertextuality and narrative. Alongside such investigation, I trace the history of approaches to the author within and without Joyce studies – to unravel how reading Ulysses interacts with such shifting sand. Through a methodology of ‘reading reading’, I analyse overlooked layers of Homeric orality and scholarship in ‘Eumaeus’, the development of Joyce studies from the 1920s to the present, modern understandings of the concept of the author, irreverent approaches to biography, and how reading ‘Calypso’ and ‘Wandering Rocks’ enacts a clash of readerly and authorial authority. This results in an unusual, looping structure, alternating analysis of Ulysses, Joyce studies, and other texts: exhibiting the impossibility of separately discussing author, reader, text, or – as chapters progress – critic. The thesis asks how one can place limits on where readings of Ulysses take us; how to discuss anti-authorialism in a field as author-centric as Joyce studies; and how the oft-asserted idea that opposites can be simultaneously true in Ulysses offers a valuable way to approach and query critical and theoretical understandings of how authors, readers, and texts interact. Writing ‘against Joyce’ (resisting, preparing for, leaning on) responds to theoretical and critical approaches and habits that pitch reader against author: that declare the birth of the reader must come at the cost of the author, or give greater currency – however veiled – to an author’s understanding of their text, over a reader’s. Above all else, this thesis proposes that to unpick the author question we should focus our attention on the activity of reading: self-aware, self-interrogative reading

Compassionate, collective or transformational nursing leadership to ensure fundamentals of care are achieved: A new challenge or non‐sequitur?

© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Aims: This discursive paper draws on three key leadership theories with the aim of outlining how styles of leadership impact the provision of fundamentals of care. Design: Discussion paper. Data sources: key leadership theories, leadership and fundamentals of care literature. Implications for Nursing: The conceptualization of fundamentals of care is viewed through the lens of nursing leadership, and collective, compassionate and transformational leadership theory. The cognitive dissonance that nursing leaders encounter when trying to reconcile organizational, patient and nurses' needs is considered, and the pressure to deliver high‐quality fundamentals of care presents a challenge to nurse leaders. Conclusion: Leaders must align nursing and patient outcome data to drive forward and prioritize fundamental care. Focusing on key elements of relational leadership styles will ensure a workforce fit to provide fundamental care, which in the current climate must be an organizational and global nursing priority. Impact: This discussion attempts to draw together overlapping leadership theories, emphasizes the importance of relational leadership in ensuring the provision of the fundamentals of care and acknowledged the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on nurses and nursing care, with leadership implications outlined, such as a need for role‐modelling, understanding shared values and giving nurses a voice. It will have an impact on nurse leaders, but also on those nurses providing direct care by issuing a challenge for them to confront their own nurse leaders, and to ask that they better resolve competing needs of both the nursing workforce and patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Seasonal habitat use and survival of brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Oatka Creek, Monroe County, New York

Heavy predation by common mergansers during the severe winters of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 resulted in dramatic brown trout reductions throughout the spring-fed reaches of Oatka Creek in western New York. Management agencies are considering habitat manipulation to reduce the severity of overwinter merganser predation on the wild brown trout population in Oatka Creek Park (OCP; Monroe County) but currently lack data to make an informed decision. My study sought to 1) quantify the availability of trout cover and habitat in OCP, 2) estimate the population abundance, density, seasonal survival rate, and year-class distribution of brown trout in OCP, and 3) identify habitat features used by brown trout and evaluate the seasonal importance of each feature. Data were recorded for 100 brown trout (101-512 mm total length; TL) during spring 2016, autumn 2016, winter 2017, and spring 2017. Trout density in OCP was estimated at 10.6-11.4 trout per km2. Despite the absence of mergansers, brown trout population metrics decreased as the study continued; however, variable sampling conditions, especially discharge, were likely responsible. Relatively normal year-class distributions suggest that the population is recovering. The relative abundance of large trout (400+ mm TL) was greater than expected, which may be a result of low trout densities (i.e., reduced competition and increased resource availability may have enhanced growth and survival rates). Velocity refuges and structural cover were the primary factors determining habitat use throughout the study. Large woody debris was the most favored cover type; however, boulders were also important, especially during low streamflow, as they provide cover in deeper midstream channels. Large trout (300+ mm TL) showed a strong preference for slow, deep pools with high densities of woody debris and large boulders, while age-0 trout (TL \u3c 125 mm) preferred slow, shallow-water habitats with course substrates (i.e., cobble and boulders) and high densities of complex cover (i.e., boulders, LWD, and turbulence). Quality trout habitat and instream cover is abundant throughout OCP, but the availability of complex overwinter habitats capable of providing protection from piscivorous birds may be limited. Adding structural cover to areas favored by small trout (TL \u3c 200 mm) would increase habitat complexity and likely reduce the severity of overwinter predation

Groundwater Recharge Areas: Identification and Protection within the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Jurisdiction

This master’s project was conducted under the direction of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) to assist with augmenting their Basin Plan. An investigation of the current practices for identifying and managing groundwater recharge areas was conducted, and strategies for protecting water quality by managing land uses in groundwater recharge areas were developed. Data sources included a review of agency documents, websites, and maps; interviews with stakeholders, and literature research. Data from these sources provided the foundation on which to base strategies for maintaining and improving groundwater quality in the Central Coast Hydrologic Region. This project recommends standard language for groundwater recharge areas, minimum criteria for identifying and mapping these areas, and protection strategies. The Water Board must establish minimum standards to protect groundwater recharge areas, and collaborate with local agencies to protect the quality of groundwater throughout their jurisdiction

Health Service Use and Expenditure Patterns of Dual Eligibles in Michigan

Objective: The objective is to provide a statewide population-based comparison of Michigan beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid (duals) to Medicare-only beneficiaries, including the public health expenditures by service type, and to focus on the LTC service use patterns of elderly duals receiving care in various settings. Data Sources: Data sources were linked 2005 and 2006 individual Medicaid and Medicare claims from all Michigan duals. Methods: CMS provided Medicare claims and beneficiary data. Michigan Department of Community Health provided Medicaid claims data. Design: We compared characteristics and health expenditures across various categories of beneficiaries and LTC care settings. Principal Findings: The 13% duals accounted for 33% of total Medicare and Medicaid expenditures. Eight percent of elderly beneficiaries were duals in 2005, accounting for 26% of public health expenditures in the aged. The average monthly expenditures of elderly duals were: $4,896 in institutional LTC,$2,921 for those served through HCBS waiver programs, and $1,488 for those in the community. Conclusions: Duals in Michigan account for a disproportionate large share of state and federal health expenditures. Michigan’s experience suggests that LTC services can be offered in home and community-based settings, at lower costs compared to institutional LTC. The shift in prescription drug coverage from Medicaid to Medicare increased the drug expenditures for some duals and had limited impact on overall dual expenditures. Results may be pertinent within the context of impending healthcare reforms

A transcultural journey: An ensemble of Canadian, Chinese, and Australian doctoral students’ experiences

This article is multi-authored by three doctoral students who participated in an International Doctoral Forum in Brisbane, Australia in October and November 2017. One specializes in educational leadership at the University of Calgary (UC); another specializes in educational management at Beijing Normal University (BNU); and the third specializes in cloud computing at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The doctoral forum started many years ago and it has been three years since UC, BNU, and QUT students have collaborated. The three graduate students, among a group of 17, met to learn about and experience a transcultural journey (Slimbach, 2005). Collaborative autoethnography (Chang, Ngunjiri, & Hernandez, 2013) will be used as methodology to share our experiences in formal and informal settings. The formal learning encompassed opening activities as well as the Faculty of Education Higher Degree Research Conference where research students were invited to share their doctoral work. The informal activities of the doctoral forum included educational cultural immersions: a school visit, a koala sanctuary experience, as well as a rainforest excursion. The authors will present how the International Doctoral Forum has inspired us to think, grow, and shift in the transcultural journey