"Citizenship Matters": Lessons from the Irish Citizenship Referendum

In 2004, by constitutional referendum, Ireland revoked the automatic right to citizenship by territorial birth (jus soli). This event is of great significance in Europe, where consequently there is no longer a single nation that grants unrestricted territorial birthright citizenship to people born within its borders, and also represents a trend toward the revocation of jus soli within nations governed by the common law tradition. But the Irish Citizenship Referendum also invites comparative analysis with the United States, where jus soli is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, due both to the historical and contemporary links between the two nations and the presence of contemporary pressures to undermine jus soli in the United States that are similar to those that resulted in the Irish Citizenship Referendum. In this article, we discuss both the importance of U.S. practice for the normative discussions surrounding the removal of jus soli as an automatic qualification for citizenship in Ireland, and the importance of the Irish debates as an example for the historical and normative investigation of the foundations of citizenship in the United States, especially in the field of American studies. In particular, we propose that the Irish Citizenship Referendum illuminates the need to reconsider the relationship between restrictionism in immigration and in citizenship, often cast in American Studies as a direct relationship. The Irish case shows that a successful campaign for limits on access to citizenship was made in the absence of policies limiting immigration. One of the purposes and effects of citizenship restriction in a context of increased immigration, we propose, is the creation of a dual and unequal workforce. For this reason, we argue that the elimination of jus soli as a basis for citizenship was unjustified in the Irish case, despite the popular pressures on Irish politicians, and that the pressure being placed on U.S. politicians to undermine jus soli should be consciously resisted

"Citizenship Matters": Lessons from the Irish Citizenship Referendum

In 2004, by constitutional referendum, Ireland revoked the automatic right to citizenship by territorial birth (jus soli). This event is of great significance in Europe, where consequently there is no longer a single nation that grants unrestricted territorial birthright citizenship to people born within its borders, and also represents a trend toward the revocation of jus soli within nations governed by the common law tradition. But the Irish Citizenship Referendum also invites comparative analysis with the United States, where jus soli is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, due both to the historical and contemporary links between the two nations and the presence of contemporary pressures to undermine jus soli in the United States that are similar to those that resulted in the Irish Citizenship Referendum. In this article, we discuss both the importance of U.S. practice for the normative discussions surrounding the removal of jus soli as an automatic qualification for citizenship in Ireland, and the importance of the Irish debates as an example for the historical and normative investigation of the foundations of citizenship in the United States, especially in the field of American studies. In particular, we propose that the Irish Citizenship Referendum illuminates the need to reconsider the relationship between restrictionism in immigration and in citizenship, often cast in American Studies as a direct relationship. The Irish case shows that a successful campaign for limits on access to citizenship was made in the absence of policies limiting immigration. One of the purposes and effects of citizenship restriction in a context of increased immigration, we propose, is the creation of a dual and unequal workforce. For this reason, we argue that the elimination of jus soli as a basis for citizenship was unjustified in the Irish case, despite the popular pressures on Irish politicians, and that the pressure being placed on U.S. politicians to undermine jus soli should be consciously resisted

Cholinergic cells in the nucleus basalis of mice express the N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor subunit NR2C and its replacement by the NR2B subunit enhances frontal and amygdaloid acetylcholine levels

It is known that glutamatergic and cholinergic systems interact functionally at the level of the cholinergic basal forebrain. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) is a multiprotein complex composed of NR1, NR2 and/or NR3 subunits. The subunit composition of NMDA-R of cholinergic cells in the nucleus basalis has not yet been investigated. Here, by means of choline acetyl transferase and NR2B or NR2C double staining, we demonstrate that mice express both the NR2C and NR2B subunits in nucleus basalis cholinergic cells.We generated NR2C-2B mutant mice in which an insertion of NR2B cDNA into the gene locus of the NR2C gene replaced NR2C by NR2B expression throughout the brain. This NR2C-2B mutant was used to examine whether a subunit exchange in cholinergic neurons would affect acetylcholine (ACh) content in several brain structures. We found increased ACh levels in the frontal cortex and amygdala in the brains of NR2C-2B mutant mice. Brain ACh has been implicated in neuroplasticity, novelty-induced arousal and encoding of novel stimuli. We therefore assessed behavioral habituation to novel environments and objects as well as object recognition in NR2C-2B subunit exchange mice. The behavioral analysis did not indicate any gross behavioral alteration in the mutant mice compared with the wildtype mice. Our results show that the NR2C by NR2B subunit exchange in mice affects ACh content in two target areas of the nucleus basalis.

The Magnetic Sun: Reversals and Long-Term Variations

A didactic introduction to current thinking on some aspects of the solar dynamo is given for geophysicists and planetary scientists.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures; Space Science Rev., in pres

Rock snot and lake mud: exploring the history of recent blooms of didymosphenia geminata using information contained in lake sediments

Ecosystem managers have often considered the nuisance diatom species, Didymosphenia gemi¬nata (didymo) as being introduced to the natural environment through human activities; however, observations from early 20th-century surveys challenge this characterization. We use diatoms pre¬served in lake sediment cores to investigate the history of didymo blooms from Gaspésie, Quebec. Relative abundances of diatoms were examined from the dated sediments of Lac Humqui and Lac au Saumon (a lake with an inflowing river currently supporting blooms). Didymo was observed throughout the Lac au Saumon core, demonstrating that it has been present in the region well before the first reports of blooms in 2006. Lac Humqui diatom assemblages experienced a shift in composition with declines in benthic taxa (attached to substrates) and increases in planktonic (free floating) diatoms that began ~1970. Strong relationships between this diatom shift, and increases in regional air temperatures and earlier river ice-out dates were consistent with the expected effects of climate warming on aquatic systems. Our paleolimnological evidence shows that climate warming, rather than human introduction, likely plays an important role in triggering didymo blooms

Predictions of total and total reaction cross sections for nucleon-nucleus scattering up to 300 MeV

Total reaction cross sections are predicted for nucleons scattering from various nuclei. Projectile energies to 300 MeV are considered. So also are mass variations of those cross sections at selected energies. All predictions have been obtained from coordinate space optical potentials formed by full folding effective two-nucleon (NN) interactions with one body density matrix elements (OBDME) of the nuclear ground states. Good comparisons with data result when effective NN interactions defined by medium modification of free NN t matrices are used. Coupled with analyses of differential cross sections, these results are sensitive to details of the model ground states used to describe nuclei

Application of compact laser-driven accelerator X-ray sources for industrial imaging

X-rays generated by betatron oscillations of electrons in a laser-driven plasma accelerator were characterised and applied to imaging industrial samples. With a 125TW laser, a low divergence beam with 5.2±1.7 × 107photonsmrad−2 per pulse was produced with a synchrotron spectrum with a critical energy of 14.6±1.3keV. Radiographs were obtained of a metrology test sample, battery electrodes, and a damage site in a composite material. These results demonstrate the suitability of the source for non-destructive evaluation applications. The potential for industrial implementation of plasma accelerators is discussed

Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations