Managing fire for woodland caribou in Jasper and Banff National Parks

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations in Jasper (JNP) and Banff National Parks (BNP) have declined since the 1970s, coincident with reduced fire activity in both parks, relative to historic levels. Some researchers have suggested that long periods without fire may cause habitat deterioration for woodland caribou, primarily by reducing available lichen forage. We examined winter habitat selection by woodland caribou at coarse and fine scales based on GPS-derived telemetry data and used models that included stand origin (decade), topography, and several stand structure variables that are related to time since fire, to explore relationships among caribou, lichen, and fire history. Based on the relationships illustrated by the models, we assessed how fire management could be applied to caribou conservation in JNP and BNP. At a coarse scale, caribou selected old forest (> 75 years) in landscapes that have likely experienced less frequent wildfire. While the abundance of Cladonia spp. influenced caribou use at fine scales, a preference for areas with older trees within stands was also significant. We conclude that short-term habitat protection for woodland caribou in JNP and BNP likely requires fire exclusion from caribou range

Contextualizing the business responsibility to respect: How much is lost in translation?

As the work of the UN Special Representative (UNSR) for business and human rights moves towards its conclusion in mid-2011, the core principles of the UNSR’s ‘responsibility to respect’ framework have received widespread endorsement from businesses, NGOs and governments. The translation of these general principles into specific obligations governing business activity will need to differ according to context. The reasons why overarching regulatory principles can get ‘lost in translation’ when applied in practice have important implications for understanding how the UNSR’s responsibility to respect framework can be meaningfully implemented across widely varying regulatory contexts. The central goal of this chapter is to understand why and under what conditions this loss is likely to arise, and how regulatory standards for business and human rights might be designed to enable the responsibility to respect principle to be applied in context-sensitive ways, without losing regulatory force

Defining Professional Self: Teacher Educator Perspectives of the Pre-ECR Journey.

This paper examines the situations of four teacher educators working within academic contexts, but who do not as yet qualify as early career researchers (ECRs) by definition. Within this paper, we define this group as ‘pre-ECRs’; those working and teaching within contexts of academia whilst undertaking a PhD or similar higher education qualification. Critical comparative analysis is used to examine the nexus between what is currently known about becoming an ECR and narrative accounts of the authors’ experiences of negotiating Faculty expectations for research output, teaching and postgraduate study. This approach provides rich insight into what happens prior to and during the initial stages of what we define as the pre-ECR journey. Through the examination of our storied experiences within the context of the existing body of knowledge, the implications of not being able to locate ourselves within a distinctive and appropriate professional identity become apparent. This paper offers a unique insight as it is researched from the perspectives of four pre-ECRs working within an Australian University Faculty of Education. This is valuable given that current research around ECRs provides minimal insight into experiences and challenges unique to those working toward ECR status

Sleep and forgetting in children with genetic generalised epilepsy

Objective: Given the well-established association between epilepsy and sleep disturbance and the evidence suggesting the importance of sleep in memory consolidation, there is reason to investigate the relationship between sleep and rate of forgetting in children with epilepsy. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep and forgetting in children with Genetic Generalised Epilepsy (GGE). Methods: Participants were 19 children with GGE (9-15 years old). Actigraphy, sleep diaries and standardised questionnaires were used to measure sleep over a week long period. Rate of forgetting was measured using neuropsychological tests at the beginning and end of the study week. Spearman’s correlation analysis was used to determine if poorer sleep was associated with poorer initial learning and rate of forgetting in verbal memory recall and recognition. Results: No association was found between sleep efficiency or duration and rate of forgetting. Measures of sleep disturbance were mixed, with sleep onset latency found to be associated with rate of forgetting on the Word Lists test. However, increased wake after sleep onset was associated with decreased rate of forgetting. Conclusions: Whilst there was limited evidence of a relationship between some actigraphic sleep parameters and rate of forgetting for verbal information, the results were mixed and likely biased by the small sample size. There is need for further research with a larger sample to establish the nature of the relationship between sleep and rate of forgetting in children with GGE

Ireland and Scotland: historical perspectives on the Gaelic dimension 1560-1760

This thesis provides a general overview of the links between the Scottish Gaels of the western seaboard of Scotland and the Gaelic-speaking peoples of Ireland, especially of Ulster, between 1560 and 1760. It covers a period of dramatic transformation in Gaelic society, from the age of Reformation to the collapse of Jacobitism and the decline of clanship. The focus of fresh interpretation is on religious, social and, to a lesser extent, economic links, but political, military and cultural connections are also considered, in order to reach an understanding of the encompassing historical perspective which governs the relationship between the Gaels. Most connections in 1560 were related to the trade in Highland mercenaries to Ulster and Connacht, and to the growing territorial aspirations of a small colony of MacDonald settlers in Antrim. The Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the coterminous completion of the Tudor conquest of Ireland had a number of consequences on pan-Gaelic relations. The mercenary trade came to an end, leading to the creation a pool of redundant swordsmen in both countries. Highlanders were officially excluded from the plantation of Ulster in 1610, which introduced more of an English-speaking dimension to Scoto-Irish relations. In physical terms, the presence of English and Lowland Scots settlers in the north of Ireland divided the Gaels. In order to survive in Ulster, the MacDonnells of Antrim were forced to conform to the government in Dublin. This rendered the split between them and the Clan Donald South in Scotland permanent, and further undermined Gaelic solidarity in Ulster. The pan-Gaelic military connection is traced from the mercenary trade through the political realignment of 1603, to the Royalism of the civil war period when the Gaels entered the national arena, and finally to the limited links of the first and last Jacobite rebellions. The contribution made by the Gaels to each other's religious heritage was substantial. The factors which rejuvenated and sustained Catholicism in the Highlands and Islands after the Reformation are examined, particularly the role of the first missionaries, who were almost exclusively Irish regulars. During the seventeenth century, Irish Franciscans, Vincentians, Dominicans, Bamabites, lay Capuchins and secular priests were present on the Highland mission who, by the end of the century, were all working together under the Scottish secular mission head. In the eighteenth century, the number of Irish dropped as native Highlanders assumed responsibility for the mission. Conversely, the role of Gaelic-speaking ministers in the Church of Ireland, and in the Presbyterian church in Ulster from the late sixteenth century, is examined. The contribution of Gaelic-speaking, University-educated Scots to the embryonic Protestant Church in Ireland, when few Irish-speakers were conforming, was particularly significant. There was a considerable volume of commercial traffic across the North Channel, both legitimate trade and smuggling, in which the Gaelic elite played their part. The trade in military contraband and victuals during the Ulster rebellion (1594-1603), the grain trade, the Highland fishing industry in the late seventeenth century and their expeditions to Ireland, and the leasing of west coast forests by Irish tanning merchants in the eighteenth century, are all evaluated. There was also a substantial smuggling trade in salt, fish, grain, livestock, and various incidental items. The various factors between 1560 and 1760 which resulted in the permanent settlement of Highlanders in Ireland are elucidated, as well as the seasonal interchange of migrant workers and refugees from ecclesiastical and judicial discipline. Periods of war and the political realignment after them usually affected migration, and there was, thus, substantial Scottish settlement in Ireland in the Cromwellian period and after the 1690 Revolution, when land devastated by warfare was made available for settlement. On a more occasional basis, evidence indicates that Highlanders most often fled to Ulster to escape sanction, whereas the Irish were most attracted by the better provision made for poor relief in Scotland, particularly in Argyll and the southern Isles