Poverty in Ireland, 1987-1994 - A Stochastic Dominance Approach

Poverty dominance analysis uses stochastic dominance to provide rankings of distributions in terms of poverty which are not sensitive to the choice of poverty line. This analysis is carried out for Ireland using Household Budget Survey data for 1987 and 1994 including tests for the statistical significance of the results. We find that for a wide range of absolute poverty lines, poverty in Ireland fell over the 1987-1994 period. When relative poverty lines are used, second-order dominance for 1987 over 1994 is found for the case of expenditure and third-order dominance for 1994 over 1987 for the case of income.

A process of developing a national practice assessment document

This paper will share how one country within the United Kingdom (UK) collaborated on a national partnership approach in developing a consistent pre-registration undergraduate nursing practice learning assessment document. In 2011 the Scottish Heads of Academic Nursing and Allied Health Professionals (SHANAHP, now Council of Deans Scotland, CoDS) agreed to support the development of a Scottish national approach to practice learning assessment document (the “Scottish Ongoing Achievement Record”). Whilst no direct funding was received to support this work, each HEI agreed that this work would be recognised via the release of staff time to enable completion. Utilising a communities of practice approach to collaborative working, the national group incorporated the collective knowledge and experience of representatives from all Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Scotland that provided undergraduate pre-registration nurse education. The work of the group will be described in four phases, Mapping of Influential Drivers; Guiding Principles and Good Practice; Document development; and Implementation. Appraisal of the advantages of this approach in light of international literature will be considered alongside challenges encountered during development and implementation

Total Dominator Coloring on the Queen\u27s graph

A chess board of size m x n can be translated to a Queen\u27s graph in which vertices are adjacent if their squares on the board are in the same row, column, or diagonal. In this research, the total dominator coloring of a Queen\u27s graph is explored, yielding a conjecture for the general m x n case

How spiky can a spiky profile be?

ESL professionals often assess language competence within the paradigm of the 4 skills. We use the term ‘spiky- profile’ when a learner performs erratically in one of these skill areas. Using test data from UCLan’s Language Testing Project and international cohort, the shapes of spiky profiles were investigated, focussing on the productive skills of speaking and writing

Consultation with children and young people with experience of domestic abuse on Scottish Government National Domestic Abuse Delivery Group draft proposals : main report

Findings and Conclusions: Major Themes • There was support in principle from young people for all of the proposals • Young people gave careful consideration to the proposals and to how they might operate in practice; they expressed some caution about supporting them unreservedly until it was demonstrated they would work in practice • In relation to all of the proposals young people had concerns about confidentiality and privacy, about to the ability to control the flow of personal information, and there were concerns about trust • Participants expressed the importance of the proposals contributing to young people being and feeling safe

Tumour targeting with macrocyde conjugates

Complexes of the radionuclides (^67)Ga and (^III)In, or of the paramagnetic contrast agent Gd, used in MRI, provide a means of imaging tumours. The stability of the (^71)Ga- NOTA complex was verified by in vivo NMR spectroscopy. The novel phosphinic acid NOTA analogue, bearing an isopropyl substituent on phosphorus was prepared and its lipophilicity and (^III)In biodistribution in mice determined. The crystal structure of the yttrium complex of N,N"-bis(benzylcarbamoylmethyl)diethylenetriamine-N,N',N"-triacetic acid revealed amide carbonyl ligation in a distorted mono-capped square antiprismatic structure, with one metal-bound water. The biodistribution of the analogous Gd complex was examined. A novel series of 9N3 based ligands incorporating three further N donor atoms, carboxymethyl groups and a potentially larger cavity size were synthesised. The analogous series containing phosphinic acid groups and the 12N3 counterparts were also prepared. The former series formed complexes with Gd and the biodistribution in mice was studied. The 12N3 analogues failed to form Gd complexes.2-Nitroimidazoles are known to selectively target hypoxic tumour tissue. Two conjugates of 2-nitroimidazole for tumour imaging were prepared, the Gd complex of a DTPA-bis(2-nitroimidazole) amide and the (^III)In complex of a C-functionalised NOTA- nitroimidazole conjugate. The biodistribution in mice of each was studied and luminescence experiments on the Tb complex of the former revealed one metal bound water molecule. Novel conjugates of the tetrapeptide tuftsin and a complexing agent based on the 12N4 skeleton and an N-linked NOTA derivative were synthesised. Biodistributions of the Gd and In complexes respectively are being carried out. Acridine intercalators reversibly bind DNA, possibly enhancing the effectiveness of tumour targeting conjugates. Novel multifunctionally labelled acridines based on tris(2- aminoethyl) amine were sought. The p-nitrophenolate active ester of 9-acridine carbamoyl-2-(2-aminoethyl)-2-methyl amine was also prepared as a versatile agent for acridine labelling

Use of genetic methods for determining patterns and processes during marine biological invasions

Invasive species are widely recognised as one of the major threats to marine biodiversity worldwide. With increasingly faster and more frequent transoceanic shipping, propagule pressure in the marine environment is likely to further increase, leading to a need for effective strategies for the early detection, prevention and control of marine invasive species. However, such strategies are often difficult to implement as many marine species cannot be accurately categorised as either native or non-native. For these reasons molecular genetic methods have increasingly been utilised for the study of marine invasive species. The potential for molecular data to enhance traditional morphology-based information is recognised and there has been huge progress in the application of molecular genetic methods to the study of marine bioinvasions in the last two decades. This work aims to build on and extend current advances in the use of molecular techniques for understanding marine bioinvasions, and in particular invasive ascidians. Part One (Chapters Two and Three) contains chapters that focus on the detection and identification of marine invasive species with molecular methods. Part Two (Chapters Four, Five and Six) examines how molecular methods can aid in understanding marine invasions and the affect of genetic diversity on invasive populations. The research in this thesis demonstrates the usefulness of molecular genetics for marine invasive species research. Chapter Two describes the development of a highly sensitive assay for rapid and accurate identification of an invasive clam from environmental samples and has the ability to enhance current marine pest surveillance methods. Chapter Three demonstrates the power of molecular methods for invasive species identification. To effectively monitor and / or control the ongoing anthropogenic spread of invasive marine species there is also a need for extensive molecular inventories of the extant marine invertebrate biodiversity. An understanding of the genetic diversity of invasive species populations is also required and will increase understanding of the species biology and lead to more effective management strategies. Chapters Four and Five highlight the applications of molecular genetic methods for identifying the invasive species / variants present and elucidating particular populations that served as the source of an introduction. This information can contribute to effective national and international policies and management strategies. Chapters Five and Six also show how molecular genetic data can aid in understanding why some species are invasive. The results from these two chapters add to growing evidence that, for colonial organisms, reductions in population level genetic diversity may alter colony interaction dynamics and enhance the invasive potential of newly colonising species. In the future, invasive species research will increasingly utilise metagenomics / next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Such applications will provide the ability to not only detect specific invasive species but also the native species present in a sample to assess environmental health. Studies of invasive species are increasingly using functional markers to identify physiologically and ecologically important traits. Future gene expression experiments can utilise NGS technology to identify the genes involved in producing invasive phenotypes and species. Such studies may provide findings which could be of both evolutionary and importantly, practical interest for guiding invasive species management decisions. The application of molecular genetic methods to understanding the biology of invasive species is an extremely promising area of research and such knowledge should be utilised to guide and inform management decisions

Evaluating detection limits of next-generation sequencing for the surveillance and monitoring of international marine pests

Most surveillance programmes for marine invasive species (MIS) require considerable taxonomic expertise, are laborious, and are unable to identify species at larval or juvenile stages. Therefore, marine pests may go undetected at the initial stages of incursions when population densities are low. In this study, we evaluated the ability of the benchtop GS Junior™ 454 pyrosequencing system to detect the presence of MIS in complex sample matrices. An initial in-silico evaluation of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and the nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU) genes, found that multiple primer sets (targeting a ca. 400 base pair region) would be required to obtain species level identification within the COI gene. In contrast a single universal primer set was designed to target the V1–V3 region of SSU, allowing simultaneous PCR amplification of a wide taxonomic range of MIS. To evaluate the limits of detection of this method, artificial contrived communities (10 species from 5 taxonomic groups) were created using varying concentrations of known DNA samples and PCR products. Environmental samples (water and sediment) spiked with one or five 160 hr old Asterias amurensis larvae were also examined. Pyrosequencing was able to recover DNA/PCR products of individual species present at greater than 0.64% abundance from all tested contrived communities. Additionally, single A. amurensis larvae were detected from both water and sediment samples despite the co-occurrence of a large array of environmental eukaryotes, indicating an equivalent sensitivity to quantitative PCR. NGS technology has tremendous potential for the early detection of marine invasive species worldwide