THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF EUROPEAN UNION A Symposium on Some Policy Aspects. THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, DUBLIN, 1986

The papers published here, together with the Matthews paper, address some of the economic questions on which discussion of further European integration should be based. Will European prosperity bring Irish prosperity? Does a free market threaten traditional Irish industry, or aid new Irish industry, or both? How can a small peripheral economy survive and prosper in a monetary union? How much autonomy does an Irish government at present enjoy in monetary and fiscal policy? Are Ireland’s interests close to the Community average? Questions such as these are asked by politicians, who expect economists to answer them; economists tend to react by asking further questions, by demanding quantitative data on which to base their assessments. It is one of the positive points of these papers that the economists have been willing to be drawn out on some of these current issues of political economy, even if others remain to be tackled. I believe that the burden of these papers does not suggest any reason for doubting that in the long term it is in Ireland’s interest that the Community should be economically and politically strong, and that Ireland should be a full partner in that Community

Systems of Winter Milk Production based on all Autumn Calving Cows

End of Project ReportA supply of winter milk is needed by certain milk processors for the production of high value dairy products with a short shelf life to balance the high level of commodity based products which are mainly manufactured from seasonal milk produced from spring calving herds. Winter milk is generally produced by suppliers with split calving herds. A proportion of the cows (30-50%) calve in Autumn (September-December) to supply winter milk for which they receive a winter bonus for a contracted supply for the months of October to February. The remainder of the herd calve in Spring (Feb-April) and produce milk mainly off grass for which no bonus is paid. This system evens out the supply of milk throughout the year but complicates management, as it involves running two herds on the farm, with two calving seasons, two breeding seasons and two sets of replacement heifers to be reared. Also there is no break from milking. A system of winter milk production based on calving all of the cows in Autumn would be simpler, as it would involve only one herd, with a break from milking in late Summer and would appeal to many winter milk producers. In this study the feasibility of operating an all Autumn calving herd was examined, in terms of management, calving, winter feeding, reproduction and summer grazing. The herd was located in the Ballyderown farm attached to the Moorepark Research Centre. Alternative winter feeding systems were put in place over a three year period to compare the feed requirements and milk production of each system. A control system based on grass silage as the sole forage was compared with one where grass silage was supplemented with extended grazing of grass in late Autumn and early Spring or with a system based on a mixed forage diet based on grass silage, maize silage, brewers grains or a brewers grains/beet pulp mix. Grass silage and maize silage was produced within each system and the cows on each system were grazed separately within their own farmlets. The overall stocking rate for each system was 2.7 cows/ha using 350 kg N fertiliser/ha in addition to cattle slurry. Cows were dried off in mid-late July and were grazed tightly until calving down. The calving season extended from early September to early December. Most cows calved down outdoors at pasture or in a calving paddock without assistance. Cows were housed from early November to late March and were allocated to their respective diets in batches according to milk yield, lactation number and calving date. The cows given access to winter grass were given a daily allocation of grass (6-8 kg DM/cow) and grazed between morning and evening milking

THE NATIONAL DEBT AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN THE MEDIUM TERM. THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, DUBLIN, 1986

The growth in the national debt has been a major concern of public policy in recent years reflecting the increasing cost of servicing this debt. Considerable attention has been given both to the need to bring the debt under control and to the cost to the nation from the outflow of interest on foreign debt. However, rather less attention has been given to the way in which the high level of public sector borrowing has been financed and to the impact on the economy of the method of financing actually adopted. The purpose of of this paper is: firstly, to examine the likely trend in the national debt and the cost of servicing it in the period 1986-1990; secondly, to examine the implications for the growth of output and the balance of payments of the manner of financing the increased debt; and thirdly to consider how the results of these exercises should modify our view of the medium-term prospects for the Irish economy and of the appropriate stance of economic policy. It considers these issues in a medium term context and, as a result, is not concerned with immediate developments in the area of exchange rates and interest rates

Common Representation of Information Flows for Dynamic Coalitions

We propose a formal foundation for reasoning about access control policies within a Dynamic Coalition, defining an abstraction over existing access control models and providing mechanisms for translation of those models into information-flow domain. The abstracted information-flow domain model, called a Common Representation, can then be used for defining a way to control the evolution of Dynamic Coalitions with respect to information flow

Short run cost functions for Class II railroads / BEBR No.321

Includes bibliographical references

Growth and structure of prismatic boron nitride nanorods

Prismatic boron nitride nanorods have been grown on single crystal silicon substrates by mechanical ball-milling followed by annealing at 1300 &deg;C. Growth takes place by rapid surface diffusion of BN molecules, and follows heterogeneous nucleation at catalytic particles of an Fe/Si alloy. Lattice imaging transmission electron microscopy studies reveal a central axial row of rather small truncated pyramidal nanovoids on each nanorod, surrounded by three basal planar BN domains which, with successive deposition of epitaxial layers adapt to the void geometry by crystallographic faceting. The bulk strain in the nanorods is taken up by the presence of what appear to be simple nanostacking faults in the external, near-surface domains which, like the nanovoids are regularly repetitive along the nanorod length. Growth terminates with a clear cuneiform tip for each nanorod. Lateral nanorod dimensions are essentially determined by the size of the catalytic particle, which remains as a foundation essentially responsible for base growth. Growth, structure, and dominating facets are shown to be consistent with a system which seeks lowest bulk and surface energies according to the well-known thermodynamics of the capillarity of solids.<br /

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Mycobacterium bovis Isolates from Michigan White-Tailed Deer during the 2009 Hunting Season

Michigan has had an ongoing outbreak of endemic Mycobacterium bovis which has been recognized within and sustained by its free-ranging white-tailed deer population since 1994. Worldwide, organisms within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex have exhibited the ability to develop resistance to antimicrobial agents, resulting in both the multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of human tuberculosis. Michigan's Bovine Tuberculosis Working Group has conducted active antimicrobial susceptibility testing on wildlife isolates of the endemic M. bovis organism at five-year intervals to detect any emerging drug resistance patterns. The results of 33 white-tailed deer origin isolates collected from the 2009 hunting season are reported here. There continues to be no evidence of any drug resistance except for pyrazinamide resistance. These results are likely due to the lack of antibacterial treatment applied to either wildlife or domestic animals which would provide selection pressure for the development of drug resistance

Influence of GABA and GABA-producing Lactobacillus brevis DPC 6108 on the development of diabetes in a streptozotocin rat model

peer-reviewedThe aim of this study was to investigate if dietary administration of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-producing Lactobacillus brevis DPC 6108 and pure GABA exert protective effects against the development of diabetes in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic Sprague Dawley rats. In a first experiment, healthy rats were divided in 3 groups (n=10/group) receiving placebo, 2.6 mg/kg body weight (bw) pure GABA or L. brevis DPC 6108 (~109microorganisms). In a second experiment, rats (n=15/group) were randomised to five groups and four of these received an injection of STZ to induce type 1 diabetes. Diabetic and non-diabetic controls received placebo [4% (w/v) yeast extract in dH2O], while the other three diabetic groups received one of the following dietary supplements: 2.6 mg/kg bw GABA (low GABA), 200 mg/kg bw GABA (high GABA) or ~109 L. brevis DPC 6108. L. brevis DPC 6108 supplementation was associated with increased serum insulin levels (P0.05), compared with non-diabetic controls while all other diabetic groups displayed reduced diversity (P<0.05). L. brevis DPC 6108 attenuated hyperglycaemia induced by diabetes but additional studies are needed to understand the mechanisms involved in this reduction.The authors and their work were supported by the APC Microbiome Institute. The APC Microbiome Institute is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). This publication has emanated from research supported by a research grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2273