High levels of gene flow and genetic diversity in Irish populations of Salix caprea L. inferred from chloroplast and nuclear SSR markers

peer-reviewedBackground Salix caprea is a cold-tolerant pioneer species that is ecologically important in Europe and western and central Asia. However, little data is available on its population genetic structure and molecular ecology. We describe the levels of geographic population genetic structure in natural Irish populations of S. caprea and determine the extent of gene flow and sexual reproduction using both chloroplast and nuclear simple sequence repeats (SSRs). Results A total of 183 individuals from 21 semi-natural woodlands were collected and genotyped. Gene diversity across populations was high for the chloroplast SSRs (H T  = 0.21-0.58) and 79 different haplotypes were discovered, among them 48% were unique to a single individual. Genetic differentiation of populations was found to be between moderate and high (mean G ST  = 0.38). For the nuclear SSRs, G ST was low at 0.07 and observed heterozygosity across populations was high (H O  = 0.32-0.51); only 9.8% of the genotypes discovered were present in two or more individuals. For both types of markers, AMOVA showed that most of the variation was within populations. Minor geographic pattern was confirmed by a Bayesian clustering analysis. Gene flow via pollen was found to be approximately 7 times more important than via seeds. Conclusions The data are consistent with outbreeding and indicate that there are no significant barriers for gene flow within Ireland over large geographic distances. Both pollen-mediated and seed-mediated gene flow were found to be high, with some of the populations being more than 200 km apart from each other. These findings could simply be due to human intervention through seed trade or accidental transportation of both seeds and pollen. These results are of value to breeders wishing to exploit natural genetic variation and foresters having to choose planting material.Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm

Pre‐service teacher training and special educational needs in England 1970–2008: is government learning the lessons of the past or is it experiencing a groundhog day?

The paper outlines the findings from a literature review of the English government’s response to the issue of training pre‐service teachers in the delivery of effective special educational needs support. The review’s findings detail that although educational practice in mainstream classrooms has changed considerably since the 1970s the training of pre‐service teachers with regards to special educational needs has seemingly changed very little. The paper argues that the government needs to re‐think radically its policy of inclusion to ensure that a coherent plan is formulated which enables higher education institutions’ initial teacher training programmes to train students who are competent and confident in their abilities to work with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities

Student vocational teachers: the significance of individual positions in workplace learning

In most Initial Teacher Preparation (ITP) programmes, learning in teaching placements is considered to be an important component for providing workplace learning experiences to develop the skills of being a teacher. This paper is based on a bigger qualitative study which explored the learning experiences of a group of in-service student vocational teachers prior to and during their one-year ITP programme in Brunei. The study examined these student teachers’ dispositions to learning as revealed through their experiences on different placements during their training. The findings of this paper highlight the importance of the student vocational teachers’ roles and positions relative to their teaching placements. Theoretically, the findings also extend Bourdieu’s thinking, where existing cultural capital in the form of subject knowledge which is valued in one context does not necessarily help the learning of individuals in becoming a vocational teacher in another context. In addition, the paper argues for a need to reconceptualise in-service teacher education, more specifically, the workplace learning aspect. Lastly, it concludes with recommendations to support these student teachers in their placements through creating more expansive learning environments

Comparison of Diagnostic Profiles of Deaf and Hearing Children with a Diagnosis of Autism.

There is limited research comparing the presentation of autism in deaf and hearing children and young people. These comparisons are important to facilitate accurate diagnosis, as rates of misdiagnosis and delay in diagnosis amongst deaf children and young people are high. The aim of this study was to compare diagnostic assessment profiles of a UK cohort of autistic deaf and hearing children and young people. The Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised-Deaf adaptation was completed with the parents of 106 children and young people (deaf children = 65; hearing children = 41). The majority of items explored showed no significant differences between deaf and hearing children and young people. Differences were found in peer relationships, where autistic deaf participants were less likely to respond to the approaches of other children or play imaginatively with peers. These findings need to be taken into consideration by clinicians in the assessment process

Nazi Punks Folk Off: Leisure, Nationalism, Cultural Identity and the Consumption of Metal and Folk Music

Far-right activists have attempted to infiltrate and use popular music scenes to propagate their racialised ideologies. This paper explores attempts by the far right to co-opt two particular music scenes: black metal and English folk. Discourse tracing is used to explore online debates about boundaries, belonging and exclusion in the two scenes, and to compare such online debates with ethnographic work and previous research. It is argued that both scenes have differently resisted the far right through the policing of boundaries and communicative choices, but both scenes are compromised by their relationship to myths of whiteness and the instrumentality of the pop music industry

An Optimized Chloroplast DNA Extraction Protocol for Grasses (Poaceae) Proves Suitable for Whole Plastid Genome Sequencing and SNP Detection

peer-reviewedBackground Obtaining chloroplast genome sequences is important to increase the knowledge about the fundamental biology of plastids, to understand evolutionary and ecological processes in the evolution of plants, to develop biotechnological applications (e.g. plastid engineering) and to improve the efficiency of breeding schemes. Extraction of pure chloroplast DNA is required for efficient sequencing of chloroplast genomes. Unfortunately, most protocols for extracting chloroplast DNA were developed for eudicots and do not produce sufficiently pure yields for a shotgun sequencing approach of whole plastid genomes from the monocot grasses. Methodology/Principal Findings We have developed a simple and inexpensive method to obtain chloroplast DNA from grass species by modifying and extending protocols optimized for the use in eudicots. Many protocols for extracting chloroplast DNA require an ultracentrifugation step to efficiently separate chloroplast DNA from nuclear DNA. The developed method uses two more centrifugation steps than previously reported protocols and does not require an ultracentrifuge. Conclusions/Significance The described method delivered chloroplast DNA of very high quality from two grass species belonging to highly different taxonomic subfamilies within the grass family (Lolium perenne, Pooideae; Miscanthus×giganteus, Panicoideae). The DNA from Lolium perenne was used for whole chloroplast genome sequencing and detection of SNPs. The sequence is publicly available on EMBL/GenBank

On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo-liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under-researched and over-market-tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re-professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo-liberal practices in which it resides

An annotated checklist of the jumping plant-lice (Insecta: Hemiptera: Psylloidea) from the Mercantour National Park, with seven new records for France and one new synonymy

A total of 68 psyllid species are listed from the Mercantour National Park in Southeast France, where a targeted collecting campaign was conducted between 2009 and 2012, as part of the project "ATBI+M" Mercantour. The insects were collected using Malaise traps, flight intercept traps and sweep nets to sample in the vegetation. Additional information on distribution, biology and host-plants is provided for each species. Seven species are recorded for the first time from France: Craspedolepta artemisiae (Foerster, 1848), Craspedolepta nebulosa (Zetterstedt, 1828), Cacopsylla propinqua (Schaefer, 1949), Cyamophila prohaskai (Priesner, 1927), Eryngiofaga cf. refuga (Loginova, 1966), Bactericera parastriola Conci, Ossiannilsson & Tamanini, 1988 and Trioza flixiana Burckhardt & Lauterer, 2002. Trioza (Trioza) rapisardai Conci & Tamanini, 1984 is a new subjective synonym of Trioza brachyceraea Hodkinson & White, 1979, which was previously known only from the male holotype. The abundance, distribution and introduction status of some species are discussed

The Unseeing Eye: Disability and the hauntology of Derrida’s ghost. A story in three parts

Through the employment of the three stanzas of Thomas Hardy’s poem ‘The Self-Unseeing’ this paper seeks to tremble the picture of disability located in the pedagogical materials in English Schools. By mobilising, and then reversing, Derrida’s concept of the visor and the ghost, as well as Bentham’s Panopticon, this story reveals the power of the Them, the Their and the They. In materialising the ghost of the real of disability within a utopia of hope this story deconstructs the power of Their transparent house by revealing disabled people as magnificent beings