Walking Against the Grain: A Case Study of Catholic Women‟s Social Justice Discourse, Practice and Spirituality in Post-Katrina New Orleans

This qualitative study explored the relationship between Catholic women adult educators‘ understanding of social justice and their engagement in anti-poverty activist practice with Hurricane Katrina survivors, in the context of a religiously-affiliated organization. While the privilege discourse was predominantly used by the eight activists interviewed, analysis also revealed that they understood social justice in multiple and layered ways. Specifically, these adult educator activists‘ enacted practice has a complexity that does not conform neatly to traditional conceptualizations of social justice. Keywords: Adult educator activists, Anti-poverty activism, Catholic social thought, Catholic women, Critical theory, Economic inequality, Homeless People, Katrina, Poverty, Spirituality, Social activism, Social justice, Social justice discourse, Systemic injustic

Aspects of management options for pasture-based dairy production stocked at two cows per hectare

End of project reportWhite clover in association with Rhizobium bacteria have the capacity to fix or convent atmospheric N into plant available N. This can make a considerable contribution to sward productivity. One of the objectives of this experiment was to determine the upper carrying capacity of grass-white clover swards receiving 90 kg fertilizer N/ha. A second objective was to examine the impact of grass-clover swards on mineral-N in the soil and losses of nitrate-N from soil to drainage water during the winter. This experiment was conducted at Solohead Research Farm. There were three treatments: (i) A grass-only treatment (FN) stocked at 2.0 cows per ha in 2003 and 2.2 cows per ha during 2004, 2005 and 2006. This treatment received an average of 226 kg per ha of fertilizer N per year during these years. (ii) A grass-clover treatment (WC) stocked at the same rates as FN and received an average of 90 kg per ha of fertilizer N per year during the experiment. (iii) A grass-only treatment (CC) that was gradually converted over to grass-clover during the experiment and stocked at 2.0 cows per ha throughout the experiment. Fertilizer N input was gradually lowered from 150 kg per ha in 2003 to a target of 90 kg per ha in 2005 and 2006

The development of systems of milk production and grazing management based on low stocking rates and very low artificial nitrogen inputs.

End of Project ReportThere is increasing pressure on to reduce nitrogen (N) inputs to agricultural production systems within the European Union. This three-year experiment examined the impact of lowering N-input/ha on milk output, carrying capacity and N losses. In Ireland, a dairy cow is classified as excreting 85 kg organic N per year. There were four treatments involving annual stocking rates and fertilizer N inputs as follows: (1) 2.5 cows/ha & 350 kg/ha (Intensive), (2) 2.5 cows/ha & 250 kg/ha (Moderate), (3) 2.1 cows/ha & 175 kg/ha (Extensive) and (4) 1.75 cows/ha & 80 kg/ha (Minimal). Swards were initially composed predominantly of perennial ryegrass and contained white clover. The primary aim was to supply sufficient pasture to meet the feed requirements of the lactating cows during the main grazing season. Subject to meeting this requirement the objective was to produce enough grass to meet winter-feed requirements as grass-silage. Production of grasssilage was indicative of carrying capacity. There were 18 cows per treatment each year. Concentrates fed were 595 kg/cow/year. There were no significant differences in yields (mean ± SEM kg/cow/year) of solids-corrected milk (6210 ± 97), fat (263 ± 4.4), protein (225 ± 3.3) and lactose (301 ± 5.2) between treatments combined over years. Silage production was sufficient to meet winter-feed requirements (i.e. 1.40 t DM/cow) on all treatments except Moderate, which was 0.87 of requirement. Measurement of soil mineral N concentrations indicated largest losses from Intensive during the winter. However, measurement of nitrate N in drainage water during the winter indicated low concentrations (mg/litre) from all treatments; 2.4 from Intensive, 2.0 from Mininal, 0.9 from Moderate and 0.9 from Extensive. The comparably high mean concentrations associated with Minimal were attributed to the high proportion of white clover in these swards and the breakdown of clover stolon releasing mineral N into the soil during the winter months. The main findings were: (1) No difference in milk output per cow even under low fertilizer N inputs (2) A relationship between requirement for fertiliser N and stocking rate along the line: Fertilizer N req. = (SR x 300) – (300 + background-N) Where SR is stocking rate in cows per ha and background N is the release of N from net mineralization of soil organic matter N. The average value for background-N is around 130 kg/ha. (3) Very high levels of productivity from grass + white clover swards receiving 80 kg N/ha/year with around 80% of the carrying capacity of the Intensive treatment. (4) Very low losses of nitrate-N in drainage water under organic N loads of up to 300 kg/ha. Losses of nitrate-N in drainage water accounted for less than 5% of N losses in the experiment except on the clover-system. It is likely that denitrification and losses of di-nitrogen (N2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gasses were the main pathways for loss. This is consistent with the heavy wet imperfectly drained soils, high rainfall, intermittent soil saturation and the mild conditions experienced at Solohead

Viscoelastic properties of human and bovine articular cartilage : a comparison of frequency-dependent trends

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Spencer C. Barnes and Hamid Sadeghi for assistance during experimentation. We would also like to thank patients donating tissue and the surgeons collecting these. Funding The equipment used in this study was funded by Arthritis Research UK (Grant number H0671). We are grateful to Arthritis Research UK for the award of a PhD studentship to Anna A. Cederlund (Grant number 19971). Arthritis Research UK had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Estimating forecast error covariances for strongly coupled atmosphere-ocean 4D-Var data assimilation

Strongly coupled data assimilation emulates the real world pairing of the atmosphere and ocean by solving the assimilation problem in terms of a single combined atmosphere-ocean state. A significant challenge in strongly coupled variational atmosphere-ocean data assimilation is a priori specification of the cross-covariances between the errors in the atmosphere and ocean model forecasts. These covariances must capture the correct physical structure of interactions across the air-sea interface as well as the different scales of evolution in the atmosphere and ocean; if prescribed correctly, they will allow observations in one medium to improve the analysis in the other. Here we investigate the nature and structure of atmosphere-ocean forecast error cross-correlations using an idealised strongly coupled single-column atmosphere-ocean 4D-Var assimilation system. We present results from a set of identical twin experiments that use an ensemble of coupled 4D-Var assimilations to derive estimates of the atmosphere-ocean error cross-correlations. Our results show significant variation in the strength and structure of cross-correlations in the atmosphere-ocean boundary layer between summer and winter and between day and night. These differences provide a valuable insight into the nature of coupled atmosphere-ocean correlations for different seasons and points in the diurnal cycle

The role of cross-domain error correlations in strongly coupled 4D-Var atmosphere-ocean data assimilation

Strongly coupled atmosphere-ocean data assimilation offers the ability to improve information exchange across the modelled air-sea interface by enabling observations in one domain to have a direct influence on the analysis in the other. For incremental 4D-Var assimilation a strongly coupled approach enables both domains to be updated at the beginning of the assimilation window, whether they are observed or not, and is hence more likely to produce consistent initial model states. This is made possible by the explicit inclusion of cross-domain forecast error covariance information in the coupled forecast error covariance matrix. In this study we use an idealised 1D single column coupled atmosphere-ocean model to examine the extent to which explicit cross-domain forecast error covariances play a role in shaping the coupled analysis increments compared to those implicitly generated in the inner-loop of the incremental formulation of the 4D-Var algorithm. This is done via a set of single observation experiments with and without initial cross-domain forecast error covariances prescribed. Using single observations allows us to obtain explicit expressions for the atmosphere and ocean analysis updates, separating out the individual effects of the explicitly prescribed and implicitly generated cross-domain covariances. Our experiments show that when only one domain is observed,including explicit cross-domain error covariances allows more consistent adjustment of the unobserved domain. Neglecting the cross-domain terms and relying solely on the covariances implicitly generated by the coupled tangent linear and adjoint models restricts the ability of the covariance matrix to impose balance between the two domains. In this case the coupling is essentially one-way; the update to the observed domain is independent of the unobserved domain and so is likely to produce atmosphere and ocean updates that are inconsistent with one another. As we show, this has important consequences for the balance of the coupled analysis state

Lagoon livelihoods: gender and shell money in Langalanga, Solomon Islands

© 2018, The Author(s). Gender shapes livelihoods through access to resources and the distribution of benefits from economic activities. To work effectively with local people, resource management and community development initiatives should therefore be sensitive to the influence of gender on livelihoods. This paper considers gender in the context of broader social trends around livelihoods and focuses on a case study of shell money production and trade in the Langalanga Lagoon in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands. We pool data from several recent research projects with historical material from secondary sources. We find that the gender division of labour in the shell money value chain has changed somewhat over time, particularly in that women are now actively involved in trading. However, this shift has created friction due to norms about what kinds of activities are suitable for women, and who should control cash incomes. Whilst shell money remains one of the most important livelihoods in Langalanga lagoon, our findings also illustrate that the shell money value chain and the income earned varies considerably from family to family, with some making a better living than others. We argue that interventions seeking to improve livelihoods in coastal communities should thus be based on an understanding of differentiation within communities, and practitioners should consider whether interventions will result in community development, or may have the impact of increasing inequality between families

Oxidation mechanism in metal nanoclusters: Zn nanoclusters to ZnO hollow nanoclusters

Zn nanoclusters (NCs) are deposited by Low-energy cluster beam deposition technique. The mechanism of oxidation is studied by analysing their compositional and morphological evolution over a long span of time (three years) due to exposure to ambient atmosphere. It is concluded that the mechanism proceeds in two steps. In the first step, the shell of ZnO forms over Zn NCs rapidly up to certain limiting thickness: with in few days -- depending upon the size -- Zn NCs are converted to Zn-ZnO (core-shell), Zn-void-ZnO, or hollow ZnO type NCs. Bigger than ~15 nm become Zn-ZnO (core-shell) type: among them, NCs above ~25 nm could able to retain their initial geometrical shapes (namely triangular, hexagonal, rectangular and rhombohedral), but ~25 to 15 nm size NCs become irregular or distorted geometrical shapes. NCs between ~15 to 5 nm become Zn-void-ZnO type, and smaller than ~5 nm become ZnO hollow sphere type i.e. ZnO hollow NCs. In the second step, all Zn-void-ZnO and Zn-ZnO (core-shell) structures are converted to hollow ZnO NCs in a slow and gradual process, and the mechanism of conversion proceeds through expansion in size by incorporating ZnO monomers inside the shell. The observed oxidation behaviour of NCs is compared with theory of Cabrera - Mott on low-temperature oxidation of metal.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Estimating correlated observation error statistics using an ensemble transform Kalman filter

For certain observing types, such as those that are remotely sensed, the observation errors are correlated and these correlations are state- and time-dependent. In this work, we develop a method for diagnosing and incorporating spatially correlated and time-dependent observation error in an ensemble data assimilation system. The method combines an ensemble transform Kalman filter with a method that uses statistical averages of background and analysis innovations to provide an estimate of the observation error covariance matrix. To evaluate the performance of the method, we perform identical twin experiments using the Lorenz ’96 and Kuramoto-Sivashinsky models. Using our approach, a good approximation to the true observation error covariance can be recovered in cases where the initial estimate of the error covariance is incorrect. Spatial observation error covariances where the length scale of the true covariance changes slowly in time can also be captured. We find that using the estimated correlated observation error in the assimilation improves the analysis