The British Commonwealth, the United States and World Peace

No thinking person will deny that the question of world peace is one of vital importance, one which affects every individual now living and one which will affect every individual hereafter to be born, for upon it depends the future existence of civilization as we know it and, therefore, the material, intellectual and spiritual status of every present and prospective member of the human race. And, unfortunately, no well-informed person can deny that the existing relations between the United States and the British Commonwealth of nations are not such as give that guarantee of solidarity of purpose and consonance of action in preserving world peace which ought to be expected from national communities such as they who loathe war, who entertain the same ideas of human progress and human liberty and who have each founded all hope for the future on democratic principles of government which are in themselves the negation of the use of force in human relations. Such a situation must appeal to all intelligent men and women, but particularly to lawyers who by avocation are the sworn servants of justice and law as one calling for intensive study with a view to its immediate amelioration. I am not egotistical or rather asinine enough to attempt here remedial suggestions. I propose merely to state to you as fully and fairly as I can the underlying facts of the case and to enumerate some of the possible methods of successfully dealing with the present deadlock which have been suggested in your country and mine

Amber, Screenworks, and the Production of Culture

An analysis of the Irish TV drama 'Amber' using Peterson's 'Production of Culture' framework

Amber, Screenworks, and the Production of Culture

An analysis of the Irish TV drama 'Amber' using Peterson's 'Production of Culture' framework

Using modern plant breeding to improve the nutritional and technological qualities of oil crops

The last few decades have seen huge advances in our understanding of plant biology and in the development of new technologies for the manipulation of crop plants. The application of relatively straightforward breeding and selection methods made possible the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s that effectively doubled or trebled cereal production in much of the world and averted mass famine in Asia. During the 2000s, much attention has been focused on genomic approaches to plant breeding with the deployment of a new generation of technologies, such as marker-assisted selection, next-generation sequencing, transgenesis (genetic engineering or GM) and automatic mutagenesis/selection (TILLING, TargetIng Local Lesions IN Genomes). These methods are now being applied to a wide range of crops and have particularly good potential for oil crop improvement in terms of both overall food and non-food yield and nutritional and technical quality of the oils. Key targets include increasing overall oil yield and stability on a per seed or per fruit basis and very high oleic acid content in seed and fruit oils for both premium edible and oleochemical applications. Other more specialised targets include oils enriched in nutritionally desirable “fish oil”-like fatty acids, especially very long chain !-3 acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), or increased levels of lipidic vitamins such as carotenoids, tocopherols and tocotrienes. Progress in producing such oils in commercial crops has been good in recent years with several varieties being released or at advanced stages of development

Characterisation of dairy soiled water in a survey of 60 Irish dairy farms

peer-reviewedDairy farming in Ireland generates an effluent known as dairy soiled water (DSW), which consists of a relatively dilute mixture of cow faeces, urine, spilt milk and detergents that is typically applied to grassland. However, relatively little is known about the volumes generated, nutrient content and management factors that influence volume and concentration. Sixty dairy farms that had a separate storage tank for storing DSW were selected for this study. The spatial distribution of the farms reflected the spatial distribution of dairy cows across the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland, with each farm representing between 10,000 and 20,000 dairy cows. Samples were analysed for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonium N (NH4-N), total nitrogen (TN), potassium (K), phosphorus (molybdate-reactive and total) (MRP and TP) and dry matter (DM) content. Management characteristics and parlour properties were quantified. Factors influencing volume and concentration of DSW were determined using mixed model multiple regression analysis. On average, 9784 l (standard error 209 l) of DSW, including rainfall, was produced cow−1 year−1 and this contained significant quantities of total N, P and K (587, 80 and 568 mg l−1, respectively). A typical Irish dairy farm stocked at 1.9 cows ha−1 could therefore supply approximately 13, 2 and 12 kg ha−1 of total N, P and K, respectively, across the farm, annually to meet some of the nutrient requirements for herbage production and potentially replace some of the synthetic fertilizer use. Seventy one percent of samples were within the regulated concentration limits of soiled water for BOD (<2500 mg l−1), rising to 87% during the closed period for slurry spreading (mid October to mid-late January), while 81% were within the concentration limits for DM (<1% DM), rising to 94% during the closed period. The efficiency of a milking parlour (cows per unit, time taken) plays a key role in determining the volume of DSW generated. This, in turn, also influences the concentration of nutrients and other chemicals. Large variability was found in nutrient concentrations and this presents a challenge for effective nutrient management to maximise the fertilizer replacement value of DSW

Irish film finance rebooted: the new Section 481

In 2016, the Section 481 tax incentive, the main subsidy system underpinning film and television content in Ireland, undergoes some important changes, with potentially serious implications for Irish film workers

The structure of triphenylgermanium hydroxide

C18H~6GeO, Mr = 320.9, triclinic, Pi, a = 15.408 (6), b = 19.974 (7), c = 23.264 (11) A, a = 107.78 (4), 13 = 1.03.54 (4), y= 101.51 (3) °, V = 6338 (5)/~3, Z = 16, Dx = 1.34 g cm -3, a(Mo Ka) = 0.71073A, /z = 19.1cm-1, F(000)=2624, T= 293 K, R = 0.055 for 6846 observed reflections. The eight independent molecules in the asymmetric unit form two independent O--H...O hydrogen-bonded tetramers with the O atoms in a flattened tetrahedral arrangement [hydrogen-bond distances in the range 2.609 (11) to 2.657 (11)A]. The Ge atoms are tetrahedrally coordinated with mean Gc O 1.791 (7) and Gc C 1.931 (8) A