Irish participation in EU FP7 (2007 - 2013) funded competitive marine research projects: 2009 supplement

The EU Framework Research Programme (FP), and in the current context the 7th Framework Programme (FP7: 2007-2013), continues to be a major source of competitive R & D funding for Irish marine researchers. The 2009 Supplement provides information on new FP7 research awards granted in 2009 to Irish marine researchers and up-dates the 2007-2008 Report published in June 2009. Seventeen research projects are profiled including three 2008 awards (STANDPOINT, WAVETRAIN II and AIRSEA) and fourteen 2009 awards bringing total participation in FP7 over the period 2007 to 2009 to 43 projects worth over 17.5 million in grant-aid. This figure is already in excess of the 10.6m (59) projects won in the FP6 (2002-2006) Programme and represents 11.5% of the total Irish drawdown to-date (FP7: 2007-2009) of 152.7millio

Irish marine projects supported by the EU INTERREG IV Programme 2007-2010

The EU INTERREG-IV Programme (2007-2013) is an important source of external competitive funding for a range of knowledge-based marine projects promoting regional and cross-border co-operation and development. During the period 2007-2010, 29 INTERREG-IV projects (including two preparatory actions) with Irish participation were approved for funding. The total value of these projects is circa 75.5m with over 12.3m in grant-aid going to the Irish partners. This directory provides a summary of each of these 29 projects. Many of these projects in turn contribute to the implementation of research, development and innovation priorities identified in Ireland's national Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (SSTI: 2006-2013) and its marine component, the Sea Change Strategy (2007-2013)

A National Portrait of Domestic Violence Courts

A growing number of criminal courts nationwide handle domestic violence cases on separate calendars, termed domestic violence courts. There are now 208 confirmed domestic violence courts across the U.S. (Center for Court Innovation 2009). More than 150 similar projects have been established internationally. Some domestic violence courts emerged in the context of the broader "problem-solving court" movement and share characteristics with other specialized courts, such as separate dockets and specially trained judges. However, the origins of domestic violence courts are also distinct, growing out of the increased attention afforded domestic violence matters by the justice system over the past 30 years. With funding from the National Institute of Justice, this study explores how criminal domestic violence courts have evolved, their rationale, and how their operations vary across the U.S. This study does not test whether domestic violence courts reduce recidivism, protect victims, or achieve other specific effects -- although we provide a thorough literature review on these points. Rather, our aim is to present a comprehensive national portrait of the field as it exists today, laying the groundwork for future information exchange and research

Novel Solutions or Rebranded Approaches: Evaluating the use of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in Europe

The Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) concept is the most recent entry to discussions around how “nature” can be mobilized to render urban areas more resilient to the threat of climate change. The concept has been championed by the European Commission (EC) as a tool that can transform contemporary environmental, social and economic challenges into opportunities for innovation, bolstering Europe's position as a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation. With its current research and innovation programme—Horizon 2020—the EC looks to position itself as the global NBS frontrunner, providing funding to cities to act as NBS demonstrator projects across the continent. These are expected to provide best-practice examples that can be replicated globally. This paper focuses on three Horizon 2020-funded NBS demonstrator projects: Connecting Nature, URBAN GreenUP and Grow Green, each of which brings together a suite of urban partners from both within and outside the European Union (EU). It examines the internal “politics” i.e., the aims and internal governance and implementation issues associated with these projects, and analyses how partners perceive the NBS concept. To engage with these aims, interviews were conducted with a diverse set of NBS “practitioners” working within the three projects. Analysis showed that the projects aim to influence climate-change resilient and sustainable urbanism through the process of retrofitting cities with small-scale green and blue interventions, as well as help the EU secure stronger diplomatic relations with neighboring non-EU countries and key international trade partners. It also illustrated that for many project partners, NBS is perceived to be a novel concept, because it re-frames pre-existing terms such as Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) and Ecosystem Services (ES) in a way that makes principles of urban greening more understandable to lay audiences and more politically palatable for urban governments. However, partners also warn that this framing of NBS has led to a narrow and idealized representation of nature; one that simultaneously undervalues biodiversity and oversells the capacity of natural processes to provide “solutions” to urban climate vulnerability and broader patterns of unsustainable urbanism.</jats:p

Key issues in the process of implementing shared decision making (DM) in mental health practice

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Shulamit Ramon, Helen Brooks, Sarah Rae, Mary-Jane O’Sullivan, "Key issues in the process of implementing shared decision making (DM) in mental health practice", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 22(3):257-274, July 2017. The Version of Record is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-01-2017-0006 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2017.Purpose: This review paper will look at internationally existing publications in the English language on mental health shared decision making (SDM) implementation of a variety of interventions, including different methodologies and research methods, age groups and countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of: process, degree and outcomes of implementation; barriers and facilitators; perspectives on implementation by different stakeholders; analysis of the process of implementation in mental health services through the lenses of the normalisation process theory (NPT). Design/methodology/approach: Following a targeted literature search the data were analysed in order to provide an overview of methodologies and methods applied in the articles, as well as of the variables listed above. Three different types of information were included: a content analysis of key issues, reflective understanding coming out of participating in implementation of an SDM project in the form of two narratives written by two key participants in an SDM pilot project and an NPT analysis of the process of implementation. Findings: Only a minority of mental health SDM research focuses on implementation in everyday practice. It is possible and often desirable to achieve SDM in mental health services; it requires a low level of technology, it can save time once routinized, and it is based on enhancing therapeutic alliance, as well as service users' motivation. Implementation requires an explicit policy decision, a clear procedure, and regular adherence to the aims and methods of implementation by all participants. These necessary and sufficient conditions are rarely met, due to the different levels of commitment to SDM and its process by the different key stakeholders, as well as due to competing providers' objectives and the time allocated to achieving them. Originality/value: The review indicates both the need to take into account the complexity of SDM, as well as future strategies for enhancing its implementation in everyday mental health practice. Perhaps because applying SDM reflects a major cultural change in mental health practice, current value attached to SDM among clinicians and service managers would need to be more positive, prominent and enduring to enable a greater degree of implementation.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Establishing sustainable school-based teacher research activity as a mechanism to support teachers’ career-long professional development

Upon election, the coalition government in England (2010 – 2015) were swift to introduce reforms intent on improving standards of education in England. Central to the reforms were measures designed to improve the quality of both teaching and teachers, factors widely recognised as lying at the heart of educational improvement. A national network of Teaching Schools was announced, outstanding schools that would lead and develop career long teacher development. The work of all Teaching Schools would be underpinned by six core strands of professional development including a requirement to engage in research and development activity. This thesis reports on the extent and nature of research activity occurring at six Teaching Schools in the North West of England. The research findings offer insight into the potential for school-based teacher-research activity to support meaningful professional development within the teaching profession. Furthermore, findings indicate the conditions required to facilitate teachers in their research endeavours such that research activity may become established as a meaningful and sustainable expectation of practice. Analysis of the data makes clear the real potential for school-based teacher-research activity to underpin career-long professional development and learning. However, the results indicate that existing levels of teacher research literacy are low and teachers require support, guidance and access to research resources and expertise. School leadership emerged as a highly significant factor in creating a research-rich environment in which research is valued and celebrated. However, the strongly ‘top-down’ model of organisation evident in each research-active school has implications for the long-term future of a research agenda. An absence of ‘bottom-up’ momentum is likely to leave the research agenda vulnerable to staff change or shifting priorities either of which may cause the agenda to collapse, a factor that was not acknowledged by participants. This research adds to existing knowledge on the benefits of teacher-research activity and provides robust evidence for politicians, policy makers and practitioners that a blend of ‘bottom-up’/‘top-down’ organisation is required to build a self-sustaining model. A blended approach existing within a research-rich school culture and supported by research expertise offers the potential to establish a sustainable model of teacher research activity. This research indicates that research active teachers are enabled to effectively interrogate their practice and find answers to their professional questions and problems. Research offers teachers the means to become empowered, agentic professionals who through ongoing inquiry, learning and professional development are positioned to become more effective in their practice

The roles of sex, mass and individual specialisation in partitioning foraging-depth niches of a pursuit-diving predator

Intra-specific foraging niche partitioning can arise due to gender differences or individual specialisation in behaviour or prey selection. These may in turn be related to sexual size dimorphism or individual variation in body size through allometry. These variables are often inter-related and challenging to separate statistically. We present a case study in which the effects of sex, body mass and individual specialisation on the dive depths of the South Georgia shag on Bird Island, South Georgia are investigated simultaneously using a linear mixed model. The nested random effects of trip within individual explained a highly significant amount of the variance. The effects of sex and body mass were both significant independently but could not be separated statistically owing to them being strongly interrelated. Variance components analysis revealed that 45.5% of the variation occurred among individuals, 22.6% among trips and 31.8% among Dives, while R2 approximations showed gender explained 31.4% and body mass 55.9% of the variation among individuals. Male dive depths were more variable than those of females at the levels of individual, trip and dive. The effect of body mass on individual dive depths was only marginally significant within sexes. The percentage of individual variation in dive depths explained by mass was trivial in males (0.8%) but substantial in females (24.1%), suggesting that differences in dive depths among males was largely due to them adopting different behavioural strategies whereas in females allometry played an additional role. Niche partitioning in the study population therefore appears to be achieved through the interactive effects of individual specialisation and gender upon vertical foraging patch selection, and has the potential to interact in complex ways with other axes of the niche hypervolume such as foraging locations, timing of foraging and diet

Early Scottish Monasteries and Prehistory: A Preliminary Dialogue

Reflecting oil the diversity of monastic attributes found in the east and west of Britain, the author proposes that prehistoric ritual practice was influential on monastic form. An argument is advanced that this was not based solely oil inspiration Front the landscape, nor oil conservative tradition, but oil the intellectual reconciliation of Christian and non-Christian ideas, with disparate results that account. for the differences in monumentality. Among more general matters tentatively credited with a prehistoric root are the cult of relics, the tonsure and the date of Easter

Maternal work hours in early to middle childhood link to later adolescent diet quality

Objective: Previous studies on maternal work hours and child diet quality have reported conflicting findings possibly due to differences in study design, lack of a comprehensive measure of diet quality and differing ages of the children under investigation. The present study aimed to prospectively examine the impact of parental work hours from age 1 year to age 14 years on adolescent diet quality. Design: Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine independent associations between parents’ work hours at each follow-up and across 14 years and adolescent diet quality at age 14 years. A diet quality index was based on the international literature and Australian recommendations, consisting of six food groups and nine nutrients. Setting: Perth, Western Australia. Subjects: Children (n 1629) participating in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. Results: Compared with children of mothers in full-time employment, children of mothers who were not employed in early childhood up to age 5 years had a higher average diet quality score at age 14 years, independent of maternal and family socio-economic status. Across 14 years the number of years the mother worked full time and increasing average weekly hours were associated with lower diet quality. Father’s work hours had little association with adolescent diet quality. Conclusions: Having a mother stay at home in early to middle childhood is associated with better diet quality in adolescence. Support may be beneficial for families where the mother returns to full-time employment before the child reaches 8 years of age