Young workers and the National Minimum Wage

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the basis of the Low Pay Commission's (LPC) presumption of the “distinctiveness” of young workers aged 16 and 17 in the absence of any systematic and objective basis for determining “fair pay”. In the context of labour market theories and the issues they raise in relation to skill, training and pay, the paper questions the presumption that young workers are distinctive with reference to contemporary notions of skill and training requirements. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sub-sample of hospitality businesses in North Wales, the paper presents selected evidence from semi-structured interviews about firms’ pay and employment practices that included a systematic method to enable managers to provide some objectively justifiable measures of job content and perceptions of personal attributes in relation to the pay of 16- and 17-year-old workers compared with their older counterparts. Findings – Employers’ informal and pragmatic employment and pay practices both reflect and reinforce the LPC's presumption of distinctiveness for a predominantly student labour force. This indicative and exploratory method of quantifying jobs and personal attributes in relation to pay appears to have some validity, although the sorts of skills that are associated with young workers’ jobs may not be fully recognised or valued, reinforcing inequality and discrimination in some cases. Originality/value – In raising awareness of potential inequality of treatment and discrimination in the context of age discrimination legislation, the paper will be of interest to researchers in employment relations, human resource management, equality and diversity management, minimum wages and the hospitality industry

The assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production

The thematic assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production carried out under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aims to assess animal pollination as a regulating ecosystem service underpinning food production in the context of its contribution to nature’s gifts to people and supporting a good quality of life. To achieve this, it focuses on the role of native and managed pollinators, the status and trends of pollinators and pollinator-plant networks and pollination, drivers of change, impacts on human well-being, food production in response to pollination declines and deficits and the effectiveness of responses

Summary for policymakers of the thematic assessment on pollinators, pollination and food production

The thematic assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production carried out under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aims to assess animal pollination as a regulating ecosystem service underpinning food production in the context of its contribution to nature’s gifts to people and supporting a good quality of life. To achieve this, it focuses on the role of native and managed pollinators, the status and trends of pollinators and pollinator-plant networks and pollination, drivers of change, impacts on human well-being, food production in response to pollination declines and deficits and the effectiveness of responses. The chapters and their executive summaries of this assessment are available as document IPBES/4/INF/1/Rev.2 (www.ipbes.net). The present document is a summary for policymakers of the information presented in these chapters

A experiência pioneira do ensino a distância em treinamento de usuários de bibliotecas universitárias

The aim of this article is to relate our experiences of creating and implementing the first distance education course in “Database norms for scientific publications and research: a complement to educational activities for university library users”. The research was carried out by the Technical Division of Librarianship and Documentation at Universidade Estadual Paulista “Julio de Mesquita Filho” (Botucatu- Rubiã Junior campus) and the Center for Distance Health Education and Information Technology at the Botucatu Faculty of Medicine. The study was carried out from August to November 2009 using 10 different university classes. Out of the 128 enrolled students, 63% completed their studies. 37%, however, finished their studies at various stages of the course. Despite these problems, there was positive feedback about adopting the new methodology, which subsequently led to its widespread application in the academic community. The pioneering experience of multidisciplinary teamwork places librarians as ‘knowledge mediators’, thus enabling them to become part of the development of the educational process.Esse artigo tem como objetivo relatar a experiência da construção e implantação do primeiro curso à distância sobre normalização de trabalhos científicos e pesquisas em bases de dados como complemento das atividades de educação de usuários em bibliotecas universitárias. O trabalho foi desenvolvido pela Divisão Técnica de Biblioteca e Documentação da Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho-Campus Botucatu-Rubião Junior e o Núcleo de Educação a Distância e Tecnologias da Informação em Saúde da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu. Foi realizado de agosto a novembro de 2009, distribuído em 10 aulas. Dos 128 alunos inscritos, 63% concluíram o curso e 37% desistiram em diferentes pontos do aprendizado. Verificou-se que a participação dos alunos revela aceitação positiva da metodologia adotada, motivando a sua extensão a toda comunidade acadêmica. A experiência pioneira do trabalho com equipe multidisciplinar situa o bibliotecário como mediador do conhecimento, acompanhando a evolução do processo educativo

A elaboração de material didático para a educação a distância, da teoria a prática: um relato de experiência do ensino da produção de objetos virtuais de aprendizagem / The development of teaching material for distance education, from theory to practice: an account of the experience of teaching the production of virtual learning objects

O trabalho aqui descrito tem por objetivo apresentar um relato de experiência educacional e da produção de Objetos de Aprendizagem realizado no Curso de Produção de Material Didático do Campus Natal Zona Leste/IFRN. Para isso, serão apresentadas informações sobre o curso e o perfil dos alunos, em seguida o foco será a condução dos alunos no processo de conhecimento, construção e avaliação dos Objetos Aprendizagem. A escolha deste cenário se justifica pela necessidade de se discutir a importância dessa formação para proporcionar melhorias nas práticas educativas dos participantes. Foram obtidos registros no ambiente virtual de aprendizagem, com ênfase nas atividades desenvolvidas. Conforme os dados apresentados ao longo do trabalho, pode-se inferir que o curso tem cumprido seu papel com relação a esse recurso, embora ainda necessite de investigação e melhorias

The Residual Efficacy of SumiShield™ 50WG and K-Othrine® WG250 IRS Formulations Applied to Different Building Materials against Anopheles and Aedes Mosquitoes

The Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria are targeted by the use of indoor residual sprays (IRSs), insecticides applied to the walls of homes to kill mosquitoes that rest there when coming into houses in search of a blood meal. K-Othrine® is an IRS based on the pyrethroid deltamethrin and is widely used against mosquitoes that transmit malaria. SumiShield™ 50WG is an IRS based on the insecticide clothianidin, developed to kill mosquitoes that have become resistant to other forms of insecticide. These products were applied to cement, wood, and mud tiles, representative of typical building materials in areas where malaria is endemic. For 18 months, the ability of these treated surfaces to kill adult female mosquitoes exposed to them was measured. The clothianidin IRS was highly effective against insecticide susceptible and resistant strains of Anopheles gambiae and An. funestus, key malaria vector species, with an improved performance compared to deltamethrin IRS, though was not so effective against Aedes aegypti or Culex quinquefasciatus. Both IRS formulations were shown to be more effective and long-lasting on cement and mud than on wood tiles

Do 2H and 18O in leaf water reflect environmental drivers differently?

We compiled hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope compositions (δ H and δ O) of leaf water from multiple biomes to examine variations with environmental drivers. Leaf water δ H was more closely correlated with δ H of xylem water or atmospheric vapour, whereas leaf water δ O was more closely correlated with air relative humidity. This resulted from the larger proportional range for δ H of meteoric waters relative to the extent of leaf water evaporative enrichment compared with δ O. We next expressed leaf water as isotopic enrichment above xylem water (Δ H and Δ O) to remove the impact of xylem water isotopic variation. For Δ H, leaf water still correlated with atmospheric vapour, whereas Δ O showed no such correlation. This was explained by covariance between air relative humidity and the Δ O of atmospheric vapour. This is consistent with a previously observed diurnal correlation between air relative humidity and the deuterium excess of atmospheric vapour across a range of ecosystems. We conclude that H and O in leaf water do indeed reflect the balance of environmental drivers differently; our results have implications for understanding isotopic effects associated with water cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and for inferring environmental change from isotopic biomarkers that act as proxies for leaf water

Exploring South Africa’s southern frontier: A 20-year vision for polar research through the South African National Antarctic Programme

Antarctica, the sub-Antarctic islands and surrounding Southern Ocean are regarded as one of the planet’s last remaining wildernesses, ‘insulated from threat by [their] remoteness and protection under the Antarctic Treaty System’1 . Antarctica encompasses some of the coldest, windiest and driest habitats on earth. Within the Southern Ocean, sub-Antarctic islands are found between the Sub-Antarctic Front to the north and the Polar Front to the south. Lying in a transition zone between warmer subtropical and cooler Antarctic waters, these islands are important sentinels from which to study climate change.2 A growing body of evidence3,4 now suggests that climatically driven changes in the latitudinal boundaries of these two fronts define the islands’ short- and long-term atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. Consequently, sub-Antarctic islands and their associated terrestrial and marine ecosystems offer ideal natural laboratories for studying ecosystem response to change.5 For example, a recent study6 indicates that the shift in the geographical position of the oceanic fronts has disrupted inshore marine ecosystems, with a possible impact on top predators. Importantly, biotic responses are variable as indicated by different population trends of these top predators.7,8 When studied collectively, these variations in species’ demographic patterns point to complex spatial and temporal changes within the broader sub-Antarctic ecosystem, and invite further examination of the interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic drivers