Captive or Criminal?: Reappraising the Legal Status of IRA Prisoners at the Height of the Troubles under International Law

For the citizens of Ireland and Great Britain, the second half of the twentieth century represents a period of great political struggle. The historical debate concerns the constitutional status of Northern Ireland; that is, whether the six northeastern most counties on the emerald isle belong to Ireland or to the United Kingdom. The late 1960s through the early 1990s is referred to commonly as “The Troubles,” a time rife with political struggle, violence, and reactionary laws aimed at restricting civil liberties in the name of security. One topic of contention during this era relates to the political status of prisoners convicted of terrorism. These men and women—mostly suspected members of a nationalist paramilitary, the provisional Irish Republican Army—claimed a right to special treatment as prisoners of war. The British rejected the notion that an international war existed in fact, and insisted on treating the prisoners as ordinary criminals under domestic law. The conflict in Northern Ireland is too often and too easily dismissed as a purely internal matter, regarded a domestic civil rights movement. Consequently, any potential consideration of the conflict as an international armed conflict has been disregarded. This paper will reexamine the classification of The Troubles in light of current, applicable international law to make two determinations: first, to ascertain whether the armed conflict may be classified as one of an international, rather than a non-international, character. Based on this classification, this paper will then discern whether IRA prisoners should have been entitled to prisoner of war or some other discrete legal status, separate from that of ordinary criminals

Captive or Criminal?: Reappraising the Legal Status of IRA Prisoners at the Height of the Troubles under International Law

For the citizens of Ireland and Great Britain, the second half of the twentieth century represents a period of great political struggle. The historical debate concerns the constitutional status of Northern Ireland; that is, whether the six northeastern most counties on the emerald isle belong to Ireland or to the United Kingdom. The late 1960s through the early 1990s is referred to commonly as “The Troubles,” a time rife with political struggle, violence, and reactionary laws aimed at restricting civil liberties in the name of security. One topic of contention during this era relates to the political status of prisoners convicted of terrorism. These men and women—mostly suspected members of a nationalist paramilitary, the provisional Irish Republican Army—claimed a right to special treatment as prisoners of war. The British rejected the notion that an international war existed in fact, and insisted on treating the prisoners as ordinary criminals under domestic law. The conflict in Northern Ireland is too often and too easily dismissed as a purely internal matter, regarded a domestic civil rights movement. Consequently, any potential consideration of the conflict as an international armed conflict has been disregarded. This paper will reexamine the classification of The Troubles in light of current, applicable international law to make two determinations: first, to ascertain whether the armed conflict may be classified as one of an international, rather than a non-international, character. Based on this classification, this paper will then discern whether IRA prisoners should have been entitled to prisoner of war or some other discrete legal status, separate from that of ordinary criminals

Landscape, Labor, and Practice: Slavery and Freedom at Green Castle Estate, Antigua

This dissertation investigates the shift from slavery to freedom in Antigua by examining the landscapes and lifeways of enslaved and free laborers at Green Castle Estate during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Taking a diachronic approach to the past, I examine the production of landscape at Green Castle Estate and in Antigua to contextualize how the social relations of slavery and freedom unfolded in this specific geography. I argue that landscape did not merely serve as a backdrop to the success of sugar in Antigua but was carefully manipulated to ensure the success of that industry on the island. Amidst these landscapes of sugar and slavery, Afro-Antiguans lived and worked on plantations and developed cultural practices that stood in opposition to dominant cultural ideologies. In examining domestic refuse associated with enslaved and free laborers at Green Castle Estate, I offer insights into how the practices of daily life and consumption were influenced by the overarching social relations of slavery and freedom in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Additionally, I draw on archival records to highlight how Antigua\u27s unique approach to emancipation in 1834 reshaped the lives of planters and laborers alike. In doing so, I argue for the importance of local contexts in studies of Caribbean plantations and how historical processes unfold in these contexts amidst changing social relations

Assessing the algebraic attainment of South African grade 9 learners: designing a test using Rasch analysis

A research report submitted to the school of Education, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science Johannesburg 2017South African learners perform poorly in national and international mathematics assessments (Howie, 2004). A contributing factor to this poor performance is low mathematics knowledge of mathematics teachers in South Africa (Howie, 2003). One means of addressing this is professional development programs. The Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project runs such a program. A test is required by the project in order to assess whether learners are making learning gains after being taught by teachers who participated in this program. The focus of this study is the design of a test used to assess learners’ algebraic attainment. The aim is to design an informative and fair test using Rasch analysis. A sample of 235 learners’ responses to 47 questions was analysed using the Rasch model. In this study, the mean person measure was 2,87 (SD=1,38) logits, while the mean item measure was 0,41 (SD=2,25) logits, suggesting that overall, the test was too difficult. For the learners who wrote this test the person separation index is 1,78 and the person reliability 0,76. This implies that the test may not be not sensitive enough to distinguish between learners of high attainment from learners with low attainment. Various ways of improving the test are discussed.MT 201

The decoration of the Pauline Chapel: with reference to the works of Giovanni Baglione

The decoration of the Pauline Chapel: with reference to the works of Giovanni Baglione examines the carefully considered role Catholic art played in the doctrinal battle during the later Counter Reformation period of the early seventeenth century. The frame for this discussion is the frescoes Giovanni Baglione contributed to the Pauline Chapel in the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome built by Pope Paul V (1605-1621). Baglione’s frescoes are discussed to challenge the previous labels associated with his artistic style in order to demonstrate how the art of the chapel can be seen as both a symptom of contemporary events, and as the personal chapel can be seen as both a symptom of contemporary events, and as the personal reaction or individual interpretation of those events by one man; the chapel’s creator Paul V. The concepts of art as a symptom and as a reaction are explored by combining a discussion about Baglione’s artistic style, with a discussion about the chapel’s iconography and pictorial programme, in order to reveal how the chapel reflects Pope Paul V’s personal reaction to the theological differences between the Catholic Church and the Protestant reformers at this time

Master of Science

thesisThe stratocumulus topped boundary layers that tend to form off the west coast of major continents have been an important topic in cloud physics research due to their large impact on global climate, while uncertainty exists about their formation and behavior. This uncertainty is largely due to the substantial range of scales that govern the characteristics and evolution of these cloud decks. Specifically, small scale processes near cloud top have remained unexplored in the field due to limits in technology that inhibit the resolution necessary for these small scale processes to be investigated and studied. The entrainment interface layer (EIL), a region near cloud top where free tropospheric air is mixed with cloudy boundary layer air, is especially suspected to have an effect on these clouds. Three important processes occur in the EIL: mixing between free tropospheric air and cloudy mixed layer air, radiative heating and cooling, and heating and/or cooling due to phase changes of water, all of which may have an important effect on cloud properties and behavior. The Physics of Stratocumulus Top (POST) field campaign took place in July and August of 2008 off the coast of Monterey, California with the mission of gathering data from the stratocumulus topped boundary layers that regularly form there each summer. The POST mission was unique in that it employed the use of a small aircraft, which allowed for colocation of instrumentation during research flights. This colocated instrumentation, coupled with vertical flight paths specifically designed to sample the region near cloud top of these cloud capped boundary layers, produced a data set especially equipped to probe into the small scale processes that are so pivotal to the behavior of these clouds. Here, high rate data from POST are combined with a conserved variables analysis to define the location and extent of the EIL for five flights during the summer of 2008. Two daytime flights and three evening flights were selected for analysis. Overall, the existence of an EIL is detected and defined for all five of the flights analyzed. In addition, for each case, the EIL is found to be noticeably thicker than what was found in past studies, with a typical extent of several tens of meters. Further use of conserved variables to approximate virtual potential temperature changes within the EIL reveals the effects of radiation and phase changes to be of the same order as each other, on average, for most of the flights. In addition, radiative cooling occurs most frequently during evening flights while solar warming occurs most frequently for daytime flights. Finally, evaporative cooling occurs much more frequently than condensational warming within the EIL for all flights, regardless of whether the flight was during the daytime or during the evening

The Intersection between Home Education and Educational Technology: A Case Study

Previous research into Australian home education suggests that home educators personalise pedagogy and learning to the needs and interests of the individual child. This study sought to understand this perspective in general and in particular, how one family integrated educational technology [EdTech] into home education of their primary-aged children. The design of this project adapted a qualitative framework that included a bricolage of case study, ethnography and narrative methods. Data was gathered from respondents using semi-structured interviews, observations and researcher reflections and analysed through constant-comparison and grounded theory. The students and their home educating parent identified a variety of aspects that contributed and influenced the integration of EdTech. Central to the integration process was the learning partnership between the parent and the child. This allowed the curriculum and pedagogy to be personalised to the individual strengths, needs and interests of the child, which also appeared to enhance the perceived effectiveness of the EdTech integrated. The ensuing \u27Fountain Model\u27 captured this integration process while also proposing a framework for future applications. In addition, this study reconfirmed sections of the previous research that suggested that home education is child-driven, extending this concept to suggest that this process can contribute to empowering student learning. The findings of this case study support the concept that a flexible and collaborative approach to learning, which is also personalised to the individual student, is core to integrating EdTech effectively and meaningfully for students. Examples of possible applications of EdTech are also described, as well as recommendations for further research

Inhibitory control and classroom behavior in kindergarten children

This study examined the association between direct measures of behavioral inhibition (inhibition of prepotent response, motor inhibition, and delayed gratification) and the classroom behavior of kindergarten children. Participants included 5-6 years old kindergarten students (N=64), 35 boys and 29 girls, at two public elementary schools. Behavioral inhibition was assessed with the Night and Day test, Yes or No test, Draw-A-Line-Slowly task and a measure of Delayed Gratification. Classroom behavior was measured using the Teacher-Child Rating Scale 2.1 (T-CRS 2.1). The results showed no significant gender differences in performance on behavioral inhibition tasks or teacher ratings of classroom behavior. Positive correlations were found between children’s performance on the measure of motor inhibition and teacher’s ratings on the social skills and tasks orientation. Positive correlations were also found between inhibition of prepotent response and teacher ratings on behavioral control and task orientation. This study did not find any significant correlations among the direct measures of behavioral inhibition. Out of the four behavioral inhibition tasks, motor inhibition was the only significant predictor of teacher ratings on task orientation and performance on one inhibition of prepotent response (Night and Day) was the only significant predictor of behavioral control in the classroom

Suicide risk assessment in the emergency department:an investigation of current practice in Scotland

Background: Suicide is a global public health issue. Approximately one third of individuals who complete suicide have attended an emergency department in the year preceding their death. The aim of this study was to investigate current suicide risk assessment practices across emergency department clinicians in Scotland.Methods: A mixed‐methods design was employed. A total of 112 surveys for emergency department clinicians were posted to 23 emergency departments in Scotland between March and September 2016. Follow‐up semi‐structured interviews were also conducted exploring clinician's experiences of suicide risk assessment. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Fifty‐one emergency department clinicians across 17 emergency departments completed the survey. Thirty‐five (68.6%) participants were currently using a suicide risk assessment tool; with most using locally developed tools and proformas (n = 20, 62.5%) or the SAD PERSONS scale (n = 13, 40.6%). Remaining participants (n = 16, 31.4%) did not use suicide risk assessment tools during assessment. Variation in practice was found both across and within emergency departments. Six clinicians participated in follow‐up interviews, which identified four major themes: Clinician Experiences of Suicide Risk Assessment; Components of Suicide Risk Assessment; Clinical Decision‐Making; and Supporting Clinicians.Conclusions: There is substantial variation in current practice, with around two‐thirds of clinicians using a variety of empirically and locally developed tools, and a third using their judgement alone. Clinicians find suicide risk assessment a challenging part of their role and discuss the need for increased training, and appropriate and helpful guidelines to improve practice

The role that access and attitudes toward tablets have on learners’ achievement in a Johannesburg school

One of the central themes across education policies in South Africa is ensuring equal access to education in a context of diminishing resources. The roll-out of technology in schools plays a pivotal role in achieving equity. With the emphasis on technology integration, it is imperative to fully understand the factors that influence this process. Thus, this study investigated the role of access to tablets, and learners’ attitudes towards tablets, on learner achievement. A convenience sample of 276 learners from an independent high school in Johannesburg, where tablets were used in the learning environment, completed a cross-sectional survey consisting of a demographics section, a section on access to technology, and a scale on attitudes towards the use of tablets. The results indicate that learner achievement is largely influenced by learner attitudes towards tablets, and in particular, enjoyability of use. Findings provide evidence that tablet provision, while necessary, is not sufficient for the successful integration of tablets and subsequent redress of equality in education in South Africa.Keywords: access; attitudes; educational technology; enjoyability; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); learner achievement; tablet