The Potential Economic Returns of Converting Agricultural Land to Forestry: An Analysis of System and Soil Effects from 1995 to 2009

peer-reviewedPrivate land owners have been responsible for the majority of annual afforestation in Ireland since the mid1990s, but planting rates have generally been declining since 2002. Although the decision to plant may be driven by a number of factors, the profitability of forestry as a landuse option should be an important driver and offer some insight into trends in afforestation rates. As farmers undertake most afforestation in Ireland it is important to account for the opportunity cost of lost agricultural income when analysing the financial outcome of planting. In addition, soil quality plays an essential role in dictating the productivity and profitability of both agriculture and forestry. This study examines the effects of soil quality and superseded agricultural system on the potential profitability of afforestation by farmers between 1995 and 2009. Data from the National Farm Survey were employed to identify the annual gross margins for six agricultural systems on six soil types that differ in terms of quality. The measures of soil quality were translated into potential yield classes for forestry using an existing productivity model and Teagasc’s Forest Investment and Valuation Estimator was employed to calculate the net present value of afforestation for each of the systems and soil types. The results demonstrate how the competitiveness of forestry as a landuse option is influenced by soil quality and superseded enterprise and how forestry has become more competitive with agricultural enterprises over the period of analysis.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

The Politics of Health: Community Engagement in South African HIV Vaccine Trial Sites

This research responds to limited evidence of the social and political aspects of health biotechnologies. Reaching beyond the literature on trial participation, it explores the extent to which members of Community Advisory Boards (CABs) play meaningful political roles in South African vaccine clinical trial sites. The thesis confirms the need to understand the socio-economic, political and historical contexts in which local health initiatives are situated, by identifying the combined impact of negative social norms and the politics of HIV/AIDS which limit access to health. Interviews, focus groups and observations gathered in trial sites and documentary data reveal complex interrelationships between global and national health governance and local agency. Concepts from theories of social justice, governance, power and citizenship develop the literature on health activism beyond the descriptive by providing a theoretical framework to understand that complexity. Empirical data reveal the complexities of the lives of people who are at the receiving end of global health policy and the realities of the political channels open to them; shedding light on previously unexplored factors enhancing or inhibiting community participation in health governance. Information on HIV/AIDS and vaccine science increases opportunities for negotiating rather than reacting to decisions over health strategies. Networking with wider health and other community-based and civil society organisations develops that agency. However,the ideals of community engagement are challenged by: the political dynamics of CABS which frustrate collective action; intermittent contact between trial site researchers and CABs; the accountabilities of researchers to donors and communities; and limited representation of those heterogeneous communities. The impact of multiple forms of stigma on marginalised and vulnerable women, Men Who have Sex with Men (MSM) and migrants confirms the value of looking at health inequalities in terms of variable health needs in context rather than seeking equal distribution of health resources

Perfectionism in Occupational Science Students: Occupational Therapy Implications

Purpose The purpose of this study is to categorize perfectionism and determine how perfectionism impacts the occupations and perceived health of students in a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Science program. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive study with a survey component was conducted. Participants were categorized as perfectionists or non-perfectionists using the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R). Time logs were collected to compare categories of time-use between groups over a one-week period. An online survey was conducted with a sub-sample of the perfectionists. Findings More students were categorized as perfectionists (N = 41) than non-perfectionists (N = 3). Both groups spent similar amounts of time engaged in productive, pleasurable and restorative occupations. Some perfectionists reported that perfectionism supported health, but others reported negative impacts on well-being. Research limitations/implications This study included a small sample size limited to one Occupational Science program in the USA. Originality/value Results demonstrated positive and negative health impacts because of perfectionism. The majority of participants were identified as perfectionists; rigorous academic programs may attract students with perfectionistic qualities. Findings are relevant for Occupational Therapy, as these students will become future occupational therapists after completing a Master’s program in Occupational Therapy and may be susceptible to negative outcomes associated with perfectionism such as workaholism and poor health

An Approach to Corpus-based Discourse Analysis: The Move Analysis as Example

This post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project. Article reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Permission granted through posted policies on copyright owner’s website or through direct contact with copyright owner.This article presents a seven-step corpus-based approach to discourse analysis that starts with a detailed analysis of each individual text in a corpus that can then be generalized across all texts of a corpus, providing a description of typical patterns of discourse organization that hold for the entire corpus. This approach is applied specifically to a methodology that is used to analyze texts in terms of the functional/communicative structures that typically make up texts in a genre: move analysis. The resulting corpus-based approach for conducting a move analysis significantly enhances the value of this often used (and misused) methodology, while at the same time providing badly needed guidelines for a methodology that lacks them. A corpus of ‘birthmother letters’ is used to illustrate the approach

The role of extension and forest characteristics in understanding the management decisions of new forest owners in Ireland

peer-reviewedMany European countries have seen significant changes in forest ownership structure, with the emergence of a cohort commonly referred to as new forest owners, mainly within the non-industrial, private forest (NIPF) owner group. The drivers of this change differ between countries but these owners frequently lack an existing knowledge base to draw on regarding forest management decisions and practices and may possess different objectives to traditional owners. As a result there is uncertainty concerning the management intentions of these owners. The provision of extension services is a recognised approach to supporting decision-making by NIPF owners but there have been relatively few studies that have sought to quantify the effectiveness of such initiatives in terms of management outcomes. In addition to measuring the outcome of extension initiatives, exploring the positive or negative outcomes can assist with the design of future initiatives. Ensuring that such initiatives are designed for appropriate phases in the forest life-cycle is important. This paper reports the results from a number of surveys that sought to explore the impact of an extension initiative, a thinning demonstration, on actual management outcomes and what characteristics of owners and their forests might explain observed management decisions. A retrospective pre-post test questionnaire was used at the demonstration to capture knowledge impacts and management intentions. A follow up survey was conducted 18 months later to investigate what, if any, practices had been undertaken. Data from a national household survey of land owners were also analysed to investigate whether the observations from the demonstration had significance for the wider population. The results suggest that the demonstration was successful in imparting knowledge to forest owners both in terms of self-reported learning and actual management outcomes. However, from an Irish perspective management decisions are dominated by forest age as the majority of the private estate is still in its first rotation. This presents a challenge to extension service personnel and to research seeking to explain management practices at a national level

Advancing the Application of Design of Experiments to Synthetic Theater Operations Research Model Data

NPS NRP Executive SummaryNavy leadership is interested in initiatives that can potentially increase the responsiveness of campaign analysis. Simulation-based campaign analysis is used to measure risk for investment options in how best to equip, organize, supply, maintain, train, and employ our naval forces. The Synthetic Theater Operations Research Model (STORM) is a stochastic simulation model used to support campaign analysis by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. Building, testing, running, and analyzing campaign scenarios in STORM is a complex, time-consuming process. A simulated campaign may span months, involve scores of ships and battalions, hundreds of aircraft and installations, all executing thousands of interconnected missions involving numerous events in time and space. Creating, testing, and approving the inputs for a single design point (DP) requires a significant investment in analysts’ time and computing resources. Consequently, there are limits on the number of DPs that can be produced, executed, and analyzed during a study’s timeframe.N8 - Integration of Capabilities & ResourcesThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098).Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Toward cubic symmetry for Ir4+^{4+}: structure and magnetism of antifluorite K2_2IrBr6_6

Crystal structure, electronic state of Ir$^{4+}$, and magnetic properties of the antifluorite compound K$_2$IrBr$_6$ are studied using high-resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS), thermodynamic and transport measurements, and ab initio calculations. The crystal symmetry is reduced from cubic at room temperature to tetragonal below 170 K and eventually to monoclinic below 122 K. These changes are tracked by the evolution of the non-cubic crystal-field splitting $\Delta$ measured by RIXS. Non-monotonic changes in $\Delta$ are ascribed to the competing effects of the tilt, rotation, and deformation of the IrBr$_6$ octahedra as well as tetragonal strain on the electronic levels of Ir$^{4+}$. The N\'eel temperature of $T_N=11.9$ K exceeds that of the isostructural K$_2$IrCl$_6$, and the magnitude of frustration on the fcc spin lattice decreases. We argue that the replacement of Cl by Br weakens electronic correlations and enhances magnetic couplings.Comment: published version: 13 pages + Supplemental Materia

An ectromelia virus profilin homolog interacts with cellular tropomyosin and viral A-type inclusion protein

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Profilins are critical to cytoskeletal dynamics in eukaryotes; however, little is known about their viral counterparts. In this study, a poxviral profilin homolog, ectromelia virus strain Moscow gene 141 (ECTV-PH), was investigated by a variety of experimental and bioinformatics techniques to characterize its interactions with cellular and viral proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Profilin-like proteins are encoded by all orthopoxviruses sequenced to date, and share over 90% amino acid (aa) identity. Sequence comparisons show highest similarity to mammalian type 1 profilins; however, a conserved 3 aa deletion in mammalian type 3 and poxviral profilins suggests that these homologs may be more closely related. Structural analysis shows that ECTV-PH can be successfully modelled onto both the profilin 1 crystal structure and profilin 3 homology model, though few of the surface residues thought to be required for binding actin, poly(L-proline), and PIP₂are conserved. Immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry identified two proteins that interact with ECTV-PH within infected cells: alpha-tropomyosin, a 38 kDa cellular actin-binding protein, and the 84 kDa product of vaccinia virus strain Western Reserve (VACV-WR) 148, which is the truncated VACV counterpart of the orthopoxvirus A-type inclusion (ATI) protein. Western and far-western blots demonstrated that the interaction with alpha-tropomyosin is direct, and immunofluorescence experiments suggest that ECTV-PH and alpha-tropomyosin may colocalize to structures that resemble actin tails and cellular protrusions. Sequence comparisons of the poxviral ATI proteins show that although full-length orthologs are only present in cowpox and ectromelia viruses, an ~ 700 aa truncated ATI protein is conserved in over 90% of sequenced orthopoxviruses. Immunofluorescence studies indicate that ECTV-PH localizes to cytoplasmic inclusion bodies formed by both truncated and full-length versions of the viral ATI protein. Furthermore, colocalization of ECTV-PH and truncated ATI protein to protrusions from the cell surface was observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest a role for ECTV-PH in intracellular transport of viral proteins or intercellular spread of the virus. Broader implications include better understanding of the virus-host relationship and mechanisms by which cells organize and control the actin cytoskeleton.</p