Locating regional health policy: Institutions, politics, and practices

Poverty reduction and health became central in the agendas of Southern regional organisations in the last two decades. Yet, little is known about how these organisations address poverty, inclusion and social inequality, and how Southern regional formations are engaging in power constellations, institutions, processes, interests and ideological positions within different spheres of governance. This article reviews academic literatures spanning global social policy, regional studies and diplomacy studies, and the state of knowledge and understanding of the ‘place’ of regional actors in health governance as a global political practice therein. It identifies theoretical and thematic points of connection between disparate literatures and how these can be bridged through research focusing on the social policies of regional organisations and regional integration processes. This framework hence locates the contributions of each of the research articles of this Special Issue of Global Social Policy on the regional dimension of health policy and diplomacy in relation to Southern Africa and South America. It also highlights the ways in which the articles bring new evidence about how social relations of welfare are being (re)made over larger scales and how regional actors may initiate new norms to improve health rights in international arenas engaging in new forms of ‘regional’ diplomacy

Drought Tolerance of Interspecific Hybrids between \u3ci\u3eTrifolium repens\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eTrifolium ambiguum\u3c/i\u3e

Hybrids between the stolonifeous white clover (Trifolium repens L., 2n=4x=32) and rhizomatous Caucasian clover (T. ambiguum M.Bieb, 2n=4x=32) have been produced. A backcross 2 (BC2) generation with white clover as the recurrent parent combines the growth habit of both parent species with the objective of increasing the persistency of large leaved T. repens varieties under grazing. T. ambiguum is more drought tolerant than T. repens. The drought tolerance of the hybrids in comparison with the parental species was compared in deep soil bins over a four week drought cycle. Soil moisture content, leaf relative water content (RWC), and leaf water potential were measured on plants subjected to drought and those watered normally and maintained at field capacity. T. ambiguum and the backcross hybrids were able to maintain a higher leaf RWC and leaf water potential than T. repens at comparable levels of soil moisture. The dry matter production of the hybrids and parental species was also compared in field plots sown with a perennial ryegrass companion. In the first harvest year, under a cutting regime, the yield of T. repens was highest and T. ambiguum lowest with the hybrids intermediate between the parents, with the BC2 approaching the yield of T. repens. These hybrids will be evaluated over further years and under grazing. The implications of these results for T. repens germplasm improvement programmes are discussed

Occupational (Im)mobility in the Global Care Economy: The Case of Foreign-Trained Nurses in the Canadian Context

The twenty-first century has witnessed a number of significant demographic and political shifts that have resulted in a care crisis. Addressing the deficit of care provision has led many nations to actively recruit migrant care labour, often under temporary forms of migration. The emergence of this phenomenon has resulted in a rich field of analysis using the lens of care, including the idea of the Global Care Chain. Revisions to this conceptualization have pushed for its extension beyond domestic workers in the home to include skilled workers in other institutional settings, particularly nurses in hospitals and long-term care settings. Reviewing relevant literature on migrant nurses, this article explores the labour market experiences of internationally educated nurses in Canada. The article reviews research on the barriers facing migrant nurses as they transfer their credentials to the Canadian context. Analysis of this literature suggests that internationally trained nurses experience a form of occupational (im)mobility, paradoxical, ambiguous and contingent processes that exploit global mobility, and results in the stratified incorporation of skilled migrant women into healthcare workplaces

Forage Quality of White Clover (\u3cem\u3eTrifolium Repens\u3c/em\u3e L.) X Ball Clover (\u3cem\u3eT.nigrescens Viv.\u3c/em\u3e) Hybrids Over Three Harvest Years

Introgression of reproductive traits from the annual, profusely flowering species ball clover into white clover is one route to improve seed yields in T.repens. The interspecific cross produced F1, backcross 1 (BC1), backcross 2 (BC2) and backcross 3 (BC3) plants with white clover as recurrent parent (Marshall et al., 2002). These hybrids were found to be comparable with white clover for yield and persistency but produced 30% more flowers and their forage quality, relative to white clover was investigated

Forage Quality of White Clover (\u3cem\u3eTrifolium Repens\u3c/em\u3e L.) X Caucasian Clover (\u3cem\u3eT.ambiguum\u3c/em\u3e Bieb.) Hybrids Over Three Harvest Years

Interspecific hybrids have been produced from crosses of white clover, a stoloniferous species with Caucasian clover, a rhizomatous species. Using white clover as the recurrent parent first and second generation backcross (BC1 and BC2) plants have been produced that have both rhizomes and stolons and are more drought tolerant than white clover (Marshall et al., 2001). Forage quality of these interspecific hybrids was investigated to determine whether introgression of the rhizomatous trait has any impact on forage quality

Outstanding Issues in Solar Dynamo Theory

The magnetic activity of the Sun, as manifested in the sunspot cycle, originates deep within its convection zone through a dynamo mechanism which involves non-trivial interactions between the plasma and magnetic field in the solar interior. Recent advances in magnetohydrodynamic dynamo theory have led us closer towards a better understanding of the physics of the solar magnetic cycle. In conjunction, helioseismic observations of large-scale flows in the solar interior has now made it possible to constrain some of the parameters used in models of the solar cycle. In the first part of this review, I briefly describe this current state of understanding of the solar cycle. In the second part, I highlight some of the outstanding issues in solar dynamo theory related to the the nature of the dynamo $\alpha$-effect, magnetic buoyancy and the origin of Maunder-like minima in activity. I also discuss how poor constraints on key physical processes such as turbulent diffusion, meridional circulation and turbulent flux pumping confuse the relative roles of these vis-a-vis magnetic flux transport. I argue that unless some of these issues are addressed, no model of the solar cycle can claim to be ``the standard model'', nor can any predictions from such models be trusted; in other words, we are still not there yet.Comment: To appear in "Magnetic Coupling between the Interior and the Atmosphere of the Sun", eds. S.S. Hasan and R.J. Rutten, Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, 200

On the compatibility of a flux transport dynamo with a fast tachocline scenario

The compatibility of the fast tachocline scenario with a flux transport dynamo model is explored. We employ a flux transport dynamo model coupled with simple feedback formulae relating the thickness of the tachocline to the amplitude of the magnetic field or to the Maxwell stress. The dynamo model is found to be robust against the nonlinearity introduced by this simplified fast tachocline mechanism. Solar-like butterfly diagrams are found to persist and, even without any parameter fitting, the overall thickness of the tachocline is well within the range admitted by helioseismic constraints. In the most realistic case of a time and latitude dependent tachocline thickness linked to the value of the Maxwell stress, both the thickness and its latitude dependence are in excellent agreement with seismic results. In the nonparametric models, cycle related temporal variations in tachocline thickness are somewhat larger than admitted by helioseismic constraints; we find, however, that introducing a further parameter into our feedback formula readily allows further fine tuning of the thickness variations.Comment: Accepted in Solar Physic