Texas Parks & Wildlife

Magazine discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas

Texas Parks & Wildlife

Magazine discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas

Texas Parks & Wildlife

Magazine discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas

Texas Parks & Wildlife

Magazine discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas

Texas Parks & Wildlife

Magazine discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas

Birmingham’s Eastside story: making steps towards sustainability?

Sustainability has come to play a dominant discursive role in the UK planning system, particularly relating to urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role that sustainability plays in a major regeneration programme, known as Eastside, currently underway in Birmingham, the UK. That this £6 billion redevelopment is now widely talked about by such key players as Birmingham City Council and the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, as having a central sustainability agenda points to the growing importance of the ideal of sustainability in planning and regeneration agendas. In this paper, we investigate in detail how and why sustainability has become part of the planning discourse for Eastside and critically evaluate what impact, if any, this is having on public policy decision-making

Are published standards for haematological indices in pregnancy applicable across populations: an evaluation in healthy pregnant Jamaican women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The haematological profile of the pregnant woman has an impact on the outcome of the pregnancy. Published guidelines indicate acceptable levels for haematological indices in pregnancy but they are population specific. Indicators of haemoglobin concentration are the most commonly utilized of the indices. These published international norms are used across populations, however, there is no evidence confirming their applicability to a population such as the Jamaican pregnant woman. This study was therefore undertaken with the intent of documenting the haematological profile of pregnant primigravid Jamaican women and comparing these to the established norms to determine whether the norms apply or whether there was a need to establish local norms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a longitudinal study done on a cohort of 157 healthy primigravid women ages 15 to 25 and without anaemia, and who were recruited from the antenatal clinic of the University Hospital of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. The haemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume, mean cell volume, mean cell haemoglobin, mean cell haemoglobin concentration, white blood cell count, red blood cell count and platelet count were measured on samples of blood obtained from each consenting participant during each of the three trimesters. The results were analysed using SPSS for windows (Version 11) and the data expressed as means ± S.D. Means were compared using the student's paired <it>t-test</it>. Comparison was then made with the international norms as recommended by the United States Center for Disease Control (1989). Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the University Hospital of the West Indies/University of the West Indies Ethics Committee.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed changes by trimester in all measured variables. For most of the indices the changes achieved levels of significance across trimesters. These changes were however in keeping with the expected physiological response in pregnancy and the values were similar to the published international norms.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings suggest that the international norms for haematological indices in pregnancy are applicable across populations and to the pregnant Jamaican primigravid woman. This finding may be reassuring to others with a similar population and stage of development as Jamaica.</p

Conceptualising sustainability in UK urban Regeneration: a discursive Formation

Despite the wide usage and popular appeal of the concept of sustainability in UK policy, it does not appear to have challenged the status quo in urban regeneration because policy is not leading in its conceptualisation and therefore implementation. This paper investigates how sustainability has been conceptualised in a case-based research study of the regeneration of Eastside in Birmingham, UK, through policy and other documents, and finds that conceptualisations of sustainability are fundamentally limited. The conceptualisation of sustainability operating within urban regeneration schemes should powerfully shape how they make manifest (or do not) the principles of sustainable development. Documents guide, but people implement regeneration—and the disparate conceptualisations of stakeholders demonstrate even less coherence than policy. The actions towards achieving sustainability have become a policy ‘fix’ in Eastside: a necessary feature of urban policy discourse that is limited to solutions within market-based constraints

Secondary school pupils' preferences for different types of structured grouping practices

The aim of this paper is to explore pupils’ preferences for particular types of grouping practices an area neglected in earlier research focusing on the personal and social outcomes of ability grouping. The sample comprised over 5,000 year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represented three levels of ability grouping in the lower school (years 7 to 9). Pupils responded to a questionnaire which explored the types of grouping that they preferred and the reasons for their choices. The majority of pupils preferred setting, although this was mediated by their set placement, type of school, socio-economic status and gender. The key reason given for this preference was that it enabled work to be matched to learning needs. The paper considers whether there are other ways of achieving this avoiding the negative social and personal outcomes of setting for some pupils