The Good Friday Agreement: An Overview

On 22 May, it received the overwhelming endorsement of the people of Ireland in referendums, North and South. For the first time, a precise mechanism has been defined - and accepted by the British Government - by which a united Ireland can be put in place, by the consent of Irish people and that alone. This involves setting up a new North-South Ministerial Council to develop consultation, co-operation and action within the island of Ireland on matters of mutual interest and establishing, as a start, at least six implementation bodies operating on a cross-border or all-island basis. The people, North and South, have endorsed the Agreement, including its constitutional provisions, in overwhelming numbers; elections to the Assembly in Northern Ireland have taken place and the Assembly has met; arrangements for reviewing prisoners\u27 sentences are in place, the programme of prisoner releases is at an advanced stage; the Commission on Policing has, for some months now, been proceeding with its programme of work and almost all prisoners in Britain have been transferred

Pristess of the Year

Non-fiction by Bertie M. Layn

Xhosa acquisition through e-learning : learner needs and development challenges

Published ArticleThe contribution argues that there is a renewed interest by mainly Afrikaans and English speaking South Africans in learning another indigenous South African language. This came about as a direct result of the changed official language policy, elevating all the indigenous Bantu languages to that of being official. It is further argued that many individuals interested in learning a new language, do not have the time or the inclination to do so in a formal classroom context. Access to a computer has increased dramatically in the last two decades, and hence e-learning becomes a viable option in this regard. The contribution argues that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can very sensibly complement and even substitute the language teacher. Some existing computer-assisted language courses aimed at learning Xhosa are briefly explored, and finally the attention is turned to the particular challenges experienced in developing an interactive multimedia Xhosa acquisition course within the Multitaal framework

Alien Registration- Buzza, Bertie (Brownville, Piscataquis County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/10794/thumbnail.jp

CAHRD Consultation 2014: the 10-20 year Horizon Introduction and Overview - as circulated to Consultation participants.

The overall aim of the 2014 Consultation is to bring together internal and external partners to help shape the strategic direction for CAHRD over the 10 to 20 year horizon. Our strategic thinking will be guided by our vision of a healthy future for low and middle income populations and our mission to transform health systems to improve the health of these populations. Partnership between northern and southern institutions is integral to this work and critical in the consultation process. The Consultation considers four selected areas of the current work of CAHRD: Lung Health, Maternal & Newborn Health, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Health Systems. We aim to foster dialogue and learning between these and across contexts and disciplines. The major challenges that will need to be addressed over the next 10 to 20 years will be scoped and pathways to possible solutions proposed. The overall vision is a process of co-production of knowledge

Prioritising targets for biological control of weeds - a decision support tool for policy makers

This report outlines a framework of the overall process of prioritising targets for biological control and includes a decision support tool that enables policy makers to determine whether biological control is a suitable option for a proposed target species.Introduction Establishing effective biological control agents in Australia is costly in both resources and time, yet it is often a valuable component of weed control. It has been estimated that biological control of weeds in Australia has provided around $10 billion worth of agricultural protection over the past century. To date significant investment has been made in the selection process of biocontrol agents and the identification of priority weeds for biocontrol. However there is no nationally agreed system that facilitates prioritisation of weed targets for biological control. The Department of Agriculture commissioned ABARES to develop:• a framework that outlines the overall process of prioritising targets for biological control and• a decision support tool that enables policy makers to determine whether biological control is a suitable option for the proposed target species.A recent work related to the selection and prioritisation of weeds for biological control targets was published by Paynter et al 2009 (hereafter \u27Paynter\u27). Paynter was used as a basis for discussion about how to assist policy makers in assessing whether biocontrol is an appropriate option for weed control.The proposal for a decision support tool for policy makers was discussed at a workshop fully recognising that such a system would need to have a science basis that is both transparent and repeatable to be rigorous. The participants were experts in biocontrol or other weed science, state representatives and other relevant stakeholders. The proposal was outlined in a background/discussion paper and provided to participants prior to the workshop. The purpose of the paper was to provide participants with relevant background information and a proposed approach for a decision support tool for policy makers to be debated and progressed at the workshop.Aim of the workshop and background/discussion paper The workshop was held in Canberra on 4 April 2013. The objectives of the workshop were to:• discuss whether the approach based on Paynter is suitable as a decision support tool at the policy level to prioritise targets for biological control• reach a consensus amongst workshop participants on key principles that need to be considered in the prioritisation process of biological control targetsSuggestions made at the workshop are addressed in this report. Many of the concerns raised at the workshop corresponded with the common \u27core\u27 issues recorded in Paynter. These include concerns about lack of data, the tendency of the framework to overlook weeds outside the Weeds of National Significance, concerns that weightings are arbitrary, and a need for the framework to be able to anticipate emergent weeds and potential future problems. Here, those issues that are relevant to policy have been considered with the acknowledgement that remaining \u27core\u27 issues need to be addressed elsewhere

Liverpool Corporation and the origins of municipal social housing, 1842–1890

This article addresses the improvements made to the housing and sanitation conditions of Liverpool’s working-class poor through a series of municipal initiatives between 1842 and 1890. In the vanguard of municipal social responsibility initiatives nationally, the Corporation of Liverpool rejected prevailing laissez-faire attitudes, setting a benchmark for sanitary improvements before clearing slums in order to construct the country’s first purpose-built council housing. With regard to the latter, the Corporation initially sought to stress its role as being one of educating the private sector as to what might be achieved, rather than becoming a long-term provider of social housing. In the twenty years after 1866, that which had been conceived as a model became a stated policy objective. While laudable in intent, the existing framework of limited local governance meant that only the smallest percentage of working-class residents was directly aided. As the article concludes, further progress was only made once the issue of housing provision was allied to that of rentable values charged. This was a policy development dependent upon national legislative changes and thus one upon which Liverpool Corporation could not act alone

Synchronous terminus change of East Antarctic outlet glaciers linked to climatic forcing

In recent years there has been a growing trend of acceleration, thinning and retreat of ocean-terminating outlet glaciers in both the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets, resulting in an increasing contribution to sea level rise. Similar changes in glacier elevation have been observed in major marine basins of the much larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet, but there are few measurements of glacier terminus positions. In this study, the frontal position of 175 marine terminating glaciers along a 5,400 km stretch of the East Antarctic coastline is analysed. Overall, between 1974 and 2010 there was little change in glacier frontal position (median: 0.7 m a-1). However, strong decadal trends have been observed, from 1974 to 1990, the majority of glaciers retreated (63%), whereas between 1990 and 2000, most glaciers advanced (72%), a pattern which dropped to fewer glaciers advancing (58%) in the most recent decade (2000 to 2010). The patterns in glacier frontal position change are consistent with a rapid and coherent response to atmospheric and oceanic/sea-ice forcing, which are ultimately driven by the dominant mode of atmospheric variability in the Southern hemisphere, the Southern Annular Mode. This indicates that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet may be more vulnerable to climate change than previously recognised. However, unlike in Greenland, there appears to be no clear link between recent changes in glacier elevation and frontal position, possibly due to the unconstrained (~90%) nature of the majority of glaciers in the study area

The Strange Duelers

Fiction by Bertie M. Layne