Occupational fatalities amongst farm workers in Ireland, 1992 – 2008

working paperBackground: Whilst occupational fatalities amongst farm workers have been studied internationally little research has been published concerning farm fatalities or the demography farm fatalities in Ireland. Aims 1) To establish the incidence of farm fatalities during the 1992 – 2009 period in Ireland, 2) to explore the changing age profile of those experiencing fatal injuries on farms in Ireland. Methods: An official dataset containing the details of every fatal farm accident during the 1992 – 2009 period is used to evaluate changes in the number and age profile of farm fatalities in Ireland. Results: There were 304 deaths on farms during the 1992 – 2009 period in Ireland. The average number of annual fatalities is declining having fallen by 16% from 18 to 16 per year during this time. The fatality rate has however increased from 15 to 22 per 100,000 workers. This has been driven by a reduction in the number of workers employed on farms and, it is hypothesised, rapid ageing of the farm workforce. The demographic profile of those killed on farms changed significantly over the period. There are fewer deaths amongst younger cohorts. Older farmers, those over 55 years of age, now account for the vast majority of all fatal accidents. Conclusion: These findings highlight the changing nature of fatal farm incidents over the 1993 – 2009 period in Ireland. The increasing number of fatalities amongst older farmers suggests that Ireland’s Farm Safety Partnership needs to place greater emphasis of raising awareness amongst older farmers of fatality risks

Less Idealism and More Realism : The Programme for Teacher Education

First, on a positive note, I wish to nominate three issues which are implicit in Fielding\u27s paper which busy teacher trainers and educational researchers often set aside, possibly because of the disturbing consequences of thinking seriously about them. The first is that he is prepared to recognise the limitations, indeed failings, of contemporary teacher training* programmes, in so far as available evidence indicates that training effects are rapidly \u27washed out\u27 when beginning teachers enter the classroom and that, setting aside periods of school-based practice, students are disenchanted with teacher training courses (for example, see Desforges & McNamara 1977; Shaw, 1981; Wilson, 1975). The second is that Fielding recognises that teachers must develop their skills and competencies within the context of the school. This is a theme which has certainly been reflected in official pronouncements on teacher training during the past decade and within the United Kingdom there is a groundswell in this direction (see, for example, DES, 1972; DES, 1983(a); DES, 1983(b)). Fortunately, Fielding goes further than the official documents in arguing that in order to claim full professional status, teachers must be able to locate their skills and classroom competence within theoretical contexts which provide a framework for thinking analytically and critically about practice. Thirdly, Fielding recognises that teachers are not fully qualified and competent after what may be a comparatively brief period of initial training. Becoming a well rounded and accepted professional is a process which continues throughout the career

The Move Towards the Accreditation of Teacher Education Courses in England and Wales

In recent years there has been a significant change in the nature of Government (as mediated by the Department of Education and Science - DES) involvement in initial teacher training 1-c9- in England and Wales. Traditionally government has rightly concerned itself with the manpower problem of ensuring that the numbers of teachers in training relates to the demands for new teachers by employing authorities and with the institutional problem of determining the types of institutions which exist to provide teacher training, how they are organised within the higher education system, and how they are financed. The content of teacher training curriculums and the validation of courses has been seen as the proper responsibility of the qualified, professional staff working in the field of education and teacher training. However, Government has now become interested in the content and quality of the teacher training programmes themselves. This critical concern has been expressed in official publications emanating from the DES such as Department of Education and Science (1982) and culminated in 1983 with the publication of a White Paper entitled Teaching Quality (1983). In their efforts to improve the quality of initial teacher training the Secretaries of State for England and Wales announced the White Paper that they intended to establish criteria against which all future proposed teacher training courses would be assessed and that they would review all existing courses in the light of the criteria. Without going the details of how it has been accomplished, the upshot has been that the Secretaries of State have established a Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) which has the following terms of reference: to advise the Secretaries of State for Education and Science and for Wales on the approval of initial teacher training courses in England and Wales

EMPLOYER SIZE, HUMAN CAPITAL, AND RURAL WAGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOUTHERN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

A recent trend in rural development policy emphasizes small business development in place of industrial recruitment. To analyze some of the likely effects of expanding the proportion of small firms in local economies, an empirical wage rate model incorporating employer size was developed, and parameters were estimated using household date from rural Putnam County, Georgia. The estimates indicated that large employers offered higher wages than small employers and that the wage premium they offered was greater for blacks than for whites. These results support Thomas Till's argument that southern rural counties with relatively large black populations should not abandon efforts to attract large employers. Other factors associated with higher wages included level of education, previous labor force experience, and employment in certain occupations and industries.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Time-Series Ensemble Photometry and the Search for Variable Stars in the Open Cluster M11

This work presents the first large-scale photometric variability survey of the intermediate age (~200 Myr) open cluster M11. Thirteen nights of data over two observing seasons were analyzed (using crowded field and ensemble photometry techniques) to obtain high relative precision photometry. In this study we focus on the detection of candidate member variable stars for follow-up studies. A total of 39 variable stars were detected and can be categorized as follows: 1 irregular (probably pulsating) variable, 6 delta Scuti variables, 14 detached eclipsing binary systems, 17 W UMa variables, and 1 unidentified/candidate variable. While previous proper motion studies allow for cluster membership determination for the brightest stars, we find that membership determination is significantly hampered below V=15,R=15.5 by the large population of field stars overlapping the cluster MS. Of the brightest detected variables that have a high likelihood of cluster membership, we find five systems where further work could help constrain theoretical stellar models, including one potential W UMa member of this young cluster.Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures, accepted for December 2005 AJ, high-resolution version available upon reques

THE INFLUENCE OF SALMONELLA IN PIGS PRE-HARVEST ON SALMONELLA HUMAN HEALTH COSTS AND RISK FROM PORK

Salmonellosis in people is a costly disease, much of it occurring because of food associated exposure. We develop a farm-to-fork model which estimates the pork associated Salmonella risk and human health costs. This analysis focuses on the components of the pork production chain up to the point of producing a chilled pork carcass. Sensitivity and scenario analysis show that changes that occur in Salmonella status during processing are substantially more important for human health risk and have a higher benefit/cost ratio for application of strategies that control Salmonella compared with on-farm strategies.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Bubbles in Planetary Nebulae and Clusters of Galaxies: Instabilities at Bubble Fronts

I study the stability of off-center low-density more or less spherical (fat) bubbles in clusters of galaxies and in planetary nebulae (PNs) to Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability. As the bubble expands and decelerates, the interface between the low-density bubble's interior and the dense shell formed from the accreted ambient medium is RT-stable. If, however, in a specific direction the density decreases such that this segment is accelerated by the pressure inside the bubble, then this accelerated region is RT-unstable. The outermost region, relative to the center of the system, is the most likely to become unstable because there the density gradient is the steepest. Using simple analytical analysis, I find that off-center fat bubbles in PNs are much less stable than in clusters. In PNs bubbles become unstable when they are very small relative to their distance from the center; they can be stabilized somewhat if the mass loss rate from the stellar progenitor decreases for a time, such that the negative density gradient is much shallower. In clusters fat bubbles become unstable when their size is comparable to their distance from the center. I discuss some implications of this instability in clusters and in PNs.Comment: New Astronomy, in press; a third in a series of 3 paper