Robb Health Lecture 2014

This is an annual dinner, being held for the fourth time in 2014. it is part of the colleges annual series of lecture-dinners, aimed at exposing our students to timely, relevant information on rural and regional current affairs. The guest speaker this year is Associate Professor Jane Mills from James Cook University and the topic is "How a rural upbringing prepares you for the professional workforce.

Deliverable 5.2 Overview of socio-economic influences on crop and soil management systems

This report examines results from Stakeholder Workshops, specifically looking at: • Typical cropping systems and rotations and the associated risks to soil carbon and implementation of soil carbon management practices • The barriers and the opportunities to implementation of cost effective soil carbon management practices (win-win) One workshop was conducted in each of six case study regions across Europe: Zealand, Denmark; Central Region, Hungary; Tuscany Region, Italy; Mazovia (Mazowieckie Voivodeship), Poland; East Coast, Scotland; and Andalucía, Spain. Participants included: agricultural advisors (from public extension and commercial services), farmer representatives, leading farmers and policy makers. These workshops follow a preliminary consultation involving interviews undertaken in 2013 and will be followed by a further set of Stakeholder Workshops in 2015. Each activity builds on analysis from the last and the results are fed back to other project WPs in an iterative process which is the core of the SmartSOIL methodology. Five sets of management practices: planting catch (cover) crops, crop rotations, residue management, reduced tillage operations, and fertilizer and manure management provided the basis for discussion in the workshops. They were previously identified as having the potential to increase soil carbon stocks and are referred to ‘soil carbon management practices’. Preliminary analysis of the cost effectiveness of the soil carbon management practices was undertaken in each case study to provide an assessment of the methods that offer SOC most cost-effectively (win-win practices). This was done using Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) methodology. MACC figures were presented to participants in the workshops to frame the discussion around barriers and opportunities for implementation of win-win practices

Deliverable 5.2 Overview of socio-economic influences on crop and soil management systems

This report examines results from Stakeholder Workshops, specifically looking at: • Typical cropping systems and rotations and the associated risks to soil carbon and implementation of soil carbon management practices • The barriers and the opportunities to implementation of cost effective soil carbon management practices (win-win) One workshop was conducted in each of six case study regions across Europe: Zealand, Denmark; Central Region, Hungary; Tuscany Region, Italy; Mazovia (Mazowieckie Voivodeship), Poland; East Coast, Scotland; and Andalucía, Spain. Participants included: agricultural advisors (from public extension and commercial services), farmer representatives, leading farmers and policy makers. These workshops follow a preliminary consultation involving interviews undertaken in 2013 and will be followed by a further set of Stakeholder Workshops in 2015. Each activity builds on analysis from the last and the results are fed back to other project WPs in an iterative process which is the core of the SmartSOIL methodology. Five sets of management practices: planting catch (cover) crops, crop rotations, residue management, reduced tillage operations, and fertilizer and manure management provided the basis for discussion in the workshops. They were previously identified as having the potential to increase soil carbon stocks and are referred to ‘soil carbon management practices’. Preliminary analysis of the cost effectiveness of the soil carbon management practices was undertaken in each case study to provide an assessment of the methods that offer SOC most cost-effectively (win-win practices). This was done using Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) methodology. MACC figures were presented to participants in the workshops to frame the discussion around barriers and opportunities for implementation of win-win practices

The Importance of Ethnographic Observation in Grounded Theory Research

Obwohl Beobachtungsdaten von Anfang an wesentlich für Grounded-Theory-Forschende waren, werden meist Interviewdaten ausgewertet. In diesem Artikel plädieren wir für eine stärkere Einbeziehung ethnografischer Beobachtungsdaten, da diese Praxis mehrere Vorteile bietet: Indem Forschende die sozialen Prozesse, die von den Teilnehmer*innen erlebt werden und sich auf diese auswirken, selbst erfahren, sind ethnografische Beobachtungen sowohl eine einzigartige Datenquelle als auch eine Möglichkeit, die eigene theoretische Sensibilität zu verbessern. Weitere Vorteile ergeben sich bei der Stichprobenziehung und Rekrutierung der Teilnehmenden, der Entwicklung von Interviewleitfäden, der Kodierung und der Analyse. Die Durchführung ethnografischer Beobachtungen kann gemeinsam mit der Verwendung von Interviewdaten zur Verbesserung der Qualität der endgültigen Theorie führen. Das Verfassen von Feldnotizen kann mit dem traditionellen Memoschreiben verbunden werden, was den analytischen Nutzen für die Forscher*innen erhöht und die kritische Prüfung des Forschungsprozesses sowie reflexive Praktiken unterstützt.Even though observational data have contributed to grounded theory research since the method's inception, it is interview data that is most often analyzed. In this article we argue for the greater inclusion of ethnographic observational data in grounded theory research, as this practice offers several benefits. By witnessing and experiencing for oneself the various social processes experienced by and impacting on participants, ethnographic observational data represent both a unique source of data and a way to enhance one's theoretical sensitivity. Additional benefits relate to sampling and recruitment, the development of interview guides, coding, and analysis. As such, conducting ethnographic observations supports grounded theory methods and can enhance the use of interview data to improve the quality of final theory. The writing of observational field notes overlays with traditional grounded theory memoing, compounding the analytical benefits to researchers, while providing an audit trail of the research process, and supporting reflexive practice

Situating the ‘beyond’: adventure- learning and Indigenous cultural competence

In 2010, an Indigenous Elder from the Wiradjuri nation and a group of academics from Charles Sturt University travelled to Menindee, a small locality on the edge of the Australian outback. They were embarked upon an ‘adventure-learning’ research journey to study ways of learning by creating a community of practice with an Elder from the Ngyampa/Barkandji nation. This article first explores the implications of this innovative approach to transformative learning for profes- sional development and for teaching and learning practice. It then reflects on the significance of location for pedagogic approaches aimed at closing the education gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in universities

Renegotiating roles as part of developing collaborative practice: Australian nurses in general practice and cervical screening

This paper reports the findings from an action research study that used a reflective group method to work with nurses in general practice recently credentialed as cervical screeners. The research aimed to develop a new model of practice nurse service delivery within a multidisciplinary team. Findings demonstrated that poor interdisciplinary collaboration created barriers to changing the role of the practice nurse. Key themes identified were: renegotiating their roles, identifying and negotiating gendered patterns of cervical screening, and the effect of multidisciplinary teams and interdisciplinary collaboration on practice nurse retention. Recommendations from this study address the need for improved piloting of new initiatives and an increase in continuing professional development for practice managers who are potential change agents

Early modern legal poetics and morality 1560-1625

This thesis examines the reciprocity of literary and legal cultures, and seeks to enhance understanding of cultural and socio-legal constructions of morality in early modern England. Identifying the tensions in an institutional legality in which both secular pragmatism and moral idealism act as formulating principals, it interrogates the sense of disjuncture that arises between imaginative concepts of moral justice and their translation into the formal structures of law. Chapter 1 investigates representations of rape in light of the legislative changes of the 1570s, and addresses the question of how literature shapes the legal imaginary of immorality. Literary models, notably Shakespeare’s The Rape Of Lucrece (1594), and George Peele’s Tale of Troy (1589), are examined together with the texts of Edward Coke and Thomas Edgar to argue that lawyers’ mythopoeic interpretative strategies produce a form of legal fiction in relation to sexual crime. These strategies are contextualised in Chapter 2 in relation to the education and literary-legal culture at the Inns of Court, and the thesis progresses to an examination of the inns’ literary and dramatic output – notably that of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville’s Gorbuduc, and Arthur Broke’s contemporaneous revels’ masque, Desire and Lady Bewty (1561-2) – to establish how the legal fraternity wielded significant authority over Tudor sexual politics, moral signification, and interpretative practices. Chapters 3 and 4 explore legal and ethical challenges heralded by the Jacobean accession, particularly those posed by the Somerset scandal. Analysis of histories, letters, and court satire, together with Thomas Campion’s The Lord Hay’s Masque (1607), and George Chapman’s Andromeda Liberata (1614) and The Tragedy of Chabot (1639), illuminates the period’s textual negotiations of legal, political, and personal ethics, and offers a revealing picture of the moral paradoxes produced by the opacity of the parameters between the personal and political lives of the ruling elite

Widening participation to higher education in the East of England: a review of recent regional and national research

‘Widening participation’ covers a range of actions: appropriate evaluation can be very different for each, and as much widening participation activity is recent, there is not yet a great deal of evidence of outcomes on which to base an evaluation. Activities which improve application to higher education include mentoring by current HE students and participation in summer schools, though summer schools are currently not always targeted at the most appropriate groups. Non-traditional entry qualifications into higher education, particularly vocational qualifications, are misunderstood and undervalued, and this is a significant barrier to widening participation. Access courses are successful as a route into higher education and through to a qualification; participation rates are different in different regions and there are suggestions of unmet demand. Part time higher education, flexible learning and distance learning are undervalued as routes through higher education. Retention is a key issue only now being seriously addressed in the literature. Student finance and student debt are major barriers to widening participation and confusion over the introduction of the new fee and grant system is a current and urgent concer

Ensuring the Safety of our Institutions of Higher Learning

Following devastating natural and human-caused disasters, including the attack on the Pentagon, Virginia welcomed early 2004 Pre-disaster Mitigation Grant funding for three DRU plans. Ultimately, the Commonwealth supported development of eight public university DRU plans through FEMA HMA grant support. The SHMO was quoted as saying that, “university hazard planning is critical since universities not only represent a microcosm of society, they concentrate populations of citizens, students, business enterprises, critical research and often medical institutions.” Each of eight Virginia DRU Plans was unique and different responding to well-varied university missions, programs, campuses, hazards, vulnerabilities, challenges and priorities. Two universities, UVA and the Virginia Commonwealth University are home to medical centers hosting critical medical schools and Level I trauma centers; Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village and Rotunda at UVA anchors a World Heritage Site; and the University of Mary Washington’s James Monroe Museum archives more than 10,000 rare documents. On April 16, 2007 the Virginia Tech tragedy unfolded. It will never be fully known if tragedy could have been prevented, but elements of Dewberry’s DRU building analysis for fire and emergency access were directly related to the forensic study in crime investigation and evaluation of campus security. As DRU development and plan implementation continues, Dewberry will be pleased to share lessons learned on the seven Commonwealth DRU plans which we facilitated